Konrad Dryden | |
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| Born | Konrad Claude Dryden September 13, 1963 Pasadena, California, U.S. |
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| Period | 1990–present |
| Genre | Opera |
| Spouse | Countess Florence de Peyronnet (1991–2007) |
Konrad Claude Dryden (born September 13, 1963) is an American author who has written extensively on Italian opera, particularly about the movement known as Verismo.
Dryden is the son of a British father, Kenneth Dryden (an RAF pilot and descendant of poet laureate John Dryden), and a German mother, Ingeborg Rudhart, a descendant of Ignaz von Rudhart, Prime Minister of Greece under the reign of King Otto of Greece. His cousin, Karin Seehofer, is married to Bavaria's former Minister President and current Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer. [1]
Born in Pasadena, California, Dryden moved to Northern California at an early age. In Marin County, he attended St. Rita School and Sir Francis Drake High School (his math teacher being Olympic medalist Archibald Williams). Performances at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco sparked an innate love for the lyric theatre, leading him to train as an operatic baritone at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1980 with the French-Canadian tenor Léopold Simoneau. [1]
A European resident since 1981, Dryden continued his operatic tuition with the baritone Karl Schmitt-Walter in Munich, Germany. Schmitt-Walter was noted for his numerous recordings as well as his involvement with the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival after World War II. Following Schmitt-Walter's death, Dryden, from 1982 to 1983, continued his studies with the American tenor James King, both in Munich and Salzburg. Thereupon followed a move to Feldafing on Lake Starnberg, where Dryden spent the better part of two years working with the German baritone Josef Metternich. In Italy, mezzo-soprano Gianna Pederzini helped Dryden to complete his studies with the baritone Gino Bechi in Florence. Bechi, one of Italy's most noted baritones, had sung Alfio in the HMV recording of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana under the composer's direction in 1940. [1]
Dryden recorded an album of arias and songs in 1987 (reviewed in Das Orchester during the same year) before making his operatic debut in a nationally televised production as Uberto in Pergolesi's La serva padrona in 1988. In 1991, Dryden married the historian Countess Florence de Peyronnet (born 1968). Their son, Werther Claude Dryden, was born in 1991. [1]
In 1999, Dryden published Riccardo Zandonai, A Biography, [2] the first fully documented monograph devoted to the composer of Francesca da Rimini . Written specifically for this volume were forewords by Renata Scotto as well as the composer's daughter, Tarquinia Jolanda Zandonai. A second biography, Leoncavallo: Life and Works, [3] with a foreword by Plácido Domingo and Piera Leoncavallo, appeared in 2007. An earlier edition, sponsored by Baroness Hildegarde von Münchhausen, who had purchased a large amount of the composer's estate, preceded this in 2007. Following the publication, Dryden took part in a series of interviews recorded for German radio (NDR) and the Bayerische Kammeroper. His most recent biography, Franco Alfano, Transcending Turandot [4] (foreword by Magda Olivero), was released in 2010. For these monographs, Dryden himself insisted on translating into English all archival material from German, Italian, and French. [1]
Since the year 2000, Dryden has regularly contributed essays and articles for the following opera houses and concert halls: San Francisco Opera; Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Metropolitan Opera, New York; Teatro Real, Madrid; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona; Opéra de Paris; San Diego Opera; Wexford Festival Opera; Rome Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin and English National Opera. He has lectured in the United States, Switzerland and Germany as well as writing articles for Opera Quarterly, CPO Records, Naxos Records and Die Musikforschung . Dryden was the subject of a biographical entry in volume 267 of Contemporary Authors , published in 2008. [5] Since the year 2000, Dryden has been a contributing editor of the German music magazine Opernglas . During this time, he was noted for numerous interviews dealing with such personalities as Magda Olivero, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sherrill Milnes, Martina Arroyo, Carlisle Floyd, Birgit Nilsson, Astrid Varnay, Wolfgang Wagner, Simonetta Puccini, Inge Borkh, Gina Cigna, Dame Eva Turner, Maria Carbone, Adelaide Saraceni, Virginia Zeani and Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia. Dryden also befriended bestselling author Barbara Cartland. [1]
Dryden may be credited for advancing musical research in the realm of Italian operatic composers during the Fin de siècle that, until the advent of his works, centered almost exclusively on Puccini. His uncovering of original manuscripts – whether of composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Ruggiero Leoncavallo or author E. T. A. Hoffmann – enabled many archives to acquire invaluable material. These findings also helped clear up erroneous historical data found for decades in reference guides, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the German music encyclopedia Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , among others. Whether it was simply the inaccurate date of Leoncavallo's birth, or that his opera Edipo Re was solely an adaptation of the earlier Der Roland von Berlin or that his Sardou-based La jeunesse de Figaro never existed was, until these publications, relatively, if not completely, unknown. [6] [ failed verification ] Dryden received his Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of Marburg, Germany. [1] From 2004-2018 Dryden was Professor of Humanities at the University of Maryland, University College, Europe.
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera Pagliacci (1892) that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, the music completed by Franco Alfano in 1926 after Puccini's death.
In opera, verismo, from vero, meaning 'true') was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. Verismo as an operatic genre had its origins in an Italian literary movement of the same name. This was in turn related to the international literary movement of naturalism as practised by Émile Zola and others. Like naturalism, the verismo literary movement sought to portray the world with greater realism. In so doing, Italian verismo authors such as Giovanni Verga wrote about subject matter, such as the lives of the poor, that had not generally been seen as a fit subject for literature.
Roberto Alagna is a French operatic tenor. He obtained French citizenship in 1981, while also retaining his previous Italian citizenship.
Mario Del Monaco was an Italian operatic tenor.
Pagliacci is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance. Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Soon after its Italian premiere, the opera played in London and in New York. Pagliacci is the composer's only opera that is still widely performed.
Franco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera Risurrezione (1904) and for having completed Puccini's opera Turandot in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime.
Magda Olivero, was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of the verismo composers and the modern opera stage". She has been regarded as "one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century".
Riccardo Zandonai was an Italian composer.
Tullio Serafin was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.
Luigi Ricci (1893–1981) was an Italian assistant conductor, accompanist, vocal coach, and author.
Afro Poli was an Italian operatic baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Alessio De Paolis was an Italian operatic tenor who specialized in character roles. He was a prominent member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he sang from 1938 to 1964. At the Met De Paolis performed 51 different roles, primarily in the Italian and French repertoires, in a remarkable 1555 performances. In 1931, De Paolis created the role of Monsieur Le Beau in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera La vedova scaltra; in 1933 that of Frulla in Riccardo Zandonai's opera La farsa amorosa; and in 1936 and that of Christian in Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac.
Tarquinia Tarquini was an Italian dramatic soprano and the wife of composer Riccardo Zandonai.
Teatro Grattacielo is a professional opera company based in New York City specializing in concert performances of rarely heard verismo operas. The company's past performances have included the North American premieres of Mascagni's Il piccolo Marat and Riccardo Zandonai's I cavalieri di Ekebù and La farsa amorosa. Its name means "Skyscraper Theatre" in Italian, a reference not only to the New York skyline but also to the Teatro Grattacielo in Genoa, a cinema which was the city's temporary opera house while the Teatro Carlo Felice was rebuilt after extensive damage in World War II.
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.
Il dottor Antonio is a 1949 opera by Franco Alfano to a libretto by Mario Ghisalberti based on the 1855 nationalist novel by the Italian writer Giovanni Ruffini.
Iris Adami Corradetti was an Italian opera soprano, and latterly a singing teacher.
Svetla Vassileva is a Bulgarian opera singer (soprano).
Leopoldo Metlicovitz was an Italian painter, illustrator and poster designer.
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