SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Tito Gobbi
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1913–94 Italian baritone Gobbi studied in Rome, and sang regularly at the Opera from 1938. He made his La Scala debut in 1942, when he also sang Berg’s Wozzeck in Rome. He made his US debut in San Francisco in 1948, and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1956. He often appeared at Covent Garden, in roles by ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1913–84, Italian Gobbi’s baritone voice, although accomplished, was overshadowed by his magnificent stage presence. After studying in Rome and making his debut in 1935, he enjoyed his first success as Wozzeck in the 1942 Italian premiere of Berg’s opera. Gobbi’s La Scala debut also took place that year, and he became popular in London for his ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘Titus’ Clemency’ Premiered in Prague on 6 September 1791, Mozart’s last opera is based on an old Metastasio libretto, updated (with added ensembles and choruses) for contemporary taste. Popular in the early nineteenth century, it then went into eclipse. Nowadays, though, La clemenza di Tito is valued on its own terms rather than as a pale ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1914–93, Bulgarian As the leading Boris Godunov of his generation, Christoff benefited from his Russian mother’s insistence that he adopt her country’s culture. A difficult personality meant that controversy followed him throughout his life. Having sung with a church choir and local opera company in Bulgaria, Christoff emigrated to Italy in 1942 to pursue an operatic career. By ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Ja’-ko’mo Poot-che’-ne) 1858–1924 Italian composer Puccini wrote 12 operas, three of which rank among the most popular in the world: La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The composer came from a long line of musicians. His great-great-grandfather, the first Giacomo Puccini (1712–81), was organist and choirmaster at the cathedral of S Martino in the Tuscan town of Lucca. His ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1929–2004 Bulgarian bass He studied at the Bulgarian State and Moscow conservatories, making his stage debut in Sofia in 1955 as Don Basilio (Rossini’s Barber of Seville). To this he added many of the other great bass roles: Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust (his Italian debut in Rome), Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and the title roles in Verdi’s ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

b. 1937, American Philip Glass defies conventions of traditional music and performance practice. A minimalist who is constantly extending musical boundaries, Glass has written several slowly developing, repetitively patterned operas. In the mid-1960s he became fascinated with Indian music when transcribing the work of sitarist Ravi Shankar, and he set off to explore the music of North ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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 ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

(An-ton’-yo Ve-val’-de) 1678–1741 Italian composer and violinist Vivaldi was born in Venice. After learning the violin with his father, and possibly other teachers too, he joined the orchestra of St Mark’s. He was ordained in 1703, later acquiring the nickname Il prete rosso (‘the Red Priest’), because of his red hair. Partly because of fragile health and partly perhaps ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1678–1741, Italian Vivaldi’s father was a talented violinist who was employed at St Mark’s in Venice, and it is likely that his father was also involved in managing operas in that city during the late seventeenth century. Although Vivaldi was nominally a Catholic priest by profession, he did not have to say Mass for most of his life ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1714–87, German Famous above all as the composer of Orfeo ed Euridice, Christoph Willibald von Gluck was, more than anyone, responsible for purging opera of what he dubbed the ‘abuses’ of opera seria in favour of ‘beautiful simplicity’, emotional directness and dramatic truth. From Bohemia to Vienna Born in the small town of Erasbach in the Upper ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1858–1924, Italian Puccini’s unerring instinct for strong melody and evocative harmony, coupled with his ability to bring to life passionate and sensual relationships, has made him one the most popular of opera composers. Puccini brought Italian opera into the twentieth century, synthesizing music and drama in a symphonic idiom, but retaining the voice as the focal ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1735–82, German Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J. S. Bach (1685–1750), acquired a more thorough training in opera than most contemporary composers, studying first in Germany and afterwards in Italy. Consequently, his operas combined both styles. As a composer, Johann Christian concentrated initially on church music, but he soon transferred his talents to ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

b. 1935 Spanish mezzo-soprano Berganza made her debut as Mozart’s Dorabella at Aix-en-Provence, and sang Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) at Glyndebourne the next year. Her roles included Sesto (La clemenza di Tito, ‘Titus’ Clemency’), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and, later, Carmen, but she was most sought after for Rossini heroines. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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