Composed: 1958–61 Premiered: 1962, Coventry Libretto by the composer, after Homer’s Iliad Act I It is foretold that Paris will cause the death of his father, Priam, King of Troy. His mother, Hecuba, believes he should be killed. Priam orders this, but is troubled: he is both a father and a king. Priam and ...
Composed: 1946–52 Premiered: 1955, London Libretto by the composer Act I Mark asks the Ancients of the sanctuary for a new dance for his wedding to Jenifer. They warn him of the danger in meddling with tradition. Jenifer has run away from her father, King Fisher. She claims to want truth, not love, and disappears up a ...
1905–98 English composer Tippett’s open receptivity to a myriad of cultures and musical styles made him one of the most profoundly communicative composers of the twentieth century. His left-wing politics were to surface many times in his music and were of central importance in his life. His first acknowledged works were Piano Sonata No. 1 (1936–37) and Concerto for Double String ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1963) Born Georgios Panayiotou of North London, Greek-Cypriot heritage, Michael served a very public initiation with teeny-boppers Wham!. In the mid-1980s he released a pair of solo singles, ‘Careless Whisper’ and ‘A Different Corner’, dissolving Wham! in 1986. He re-emerged in 1987 with the pristine adult pop of Faith, which hooked the ...
1808–70 Irish composer Balfe was the most successful composer of English operas of the nineteenth century. The Irish-born Balfe made his name as a singer with a fine baritone voice, and sang in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Paris, as well as taking leading roles in Italy until 1833. His reputation as a composer began in London with ...
1808–70, Irish Michael Balfe was an Irish-born composer, singer and violinist and wrote some 29 operas. His debut as a violinist took place when he was only 15. Balfe went on to sing Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Paris in 1827. Subsequently, he was principle baritone in Palermo, where he made his debut as ...
(Vocals, b. 1953) Blue-eyed soul singer, Bolton (or Bolotin as he was born), spent the early part of his career as a much heavier proposition singing for rock band Blackjack, before making his name with powerful renditions of soul classics intermingled with classy AOR ballads, often co-written with Dianne Warren. His change in style came with 1987’s ...
(Vocals, b. 1975) Canadian crooner Michael Bublé crossed over to the mainstream in the Noughties, going on to sell over 20 million records. Sophomore LP It’s Time (2005) broke into Billboard’s Top 10 before 2007’s Call Me Irresponsible finally reached the top spot. He cemented his success in 2009 when Crazy Love reached No. 1 on both sides of ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1952) Michael Hill’s Blues Mob earned an international cult following with a gritty, aggressive, expansive style well-tailored to Hill’s lyrics, which often focus on urban social issues. Born in the south Bronx into a family with roots in North Carolina and Georgia, Hill began playing blues after hearing Jimi Hendrix and Cream. ...
The self-proclaimed ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson (1958–2009) was the biggest star of the 1980s following the success of Thriller (1982), which remains the world’s best-selling album with sales of more than 110 million. The King Of Pop The youngest member of The Jackson Five, Jackson signed a solo deal in 1971 with Motown Records, aged 13. Within a ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1942) Former member of The Monkees, Nesmith wrote key hits for Linda Ronstadt (‘Different Drum’) and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (‘Some Of Shelly’s Blues’) and formed the First National Band, whose albums demonstrated how country-rock might marry the Americana mythology of the former and the conceptual ambition of the latter. The TV-savvy Nesmith ...
b. 1944 English composer The influence of Cage and Feldman can be heard in Nyman’s creation of elastic, intuitive sound-worlds. 1–100 (1976) is simply a series of 100 chords descending through a circle of fourths. Nyman’s early music is full of allusions to and quotations from music of the past, in addition to the use of amplification and rhythms ...
(Mekh’-a-el Pri-tô’-re-oos) c. 1571–1621 German composer and theorist Born into a strict Lutheran household, Praetorius became one of the greatest and most prolific early composers in the Protestant tradition. He composed over 1,000 sacred works – mostly hymns based on Lutheran chorales, but also German psalm settings and some Latin-texted works. Today, however, Praetorius is best known ...
Though he has been cited by countless rock guitarists as a major influence, and despite the fact that he cofounded legendary metal band Scorpions, guitarist Michael Schenker (b. 1955) remains one of the most underrated and underappreciated guitarists of all time. Born in Sarstedt, Germany, Schenker was first turned on to the guitar when his older brother ...
1905–98, English Tippett began his musical studies at the age of 18, wrote his first significant work aged 30, and was 41 when he embarked on his first opera, The Midsummer Marriage (composed 1946–52, premiered 1955). Despite his relatively late development in the operatic genre, he soon became a composer of international recognition. Referencing Mozart’s ...
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