Hansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper. The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the "Abendsegen" from act 2.
Alfred Friedman was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor, performing in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
John Milford Rutter is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music.
Frederica von Stade is a semi-retired American classical singer. Best known for her work in opera, she was also a recitalist and concert artist, and she recorded more than a hundred albums and videos. She was especially associated with operas by Mozart and Rossini, and also with music by French and American composers, most notably Jake Heggie.
Jake Heggie is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.
The American Boychoir School was a boarding/day middle school located in Princeton, New Jersey, and the home of the American Boychoir. The school originated as the Columbus Boychoir in Columbus, Ohio. In 1950, the school relocated after receiving property in Princeton, New Jersey from the Lambert estate. The relocated school was renamed the American Boychoir School. It remained in this location until the sale of Albemarle in 2012. The school served boys in grades 4–8, many of whom came from across the United States and from many countries. It was one of only two boychoir boarding schools in the United States, the other being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City. The school provided opportunity to boys from across the world to experience the rich world of music. The Boychoir toured across the contiguous United States, through Canada, as well as internationally, allowing students to gain diverse cultural perspective while performing at the professional level. The American Boychoir performed with numerous orchestras, frequently including the New York Philharmonic as well as the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
Beatrice Melba Hill or Beatrice Melba Smith(sources differ) known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress.
On two occasions, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture. Later, in 1842, five years before his death, he wrote incidental music for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing overture. The incidental music includes the famous "Wedding March".
Erich Kunzel, Jr. was an American orchestra conductor. Called the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune, he performed with a number of leading pops and symphony orchestras, and led the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (CPO) for 32 years.
St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut is a market town in central Austria, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, named after Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg.
Chants d'Auvergne, by Joseph Canteloube, is a collection of folk songs from the Auvergne region of France, arranged for soprano voice and orchestra or piano between 1923 and 1930. The 27 songs, collected in five series, are in the local language, Auvergnat, a dialect of Occitan. The best-known of the songs is the "Baïlèro", which has been frequently recorded and performed, sometimes with slight variations of Canteloube's arrangement, such as for choir or instrumental performance, rather than the original soprano solo.
The Ambrosian Singers are an English choral group based in London.
Donald Patriquin is a Canadian composer, organist, and choral conductor. Known internationally for choral and instrumental arrangements of folk music, Patriquin was a member of the Faculty of Music of McGill University from 1965 to 1996. He currently resides in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert is an 89-minute television film starring the opera singers Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade, the jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the American Boychoir, the Christmas Concert Chorus, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the pianist and conductor André Previn. It first aired as part of PBS's Great Performances series in 1991, and was subsequently released on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and CD. It was jointly produced by CAMI Video, Sony, PBS and WNET.
Show Boat is a 221-minute studio album of Jerome Kern's musical, performed by a cast headed by Karla Burns, Jerry Hadley, Bruce Hubbard, Frederica von Stade and Teresa Stratas with the Ambrosian Chorus and the London Sinfonietta under the direction of John McGlinn. It was recorded from June 1 to August 31, 1987 at Abbey Road Studios.
Dardanus is a 119-minute studio album of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera, performed by a cast led by José van Dam, Michael Devlin, Veronique Dietschy, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Georges Gautier, Roger Soyer and Frederica von Stade with the Chorus and Orchestra of the National Theatre of the Paris Opera under the direction of Raymond Leppard. It was released in 1981.
James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala was a concert lasting approximately eight hours, that the Metropolitan Opera staged in 1996 in honour of its then principal conductor and artistic director. Excerpts from the gala were released by Deutsche Grammophon on a 72-minute CD, a 161-minute VHS videocassette and a 161-minute double Laserdisc in 1996, and on a 293-minute double DVD in 2005.
Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration was an 89-minute televised concert presented in Prague's Smetana Hall on 16 December 1993, in which thirteen pieces of music by Antonin Dvořák were performed by the pianist Rudolf Firkušný, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, the Prague Philharmonic Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. It was produced by Sony Classical Film and Video, Czech Television and Germany's Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen in association with Pragokoncert, the Netherlands' Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep and the United States' Public Service Broadcasting and MJI Broadcasting, and was released on Laserdisc, VHS video cassette, CD and audio cassette by Sony Classical Records and on DVD by Kultur Video.
Mozart: Grosse Messe c-moll KV 427 is an 86-minute live video album of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Christian vocal works Great Mass in C minor, Ave verum corpus and Exsultate, jubilate, performed by Arleen Auger, Cornelius Hauptmann, Frank Lopardo, Frederica von Stade, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Deutsche Grammophon issued it on VHS video cassette, Laserdisc and DVD, and also released audio cassette and CD versions of its soundtrack.
Dom Gregory Murray OSB was a British monk of Downside Abbey, and an organist and composer. His over-riding interest as a musician was to provide music that would enhance the Roman Catholic liturgy.
