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• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

Bruneau himself first set Le rêve, rather an exception to Zola’s usual realism, in 1891, in a version by Gallet, a professional librettist whose adaptation of Zola was also the formula for Bruneau’s next work, L’attaque du moulin (‘The attack on the mill’) of 1893. With Messidor (1897), L’ouragan (‘The hurricane’, 1901) and L’enfant roi (1905) ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

particular vocal qualities included a rich, dark timbre coupled with an ability to easily reach the higher register. Introduction | Turn of the Century | Opera Personalities | Émile Zola | Turn of the Century | Opera Houses & Companies | La Scala, Milan | High Romantic | Opera ...

• Personalities
• Doo-Wop
• Fifties
• Fifties Pop
• Rhythm & Blues
• Rock
• Rock’n’Roll
• Soul

formed The Platters in Los Angeles in 1953 with original members Tony Williams (lead vocalist), David Lynch (tenor), Alex Hodge (baritone), replaced by Paul Robi, Herb Reed (bass) and Zola Taylor. Signed to Mercury Records, their smooth harmonies brought hits with 1955’s million-selling ‘Only You (And You Alone)’, followed two months later by a second US chart-topper, ‘The ...

• Styles & Forms
• Doo-Wop
• Pop

successful one comprised gospel-steeped lead singer Tony Williams, tenor David Lynch, bass Herb Reed, baritone Paul Robi and, unusually for a doo-wop outfit, female harmonizer Zola Taylor. Meanwhile, the other massive doo-wop favourites of the late-1950s were The Coasters, whose wild, comedy-filled songs contrasted sharply with The Platters’ plaintive, soul-stirring ballads. Thanks ...

• Opera
• Turn of the Century

was exacerbated by problems of sanitization and welfare. It was these unappealing aspects of mid-nineteenth-century society that led to artistic reaction against the opulence and self-indulgence of the Romantics. Émile Zola began an artistic school of thought known as ‘naturalism’. He believed that art, specifically the novel in his case, should examine people and their social environment in scientific ...

• Classical
• Late Romantic

of history lay behind the rise of Realism in the nineteenth century. Opposed to the optimism of the last stages of Romanticism, novelists such as Gustave Flaubert, Émile Zola and Charles Dickens, and painters such as Gustave Courbet, avoided romanticized images and tried to portray ordinary life in a matter-of-fact way, in the process exposing some ...

• Opera
• Turn of the Century

The schools of naturalism and realism had an immediate effect in Italy. With scant literary tradition to draw on from this period, Italian writers in the second half of the nineteenth century seized upon Zola’s beliefs as a potent dramatic source. The style they developed came to be known as verismo and was exemplified by writers such as Giovanni Verga ...

• Techniques
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

styles but, properly, it refers to a movement in Italian literature of which the main exponent was Giovanni Verga. The major influence on the veristic writers was Émile Zola who believed that reality could be best understood by objective observation. For instance, a character would be placed in a situation and his reactions observed. The generating influence behind ...

• Instruments
• Keyboards

The affectionately nicknamed ‘squeeze box’ is the smallest of all conventional keyboard instuments, and the lowliest cousin of the organ (except the shirt-pocket harmonica). Strictly speaking, however, it has neither keys nor a keyboard. Nor has it a uniform shape. Playing Technique Whereas the standard English concertina is hexagonal, German and American models are square. The basic ...

• Women in Music
• Classical
• Early Baroque

The rise of opera in the early Baroque period provided increased musical opportunities for women, especially as singers, but also as composers. One of the earliest female opera singers was Vittoria, who worked for the Medici court in Florence. Her career was overshadowed by that of another Medici employee, the composer and singer Francesca Caccini, who ...