Lehar's "The Merry Widow" premiered December 30, 1905, in Vienna, Austria.
The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) is an operetta, a romantic musical comedy by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar. The librettists, Victor Leon and Leo Stein, based the story about a rich widow, Hanna Glawari, and her attempt to find a husband, on an 1861 comedy play, L'attache d'ambassade (The Ambassador's Attache) by Henri Meilhac.
It was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 30 December 1905 and had several very successful productions in Austria and Germany. In its English adaptation by Basil Hood, with lyrics by Adrian Ross, the show became a sensation in London in 1907 and opened a few months later on Broadway for a very successful run. Thereafter, it was played frequently in America and throughout the English speaking world.
Operetta in three acts with libretto by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein at the Semperoper Dresden.
Christmas crackers or bon-bons are a part Christmas celebrations in the UK and Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. They are also popular in Ireland. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper.
How it is used for Christmas is like the way it's done with a wishbone. The cracker is pulled by two people. The cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip.
Countess Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), the only legitimate daughter of the famous English poet Lord Byron, was the first computer programmer.
Born Augusta Ada Byron in Marylebone, London, on December 10, 1815, was an English writer who worked on the analytical engine of English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. Countess of Lovelace (Augusta Ada King) studied astronomy, mathematics, Latin and music. She later worked as a designer of arithmetical operations for calculating machines with Babbage.
LIVE STREAMING of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Handel's Messiah, 2015
Sunday, Dec 6, 2015
Handel's greatest and most loved choral masterpiece "Messiah" is sung by 500 voices at the Sydney Opera House. Brett Weymark conducts the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs to mark the start of the festive season.
In a world first, and in collaboration with Accessible Arts and Sydney Opera House, the 2-day concert will be signed live by a choir of 18 to bring another element of meaning to this powerful piece of music. The live-streaming will be audio-described live for people who are blind or have low vision.
Friends, family, or anyone interested can tune-in and watch the performance of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Handel's Messiah from the comfort of homes around the world!
When: Sunday 6 December 2015, live streaming begins at 12.50pm AEDT
Access: Live Streaming, Live Captioning, Audio Description, Auslan Signing Choir (Note: Clicking on the link, there might be a few minutes wait due to earlier setting prior 1PM actual performance. In the interval the live stream will feature a virtual tour of
the Opera House.)
"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it;" ~ Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer famous for his novel, Of Human Bondage. The book issaid to be based on his own life. It was made into a movie and became equally popular at the time starring Leslie Howard (Gone with the Wind fame) and Bette Davis.
The book provokes. As demonstrated in his writings, faithful love has no place. And then again, it can be attributed to the writer's tormented emotional life, from his unhappy childhood and perhaps even unhappier adult existence. Maugham often wrote satire and humour, but he told his stories well that endeared him to his readers.
Maria Callas, (born Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulou). She was a New York-born Greek soprano, one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini, and to the works of Verdi and Puccini, and early in her career, to the music dramas of Wagner.
Timeline:
Dec 2, 1923. Maria Callas is born in New York, U.S.A.
Sept 28, 1937. She moves back to Greece with her mother, and begins training with Madam Elvira Heldago, National Conservatory.
Sept 28, 1940. Her auditions haven't been going as well until she is asked to audition for the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. He offers her the leading roles in two productions of the 1946/1947 season. Maria turns down the contract.
November 1, 1940. She makes her professional stage debut in Boccaccio. (age 17)
1941. Makes her debut as Tosca, in Athens.
1947. Earns wide acclaim singing Gioconda at the Verona Arena.
January 19, 1949. I Puritani is performed in Venice shortly
after, starring the Italian soprano Margherita Carosio as Elvira. One
night, Maria begins sight-reading Elvira's music as Carosio falls ill.
Conductor Serafin's wife hears Maria. She is offered the role of Elvira.
April 21, 1949. She marries Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a man almost 30 years her senior.
December 7, 1950. La Scala, the famous Milan theatre offers her a leading role. She opens the 1950/1951 season with I Vespri Siciliani, a success with good reviews.
July 1, 1952. She signs an exclusive recording contract with Walter Legge, EMI director.
1952 & 1956. Her early repertory includes Wagner but soon became identified with bel canto roles, singing Norma at her London (1952) and New York (1956).
December 19, 1958. Maria Callas performs an aria from her signature role, Bellini's druid priestess Norma, with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris and Georges Sebastian. Recorded live at the Palais Garnier on the 19th of December 1958, this concert marked the soprano's debut at the Paris Opera, a major social event for Parisians and for which Callas donned her most elegant couture and a million dollars' worth of jewelry. (Maria Callas sings "Casta Diva" (Bellini: Norma, Act 1). Youtube, uploaded by Warner Classics. Accessed December 19, 2015.)
Maria Callas interpreting Bellini's Norma, "Casta Diva". Act I.
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan
Tullio Serafin, Conductor.
Recorded in the Cinema Metropol, Milan, 1954. (Uploaded by Dennis Tschirner. Accessed December 2, 2015.)
January 1, 1942. Nazi Germany invades Greece in April 1941, under
Italian occupation. This day she is asked to perform in Puccini's Tosca at the Athens Opera.
Handel’s greatest and most loved choral masterpiece sung by
more than 400 voices at the Sydney Opera House. Brett Weymark conducts
the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for three concert events to mark the
start of the festive season.
In a world first, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, in
collaboration with Accessible Arts and Sydney Opera House, presents 2015 Handel's Messiah. The concerts
will be signed live by a choir of 12 to bring another element of meaning
to this powerful piece of music. Hallelujah!
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009), French social anthropologist and author, was a leading exponent of structuralism and influential in social sciences and related disciplines.
He was born on November 28, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, but grew up in Paris. He studied philosophy and law. He taught at a college in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While in Brazil, he became interested with the Amazon rainforest, encountered indigenous people, and started his research on them. He realized he wanted to be an anthropologist.
He learned everything about various indigenous groups especially about their culture and wrote about them in his books: A World on the Wane (1961) and The Savage Mind (1966).
Franz Krommer (František Krommer: born 27 November 1759 – died 8 January 1831), was a Czech composer of classical music and violinist. A contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his 71-year life span began half a year after the death of G. F. Handel and ended nearly four years after that of Beethoven. He died in Vienna.
His life highlights include the following: From 1773 to 1776, he studied violin and organ with his uncle, Antonín Mattias Kramár. In Turany, he became organist along with his uncle in 1777. In 1785 he was in Vienna as violinist in the orchestra of the duke of Styria (now in Simontornya in Hungary.) In 1790, he was named Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of Pecs, Hungary. He returned again to Vienna in 1795, becoming Maestro di Cappella for Duke Ignaz Fuchs in 1798. From 1813, until his death, Krommer succeeded Leopold Kozeluch as composer for the Imperial Court of Austria.
Krommer's output was prolific, with at least three hundred published compositions in at least 110 opus numbers including at least 9 symphonies, seventy string quartets and many others for winds and strings, with about 15 string quintets. Today, he is best known for his powerful wind ensemble music.
Considered his best
work, at par with Haydn's The Creation
Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah,
op.70: facts, the cast, brief history, and other Mendelssohn-related information.
Oratorio
Elijah is considered the greatest work of Romantic composer Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy in this genre.
Facts
about Oratorio Elijah
Composer:
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy(1809-1847), a German composer of the Romantic era, born in Hamburg, Germany.
Original
Title:Elias (Elijah, at the first
performance)
Original Language: German (English, at the first performance)
Text:
Based on the Holy Bible passages, the story of
Elijah from the Books of Kings, compiled by Mendelssohn himself. He was
assisted by Julius Schubring and Karl Klingemann.
Form:
Oratorio in Two Parts, a total of 42 musical
numbers, with an introduction and overture .
Date
of Writing: 1845-1846.
First
Performance: August 26, 1846, in Birmingham. Mendelssohn conducted with the world-famous
Jenny Lind in the soprano role.
(Note: Watch in YouTube to enjoy the entire oratorio playlist.)
Enjoy for Free! City of Sydney Children's Concert and Christmas Tree Lighting
Martin Place, Thursday, Nov 26, 2015, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
Sydney’s interactive Christmas Tree is going to be lit by Santa and the Lord
Mayor. The Children's Concert is packed with entertainment the whole family is sure to love. Prominent entertainers and performers include: MC James Tobin, Hoot and Hootabelle, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sam Moran, Justine Clarke, the cast from The Sound of Music and Anthony Callea.
David Threasher picks 10 works from the Salzburger’s output that he feels are unjustly underrated
No 1.Maurerische Trauermusik, K477 (1785)
No 2. Missa brevis in F major, K192 (1774)
No 3. Davide penitente, K469 (1785)
No 4. Eine kleine Gigue, K574 (1789)
No 5. Piano Duet Sonata in F, K497 (1786)
No 6. Epistle Sonata No 7, K224 (1780)
No 7. Al desio di chi t’adora, K577 (1789)
No 8. Symphony No 26 in E flat, K184 (1773)
No 9. Piano Concerto No 26 in D, ‘Coronation’, K537 (1788)
No 10.String Quintet in D, K593 (1790)
Read the interesting article (link below) for the full description of each Mozart work. To my knowledge and experience, I'd not fully say it's 'neglected' as we discuss or mention these works in our Mozart Groups.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 21 November 2015, 11AM & 5PM Sydney Opera House
Join the SPC - Chamber Singers for this intimate performance.
The Utzon Roomof the Sydney Opera House is the perfect backdrop for a concert that celebrates
vocal music inspired by water. As well as two world premieres by
Australian composers Rosalind Page and Luke Byrne, hear the sublime
vocal music of Eric Whitacre, Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Be surprised by
the possibilities of choral music with Stars by the lauded Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, a piece that employs water-tuned glasses for celestial effects.
Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring was first staged by the Martha Graham Ballet, in Washington.
Appalachian Spring is a modern ballet composed by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944. Its popularity has endured as an orchestral suite. The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon commission of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation. It premiered on Monday, October 30th, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., with Martha Graham dancing the lead role.
The set was designed by the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
For his achievement of this popular ballet suite music, composer Aaron Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, engineer, armaments manufacturer and industrialist. Aside from being famous for Nobel Prizes, he is also best known as the inventor of dynamite.
As inventor, Nobel held 355 different patents. He invented the patent for dynamite in Great Britain in 1866 and in the U.S. in 1867. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune acquired from the manufacture of explosives and from interests in oil fields in Russia to institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him. His name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and Akzo Nobel, which are descendents of the companies Nobel himself established. Nobel Prizes was first awarded in 1901.
Resource:
"Biographical Information". Nobelprize.org. 1 Nov 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/biographical/
American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, editor, author
Often called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education", Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, editor and writer.
Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758 in West Hartford, Connecticut. His father, Noah Sr. (1722–1813), was a descendant of Connecticut Governor John Webster; his mother Mercy (née Steele; 1727-1794) was a descendant of Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony.
His father was mainly a farmer though he was also deacon of the local Congregational church, captain of the town's militia, and a founder of a local book society, a precursor to the public library. After American independence, he was appointed a justice of the peace. He never attended college but valued education. His mother spent long hours teaching Noah and his siblings spelling, mathematics and music.
Brief biography of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams,
his life, influence and list of major works - symphonies, tone poems, sacred
music and operas. His work is much a part of great English music began by Elgar. He is mainly famous for Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Ralph
Vaughan Williams is best known for his deep love of the English countryside,
English history, art and literature, all expressed in his music. With his
affinity in English folk music, his roots surfaced, having been the
great-nephew of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was about seven, when the
latter published his treatise on evolution, The Origin of Species.
Brief Biography
Ralph Vaughan
Williams was born in Down Ampney on December 12, 1872, son of a clergy, and his
mother related to Darwin.
When his father died, the family moved to Surrey.
Karol Maciej Korwin-Szymanowski (October 6, 1882 - March 28, 1937), was a polish composer and pianist. He was born in Tymoszówka, then part of Poland, now in present-day Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus' Elizawetgrad School of Music from 1892, and from 1901, the State Conservatory in Warsaw, of which he was later director.
Szymanowski was influenced by the music of Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Alexander Scriabin and the impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He also drew much influence from his countryman Frédéric Chopin and Polish folk music, and like Chopin he wrote a number of mazurkas for piano (the mazurka being a Polish folk dance).
Mount Everest Successful Climb: On Top of the World
Stacy Allison: the First American Woman to Reach Mount Everest.
Stacy Allison is famous for becoming the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, on September 29, 1988. She has been involved in many climbing expeditions. She first began by climbing New Hampshire's Mount Washington.
Allison attempted her first major climb at age 21. Unfortunately, her climbing partner broke his ax only 200 feet from the top, forcing them to turn back.
Saturday 26 September 2015, 1:30pm
Sunday 27 September 2015, 1:30pm
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
A rare concert performance of 'Of Thee I Sing' by George Gershwin (music) and brother Ira Gershwin (lyrics). Book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Presented by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (Festival Chorus) in collaboration with Squabbalogic.
The complete 1931 Pulitzer Prize winning musical will be recreated live
on stage in a special concert performance featuring four talented
singer-actors, a choir of 400 and an orchestra playing the original
orchestrations from 1931. Produced in collaboration with Sydney's most
prolific music theatre company, Squabbalogic (The Drowsy Chaperone),
this is a first for Sydney and not to be missed as words and music come
together in the political satire 'Of Thee I Sing'.
Here's a sneak peek of our rehearsals for George and Ira Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing, timely for the composer's (George Gershwin) birthday. In 1932, Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Spiegel im Spiegel ('Mirror in the Mirror') is a piece of music written by Arvo Pärt in 1978, just before his departure from Estonia. Simply, the piece is in the tintinnabular style of composition, wherein a melodic voice, operating over diatonac scales, and tintinnabular voice, operating within a triad on the tonic, accompany each other. It is about ten minutes long.
Arvo Pärt (pronounced: 'Arvo Pært') is born on September 11, 1935. He is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, 'tintinnabuli.' His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. One of his most famous works include Spiegel im Spiegel (1978).
Suggested Listening:
Spiegel im Spiegel, performed by Sally Maer (Cellist) and Sally Whitwell (Pianist). Accessed September 11, 2011
Here's another interpretation. Spiegel im Spiegel for Cello and Piano (Arvo Pärt) Youtube, uploaded by Leonhard Roczek. Accessed September 11, 2011.
Spiegel im Spiegel was originally written for a single piano and violin – though the violin has often been replaced with either a cello or a viola. The piece is an example of minimal music. It's in F major in 6/4 time, with the piano playing rising crochet triads and the second instrument playing slow F major scales,
alternately rising and falling, of increasing length, which all end on
the note A (the mediant of F). The piano's left hand also plays notes, synchronized with the violin (or other instrument).
In German, "Spiegel im Spiegel" can literally mean both "mirror in the mirror" as well as "mirrors in the mirror", referring to an infinity mirror, which produces an infinity of images reflected by parallel plane mirrors: the tonic triads are endlessly repeated with small variations as if
reflected back and forth. The structure of melody is made by couple of
phrases characterized by the alternation between ascending and
descending movement with the fulcrum on the note A. This, with also the
overturning of the final intervals between adjacent phrases, contribute to give the impression of a figure reflecting on a
mirror and walking back and towards it.
Resources:
Arvo Pärt. en. wikipedia.org. Accessed September 11, 2015.