• 1014
• Articles
• 30 Mar 2012

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (* 2. Mai 1660 in Sizilien – entweder Trapani oder Palermo; † 24. Oktober 1725 in Neapel) war ein Komponist des Barock mit vielfältigem Oeuvre und gilt als Erneuerer der Barockmusik. Er war Vater von neun Söhnen, darunter die ebenfalls als Komponisten bekannt gewordenen Domenico Scarlatti und Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. Scarlatti […]

• 1002
• Articles
• 28 Mar 2012

Alessandro Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 24 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. Scarlatti was born in Palermo, then part of […]

• 1800
• Articles
• 27 Mar 2012

‎”Mention the name of french baritone singer Jacques Jansen, and immediately some operalover will think: “Ah, the Pelléas of his time!” Actually he was renowned as the foremost exponent of the role in Debussy´s unconventional masterpiece PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE (first performed 1902). In 1941, Jansen gave his debut with Pelléas in Genève, the same year […]

• 3966
• Articles
• 25 Mar 2012

Sesto Bruscantini (10 December 1919 – 4 May 2003) was a great (maybe the greatest) Italian baritone, one of the greatest buffo singers of the post-war era, especially renowned in Mozart and Rossini. Bruscantini was born in Civitanova Marche, Italy. After obtaining a law degree, he turned to vocal studies in Rome, with Luigi Ricci […]

• 1368
• Articles
• 23 Mar 2012

La Callas L’Objet Trouvé These Callas paintings are stills from concert videos available on YouTube, an upstart startup that has since permitted an unprecedented dissemination of videos of virtually all calibers and contents to anyone who seeks them. In the 1950s, the artist Jasper Johns took similarly ubiquitous images such as STOP signs and the […]

• 1400
• Articles
• 20 Mar 2012

‎”Revisioning Callas” By Marion Lignana Rosenberg. As many biographers have noted, Maria Callas’s very entry into this world is a matter of controversy. Some sources suggest she that was born on December 3; others say that she celebrated her birthday on December 2; and a few report that she favored December 4, the feast of […]

• 1219
• Articles
• 19 Mar 2012

“Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was first ­performed in Naples in 1835, and has been on and off the boards ever since. While unusually full of memorable tunes, the main reason for its popularity across nearly two ­centuries, and why audiences still flock to it today, rests on one moment. This is the famous third-act mad […]

• 1087
• Articles
• 18 Mar 2012

Giovanni Battista Bassani (ca. 1650 – 1 October 1716) was an Italian composer, violinist, and organist. Battista was born in Padua. It is thought that he studied in Venice under Daniele Castrovillari and in Ferrara under Giovanni Legrenzi. Charles Burney and John Hawkins claimed he taught Arcangelo Corelli, but there is no solid evidence for […]

• 1270
• Articles
• 17 Mar 2012

‎”Madama Butterfly” (“Madame Butterfly”) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story “Madame Butterfly” (1898) by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco. Puccini also based it on the […]

• 1461
• Articles
• 15 Mar 2012

A native of Braubach, Schlusnus studied with voice teachers in Berlin and Frankfurt before making his debut at Hamburg’s opera house in 1915. Schlusnus sang at Nuremberg from 1915 to 1917 and at the prestigious Berlin State Opera from 1917 until 1951. He was engaged by the Chicago Opera for its 1927-28 season and appeared […]