Related Research Articles
Opera is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers, but is distinct from musical theatre. Such a "work" is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.
An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio the choir often plays a central role, and there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as well as to Biblical topics. Oratorios became extremely popular in early 17th-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition of spectacles during Lent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer of classical music. He is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957).
The Crane School of Music is located in Potsdam, New York, and is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam.
Thomas may refer to:
Savonlinna Opera Festival is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna, built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery.
L'Olimpiade is an opera libretto in three acts by Metastasio originally written for an operatic setting by Antonio Caldara of 1733. Metastasio’s plot vaguely draws upon the narrative of "The Trial of the Suitors" provided from Book 6 of The Histories of Herodotus, which had previously been the base for Apostolo Zeno's libretto Gli inganni felici (1695). The story, set in Ancient Greece at the time of the Olympic Games, is about amorous rivalry and characters' taking places to gain the loved one. The story ends with the announcement of two marriages.
Hugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions. He was born in Ivančice, Moravia and moved to the United States at the age of eight.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Vincentiana is the sixth symphony by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. In 1986–1987, Rautavaara wrote the opera Vincent based on several events in the life of painter Vincent van Gogh; many of the themes of that opera became the basis of Vincentiana.
Taverner is an opera with music and libretto by Peter Maxwell Davies. It is based on the life of the 16th-century English composer John Taverner, but in what Davies himself acknowledged was a non-realistic treatment. The gestation for the opera dated as far back as 1956 during Davies's years in Manchester, and continued when he went to Princeton University in 1962. Davies produced several instrumental works related to the opera during this gestation period, including the Points and Dances from 'Taverner' and the Second Fantasia on John Taverner's "In Nomine". Davies had completed the opera in 1968, but lost parts of the score in a fire at his Dorset cottage in 1969, which necessitated recomposition.
Aleksis Kivi (1995–96) is an opera in two acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara, to a libretto by the composer. It was first performed by the Savonlinna Opera Festival on 8 July 1997, with Jorma Hynninen in the title role. The opera deals with episodes in the life of Aleksis Kivi, the Finnish national writer. The opera was written at the request of Hynninen.
Vincent is an opera in three acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara first performed in 1990. The libretto is by the composer, and consists of scenes from the life of the artist Vincent van Gogh, told in retrospect.
Chatterton is a dramma lirico or opera in three acts by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The libretto was written by the composer himself and is freely adapted from the life of the young English poet from Bristol, Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770). Although composed in 1876, it premiered 20 years later on 10 March 1896, at the Teatro Drammatico Nazionale in Rome.
Paul Peter Christer Lindroos was a Finnish opera singer who appeared in leading tenor roles throughout Europe but was particularly associated with the Finnish National Opera and the Royal Danish Opera. Although he specialised in the 19th-century Italian spinto repertoire, he also sang in many 20th-century works and created the role of The King in Erik Bergman's Det sjungande trädet in 1995. In his later years he was a professor of voice at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden. He died along with his young son in a car accident near Malmö at the age of 59. He is buried in Pohja, Finland, the town of his birth.
Juha, Op. 74, is an verismo opera in three acts by the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja, who wrote the piece from 1931–34. The libretto, a collaboration between Madetoja and the Finnish soprano Aino Ackté, is based on Juhani Aho's novel by the same name. The story takes place around 1880 in northern Finland, and features as its central conflict a love triangle between the farmer Juha, his young wife Marja, and a Karelian merchant, Shemeikka. Disillusioned with rural life and seduced by promises of material comfort and romance, Marja runs away with Shemeikka; Juha, who maintains his wife has been abducted, eventually discovers her betrayal and kills himself.
Rasputin is a 2003 Finnish-language opera in three acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara.
Tietäjien lahja is a 1994 Christmas chamber opera by Einojuhani Rautavaara. The libretto is based on The Gift of the Magi by American author O. Henry which Rautavaara had first encountered in New York in 1955. However the story was changed from 1900 New York to the composer's own childhood in Helsinki's Kallio district in the 1930s.
Auringon talo is a 1990 Finnish-language chamber opera by Einojuhani Rautavaara.
References
- ↑ The Rough Guide to Opera Matthew Boyden, Nick Kimberley, Joe Staines - 2002 -1858287499 "Libretto by the composer. Synopsis Act! Finland, the thirteenth century. At the end of his life, Thomas, formerly bishop of Finland and an early proponent of the idea of Finnish nationhood, sees his past flash before him. He remembers children ..."
