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 ...
‘Una furtiva lagrima’ (‘One Furtive Tear’), the exceptionally beautiful tenor aria in Act II sung by the opera’s hero, Nemorino. Composed: 1832 Premiered: 1832, Milan Libretto by Felice Romani, after Eugène Scribe Act I The wealthy Adina relaxes with her friend Giannetta and peasants, while Nemorino, her admirer, looks on. He is a poor villager ...
Paton, a beautiful singer, but one who acted her parts ‘like an inspired idiot’, as one observer put it. Composed: 1831 Premiered: 1831, Milan Libretto by Felice Romani, after Eugène Scribe Act I The villagers celebrate the approaching wedding of Amina and Elvino, with the exception of Lisa, the innkeeper and Elvino’s former lover. Consumed ...
they gradually warmed to it. During the 1831–32 season, Norma was performed 39 times and was received with great enthusiasm. Composed: 1831 Premiered: 1831, Milan Libretto by Felice Romani, after Alexandre Soumet Act I The high priest Oroveso leads the druids to worship at the altar of Irminsul. They are preparing for moonrise, when Oroveso’s daughter, ...
to Norma, Giuditta Pasta created many other title roles such as Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Amina in Bellini’s La sonnambula. Introduction | Early Romantic | Opera Personalities | Felice Romani | Early Romantic | Opera Houses & Companies | La Scala, Milan | High Romantic | Opera ...
Attends the Naples performance of Rossini’s Semiramide 1825 Premiere of first opera Adelson e Salvini leads to commission from Teatro San Carlo, Naples 1827 Begins partnership with librettist Felice Romani on Il pirata; produced at La Scala, Milan, it lays foundation for his career 1829 Zaira is inaugural opera at Parma’s new Teatro Ducale 1830 I Capuleti e ...
The bagpipe principle is simple: instead of the player blowing directly on a reed pipe, the air is supplied from a reservoir, usually made of animal skin, which is inflated either by mouth or by bellows. The result is the ability to produce a continuous tone, and the possibility of adding extra reed-pipes to enable a single ...
Cut a clean end to a length of bamboo, reed or other tube, place it near the mouth and direct a narrow stream of breath at its edge, and with a little practice, a pitched note can be produced. Blow a little harder and that note will jump to a series of ascending harmonics. It is not ...
Fiddles, generically, are bowed lutes. The term ‘fiddle’ denotes a stringed instrument with a neck, bearing strings that are sounded by the use of friction rather than plucking or striking. Playing the Fiddle In almost all fiddles the world over, friction is provided by a bow strung with rosined horsehair. The hair is tensioned by the springiness ...
Zither The zither is part of a group of instruments which are linked by the fact that sets of strings run parallel to their main body, and that – unlike the lute, lyre or harp – they can still be played even without a resonating device. In the concept’s least advanced state, native instruments exist which are little ...
The word ‘lute’ is the collective term for a category of instruments defined as ‘any chordophone having a neck that serves as string bearer, with the plane of the strings running parallel to that of the soundboard’. In other words, the lute is a soundbox with a neck sticking out. The strings of some are plucked, some are ...
At its simplest, a reed-pipe is made by slicing a flap out of a length of hollow reed or cane near the closed end, so that the cut piece springs slightly outwards, still joined to the rest of the reed at one end. How Reeds Work The reed, including the blocked end and section with the flap ...
Acoustic Guitar Throughout its history, the guitar has – perhaps more than any other instrument – managed to bridge the gap between the often disconnected worlds of classical, folk and popular music. Its roots go back to Babylonian times; by the 1500s it was prevalent in Spain, and is still sometimes called the Spanish guitar. Medieval versions – ...
Whistles, or duct flutes, have a device to channel the player’s breath, so a narrow air stream hits a sharpened edge, causing the necessary turbulence to vibrate the air column without the player using any special embouchure. Usually this duct is created by inserting a block, known as a fipple, into the end of the ...
Bagpipe Somewhere, perhaps in Mesopotamia, about 7,000 years ago, a shepherd may well have looked at a goat skin and some hollow bones and had an idea for a new musical instrument: the bagpipe. In the early Christian era, the instrument spread from the Middle East eastward into India and westward to Europe. By the seventeenth ...
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