1794–1854, Italian The Italian tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini was said to ‘enchant’ listeners with his powerful yet sweet and subtle voice. He was also able to move his audiences to tears with his famous musical ‘sob’. Bellini created several roles for Rubini, including Gualtieri in Il pirata, Elvino in La sonnambula and Arturo in I puritani. The qualities ...
new standards of singing, including great technical facility, wide voice range and the ability to sing top notes in falsetto. Another member of the group was Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794–1854), a one-time pupil of Nozzari’s. Introduction | Early Romantic | Opera Personalities | Giuditta Pasta | Early Romantic | Opera Houses & Companies | La Scala, Milan | ...
La sonnambula and Norma. Romani’s collaboration with Bellini began with the opera that first made the composer’s name – Il pirata – and included a third member, the tenor Rubini, who created the title role at La Scala, Milan on 27 October 1827. Introduction | Early Romantic | Opera Personalities | Gioachino Rossini | Early Romantic | Opera ...
| Early Romantic Major Operas | Le Comte Ory by Gioachino Rossini | Early Romantic Major Operas | Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini | Early Romantic Personalities | Giovanni Battista Rubini | Early Romantic | Opera Houses & Companies | La Scala, Milan | High Romantic | Opera Techniques | French Grand Opéra | Early Romantic | Opera ...
Premiered at Vienna’s Kärntnertor Theater on 23 May 1814, the final version of Fidelio is a fundamentally different opera from the 1805 original. There is now much less emphasis on the gaoler’s daughter Marzelline and her world of Singspiel domesticity. Although the fate of Florestan and Leonore remains central, the individual characterization becomes more idealized and stereotyped. The human ...
‘Medea’ Composed: 1797 Premiered: 1797, Paris Libretto by François Benoit Hoffman, after Pierre Corneille Act I At the palace of Corinth, Glaucé, daughter of King Créon, prepares for her approaching marriage to Jason. She fears the wrath of Médée, a sorceress who helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from Cholcis. Médée betrayed her family to ...
c. 1759–c. 1803, Italian Adriana Ferrarese was known as ‘La Ferrarese’ from her birthplace, Ferrara. In 1785, in London, she sang in Demetrio by Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842). Da Ponte, her mentor, wrote libretti for operas by Vicente Martín y Soler (1754–1806) and Salieri in which she took part. However, Mozart was not particularly impressed ...
(Dan-yel’ Fran-swa Es-pre’ O-bâr’) 1782–1871 French composer Auber is renowned for his operas and was the leading composer of opéras comiques in nineteenth-century France. He studied with Cherubini in Paris, writing concertos and vocal music before turning his attention to operas. His most important work is La muette de Portici (1828), one of many collaborations with the librettist Eugène Scribe ...
1782–1871, French The French composer Daniel Auber made a favourable impression on his teacher, Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) with his first opera, L’erreur du moment (‘The Mistake of the Moment’, 1805). However, he had to wait 15 years for popular appreciation until he established himself with two works: La bergère châtelaine (‘The Lady Shepherdess’, 1820) and Emma (1821). ...
(Fran’-swa A-dre-an’ Bwald-yö) 1775–1834 French composer Boieldieu was one of the leading opera composers of the early nineteenth century, concentrating on the opéra comique tradition. He studied with Charles Broche in his home town of Rouen, and was influenced by late eighteenth-century opéra comique, especially the works of André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741–1813) and Méhul. His earliest operas were encouragingly received ...
(Zhak Fran-swa’ Fro-mon-tal A-la-ve’) 1799–1862 French composer Halévy was born in France and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. From 1811 he studied with the composer Cherubini, who was a great influence on him. Halévy won the Prix de Rome in 1819 and taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1827 (where his pupils included Bizet and Gounod). A ...
1799–1862, French Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy, who was born in Paris, studied there with several composers – of whom the most influential was Cherubini. Success at the opera house was rather long in coming, however, and Halévy had to endure rejections and failures before scoring his first success with Clari (1828), which was written for the Spanish mezzo-soprano ...
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 ...
(Loo-e’-je Ka-roo-be’-ne) 1760–1842 Italian composer and teacher Cherubini was a dominant figure in French musical life, particularly as a composer of operas, but also as director of the Paris Conservatoire. He studied with Giuseppe Sarti in Bologna and Milan (1778–81) before returning to his native Florence. After a brief period in London, where he composed La finta principessa (‘The ...
1760–1842, Italian The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini studied in Florence, Bologna and Milan, first writing church music, and then, in 1779, producing his first operas. By 1787, when he settled in Paris, he had written 13 operas, but nothing, as yet, that was innovatory. This changed when his Démophon (1788) ...
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