1844–1918, Austrian Amalie Materna, the Austrian soprano, sang Brünnhilde at the first performance of the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth in 1876. Wagner was deeply impressed by her performance – so much so that he declared Materna the only woman truly capable of singing the exceptionally demanding role. Materna, a singer of great stamina, ...
Hugo’s Hernani (1830) for his opera Ernani, which he composed in 1844, and his Le roi s’amuse for Rigoletto. Introduction | High Romantic | Opera Personalities | Amalie Materna | High Romantic | Opera ...
‘Medea’ Composed: 1797 Premiered: 1797, Paris Libretto by François Benoit Hoffman, after Pierre Corneille Act I At the palace of Corinth, Glaucé, daughter of King Créon, prepares for her approaching marriage to Jason. She fears the wrath of Médée, a sorceress who helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from Cholcis. Médée betrayed her family to ...
Composed between 1917 and 1922 and first performed in Berlin on 14 December 1925, this work features Berg’s own libretto, based on the Georg Büchner play Woyzeck. Written a century earlier, the play recounts the true story of a soldier, barber and drifter who is executed for murder. Büchner may have read about Johann Christian Woyzeck as ...
Brad Paisley (b. 1972) is that rare country music star whose guitar-playing prowess equals his singing and songwriting talent. Paisley recorded five gold or platinum albums between 1999 and 2008 and had 10 No. 1 singles on the country charts. His guitar playing on those records proved him to be one of the most accomplished pickers in Nashville. Brad Douglas Paisley ...
(Yo’-han Sa-bäs’tyan Bakh) 1685–1750 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a closely knit musical family of which he was rightly proud. His father Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645–95) had an identical twin brother, Johann Christoph (1645–93), who was like a second father to the young Sebastian. Johann was such a common name that almost all boys called Johann were known ...
(Guitar, piano, kazoo, vocals, 1904–81) Hudson Woodbridge was born in Smithville, Georgia; he changed his surname to Whittaker when he went to Tampa, Florida to live with his maternal grandmother. A self-taught musician, he worked juke joints throughout Florida in the early 1920s, before moving to Chicago in 1925. He made his recording ...
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