Aida is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world. At New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera.
My Best Friend's Wedding is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by P. J. Hogan from a screenplay by Ronald Bass who also produced. The film stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett.
The Wedding Singer is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore and Christine Taylor, and tells the story of a wedding singer in 1985 who falls in love with a waitress. The film was released on February 13, 1998. Produced on a budget of US$18 million, it grossed $123 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. It is often ranked as one of Sandler's best comedies.
The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as famous operatic tenor Enrico Caruso. The movie was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer. The screenplay, by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, was suggested by the biography Enrico Caruso His Life and Death by Dorothy Caruso, the tenor's widow. The original music was composed and arranged by Johnny Green and the cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg. Costume design was by Helen Rose and Gile Steele.
Rosa Ponzillo, known as Rosa Ponselle was an American operatic dramatic soprano.
Jan Wiktor Kiepura was a Polish opera singer and actor. He enjoyed a successful international career and performed at leading concert halls around the world including La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra-Comique, La Fenice and Teatro Colón. He was the recipient of numerous national and international distinctions and honours including Poland's Order of Polonia Restituta, France's Legion of Honour and Sweden's Order of the Polar Star.
Nina, o sia La pazza per amore is an opera, described in 1790 as a commedia in prosa ed in verso per musica, in two acts by Giovanni Paisiello to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi after Giuseppe Carpani's translation of Benoît-Joseph Marsollier's Nina, ou La folle par amour, set by Nicolas Dalayrac in 1786. The work is a sentimental comedy with set numbers, recitative and spoken dialog. It is set in Italy in the 18th century. Nina was first performed in a one-act version at the Teatro del Reale Sito di Belvedere in Caserta, San Leucio on 25 June 1789. The revised and familiar two-act work was presented at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in the autumn of 1790.
William Ratcliff is an opera in three acts, composed by César Cui during 1861–1868; it was premiered on 14 February 1869 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg under the conductorship of Eduard Nápravník. Although it was revived in Moscow in 1900 under Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, it never became part of the standard operatic repertoire either in Russia or in the West. Nevertheless, this opera has considerable significance in the history of Russian art music, not only for the fact that it was the first opera by a member of The Five to reach the stage, but also for musical features that suggest experimentation and interrelationships among The Five.
Nicholas "Slug" Brodszky was a composer of popular songs for the theatre and for films.
Marta Eggerth was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.
"Celeste Aida" is a romanza from the first act of the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi. It is preceded by the recitative "Se quel guerrier io fossi!". The aria is sung by Radamès, a young Egyptian warrior who wishes to be chosen as a commander of the Egyptian army. He dreams of gaining victory on the battlefield and also of the Ethiopian slave girl, Aida, with whom he is secretly in love.
Monte Carlo is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It co-stars Jack Buchanan as a French Count Rudolph Falliere masquerading as a hairdresser and Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara. The film is notable for introducing the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", which was written for the film and is first performed by MacDonald and a chorus on the soundtrack as she escapes on the train through he countryside. Monte Carlo was hailed by critics as a masterpiece of the newly emerging musical film genre. The screenplay was based on the Booth Tarkington novel Monsieur Beaucaire.
Tonight or Never is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Gloria Swanson, Melvyn Douglas and Boris Karloff.
My Heart Is Calling You is the 1934 French version of a German musical film directed by Carmine Gallone and Serge Véber, written by Ernst Marischka, produced by Arnold Pressburger. The film stars Jan Kiepura, Danielle Darrieux and Lucien Baroux. The music score is by Robert Stolz.
So This Is Love is a 1953 American musical drama film directed by Gordon Douglas, based on the life of singer Grace Moore. The film stars Kathryn Grayson as Moore, and Merv Griffin. The story chronicles Moore's rise to stardom from 1918 to February 7, 1928 when she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera.
"Dirty Work" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan, which appeared on the band's 1972 debut album Can't Buy a Thrill.
My Heart Calls You is a 1934 German musical film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Jan Kiepura, Mártha Eggerth and Paul Kemp. Separate English-language and French-language versions were made, both also directed by Gallone.
Tout pour l'amour is a 1933 German musical film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Joe May, which stars Jan Kiepura, Claudie Clèves and Charles Dechamps. It was a French-language version of the film A Song for You. The English-language version is My Song for You (1934).
A Song for You is a 1933 German musical comedy film directed by Joe May and starring Jan Kiepura, Jenny Jugo and Paul Kemp. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and on location in Naples and Vienna.The film's sets were designed by the art director Werner Schlichting. It was remade in Britain the following year as My Song for You.
One Night's Song is a 1933 musical film directed by Pierre Colombier and Anatole Litvak and starring Jan Kiepura, Magda Schneider and Pierre Brasseur. It was a co-production between Germany and France. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin alongside the German The Song of Night. A separate English-language version Tell Me Tonight was also produced.
