• 1174
• Articles
• 29 Mag 2012

Most operas that continue to hold the stage deal with “romance” (men and women falling in and out of love with one another) and either heroic or comic adventures: warfare and duels, quests, confusions of identity, tragic misunderstandings. The romantic content of opera is frequently rendered more interesting (and more musically productive) by coyness, jealousy, […]

• 1199
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• 29 Mag 2012

‎”Werther” is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Massenet wrote the opera in 1887, but it did not premiere till February 16, 1892, and even […]

• 1187
• Articles
• 29 Mag 2012

• 2031
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• 29 Mag 2012

Massenet adjusted the role of Werther for a baritone, when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902. I find this version (in italian) more musically refined than the version for tenor voice. Mattia Battistini (27 February 1856 – 7 November 1928) was an Italian operatic baritone (my favourite italian baritone). He became internationally […]

• 4276
• Articles
• 27 Mag 2012

Hamlet is an opéra in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The Parisian public’s fascination with Ophelia, prototype of the femme fragile, began in the fall of 1827, […]

• 2360
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• 27 Mag 2012

“Les Huguenots” is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps. “Les Huguenots” was some five years in creation. Meyerbeer prepared […]

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• Articles
• 27 Mag 2012

The Meyerbeer opera, “Dinorah,” has an occasional revival for the benefit of some prima donna extraordinarily gifted in lightness and flexibility of vocal phrasing. This opera has a famous air — the “Shadow Song,” in which Dinorah dances and sings to her own shadow in the moonlight — a number which, at long intervals of […]

• 1910
• Articles
• 26 Mag 2012

Alain Vanzo (April 2, 1928 – January 27, 2002) was a French opera singer and composer, one of few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era. He, along with such singers as Henri Legay and the Canadian Léopold Simoneau, represented a traditional French lyric style during a period when larger Italian and German […]

• 1316
• Articles
• 19 Mag 2012

Luca Casagrande – “Poiché fato inumano” – Cantata a voce sola di Basso e Basso Continuo – Benedetto Marcello (1686 – 1739). Centaurus Music Int. Studio Recording – “Benedetto Marcello – Udite! Amanti udite – Cantate” – ℗ 2016 Luca Casagrande Baritone Scarlatti Camera Ensemble Artistic Director and Producer Luca Casagrande © Luca Casagrande. – […]

• 1229
• Articles
• 14 Mag 2012

Agostino Steffani (* 25. Juli 1654 in Castelfranco Veneto; † 12. Februar 1728 in Frankfurt am Main) war ein italienischer Komponist, Diplomat und katholischer Titularbischof. Steffani verbrachte seine Kindheit bei seinen Verwandten in Padua, wo er das Gymnasium besuchte. Er wurde vom damals in Padua weilenden bayerischen Kurfürstenpaar gefördert, das er 1667 nach München begleitete […]