AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical
• Singer

b. 1972 Mexican-French tenor After studies in Mexico City, he joined the Merola Opera Programme at San Francisco in 1998. His success at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition a year later was quickly followed by appearances at Genoa (his European debut), the Paris Opéra and the Berlin Staatsoper. Equally at home in French and Italian repertoire, he made his debuts ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

‘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 ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical
• Singer

b. 1926 Canadian tenor Vickers joined the Covent Garden company in 1957, singing Verdi’s Gustavus and Berlioz’s Aeneas. In 1958 he sang the title-role in the Giulini-Visconti production of Don Carlos, and Siegmund at Bayreuth, followed by Jason in Cherubini’s Medea in Dallas. He sang Siegmund and three other roles in Vienna in 1959. He made his Metropolitan ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Contemporary Classical

b. 1944 Welsh composer Jenkins played for more than a decade in the progressive rock band Soft Machine before attracting wider attention as a composer of music for advertising. A movement composed for De Beers diamond merchants, and scored for strings in Baroque concerto grosso style, became the Allegretto of his suite Palladio, while his best-known single track ...