John A. Rice is an American musicologist. [1] Born in 1956, he studied music history at the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., 1987). After many years of research on eighteenth-century opera and musical patronage, more recently he has divided his attention between Galant Schemata (inspired by Robert Gjerdingen's Music in the Galant Style) and Renaissance music and musical iconography. His research has yielded several books and over fifty articles. [2] He curates the Youtube channel Settecentista.
Rice has taught at the University of Washington, Colby College, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan. He has received grants from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society.
Rice is a member of the Akademie für Mozart-Forschung in Salzburg and former president of the Mozart Society of America
Antonio Salieri was an Italian composer and teacher of the classical period. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy.
The Magic Flute, K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death. Still a staple of the opera repertory, its popularity was reflected by two immediate sequels, Peter Winter's Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil (1798) and a fragmentary libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled The Magic Flute Part Two.
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer which gives a fictional account of the lives of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, imagining a rivalry between the two at the court of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. First performed in 1979, it was inspired by Alexander Pushkin's short 1830 play Mozart and Salieri, which Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used in 1897 as the libretto for an opera of the same name.
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯. Its key signature has two sharps. The D major scale is:
Cassation is a minor musical genre related to the serenade and divertimento. In the mid- to late 18th century, cassations commonly comprised loosely assembled sets of short movements intended for outdoor performance by orchestral or chamber ensembles. The genre was popular in southern German-speaking lands. Other synonymous titles used by German-speaking composers and cataloguers included Cassatio, Cassatione and Kassation. An equivalent Italian term was Cassazione. The genre is occasionally alluded to in the titles of some twentieth-century compositions.
Giovanni Battista Pescetti was an organist, harpsichordist, and composer known primarily for his operas and keyboard sonatas. Musicologist and University of California, Santa Barbara professor John E. Gillespie wrote that Pescetti "stylistically stands as a bridge between Alberti and Domenico Scarlatti".
Lorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" can also be applied to non-Western art musics. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization, particularly with the use of polyphony. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical, critical, historiographical, musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational component of Western culture, classical music is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or groups of composers, whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history.
Les Danaïdes is an opera by Antonio Salieri, in five acts: more specifically, it is a tragédie lyrique. The opera was set to a libretto by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and Louis-Théodore de Tschudi, who in turn adapted the work of Ranieri de' Calzabigi. Calzabigi originally wrote the libretto of Les Danaïdes for Christoph Willibald Gluck, but the aged composer, who had just experienced a stroke, was unable to meet the Opéra's schedule and so asked Salieri to take it over. The plot of the opera is based on Greek tragedy and revolves around the deeds of the mythological characters Danaus and Hypermnestra.
Theater am Kärntnertor or Kärntnertortheater was a prestigious theatre in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its official title was Kaiserliches und Königliches Hoftheater zu Wien.
Francesco Carattoli was an Italian bass buffo, or singer of opera buffa.
L'amore innocente composed by Antonio Salieri (1750–1825), is an Italian-language opera in two acts. Stylistically, it is a pastoral opera and is very similar to the mid-18th-century Roman Intermezzo. The libretto was written by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, dancer, poet and stage manager, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini.
Le donne letterate, composed by Antonio Salieri, is an Italian opera in three acts. Stylistically it is an opera buffa and is very similar to the mid-18th century librettos of Carlo Goldoni. The libretto by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, dancer, poet and stage manager, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini, was based on Molière's Les Femmes Savantes.
Francesco Benucci was an Italian bass/baritone singer of the 18th century. He sang a number of important roles in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri and other composers.
Daniel Heartz (1928–2019) was an American musicologist and professor emeritus of music at the University of California, Berkeley.
David Joseph Buch is an American musicologist.
Dexter Edge is an American musicologist.
Caterino Tommaso Mazzolà was an Italian poet and librettist. Born into a wealthy family from the islands of Murano, he and his family moved to Venice around 1767, but after a few years he moved to Treviso. He married in 1780 and having already met Giacomo Casanova and Lorenzo Da Ponte, started work as a librettist.
Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamace, composed by Antonio Salieri, is an Italian-language opera. The libretto presents the opera as in one act, and the musical score includes a mid-point division, both score, and libretto originally denoted the work a divertimento treatrale. The libretto was written by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, dancer, poet and stage manager, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini. The work is loosely adapted from chapters 19 and 21 of Part II of the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The work was a hybrid opera buffa and ballet, with choreography by Jean-Georges Noverre.