Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event.
Virginia Zeani, Commendatore OMRI is a Romanian-born opera singer who sang leading soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America. As a singer, she was known for her dramatic intensity and the beauty, wide range, and suppleness of her voice which allowed her to sing a repertoire of 69 roles ranging from the heroines in belcanto operas by Rossini and Donizetti to those of Wagner, Puccini and Verdi. She also created roles in several 20th-century operas, including Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. Zeani made her professional debut in 1948 as Violetta in La traviata, which would become one of her signature roles; she has since sung the opera over 640 times. After her retirement from the stage in 1982, she became a well-known voice teacher. She was married to the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni from 1957 until his death in 1991. A Distinguished Professor Emerita at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music where she taught for many years, Zeani lives in Palm Beach County, Florida and has continued to teach singing privately.
Ildebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music, musicologist, and music critic.
Tullio Serafin was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.
L'amore dei tre re is an opera in three acts by Italo Montemezzi. Its Italian-language libretto was written by playwright Sem Benelli who based it on his play of the same title.
Silvano is a dramma marinaresco or opera in two acts by Pietro Mascagni from a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on a novel by Alphonse Karr. It received its first performance on 25 March 1895 at La Scala, Milan. Although rarely performed today, the music is of some technical accomplishment, and when revived, Silvano has been favourably received. The barcarolle from Silvano features prominently in a montage during the Martin Scorsese film Raging Bull.
Cesare Valletti was an Italian operatic tenor, one of the leading tenore di grazia of the postwar era. He was much admired for his polished vocal technique, his musical refinement and elegance, and beauty of tone.
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, was a basso opera singer of mixed Italian-Russian parentage.
Ferruccio Furlanetto is an Italian bass. His professional debut was in 1974 in Lonigo, he debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1979, in a production of Verdi's Macbeth, conducted by Claudio Abbado. He has gone on to sing numerous roles, including both Don Giovanni and Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlos, Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Zaccaria in Verdi's Nabucco, Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust, Orestes in Strauss' Elektra, Fiesco in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, the title role of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, as well as many other roles.
Le astuzie femminili is a dramma giocoso in four acts by Domenico Cimarosa with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Palomba. The opera buffa premiered at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples, Italy, on 26 August 1794. The opera was subsequently performed in Barcelona in 1795, Lisbon in 1797, Vienna in 1799, Paris in 1802, and London in 1804, remaining popular during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Although not performed often today, the opera is still occasionally revived and a number of recordings have been made.
Nino Sanzogno was an Italian conductor and composer.
Dèbora e Jaéle is an opera in three acts composed by Ildebrando Pizzetti who also wrote the libretto. The libretto is based on the story of Deborah and Jael from the Book of Judges in the Bible. However, it differs in several ways from the traditional Biblical account, primarily in the motivations of its characters and the relationships between them. The opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan on 16 December 1922.
L'amor coniugale is an opera in one act by Simon Mayr set to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered at Padua's Teatro Nuovo on 26 July 1805.
Ginevra di Scozia is an opera in two acts by Simon Mayr set to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on Antonio Salvi's Ginevra, principessa di Scozia, which in turn was adapted from cantos 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Ginevra di Scozia premiered on 21 April 1801 at the Regio Teatro Nuovo in Trieste to celebrate the inauguration of the new theatre. The story is virtually identical to that of Handel's Ariodante which shares the same source for the libretto.
Aldo Bertocci was an Italian operatic tenor who sang both comprimario and leading roles in a career spanning the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. He sang in the world premieres of nine 20th century operas, most of them in performances broadcast on the RAI, Italy's national public-service radio. His discography includes live recordings of several rarities such as Mascagni's Silvano and Leoncavallo's Zingari. Bertocci was born in Turin and from 1974 lived in Cassano Valcuvia where he died shortly before his 88th birthday.
Il bravo, ossia La Veneziana is an opera in three acts by Saverio Mercadante to an Italian-language libretto by Gaetano Rossi and Marco Marcello. Their libretto was based on the play La Vénétienne by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois, which was in turn based on James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Bravo. The opera premiered on 9 March 1839 at La Scala, Milan and subsequently played throughout Italy and abroad. The opera was still being occasionally performed and recorded in the 20th century. and was hailed as an "exciting rediscovery" when it was staged by the Wexford Festival in 2018.
Maria Carbone was an Italian operatic soprano. She created the lead female roles in two of Gian Francesco Malipiero's operas: the title role in Ecuba and Cleopatra in Antonio e Cleopatra.
Fra Gherardo is an opera in three acts composed by Ildebrando Pizzetti who also wrote the libretto. Set in Parma at the end of the 13th century, the opera's story is based on the life and death of Gherardino Segalello as chronicled by Salimbene of Parma. Pizzetti composed the work, his fifth opera, between 1925 and 1927. The world premiere took place at La Scala, Milan on 16 May 1928 in a performance conducted by Arturo Toscanini with Antonin Trantoul and Florica Cristoforeanu in the leading roles of Fra Gherardo and Mariola.
Ugo Benelli is an Italian operatic tenor. Born in Genoa and trained at La Scala, Benelli had an international career singing leading tenore di grazia roles from the early 1960s through the 1980s. In his later years he sang character roles and began a career as a singing teacher. He retired from the stage in 2004.
Dino Dondi was an Italian operatic baritone.
