 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline .(May 2017) |
 |
| "De binocle" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Louis Couperus | |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Dutch |
| Genre(s) | Drama, fatalism |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Haagse Post , Proza |
| Publication date | 1920 |
De binocle (translation: The opera glass) is a short story written by Louis Couperus probably in or around 1897 in Dresden. The story was published for the first time in 1920 in Haagse Post and later in Proza.
A young Dutch-Indian journalist who is on vacation in Dresden decides to visit the Semperoper to see a performance of Wagner's Die Walküre . He gets a seat in the fourth range, in the most upper part of the auditorium. On the day of the performance, he buys himself an opera glass to see the play better. During the performance, he feels an almost irresistible urge to throw the opera glass to the head of a bald man sitting in the gallery right below him. Frightened by his own thought, he leaves the opera glass in the building after the play.
Five years later, the same man is back again in Dresden and decides one more time to go to a performance of Die Walküre. The performance is again in the Semperoper, and he gets exactly the same seat as before. To his dismay, an usherette gives him the opera glass which he had left behind in the building the previous time. A few moments after the play has started, he throws the opera glass right against the head of a spectator who is sitting next to the married couple right below him. The spectator who is hit cries out loudly and then dies.
 | This article about a short story (or stories) published in the 1920s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Die Walküre, WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876.
The "Ride of the Valkyries" refers to the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four epic music dramas constituting Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden. It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the Theaterplatz near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany.
Die schweigsame Frau, Op. 80, is a 1935 comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a libretto by Stefan Zweig after Ben Jonson's 1609 comedy Epicœne, or The Silent Woman.
Mabel at the Wheel is a 1914 American motion picture starring Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. The film is also known as Hot Finish.
The Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber is a university of music in Dresden, Germany.
Wolfgang Schöne is a German bass-baritone in opera and concert.
Gisela! oder: Die merk- und denkwürdigen Wege des Glücks is an opera by Hans Werner Henze.
Hans-Joachim Frey is a German cultural manager. From 1997 to 2007, he was Artistic Director of Operations and Director of Opera at the Semperoper in Dresden from 2007 to 2010 and general director at the Theater Bremen. In January 2013 he was responsible in the European Capital of Culture in Linz as a board director and artistic director of Liva, where he was also on the Bruckner House, the International Bruckner Festival and the clouds of sound.
Eytan Pessen is a pianist and voice teacher, currently at the Opera houses of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna (Volksoper), Zürich and international festivals. He was former opera director of the Semperoper in Dresden, artistic advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and former casting director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.
L'impresario delle Isole Canarie, also known as L'impresario delle Canarie or Dorina e Nibbio, is a satirical opera intermezzo libretto attributed to Metastasio, written in 1724 to be performed between the acts of Metastasio's opera seria Didone abbandonata. The first performance of the work was on February 1, 1724, in Naples, Italy, at Teatro San Bartolomeo. The first composer to set this libretto to music was Domenico Sarro, also known by the name Sarri, who also revised the work in 1730. The role of Dorina was first sung by the contralto Santa Marchesini, and Nibbio by the basso buffo singer Gioacchino Corrado. Later versions of this libretto appear with the titles L'impresario, L'impresario e la cantante and others.
The Opernhaus am Taschenberg was a theatre in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, built from 1664 to 1667 by Wolf Caspar von Klengel. It was the first opera house of the capital of Saxony, Residenz of the Elector of Saxony. Seating up to 2000 people, it was at the time one of the largest opera houses in Europe. It was also called Klengelsches Opernhaus and Komödienhaus am Taschenberg.
The Opernhaus am Zwinger was a theatre in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, opened in 1719. The architect of the Zwinger, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, was also responsible for the opera house situated next to its south-western pavilion. The building replaced the first opera house of Dresden, the Opernhaus am Taschenberg, which was transformed to a church.
Evelyn Herlitzius is a German opera singer, a dramatic soprano. She is known for performing major roles in works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, such as Brünnhilde, Isolde and Elektra, at the Semperoper, the Bayreuth Festival and leading European opera houses.
Andrea Ihle is a German operatic soprano. A long-term member of the Staatsoper Dresden, she performed a wide range of roles from coloratura soprano to character roles. She appeared as Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz in the opening performance of the rebuilt Semperoper, in world premieres and in contemporary opera such as Udo Zimmermann's Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin
Tijl Faveyts is a Belgian operatic bass. A current member of the Komische Oper Berlin, he has performed leading roles such as Mozart's Sarastro and Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre and Gurnemanz Parsifal at major opera houses, concert halls and festivals, and made recordings.
Tichina Vaughn is an American operatic dramatic mezzo-soprano active internationally in opera, concert halls and recitals. Starting at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, her American career expanded into Europe, as member of the permanent ensembles of the Semperoper in Dresden and the Stuttgart Opera, where she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin in 2006. She has been a regular at the Arena di Verona and other major theaters worldwide, singing a wide repertoire span, with a "voluminous and dark mezzo" voice the dramatic Verdi roles such as Amneris in Aida, Eboli in Don Carlo, Azucena in Il trovatore and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, Wagner's Ortrud Lohengrin, Venus Tannhäuser, Fricka Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and Strauss, Herodias in Salome and Klytemnestra in Elektra. According to Opernglas, Vaughn has a natural "great intensity" on stage, with an ample "voice, which flows richly, even in the low registers." The Neue Zürcher Zeitung describes her voice as an "enchanting satisfyingly rich mezzosoprano". Bernard Holland of The New York Times called hers "A voice of quality", which had "the presence and personality that might well fit the Met... a mezzo-soprano whose strong upper register gave hints of a dramatic soprano to come".
Günther Hofmann was a German operatic bass-baritone, opera manager and director.
Joachim Herz was a German Opera director and manager. He learned at the Komische Oper Berlin as an assistant to Walter Felsenstein. His major stations were the Leipzig Opera where he opened the new house with Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Komische Oper and Semperoper in Dresden, where he opened the restored house with Weber's Der Freischütz in 1985. He staged many world premieres, and worked internationally. Herz was the first director to apply Felsenstein's concepts to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, staged in Leipzig from 1973 to 1976.
The Königliches Hoftheater in Dresden, Saxony, was a theatre for opera and drama in the royal seat of the Kingdom of Saxony from 1841 and 1869, designed by Gottfried Semper. It was the predecessor of today's Semperoper, and is therefore sometimes called Altes Hoftheater.