Norma, Bellini’s eighth opera and his masterpiece, followed hard on the heels of his La sonnambula when its first performance was given at La Scala less than four months later, on 26 December 1831. Once again, Giuditta Pasta created the title role, although this time she had parts of the opera transposed down to the key ...
to secure a record deal. Chic evolved from demos recorded by the pair that formed the basis of their first album Chic (1977), for which drummer Tony Thompson and singer Norma Jean Wright were drafted in. Lead-off single ‘Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)’ was a smash. Additional vocalist Luci Martin was added as Chic went on ...
brief spell with Monument and immediately started to change the way women were viewed in both the microcosm of Nashville and country music in the wider world. She replaced vocalist Norma Jean on The Porter Wagoner Show and became the permanent female singer there in 1967 – a position she held until 1974. Wagoner and Parton took their winning collaboration into ...
1788–1865, Italian Felice Romani was greatly admired by around 100 Italian composers who sought to enlist his instinct for operatic drama and his ability to write elegant verse. Among them were Rossini, for whom Romani wrote Il turco in Italia (‘A Turk in Italy’, 1814) and Verdi, whom he provided with the libretto for Un giorno di regno ...
1797–1865, Italian Giuditta Pasta, who created the title role in Bellini’s Norma, was classed as a soprano, but was probably closer to a mezzo-soprano. On stage, she was majestic, and her acting was so powerful that, according to Stendhal, she ‘electrified the soul’. However, success did not come her way all that ...
debut at age 17 in Bologna, singing in Rossini’s Zelmira. Three years later, in Milan in 1831, Grisi created the role of the priestess Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma – a part he wrote especially for her. Her Paris debut followed in 1832, when she sang the title role in Rossini’s Semiramide at the Théâtre Italien. Grisi remained ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1937) Alabama-born Norma Jean Bowman moved to Nashville with her husband, Jack Pruett (guitarist with Marty Robbins for 14 years), in 1956. In 1963, she became a songwriter for Robbins, gaining her own record deal with Decca in 1971. ‘Satin Sheets’ (1973) was her biggest hit, a three-week No. 1 that also ...
her operatic debut in Stockholm in 1838 as Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz. In the next three years, Lind sang several demanding roles, including Lucia di Lammermoor and Norma, and her voice began showing signs of strain. She retrained in Paris and returned to Stockholm in 1842, her voice restored. Her Norma in Bellini’s masterpiece was highly ...
and Isolde, but under the guidance of Serafin she concentrated on the Italian repertory. She was a singing actress of great power who made an indelible impression as Bellini’s Norma, the part in which she made her London, Chicago and New York debuts. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Enrico Caruso | Modern Era | Classical ...
sang the lead in eight operas performed over nine months. After returning to Europe in 1827, Malibran sang in London, Bologna, Naples and Milan, excelling in Norma, La Cenerentola and as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello. She appeared in London, Bologna, Naples and Milan, where she took the title role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. ...
70s and 80s in various Verdi, Donizetti and Mozart roles, and made her La Scala debut as Giulietta in I Capuletti e i Montecchi in 1987. She performed Norma for the first time in 1913, the day after her sixty-fifth birthday, at Teatro Communale di Bologna. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Joyce DiDonato | ...
San Francisco in 1960, repeating the role in her Covent Garden debut in 1964. She often sang with Sutherland, notably as Arsace in Semiramide (Rossini) and Adalgisa in Norma (Bellini). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970 as Adalgisa. She sang many Rossini roles, including Malcolm (La donna del lago, ‘The Lady of the Lake’) and ...
former wife Linda Thompson and as a solo artist. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, David Gilmour, The Corrs, Norma Waterson, The Blind Boys Of Alabama and many others. Thompson was born in West London, England. His father was a Scotland Yard detective and an amateur guitar player. ...
del destino at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. She sang there regularly till 1937, mostly in nineteenth-century Italian opera; she did not sing Puccini. Her most celebrated role was Norma, with which she made her debut at Covent Garden in 1929. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Titta Ruffo | Modern Era | Classical ...
roles, and often with Caruso. Ponselle was soon the Met’s leading Italian dramatic soprano, with a dark, ringing, sonorous sound not heard since Claudia Muzio. Her Norma in 1927 was a vocal triumph, yet in the wake of these magnificent performances there was criticism that her music had been transposed down. Commercially successful but critically maligned ...
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