b. 1925, Swedish A lyric tenor whose live and recorded performances attest to his refinement and intelligence, Gedda was not only fluent in Russian but also well-versed in Italian, French, Latin and Hebrew. In 1954, he made his Paris Opéra debut and remained there to specialize in French repertoire. Although adept at singing in a variety ...
(O’-to Ne’-ko-li) 1810–49 German composer Nicolai studied in Berlin with Zelter, and in 1833 became organist at the embassy chapel in Rome, but he resigned in 1836 to pursue a career as an opera composer. He quickly found fame with Enrico II (‘Henry II’, 1839) and Il templario (The Templar’, 1840), and also made an impression as a conductor in ...
1810–49, German Although Otto Nicolai was born in Kaliningrad, northwest of Moscow, he is classed as a German composer. Between 1833 and 1836, Nicolai was organist at the Prussian Chapel in Rome where he became fascinated with opera. His first work for the opera stage, Enrico II (‘Henry II’, 1839) was enthusiastically received in Trieste. Best ...
1929–2004 Bulgarian bass He studied at the Bulgarian State and Moscow conservatories, making his stage debut in Sofia in 1955 as Don Basilio (Rossini’s Barber of Seville). To this he added many of the other great bass roles: Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust (his Italian debut in Rome), Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and the title roles in Verdi’s ...
b. 1926, American Born in South Carolina, writing and producing operas while on the faculty of Florida State University during the early 1950s – the locally popular Slow Dusk (1949) and The Fugitives (1951), which disappeared after its first performance – Floyd created the work that became his calling card. Written in seven months and presented at the university ...
Baritones Baritones, it is said, sing and act, while tenors merely sing. That may tell us more about the roles they take than about the singers themselves, but certainly the finest baritones excel in both skills, none more than Tito Gobbi, whose most noted roles were Falstaff in Verdi’s eponymous opera, and Scarpia in ...
‘That’s Women for You’ While Don Giovanni was the nineteenth century’s favourite Mozart opera, Così fan tutte, premiered on 26 January 1790, was widely considered frivolous, immoral and (not least by Beethoven) an insult to women. Today we can see it as perhaps the most ambivalent and disturbing of Mozart’s three Da Ponte comedies. In the composer’s ...
Khovanshchina (‘The Khovansky Affair’), a dark opera, full of conspiracy, gloom and imminent violence, was based on a historical event. In 1682, the future modernizing tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) was made co-ruler of Russia with his mentally retarded half-brother Ivan V (1666–96). At this time, introducing Greek and Latin practices into the Russian Church was ...
‘The Bohemian Life’ Puccini’s first work following the overwhelming triumph of Manon Lescaut was immediately beset by problems. Leoncavallo had already begun preparations on the same scenario and, on hearing of Puccini’s choice of subject, publicly berated his rival and friend and claimed priority over the project. Puccini responded calmly by declaring that both composers should go to work ...
Verdi’s three-act opera Rigoletto, based on Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse (‘The King Amuses Himself’, 1832), was originally entitled La maledizione (‘The Malediction’) – a reference to the curse placed on the superstitious court jester Rigoletto, which fulfills itself in the final scene. The first performance of Rigoletto took place at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on ...
b. 1965 Romanian soprano She studied in Bucharest and made her operatic debut as Mimì in (La bohème) at the Romanian National Opera in 1990, reprising the role at Covent Garden in 1991 and the Metropolitan Opera (her house debut) in 1993. In addition to Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, she has had notable success in French-language opera, ...
1807–86, Bohemian The Bohemian tenor Joseph Tichatschek made his debut at the Kärntnertor Theatre in Vienna in 1833, as the farmer, Raimbaut, in Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. After a year, 1837, at Graz, Tichatschek found a regular berth at Dresden, where he sang between 1838 and 1870. He also performed at the Drury ...
1785–1838, Austrian This Austrian soprano studied in Vienna with Antonio Salieri. In 1803, she made her debut in Vienna as Juno in Der Spiegel von Arkadien (‘The Mirror of Arcadia’, 1794) by Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803), a one-time pupil of Mozart. In 1805 Milder-Hauptmann created the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She was, however, dissatisfied with ...
(Sâr’-ga E-va-no’-vich Ta-na’-yof) 1856–1915 Russian composer Taneyev studied in Moscow with Nicolai Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, a lifelong friend. He gave the Moscow premieres of all Tchaikovsky’s piano concertos and in 1878 succeeded him at the Conservatory, becoming director, 1885–89. His music was, like Tchaikovsky’s, cosmopolitan, especially skilful in his use of Bachian counterpoint (about which he ...
(Sta’-ne-slwaf Mon-yoosh’-ko) 1819–72 Polish composer Moniuszko was the foremost composer of operas in nineteenth-century Poland, and his national importance is equivalent to that of Bedřich Smetana(1824–84) in the Czech lands and Glinka in Russia. He studied in Minsk (1830–37) and Berlin (1837–40) and began to write stage works in the mid-1840s. His opera Halka was staged in Warsaw in 1858 to ...
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