‘Saint Alexius’ Premiered: 1632, Rome Libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi Prologue The figure of Roma (Rome), surrounded by a chorus of slaves, dedicates the performance to the Prince of Polonia (Poland). Act I Eufemiano, a Roman senator and Alessio’s father, encounters Adrasto, a knight returning from war. While pleased to see Adrasto, Eufemiano mourns the disappearance ...
c. 1586–1639, Italian Stefano Landi, who was born and gained his musical training in Rome, became maestro di cappella to the bishop of Padua in around 1618. The next year, Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo (‘The Death of Orpheus’, 1619) was performed in Rome, where the composer returned in 1620. Four years later, Landi was appointed ...
c. 1586–1639 Italian composer Although Stefano Landi was active as a church musician in his own time, he is chiefly remembered nowadays as one of the most gifted and successful opera composers of the period between Monteverdi’s Florentine dramas and those that the composer wrote for Venice. During the 1630s, the focus on dramma per musica (‘drama through music’) ...
(Fran-cha’-sko Lan-de’-ne) c. 1325–97 Italian composer Blind as the result of an attack of smallpox as a young child, Landini turned to music, learning to play the organ and several other instruments. He also sang and wrote poetry. Over 150 musical works by him survive, forming over one quarter of the known repertory of the fourteenth century. Most of ...
1921–2008, Italian Possessing a beautiful voice that was recorded to great effect, di Stefano was renowned for performances of the bel canto repertoire. His speciality roles included Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles and Fritz in L’amico Fritz. However, by the mid-1950s he began to sing heavier roles that robbed his voice ...
1600–69, Italian Priest and librettist Giulio Rospigliosi served the opera-loving Barberini pope Urban VIII. Urban’s family gave Rospigliosi a magnificent setting for his libretto for Il Sant’Alessio (1632) by Stefano Landi, which was performed at the opening of the opera house in the Barberini palace in 1632. Three more libretti in the next decade included Rossi’s Il palazzo incantato. ...
1647–74 English composer Humfrey’s precocious gifts became apparent when, as a chorister, he started to compose anthems for the Chapel Royal in England. The wider world beckoned, however, and in 1664 he set out for France and Italy to familiarize himself with continental styles in music. He returned to England in 1667 and was appointed a Gentleman ...
1674–1739, German Reinhard Keiser was born in Teuchern, Germany. When his mentor, Johann Sigismud Kusser (1660–1727) relocated to Hamburg in around 1693, Keiser succeeded him as Kappellmeister in Brunswick. There, Keiser produced Kusser’s first opera, Basilius (1694), and wrote several operas of his own, but after only three years he followed his mentor to ...
The revival and imitation of ancient theatrical genres in sixteenth-century Italy bore fruit in seventeenth-century England and France in the works of the great dramatists of those countries: William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine. In Italy, however, the sixteenth-century innovations in spoken drama were followed in the next century not by a great national ...
The writing and performance of Baroque music and opera relied heavily on wealthy patrons, who often employed musicians in their private orchestras and opera houses. Among these patrons were the aristocratic Barberini family, who made their fortune in the Florentine cloth business. Moving to Rome, the Barberini became one of the city’s most powerful family dynasties. Maffeo Barberini ...
1888–1968, Italian What Stabile did not possess vocally, he made up for with a complete mastery of character. His imagination and timing made him unparalleled among his contemporaries. Toscanini coached him for the role of Falstaff, which he would sing nearly 1,200 times. During his 1926 debut season at Covent Garden, Stabile sang Falstaff, Iago ...
b. 1971, British A celebrated composer, conductor, pianist and curator, Thomas Adès has already inspired retrospectives of his work. His operas, Powder Her Face (1995) and The Tempest (2004) received critical and audience acclaim and both have entered the contemporary repertoire. Performances of The Tempest include the 2004 production at the Metropolitan Opera, directed by ...
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 ...
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