Opera Composers by Birth Date
Sources:
45 operas from (*)The Opera Companion, by George Martin, 1982, 0-369-08097-9
100 operas from (+)100 Greatest Operas and their stories, by Henry W. Simon, 1960, 0-385-05448-3
Did you know that you can perform Advanced Title Search for lists NOT your own? Name searches too.
45 operas from (*)The Opera Companion, by George Martin, 1982, 0-369-08097-9
100 operas from (+)100 Greatest Operas and their stories, by Henry W. Simon, 1960, 0-385-05448-3
Did you know that you can perform Advanced Title Search for lists NOT your own? Name searches too.
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Claudio Monteverdi was born on 15 May 1567 in Cremona, Duchy of Milan [now Lombardy, Italy]. He was a composer and writer, known for A Star Is Born (2018), Liberal Arts (2012) and Mouchette (1967). He died on 29 November 1643 in Venice, Republic of Venice [now Veneto, Italy].1567-1643
+La favola d'Orfeo, 1607- Music Department
- Composer
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Purcell grew up in a musical family. As a boy he attended the Chapel Royal church choir. His talent earned him training as an organist. In 1677, the 18-year-old became "composer for the violins" at the English court. Two years later he took up the position of organist at Westminster Abbey. Purcell thus took over the post from John Blow, one of his organist teachers, which he held until his death. In 1682 he became organist of the Chapel Royal and a year later, royal instrument manager. During this time he primarily composed sacred music and works for celebratory occasions, including the celebratory compositions "I was glad" and "My heart is inditing" from 1685.
Two years later the music for the tragedy "Tyrannick Love" by John Dryden was created. In 1689, Purcell's first opera, Dido and Aeneas, was performed. The following year he created songs for Shakespeare's "The Tempest" based on an adaptation by John Dryden and for his comedy title "Amphitryon". In 1691 and the following year the baroque operas "King Arthur" and "The Fairy Queen" were written. Purcell composed the titles "Te Deum" and "Jubilate" on the occasion of St. Cecilia's Day in 1694. They are both considered masterpieces. In the same year he wrote an anthem, a choral piece with sacred text, for the memorial service on the occasion of the death of Queen Mary II of England. This piece in particular shows the lasting impact of Purcell's musical work up to modern times: it was electronically edited by Wendy Carlos for the theme music of Stanley Kubrick's film "A Clockwork Orange".
Purcell was only 36 years old, but he was very productive in his musical life. His work includes around 40 masterpieces, stage works, plays, odes, songs, cantatas, chamber music, church choir and piano works. With his three- to five-part sonatas and fantasies for string instruments, he continued the older English consort music, which gained recognition for its artistic polyphony, highly cromatic and dissonant harmony of the modern style. His other semi-operas also include the titles "The prophetess, or the history of Dioclesian" (1690) and "The Indian Queen" (1695).
Henry Purcell died in London on November 21, 1695.1659-95
+Dido and Aeneas, 1689- Music Department
- Composer
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Being the son of a violinist Vivaldi started playing the violin himself early in his life. In 1703 he became priest and in 1716 the director of a conservatory of the church in Venice. Being a famous violinist he gave concerts all over Europe also composing a lot of violin concerts and other string works. There is not much information about his life only that he died in poverty in Vienna.1678-1741- Music Department
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- Writer
Born February 23 1685 in Halle, Germany, he was christened "Georg Friederich Händel" but always signed his name "Georg Friedrich Händel". His father intended for him to go into law, but Händel studied music clandestinely and was eventually allowed to study under an organist. He achieved some success early on, and toured Italy in 1706. He briefly worked in Hannover before departing for London in 1711. While in England Händel composed a number of anthems, operas, and church music, and in 1723 he became a British citizen. He premiered "Messiah" in Ireland as a charity aid, and this quickly became his most famous work. He died early in the morning on 14 April 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey under a monument that reads: "George Frederic Handel". 3,000 people attended his funeral.1685-1759
+Giulio Cesare, 1724- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born on 4 January 1710 in Jesi, Papal State [now Marche, Italy]. He is known for Chocolat (2000), Sucker Punch (2011) and Mirror (1975). He died on 16 March 1736 in Pozzuoli, Kingdom of Naples [now Campania, Italy].1710-36
+La serva padrona, 1733- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Young Gluck was a singer in a church choir and thus decided to study music in Prague although his parents wanted him to work in the forest. Having to earn his own money he worked as a part-time musician and finished his studies in Milan where he wrote his first Italian style opera. Impressing the audience he was invited to London where he had first contact with the music of George Frideric Handel. In 1752, he finally accepted a job at a theatre in Vienna, but continued composing operas and ballets for clients in Paris.1714-1787
*+Orfeo (Orphée et Eurydice ), 1762, 1
+Alceste, 1767- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Giovanni Paisiello was born on 9 May 1740 in Taranto, Kingdom of Naples [now Puglia, Italy]. He is known for Casanova (2005), Barry Lyndon (1975) and Boned (2015). He died on 5 June 1816 in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Campania, Italy].1740-1816- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Domenico Cimarosa was born on 17 December 1749 in Aversa, Kingdom of Naples [now Campania, Italy]. He was a composer, known for Pocahontas: The Legend (1995), Il matrimonio segreto (1943) and Strangers in Good Company (1990). He died on 11 January 1801 in Venice, Veneto, Habsburg Monarchy [now Italy].1749-1801
+Il matrimonio segreto, 1792- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in Salzburg under the regulation of his strict father Leopold who also was a famous composer of his time. His abilities in music were obvious even when Mozart was still young so that in 1762 at the age of six, his father took him with his elder sister on a concert tour to Munich and Vienna and a second one from 1763-66 through the south of Germany, Paris and London. Mozart was celebrated as a wonder child everywhere because of his excellent piano playing and his improvisations.
In 1769 he became the concertmaster of the Archbishop and was knighted by the Pope in Rome. Working in Salzburg he nevertheless travelled around Europe to meet other composers and orchestras. But in 1781 after a dispute with the Archbishop he left Salzburg and went to Vienna where he married Constanze Weber from Mannheim. In Vienna he also started his friendship with Joseph Haydn and a time of many work pieces. In the last year of his life, for example, he wrote one of his masterpieces, "Die Zauberflöte". Although some of his operas were successful he could not make money from this and died in poverty at the age of 36, having even on his last day worked on a "Requiem". He was buried in a communal grave which could not be precisely identified years later.1756-1791
+Bastien und Bastienne, 1768
Idomeneo, 1781, 1
*+Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1782, 1
*+Le Nozze di Figaro, 1786, 3
*+Don Giovanni, 1787, 4
*+Cosi fan Tutte, 1790, 2
*+Die Zauberflöte, 1791, 5- Music Department
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Beethoven was the child of a Flamian musician family and became a member of the electoral orchestra of Bonn in 1783. In 1787 he studied at Mozart's in Vienna and in 1792 he moved all to Vienna becoming a student of Joseph Haydn. The Vienna High Society loved him as a piano player as well as as composer. In 1802 his deafness became serious making Beethoven a real eccentric until his death in 1827.1770-1827
*+Fidelio, 1805, 1- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Learining all about music and instruments Von Weber moved around Germany changing his teachers once in a while. In 1813 he became "Kapellmeister" in Prague and in 1816 music director of the "Deutsche Oper" in Dresden. There he supported German operas instead of the Italian ones which were very popular at his time - nevertheless his masterpiece "Der Freischuetz" was played for the first time in Berlin which was known to be more liberal. Was in London for a concert when he crontracted and died because of a disease.1786-1826
+Der Freischütz, 1821, 1
+Oberon, 1826- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Giacomo Meyerbeer was born on 5 September 1791 in Tasdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He is known for Maytime (1937), Song of Surrender (1949) and Vento di primavera (1958). He died on 2 May 1864 in Paris, France.1791-1864
+Les Huguenots, 1836, 1
+L'Africaine, 1865, 1- Music Department
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As a son of a horn player and a singer Rossini was taught instruments early in his life. When he was older he went to the conservatory of Bologna for lessons. His first opera was such a big success that a lot of people wanted him to write more pieces. But nevertheless in 1816 his masterpiece "The Barber of Seville" failed although later it received the attention it deserved. In 1823 Rossini became the director of the Italian Opera in Paris, but when he stopped working he left for Italy only to return in 1853 and stay in Paris until his death in 1868.1792-1868
*+Il Barbiere di Siviglia, 1816, 3
+La Cenerentola, 1817, 6
Semiramide, 1823, 3
+Guillaume Tell, 1829, 1
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Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was born November 29, 1797 in Bergamo, Italy. He was born in a windowless cellar into a poor family of a government clerk. At the age of 9 he became a protégé of Johann Simon Mayr, Maestro di Cappella of the Lombard city. Johann Mayr hosted and educated young Donizetti, and later sent the talented boy to study music under the renowned Padre Stanislao Mattei, the head master of the Music School in Bologna. After graduation he enlisted in the Army, and avoided going back to poor life in Bergamo.
In 1818 Donizetti's first operas were performed in Venice with modest success. In 1822 Donizetti settled in Naples and there had his first big success with two operas: "Zoraida di Granada" (1822) and "La zingara" (1822). He was developing the Bel canto style, writing his hallmark melody lines in a perfect match to Italian lyrics. Donizetti played with variety of genre from the comedy "L'ajo nell'umbarazzo" (1824), to the heroic neo-classical drama "L'esule di Roma" (1828), to the romantic melodrama "Il Paria" (1829).
Donizetti became famous beyond Italy with his opera "Anna Bolena" (1830). The superb quality of his music made him the rival of Vincenzo Bellini and Gioachino Rossini. Donizetti's next operas "L'elisir d'amore" (1832), "Parisina" (1833), "Lucrezia Borgia" (1833), and "Maria Stuarda" (1834) were performed in Rome, Genoa, Florence, and Teatro alla Scala in Milano. Meanwhile he had a teaching position at the Naples Conservatoire and had a good reputation for his warmth, generosity and devotion to his work.
His opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" (1835) straddled the annals of the day more brilliantly than any other opera. Donizetti went to Paris, and soon after was given the position of the Court Composer in Vienna. His later operas were written to French texts, with the inevitable loss of Bel canto smoothness, which was best in his melodies written to Italian lyrics. His last works of "grand-opera" scale integrated ballet numbers in spectacular settings. "Don Pasquale" (1843) was Donizetti's last opera. He died of paralysis on April 8. 1848, in Bergamo, Italy.
Vocally challenging "L'elisir d'amore" (The Elixir of Love 1832) remains a perennial favorite of the Bel canto opera repertoire worldwide. It is a story of a young love-struck Nemorino, who bought a bottle of magic drink from a traveling drug-pusher, who claims it to be a 'love potion'. Nemorino is trying to win the heart of the coquettish Adina, who eventually discovers that Nemorino's love is true and sincere. It was made into the eponymous film in 1992, starring Luciano Pavarotti as Nemorino and Kathleen Battle as Adina.
"Una furtiva lagrima" from the opera "L'elixir d'amore" is among the most famous tenor arias. It's legendary 1904 Victor recording by Enrico Caruso was used in 'Match point' (2005), 'Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino' (1977), and many other films, often uncredited.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Vincenzo Salvatore Bellini was born on November 2, 1801 in Catania, Sicily, Italy. He was the first of seven children in a musical family. His grandfather gave him first piano lessons at the age of 3, and at the age of 5 young Bellini could play good piano to an audience. His first composition dates from around that age. He was granted a scholarship from the municipal government of Catania to study music at the Conservatory of Naples.
Bellini studied under composer Niccolo Zingarelli and a vocal teacher Girolamo Crescenti. His fellow student soprano Isabella Colbrani eventually became his wife. Bellini's graduation opera "Adelson e Salvini" generated a commission from the Royal court. Impresario Domenico Barbaja secured a commission for Bellini's opera for La Scala in Milan. "Il Pirata" started Bellini's fruitful partnership with the librettist Felice Romani, who complemented Bellini's flowing serpentine vocal lines with meticulously chosen words. Their tandem created 7 Bel canto operas in about six years.
In Paris Bellini received a commission from the Theatre Italien for "Il Puritani", which he composed on the libretto by Count Carlo Pepoli. It became a triumph over his competitor Gaetano Donizetti. Bellini was recognized by the leading cultural figures of his time; Franz Liszt, Mikhail Glinka, Frédéric Chopin, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, among others. Heinrich Heine was fond of Bellini's works; But he predicted that Bellini will die, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Raphael, at the hight of his genius. Bellini died of peritonitis on September 23, 1835, in Paris, France, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise in Paris. In 1876 his remains were moved to the cathedral of his native town of Catania, Italy.
Bellini's opera "Norma" became a hallmark of the Bel canto style. It was premiered on December 26, 1831 at the La Scala, Milan, and initially had a cool reception on its first night. The title role is still considered the most difficult role in all of the soprano repertoire. Its performances by Maria Callas are among the finest. The extremely popular cavatina "Casta diva" was used in soundtracks for many films, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), The Game of their Lives, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Atlantic City (1980), and Lorenzo's Oil (1992) among other films.- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, into the family of Dr. Louis Berlioz and Marie-Antoinette-Josephine. Hector was the first of six children, three of whom died. He took music lessons at home from a visiting teacher and played flute and guitar. By age 16 he wrote a song for voice and guitar that was later reused for his "Symphonie Fantastique."
In 1821 Berlioz went to Paris to study medicine. His impressions of the Paris Opera performance of "Iphigenie en Tauride" by Christoph Willibald Gluck turned him on music forever. He spent more days at the Paris Conservatory than at the medical school. In 1823 he started writing articles on music for "Le Corsaire". He abandoned medicine for music and successfully performed his "Messe Solennelle" in 1825. After being "cursed" by his mother for abandoning medicine, his allowance from his father was reduced, and was forced to take such jobs as a choir singer to support himself. In 1828 he heard the 3rd and 5th Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven and with that impression he read "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. With such inspiration he started composing "La Damnation de Faust."
Berlios fell in love with Irish actress Harriet Smithson and became so inspired that he finished the "Symphonie Fantastique." He premiered the work and met Franz Liszt at the premiere. They became good friends and Liszt transcribed the "Symphonie Fantastique" for piano. In 1830, after being rejected by Harriett Smithson, Berlioz became engaged to pianist Camille Moke. He went to Rome as the Prix de Rome Laureate and met Felix Mendelssohn and the Russian Mikhail Glinka. All three became friends for many years. At that time Berlioz received a letter from his fiancée that she had decided to marry M. Camille Pleyel, a wealthy piano maker in Paris. He decided to return to Paris and kill his fiancée, Mr. Playel and himself, but the long trip cooled him down. He stopped in Nice and composed "Le Roi Lear," inspired by William Shakespeare's play "King Lear".
Back in Paris he became friends with Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Niccolò Paganini, Frédéric Chopin and George Sand. He met writer Ernest Legouve and they became lifelong friends. In 1833 he finally married Harriet Smithson, with Liszt himself as one of his witnesses. Their son was born in 1834. Later he had a mistress, singer Marie Recio, whom he married after the death of Hariet Smithson in 1852.
Berlioz was an influential music critic. He wrote about Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mikhail Glinka, Paganini, Liszt and other musicians. From 1834-38 he completed the opera "Benvenuto Cellini". In 1938 his "Harold en Italie" was performed at the Paris Conservatoire. His friend Paganini was so impressed by that performance that he gave Berlioz 20,000 francs.
In the 1840s Berlioz toured in Europe and strengthened his friendship with Mendelssohn-Bartholdy', Richard Wagner, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Robert Schumann. After extensive concertizing in Belgium and Germany, Berlioz returned to Paris. There his friend Mikhail Glinka, who lived in Paris for over a year, came up with the idea of concerts in Russia. Berlioz's joke "If the Emperor of Russia wants me, then I am up for sale" was taken seriously. Having Mikhail Glinka as a convert, Berlioz was invited to Russia twice, and each tour brought him financial gain beyond his expectation. His deep debts in Paris were all covered many times over after his first concert tour of Russia in 1847. Back in Paris he was having difficulties in funding performances of his massive works and lived on his witty critical publications. His second tour of Russia in 1867 was so much more attractive that Berlioz turned down an offer of $100,000 from American Steinway to perform in New York. In St. Petersburg Berlioz took special pleasure in performing with the first-rate orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
His second Russian concert tour was a successful finale to his career and life. Berlioz never performed again. He died on March 8, 1869, and was laid to rest at the Cimetiere de Montmartre with his two wives.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Ambroise Thomas was born on 5 August 1811 in Metz, France. He is known for Hitting a New High (1937), Supai Zoruge (2003) and Hi Diddle Diddle (1943). He died on 12 February 1896 in Paris, France.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Friedrich von Flotow was born on 26 April 1812 in Teutendorf, Sanitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. He was a composer, known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), No Reservations (2007) and Analyze This (1999). He was married to Rosina Theen, Anna Theen and Elisabeth von Zadow. He died on 24 January 1883 in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany.1812-83
+Marta, 1847- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Richard Wagner was a German composer best known for his operas, primarily the monumental four-opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen". He was born Wilhelm Richard Wagner on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Germany. He was the ninth child in the family of Carl Wagner, a police clerk. Richard was only six months old when his father died, and he was brought up by his mother Johanna and stepfather Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright. Young Wagner studied piano from the age of 7 and soon developed ability to play by ear and improvise. At age 15 he wrote piano transcriptions of Ludwig van Beethoven's "9th Symphony" and orchestral overtures. He studied at the University of Leipzig, and also took composition and conducting lessons with the cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
Wagner's early operas did not meet with success, leaving him in serious financial difficulties. From 1836-1839 he was a music director in Riga Opera, where his wife, Minna Planer, was a singer, and her extramarital escapades were the talk of the town. The Wagners amassed such significant debts that they had to escape from creditors and fled Riga. They spent 1840 and 1841 in London and Paris, where Richard worked as an arranger for other composers.
Giacomo Meyerbeer promoted Wagner's third opera, "Rienzi", to performance by the Dresden Court Theatre, where the opera was staged to considerable acclaim. In 1842 the Wagners moved to Dresden and lived there for six years. Eventually Richard was appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor. At that time he completed and staged "Der fliegende Hollander" (aka "The Flying Dutchman") and "Tannhauser".
Wagner was exposed to many conflicting political influences, ranging from Marxism and liberalism on the left to German nationalism on the right to the anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin. After the revolution of 1848-49, Wagner fled from Germany to Paris, then to Zurich, and found himself penniless, unemployed and depressed (he had also suffered from a severe skin infection for many years). At that time Wagner was unable to compose or perform music, and he expressed himself in writing essays: "The Art-Work of the Future", describing "Gesamtkunstwerk," or "total artwork" uniting opera, ballet, visual arts and stagecraft.
Wagner's four "Ring" operas gradually evolved, and he completed the libretto by 1852. Another year of suffering went by, until he began composing "Das Rheingold" (aka "The Rhine Gold") in November 1853, following it with "Die Walkure" (aka "The Valkyrie") in 1854. In 1856 he began work on "Siegfried", but put the unfinished opera aside and focused on his new idea: "Tristan und Isolde" (aka "Tristan and Isolde"), which was composed between 1857 and 1859. In 1861 Germany ended the political ban on Wagner, and in 1862 he ended his troubled marriage to Minna.
"Tristan and Isolde" was initially accepted for production in Vienna. The opera had over 70 rehearsals between 1861 and 1864, but remained unperformed and gained a reputation for being unplayable. The young Bavarian King Ludwig II, an admirer of Wagner's operas since his childhood, had settled the composer's debts and financed his opera productions. Finally "Tristan and Isolde" was produced in Munich, and premiered under the baton of Hans von Bulow in June 1865. It was the first Wagner premiere in 15 years.
Cosima von Bulow, the wife of the conductor, Hans von Bulow, and the eldest daughter of pianist/composer Franz Liszt, had an indiscreet affair with Wagner, and their illegitimate daughter, Isolde, was born in 1865. The affair scandalized Munich, and Wagner fell into disfavor among members of the court who were jealous of his friendship with the king. Ludwig was pressured to ask Wagner to leave Munich. However, from 1866 to 1872 the king placed Wagner and his family at Tribshen villa on Lake Luzern, Switzerland. There Richard married Cosime in August 1870. Inspired composer created one of his most beloved works, the "Siegfried Idyll" for 15 players, written as a gift to Cosima, and premiered on Christmas day, 1870.
In 1872 Wagner moved to Bayreuth with a plan that his "Ring" cycle to be performed in a new, specially designed opera house. King Ludwig supported the composer with another large grant in 1874, and the Wagners bought Villa Wahnfried and made permanent home in Bayreuth. In August 1876 the new opera "Festspielhaus" opened with the premiere of "The Ring" and has been the site of the Bayreuth Festival ever since.
Richard Wagner died of a heart attack on February 13, 1883, while wintering in Venice. He was laid to rest in the garden of his Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth. The Wagner Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, is now a museum of period musical instruments and art collection of the Wagner family. One room is dedicated to the history of the Wagner Festivals in Lucerne. The Wagner Museum allows visitors to take photos of the documents about the Wagner family's help to the Jewish musicians and intellectuals who fled the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
Documents reveal that the Wagner family were assisting Jewish musicians and intellectuals who fled the Nazi regime in finding employment in Switzerland and other lands, such as the USA and Palestine. Documents, photographs and letters illustrate the bold activity of Arturo Toscanini with Vladimir Horowitz and the Wagner family members in getting funds from the government of Benito Mussolini and using those funds to accommodate Jewish musicians and intellectuals under the umbrella of the annual Wagner Festival in Lucerne. The Wagner Festival Symphony Orchestra employed many Jewish musicians who later joined the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra (then known as the "Palestine Orchestra").1813-1883
*+Der Fliegende Holländer, 1843, 1
*+Tannhäuser, 1845, 1
*+Lohengrin, 1850, 1
*+Tristan und Isolde, 1865, 1
*+Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, 1868
*(Der Ring des Nibelungen)
+Das Rheingold, 1869, 1
*+Die Walkure, 1870, 1
+Siegfried, 1876, 1
+Die Gotterdammerung, 1876, 1
*+Parsifal, 1882
full list- Music Department
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Giuseppe Verdi was born Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi on October 10, 1813, in Le Roncole di Busseto, Parma, Italy. His parents were landowners and innkeepers. Young Verdi received his first organ lessons at the age of 7. He studied composition privately with Ferdinando Provesi in Busseto. At age 20 he moved to Milan to continue his studies, but the Conservatory of Music rejected him. Verdi took private lessons and associated with Milan's cultural milieu in his pursuit of a musical career. He was patronized by Antonio Barezzi, a merchant, whose daughter, Margherita, was Verdi's student and later became his wife.
His first opera, Oberto (1839), was a successful production by Milan's Theatro La Scala. While Verdi continued working on his second opera, his wife and two children died. The second opera failed, and he suffered a depression and vowed to quit musical career. La Scala impresario, Merelli, persuaded him to write a third opera. Nabucco (1842) made Verdi famous. He followed the Bel Canto style of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. Verdi's best operas were based on plays by Victor Hugo, such as 'Ernani' (1844) and 'Rigoletto' (1851). In 1853 Verdi 's masterpiece 'La Traviata' was produced in Venice. It was based on 'The Lady of the Camelias', a play by Alexandre Dumas, fils. At that time Verdi became familiar with the music of Russian composer Mikhail Glinka who was popularized in Europe by Franz Liszt. The music of Mikhail Glinka had certain influence on Verdi's later operas.
In 1861 Verdi wrote 'La forza del destino' commissioned by the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, upon the recommendations by Aleksandr Borodin. It was performed with great success in 1862, and became part of a standard operatic repertoire ever since. His grand-opera 'Aida' (1871) was premiered in Cairo as part of the celebrations of the opening of the Suez Canal, and became an instant success. In his later operas Verdi turned from the style of Bel Canto to more expressive music and orchestration, like in 'Otello' (1887), based on the eponymous play by Shakespeare. Verdi's last and musically most brilliant, rich and expressive opera, 'Falstaff' (1893), was based on the Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in the adaptation of Victor Hugo.
Verdi's musical success coincided with the political events of Italian unification during the Austrian occupation. The 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from his opera 'Nabucco' (1842), became a popular song among supporters of Italian unification. Many of his opera performances were used by the supporters of Victor Emmanuel to shout "Viva Verdi" as a code name for a secret unification message. The name Verdi was used as acronym for "Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia" - Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy. Such a code enabled clandestine partisans of Victor Emmanuel, then the King of Sardinia, to gain more supporters in Milan which eventually led to the unification of Italy. Verdi was aware that his popular operas and his name was used as a political tool. Austrian censorship was powerless.
In 1861 Victor Emmanuel became the King of Italy in Turin. From 1861-1865 Giuseppe Verdi was elected representative of Busseto in the newly formed Italian parliament. After Garibaldi's military campaign the capital was moved to Florence, then to Rome, and Verdi returned from politics to music. He lived in Milan during the last years of his life. He was revered and honoured all over the world, and was much visited by his admirers. He died on January 27, 1901, in Milan, and was laid to rest at the Casa di Riposo, a retirement home for elderly musicians that was established by Verdi himself.
Verdi's music was used in hundreds of film scores. His operas has been the staples of operatic repertoire. His canzonas "La donna è mobile" from opera 'Rigoletto' (1851) and "Libiamo ne'lieti calici" (Drinking song) from 'La Traviata' (1853) has been popular concert numbers in performances by the three tenors: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.1813-1901
+Ernani, 1844
*Nabucco, 1842
Attila, 1846, 1
*Macbeth, 1847
Luisa Miller, 1849, 1
*+Rigoletto, 1851, 2
*+Il Trovatore, 1853, 1
*+La Traviata, 1853, 3
*+Simon Boccanegra, 1857, 1
*+Un Ballo in Maschera, 1859, 1
*+La Forza del Destino, 1862
*+Don Carlo, 1867, 1
*+Aida, 1871, 2
*+Otello, 1887, 5
+Falstaff, 1893, 1
full list- Music Department
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Charles Gounod was born on 17 June 1818 in Paris, France. He was a composer, known for Chronicle (2012), The American (2010) and 28 Days Later (2002). He was married to Anna Zimmermann. He died on 18 October 1893 in Saint-Cloud, Seine-et-Oise [now Hauts-de-Seine], France.- Music Department
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Jacques Offenbach, the son of a synagogue cantor, was born in Cologne, Germany, June 20, 1819. So strong were his musical talents that the Paris Conservatory waived the rule forbidding foreigners and enrolled him. At the completion of his studies he began playing the cello in the orchestra of the prestigious Opera-Comique. In 1850 he was appointed musical director of the Comedie Frangaise, another of France's principal theaters; he continued in this position for five years. During this period he began writing comic operas. When he realized that he would be unable to get them performed by established production organizations, he decided to open a theater of his own -- Bouffes Parisiens--in 1855. There he wrote and presented twenty-five musical satires, farces, and comic operas within a three-year period. In response to this work, he became the idol of Parisian theater-goers. In the years that followed he remained the master of French comic opera, enjoying great popularity and irregular financial success. He travelled to America in 1876 on a performance tour. His desire to write musical work of a more serious nature led him to consider the opera project which eventually resulted in The Tales of Hoffmann. Although the work was almost complete at his death, he never lived to see the opera performed. He died in Paris on October 4, 1880, four months before the opera's premiere. Although The Tales of Hoffmann is undeniably Offenbach's greatest work, his delightful lighter efforts are still produced periodically throughout the world. Among the most popular of these are Orpheus in the Underworld, La belle Helehne, La Grand Duchesse de Gerolstein, and La Perichole.- Music Department
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A musical prodigy, Smetana was encouraged and trained by his father. His move to Prague in 1843 was disheartening when he was unable to generate interest in his abilities; however, he did form a friendship with Liszt, and dedicated several of his works to him. He opened a music school and performed privately for deposed Emperor Ferdinand, and by 1849 he had made enough money to enable him to marry Katerina Kolárová, a former student. Bohemia was torn by revolution, and, beset by financial difficulties, Smetana and his family lived hand-to-mouth for a number of years. Three of his four daughters died between 1854 and 1856, and his wife developed the tuberculosis that would kill her in 1859.
Eventually, in 1856, he went to Sweden to work as a conductor and achieved some success. He returned to Prague in 1861 and helped found a national opera house. Fired with patriotism for his native land, Smetana worked on a number of Bohemian-themed operas and also concentrated on learning the Czech language. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated rapidly in his later years; he became deaf as syphilis ravaged his body. He was confined to a mental asylum where he died in 1888, and is buried in Prague.1824-84
+The Bartered Bride, 1866, 1- Music Department
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Johann Strauss (or Johann Strauss son), one of Austrian music's most famous names who studied music secretly against his father's will, later became the leader of his father's band and the indisputable "waltz king"; his waltz 'On the Beautiful Blue Danube', is the main theme in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
He was born Johann Sebastian Strauss on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austria. His father was the composer Johann Strauss Sr. Young Johann Strauss studied music secretly with his father's first violinist in the Strauss orchestra. He was reprimanded by his father who wanted him to be a banker. He continued studies of counterpoint, harmony, and violin, and concentrated fully on a career as a composer at the age of 17, when his father left the family.
Young Strauss made his debut at the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, the upscale district of Vienna. He became the rival of his father and gained popularity performing with his own orchestra. He took the side of revolutionaries when Vienna was racked up by the bourgeois revolution of 1848. He publicly played La Marseillaise and was hauled up by the Viennese authorities. That caused him denial of position of the Hofballmusikdirektor (Royal Ball Music Director). His career continued after the death of his father in 1849, which allowed the merger of two Strauss orchestras under the baton of Johann Strauss.
Strauss took his united orchestra on extensive tours in Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, and Britain. Russian Tsar Alexander II commissioned Strauss to play at Pavlovsk, the royal suburb of St. Peterburg. There was the opening of a new railway and a landmark concert hall for Russian aristocracy. Strauss also accepted commissions to play for the Grand Prince Michael in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1853, when the commissions became too much to be handled, his mother persuaded younger brother Joseph to take over the helm of the Strauss Orchestra. Strauss eventually toured and concertized to an exhaustion and was confined to a sanatorium to recuperate as he was suffering from neuralgia. He was married three times and had complications with the Catholic Church which refused to grant him a divorce. Strauss had to change his religion and nationality in order to get married to the woman he loved; he became a citizen of German Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. After that he became free to marry his third wife Adele, who encouraged his creative talent in his later years.
Johann Strauss was the most sought after composer of dance music in the second half of the 19th Century. His influence is felt in the music of the operetta maestro Franz Lehár and other composers. Among his admirers were Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and other prominent composers. Strauss wrote Die Fledermaus (The Bat), Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), Wiener Blut (The Viennese Blood), and other popular operettas. His exquisite waltzes: The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Wood, Man only Lives Once, On the Beautiful Blue Danube, and many other waltzes made Johann Strauss the indisputable "waltz king" of the 19th century. He died of pneumonia on June 3, 1899, in Vienna, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria.1825-99
+Die Fledermaus, 1874, 1- Music Department
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Aleksandr Borodin was born on November 12, 1833 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was in fact the illegitimate son of the Georgian Prince, Lukas Gedevanishvili, who registered his son under the name of his serf and payed for Borodin's private education in music, languages and sciences.
Young Borodin grew up becoming fluent in German, French and English, besides his native Russian. He later learned Italian and was able to write a technical essay in that language. Borodin studied at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy from 1850-1856 and graduated with honours as a Medical Doctor. He also earned a doctorate in organic chemistry with his dissertation "On the analogy of arsenic acid with phosphoric acid in chemical and toxicological behaviour." Borodin carried advanced research on aldehydes. In 1872, Borodin discovered the "Aldol-reaction/condensation". He also worked on the chemistry of mineral waters and researched their medicinal properties.
In 1859-63 Borodin lived in Western Europe, where he studied medicine and chemistry and also attended the concerts of Franz Liszt, who became Borodin's friend and admirer of his music. Back in Russia, Borodin continued his music studies as a weekend hobby. He often played piano and flute with his friends, the composers of "The Mighty Handful", which included Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin was a frequent traveller because of his scientific research and invitations from various research centres and Universities. His tone poem for symphony orchestra "In the Steppes of Central Asia" was composed on his impressions from travels.
Borodin started the work on his first symphony in 1862, under the tutelage of Mily Balakirev and completed the work by 1869, when it was premiered under the baton of Mily Balakirev. In 1869, Borodin started on his Symphony No.2 which was premiered in 1877, but Borodin made upgrades to its orchestration for the triumphal performance in 1879 under the direction of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His lengthy work on each one of his symphonies was caused by Borodin's preoccupation with his second opera "Prince Igor", which became his most important work. Borodin was working on this masterpiece from 1869 to his death in 1877. It contains the famous choral "Polovetsian Dances" which was borrowed for the popular song "Stranger in Paradise" and was also used in many films.
In 1877, Borodin went to Weimar where Franz Liszt worked as a Muskmaster. Though Borodin's European trips were made for the business of his scientific research, Franz Liszt, being a personal friend of Borodin, made arrangements for his Symphony No. 1 to be performed for the first time outside Russia. In Italy, Borodin became engaged and lived with Ekaterina Protopopova, whom he married upon their return to St. Petersburg, Russia. Borodin composed many romantic songs for voice and piano accompaniment, dedicated to his beloved wife, Ekaterina. Some of those romances were composed to the poems by Nikolai A. Nekrasov. Borodin's romances became a staple in the repertoire of many classical vocalists.
Borodin's strong and lyrical String Quartet No.2 in D Major stands out in that genre. It is an intellectual conversation between the four musical instruments, each having a special character, and each shows its development through their delicious harmonic interplay. The popular "Nocturne" movement from this quartet is arguably one of the most lyrical melodies in all music.
Borodin's contribution to science and culture could be even more significant. He left a number of unfinished works, the Symphony No. 3 and a five-part opera on stories from Russian fairy tales. He died on February 27, 1887 during a party in St. Petersburg and was laid to rest at the St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia.1833-87
+Prince Igor, 1890 (completed by Rimsky-Korsakoff Glazunov), 2- Music Department
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Amilcare Ponchielli was born on 31 August 1834 in Paderno Fasolaro, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire [now Paderno Ponchielli, Lombardy, Italy]. He is known for No Reservations (2007), Fantasia (1940) and Kill the Irishman (2011). He was married to Teresina Brambilla. He died on 16 January 1886 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.1834-86
+La Gioconda, 1876, 2- Music Department
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Composer chiefly remembered for his symphonic poems -the first of that genre to be written by a Frenchman- and for his opera 'Samson et Dalila'. Notable for his pioneering efforts on behalf of French music, he was also a gifted pianist and organist, and a writer of criticism, poetry, essays, and plays. Of his concerti and symphonies, in which he adapted the virtuosity of Franz Liszt's style to French traditions of harmony and form, his 'Third Symphony' is most often performed.1835-1921
*+Samson et Dalila, 1877, 2- Music Department
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Léo Delibes was born on 21 February 1836 in Saint-Germain-du-Val, La Flèche, Sarthe, France. He was a composer and writer, known for True Romance (1993), Carlito's Way (1993) and Pig (2021). He was married to Léontine Estelle Denain. He died on 16 January 1891 in Paris, France.1836-91
+Lakme, 1883, 2- Music Department
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Georges Bizet was a child prodigy. Entering the Paris Conservatory at the age of nine, he counted among his teachers Antoine Marmontel, François Benoist and Jacques Halévy. At nineteen Bizet won a Prix de Rome. That same year he wrote his first opera, 'Le Docteur Miracle', a one-act comedy. After his studies in Italy he returned to Paris with the intention of writing music for the stage. His 'Les Pêcheurs de perles' (1863), 'La jolie fille de Perth' (1867) and 'Djamileh' however met no more than moderate success. Bizet remained in relative obscurity until 1872, when his incidental music for Daudet's "L'Arlésienne" won him a degree of fame. It was at the suggestion of Camille du Locle, director of the Opéra-Comique, that Bizet composed his opera 'Carmen'. Bizet's librettists, Henri Leilhac and Ludovic Halévy, had based their adaptation on a short novel by Prosper Mérimée. After initial bad reviews, today 'Carmen' is probably the most known opera in the world. The composer's strong dramatic sense, sensuous melodies, vivid orchestration and pulsating rhythms combine into what more than one critic has termed "the perfect opera."1838-1875
The Pearl Fishers, 1863, 2
*+Carmen, 1875, 11- Music Department
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In 1856 Moussorgsky joined the Russian army where he met the piano player and composer 'Balakirev' who taught him composition. As he could not finish his studies in music, Moussorgsky did not know all stylistic means of composition perfectly and thus had to follow his instinct in his works becoming the pathmaker of the musical impressionism as well as expressionism: He was the first to compose realistic pictures, e.g. "Pictures at an Exhibition". Having no success during his lifetime Moussorgsky spent all of his fortune ending up a poor man addicted to alcohol.1839-1881
*+Boris Godunov, 1874, 3- Music Department
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Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Vyatka region, Russia. He was the second of six children (five brothers and one sister). His father, named Ilya Chaikovsky, was a mining business executive in Votkinsk. His father's ancestors were from Ukraine and Poland. His mother, named Aleksandra Assier, was of Russian and French ancestry.
Tchaikovsky played piano since the age of 5, he also enjoyed his mother's playing and singing. He was a sensitive and emotional child, and became deeply traumatized by the death of his mother of cholera, in 1854. At that time he was sent to a boarding school in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg School of Law in 1859, then worked for 3 years at the Justice Department of Russian Empire. In 1862-1865 he studied music under Anton Rubinstein at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1866-1878 he was a professor of theory and harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. At that time he met Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, who visited Russia with concert tours. During that period Tchaikovsky wrote his first ballet 'The Swan Lake', opera 'Eugene Onegin', four Symphonies, and the brilliant Piano Concerto No1.
As a young man Tchaikovsky suffered traumatic personal experiences. He was sincerely attached to a beautiful soprano, named Desiree Artot, but their engagement was destroyed by her mother and she married another man. His homosexuality was causing him a painful guilt feeling. In 1876 he wrote to his brother, Modest, about his decision to "marry whoever will have me." One of his admirers, a Moscow Conservatory student Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova, was persistently writing him love letters. She threatened to take her life if Tchaikovsky didn't marry her. Their brief marriage in the summer of 1877 lasted only a few weeks and caused him a nervous breakdown. He even made a suicide attempt by throwing himself into a river. In September of 1877 Tchaikovsky separated from Milyukova. She eventually ended up in an insane asylum, where she spent over 20 years and died. They never saw each other again. Although their marriage was terminated legally, Tchaikovsky generously supported her financially until his death.
Tchaikovsky was ordered by the doctors to leave Russia until his emotional health was restored. He went to live in Europe for a few years. Tchaikovsky settled together with his brother, Modest, in a quiet village of Clarens on Lake Geneva in Switzerland and lived there in 1877-1878. There he wrote his very popular Violin Concerto in D. He also completed his Symphony No.4, which was inspired by Russian folk songs, and dedicated it to Nadezhda von Meck. From 1877 to 1890 Tchaikovsky was financially supported by a wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck, who also supported Claude Debussy. She loved Tchaikovsky's music and became his devoted pen-friend. They exchanged over a thousand letters in 14 years; but they never met, at her insistence. In 1890 she abruptly terminated all communication and support, claiming bankruptcy.
Tchaikovsky played an important role in the artistic development of Sergei Rachmaninoff. They met in 1886, when Rachmaninov was only 13 years old, and studied the music of Tchaikovsky under the tutelage of their mutual friend, composer Aleksandr Zverev. Tchaikovsky was the member of the Moscow conservatory graduation board. He joined many other musicians in recommendation that Rachmaninov was to be awarded the Gold Medal in 1892. Later Tchaikovsky was involved in popularization of Rachmaninov's graduation work, opera 'Aleko'. Upon Tchaikovsky's promotion Rachmaninov's opera "Aleko" was included in the repertory and performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 1883-1893 Tchaikovsky wrote his best Symphonies No.5 and No.6, ballets 'The Sleeping Beauty' and 'The Nutcracker', operas 'The Queen of Spades' and 'Iolanta'. In 1888-1889, he made a successful conducting tour of Europe, appearing in Prague, Leipzig, Hamburg, Paris, and London. In 1891, he went on a two month tour of America, where he gave concerts in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In May of 1891 Tchaikovsky was the conductor on the official opening night of Carnegie Hall in New York. He was a friend of Edvard Grieg and Antonín Dvorák. In 1892 he heard Gustav Mahler conducting his opera 'Eugene Onegin' in Hamburg. Tchaikovsky himself conducted the premiere of his Symphony No.6 in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the 16th of October, 1893. A week later he died of cholera after having a glass of tap water. He was laid to rest in the Necropolis of Artists at St. Aleksandr Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia.- Music Department
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Antonin Dvorak was a son of butcher, but he did not follow his father's trade. While assisting his father part-time, he studied music, and graduated from the Prague Organ School in 1859. He also was an accomplished violinist and violist, and joined the Bohemian Theatre Orchestra, which was under the baton of Bedrich Smetana in 1860s. For financial reasons he quit the orchestra and focused on composing and teaching. He fell in love with one of his students, but she married another guy. Her sister was available, so Dvorak married the sister, Anna, in 1873, and they had nine children.
Dvorak's early compositions were influenced by Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, and with their promotion his music became performed in European capitals and received international acclaim. His performances in 1880s of Slavonic Dances, the Sixth Symphony and the Stabat Mater were a success in England, and Dvorak received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge. He made a successful concert tour in Russia in 1890, and became a professor at the Prauge Conservatory. In 1892 he received an invitation to America from Jeaunnette Thurber, the founder of he National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Dvorak was the Director of the National Conservatory in New York for three years (1892-95), where he also taught composition and carried on his cross-cultural studies.
Dvorak broadened his experiences through studying the music of the Native Americans and African Americans, many of whom became his students and friends. Dvorak was inspired by the originality of indigenous American music and culture, as well as by the spirituals and by the singing of his African American students. Dvorac incorporated his new ideas, blended with his Bohemian roots, into his well-known Symphony No.9 in E minor "From the New World". He worked on this symphony for most of the spring and summer of 1893, and made it's glorious premiere in Carnegie Hall in December, 1893. In America he also wrote the remarkable Cello Concerto and two string quartets, including the Quartet in F ("The American"). Dvorak was doing very well in New York financially, but his heart was in Prague and he left America for his Czech Motherland. He had a big family with his wife and nine children in Prague. He became the Director of the Prague Conservatory in 1901 and kept the position until his death in 1904.Rusalka, 1901, 6- Writer
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Arrigo Boito was born on 24 February 1842 in Padua, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire [now Veneto, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Match Point (2005), Batman Begins (2005) and Faust and the Devil (1949). He died on 10 June 1918 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.1842-1918
+Mefistofele, 1868, 4- Music Department
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Jules Massenet was born on 12 May 1842 in Saint-Etienne, Loire, Rhône-Alpes, France. He is known for Marathon Man (1976), Tau (2018) and Transamerica (2005). He was married to Louise-Constance de Gressy. He died on 13 August 1912 in Paris, France.- Music Department
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Rimsky-Korsakov was a navy officer but soon discovered his love for music. Since 1861 he belonged to the group of Balakirew but later he returned to the traditional way of composing. He combined uniquely the Russian folk songs with the music of the Orthodox Church. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the first Russian symphony and Igor Strawinsky was one of his students.- Music Department
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Engelbert Humperdinck was born on 1 September 1854 in Siegburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was a composer and writer, known for Hannibal Rising (2007), Lore (2012) and Hänsel und Gretel (2015). He was married to Hedwig Taxer. He died on 27 September 1921 in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.1854-1921
+Hansel und Gretel, 1893, 1- Music Department
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Ruggero Leoncavallo was born on 23 April 1857 in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Naples, Campania, Italy]. He was a writer and composer, known for Moonraker (1979), The Untouchables (1987) and To Rome with Love (2012). He was married to Berthe Rambaud. He died on 9 August 1919 in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Italy.1858-1919
*+I Pagliacci, 1892, 3- Music Department
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Italian composer, one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas include "La Bohème" (1896), "Tosca" (1900), "Madama Butterfly" (1904), and "Turandot" left incomplete.1858-1924
*+Manon Lescaut, 1893, 4
*+La Boheme, 1896, 5
*+Tosca, 1900, 12
*+Madama Butterfly, 1904, 5
+La fanciulla del West, 1910, 1
*+Il Tabarro, 1918, 1 (+2? trittico)
*+Gianni Schicchi, 1918, 3 (+2? trittico)
+Suor Angelica, 1918, 2 trittico
*+Turandot, 1926, 10
full list- Writer
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Gustave Charpentier was born on 25 June 1860 in Dieuze, Moselle, France. He was a writer and composer, known for Louise (1939), Louise (1980) and Aria (1987). He died on 18 February 1956 in Paris, France.1860-1956
+Louisa, 1900- Music Department
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Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France. His father was a salesman and kept a china shop. His mother was a seamstress. Some traumatizing events in his childhood caused him a depression and he never spoke about his early years. Later he could not compose without having his favorite porcelain frog.
Debussy's piano teacher, Mme. Maute, had been a student of Frédéric Chopin. She sent Debussy to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied from 1872-84 with César Franck, Ernest Guiraud and others. He lived at the castle of Nadezhda von Meck and taught her children. She was a wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and eventually Debussy played all pieces by Tchaikovsky in addition to other classical repertoire. She also took Debussy on trips to Venice, Vienna and Moscow. In Vienna he heard "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner and later admitted that it had influenced him for a number of years.
Debussy won the Prix de Rome twice--in 1883 and 1884--and the money covered his studies at the Villa de Medici in Rome for the next four years. In Rome he met Franz Liszt and Giuseppe Verdi and heard more of Wagner's music, which made a strong impression on him. In 1888 and 1889 he went to listen to yet more of Wagner's music at the Bayreuth Festspiehaus. There he was very impressed by "Parsifal" and other of Wagner's works. He used the Wagnerian chromaticism for upgrades to his own tonal harmony in "Cinq poems de Baudelaire" (1889).
Debussy became influenced by the impressionist poets and artists in the circle of Stéphane Mallarmé. In 1890 he wrote his most famous music collection for piano, "Suite bergamasque", containing "Clair de Lune". His "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" (1892) continued the most productive 20-year period in his life. He composed orchestral "Nocturnes", "La Mer", "Images" (1899-1909), and the intricate ballet "Jeux" (1912) for "Ballets Russes" of Sergei Diaghilev. He was fascinated with Maurice Maeterlinck's play "Pelleas et Melisande", which inspired him to compose the eponymous symbolist opera which was praised by Paul Dukas and Maurice Ravel.
In 1908 Debussy married singer Emma Bardac after they had a daughter, Claude-Emma. Debussy called her Chou-Chou and composed for her the collection of piano pieces "Children's Corner Suite" (1909). His piano masterpiece "Preludes" were composed in 1910-1913. The twelve preludes of the first book are alluding to Frédéric Chopin, with more provocative harmonies, especially the "La Cathedrale Engloutie". In the second book of twelve preludes Debussy explored avant-garde, with deliciously dissonant harmonies and mysterious images.
The beginning of WW I and the onset of cancer depressed Debussy. He left unfinished opera, ballets and two pieces after stories by Edgar Allan Poe that later were completed by his assistants. He died on March 25, 1918, in Paris.1862-1918
*+Pelleas et Melisande, 1902, 1- Music Department
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Pietro Mascagni was born on 7 December 1863 in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. He was a composer and writer, known for Raging Bull (1980), Funny Games (2007) and Death to Smoochy (2002). He was married to Lina Carbognani. He died on 2 August 1945 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.1863-1945
*+Cavalleria Rusticana, 1890, 2- Music Department
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Richard Strauss was a German composer best known for symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) used as the music score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by director Stanley Kubrick.
He was born Richard Georg Strauss on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria (now Germany). His father, named Franz Strauss, was the principal horn player at the Royal Opera in Munich. Young Strauss was taught music by his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of 6. From the age of 10 he studied music theory and orchestration with an assistant conductor of the Munich Court Orchestra. He was also attending orchestral rehearsals. In 1874 Strauss heard operas by Richard Wagner, but his father did not share his son's interest and forbade him to study Wagner's music until the age of 16.
Strauss studied philosophy and art history at Munich University, then at Berlin University. In 1885 he replaced Hans von Bulow as the principal conductor of the Munich Orchestra. Strauss emerged from under his father's influence when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer, and the husband of one of the nieces of Richard Wagner. He abandoned his father's conservative style and began writing symphonic tone poems. In 1894, Strauss married soprano singer Pauline Maria de Ahna. She was famous for being dominant and ill-tempered, but she was also a source of inspiration to Strauss, resulting in the preferred use of the soprano voice in his compositions.
The image of Richard Strauss and his music was abused by the Nazi propaganda machine, to a point of damaging the composer's posthumous reputation. Richard Strauss was trapped in Nazi Germany just as the Russian intellectuals were under Stalin in the Soviet regime. Strauss' name and music was used by the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who appointed Strauss, without his consent, to the State Music Bureau, as a mask on the ugly regime. Strauss was commissioned to write the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. His cautious apolitical position was the only way to survive and to protect his daughter-in-law Alice, who was Jewish.
In 1935 Strauss was fired from his job at the State Music Bureau. He refused to remove from the playbill the name of his friend and opera librettist, the writer Stefan Zweig, who was Jewish. Later Gestapo intercepted a letter from Strauss to Zweig, where Strauss condemned the Nazis. Strauss' daughter-in-law Alice was placed under the house arrest in 1938. In 1942 Strauss managed to move his Jewish relatives to Vienna. There Alice and Strauss's son were later again arrested and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss' personal effort saved them. They were returned under house arrest until the end of the Second World War.
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949, in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany at the age of 85. Strauss' symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) was recorded under the baton of Herbert von Karajan and was used as the music score in '2001: A Space Odyssey' by director Stanley Kubrik, as well as in many other films.1864-1949
+Salome, 1905, 6
+Elektra, 1909, 3
*+Der Rosenkavalier, 1911, 2
+Ariadne auf Naxos, 1912, 3
+Arabella, 1933
+Capriccio, 1942- Music Department
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Umberto Giordano was born on 28 August 1867 in Foggia, Puglia, Italy. He was a composer, known for Ghost in the Shell (2017), To Rome with Love (2012) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Olga Spatz-Wurms. He died on 12 November 1948 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.1867-1948
+Andrea Chenier, 1896, 4
Fedora, 1898- Music Department
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (also spelled Rachmaninov) was a legendary Russian-American composer and pianist who fled Russia after the Communist revolution of 1917, and became one of the highest paid concert stars of his time, and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century.
He was born Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov on April 2, 1873, on a large estate near Novgorod, Russia. He was the fourth of six children born to a noble family, and lived in a family estate, where he enjoyed a happy childhood. Rachmaninoff studied music with his mother from age 4; continued at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and continued at the Moscow Conservatory with professors Arensky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky. He graduated in 1892, winning the Great Gold Medal for his new opera "Aleko."
He was highly praised by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , who promoted Rachmaninov's opera to the Bolshoi Theater in 1893. But the disastrous premiere of his 1st Symphony, poorly conducted by A. Glazunov, coupled with his distress over the Russian Orthodox Church's pressure against his marriage, caused him to suffer from depression, which interrupted his career for three years until he sought medical help in 1900. He had a three-month treatment by hypnotherapist, Dr. Dahl, aimed at overcoming his writer's block. Upon his recovery, Rachmaninov composed his brilliant 2nd Piano Concerto, and made a comeback with successful concert performances. From 1904 to 1906 he was a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. From 1906 to 1909, Rachmaninoff lived and worked in Dresden, Germany. There he composed his 2nd Symphony.
In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States having composed the 3rd Piano Concerto as a calling card. He appeared as a soloist with Gustav Mahler conducting the New York Philharmonic. His further work on merging Russian music with English literature culminated in his adaptation of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe into choral symphony, "The Bells," which Rachmaninov considered to be among the best of his works. In 1915 he wrote the choral masterpiece: "All-Night Vigil" (also known as the Vespres), fifteen anthems expressing a plea for peace at a time of war. The terror of Russian Revolution and the destruction of his estate forced him to emigrate. On December 23, 1917, Rachmaninov left Russia on an open sledge carrying only a few books of sheet music.
As a pianist, Sergei Rachmaninov made over a hundred recordings and gave over one thousand concerts in America alone between 1918 and 1943. His concert performances were legendary, and he was highly regarded as a virtuoso pianist with unmatched power and expressiveness. Rachmaninoff's technical perfection was legendary. His large hands were able to span a twelfth, that is an octave and a half or, for example, a stretch from middle C to high G. Rachmaninoff was highly regarded for accuracy on the piano keyboard, which he achieved through arduous practice by repeating difficult passages many times in a very slow tempo. In many of his original compositions, Sergei Rachmaninoff used musical allusions ranging from folk songs to oriental music and jazz. Unusually wide chords and deeply romantic melody lines were characteristic of his compositions. Besides his own music, he often performed pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin , Franz Liszt and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
In 1931, Rachmaninov signed a letter condemning the Soviet regime, that was published in the New York Times. There was retaliation immediately, and his music was condemned by the Soviets as "representative of decadent art." However, the official censorship in the Soviet Union could not stop the popularity of Rachmaninov's music in the rest of the world. During the 1930s and 1940s, he remained one of the highest paid concert stars.
During the 1930s, Rachmaninoff shared his time between Europe and America, because he was booked for numerous live performances in major cultural centers on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1932, Rachmaninoff with his family moved to his newly built Villa 'Senar' on Lake Luzern. There he replicated the layout of his estate that was destroyed by Russian revolution of 1917. The villa became a new home for the family and a center of cultural life, as Rachmaninoff was visited by notable musicians, such as Horowitz, writers, such as Bunin, and even Maharaja with family from India. For his guests, Rachmaninoff often played his music on the new concert grand piano that was presented to him by Hamburg Steinway company. Using that piano, Rachmaninoff composed his famous Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini in 1934. In 1939, with the onset of World War 2, Rachmaninoff left Europe and moved to America for good.
At his home on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills, Rachmaninoff had two Steinway pianos which he played together with Vladimir Horowitz and other entertainers. His love of fast cars was second to music, and led him to occasional fines for exceeding the speed limit. Since he bought his first car in 1914, Rachmaninov acquired a taste for fast cars, buying himself a new car every year. His generosity was legendary. He gave away 5000 dollars to Igor Sikorsky to start an American helicopter industry. He paid for Vladimir Nabokov and his family relocation from Paris to New York. He sponsored Michael Chekhov and introduced him to Hollywood.
Sergei Rachmaninoff gave numerous charitable performances, and donated large sums of money to fighting against the Nazis during WWII. He became a US citizen in 1943, just a few weeks before his death. In his last recital, in February, 1943, Rachmaninov played Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, featuring the famous "Funeral march." The New York Times obituary of March 28, 1943, stated that Sergei V. Rachmaninoff, pianist, composer and conductor, who for fifty years had been a leader in the music world on two continents, died today at his Beverly Hills home of complications resulting from pneumonia and pleurisy, which twice had caused him to cancel recitals here this month.
Rachmaninoff was survived by his wife and two daughters who arranged for his burial in Kensico Cemetery, New York. Over the years, Soviet and Russian authorities made numerous claims to re-bury the composer in Moscow, Russia, but the Rachmaninoff family successfully opposed due to the fact that Sergei Rachmaninoff made his choice to be a citizen of the United States.The Miserly Knight, 1906, 1- Music Department
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Maurice Ravel was born on 7 March 1875 in Ciboure, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. He was a composer, known for Rashomon (1950), Basic (2003) and Stalker (1979). He died on 28 December 1937 in Paris, France.1875-1937
L'Heure espagnole, 1911- Music Department
Italo Montemezzi was born on 31 May 1875 in Vigasio, Verona, Italy. Italo is known for NBC Television Opera Theatre (1949). Italo died on 15 May 1952 in Vigasio, Verona, Italy.1875-1952,
+L'Amore dei tre re, 1913- Music Department
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Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born on 12 January 1876 in Venice, Italy. He was a composer, known for Times Gone By (1952), El cerro de los locos (1960) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He was married to Wilhelmine Christine Funk and Clara Kilian. He died on 21 January 1948 in Venice, Italy.1876-1948
+Il segreto di Susanna, 1909- Music Department
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Igor Stravinsky's father was a singer at the opera, and thus Stravinsky became a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after a short stint as a law student. Very much influenced by Russian composers, only his sponsor Sergei Diaghilev in Paris was able to convince him to try new styles of ballet, e.g. "Le sacre du printemps". Stravinsky was very flexible in his style and also composed jazz music as well as church music. During his lifetime Stravinsky put influence into all new styles of music, e.g. 12 tone, E music and others.1882-1971
Oedipus Rex, 1927, 1
+The Rake's Progress, 1951- Music Department
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Riccardo Zandonai was born on 28 May 1883 in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary [now Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy]. He was a composer, known for Amami, Alfredo! (1940), Musica di sogno (1940) and Traummusik (1940). He died on 5 June 1944 in Pesaro, Marche, Italy.1883-1944
Francesca da Rimini, 1906, 1- Music Department
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Alban Maria Johannes Berg was born on February 9, 1885, in Vienna, Austria. He was the third of four children in the upper-class family of Conrad Berg and his wife Johanna, nee Braun. He was trained for a career in accounting, but his father died in 1900, causing him a depression and the onset of asthma. He started composing music, and moved with his mother to their estate near the Palace of Schonbrunn. Young Berg was stimulated by the cultural milieu in Vienna, where Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and rising Arnold Schönberg were extending aesthetic boundaries with their music.
Berg became a student of Arnold Schönberg in 1904, having little formal education. His intellect was open and free of any dogma. His artistic freedom was complemented with the twelve-tone (dodecafonic) system, discovered and professed by his teacher. Lessons were free, Berg was the special apprentice, just like Schoenberg was to Mahler. In 1907 his music had first public performance. Berg composed five piano sonatas and 'Seven Early Songs' under the tutelage of Schoenberg. Lessons ended in 1911, when Schoenberg's teacher Mahler died, and Schoenberg moved from Vienna to Berlin. At that time Berg married Helene Nahowski. In 1913 Berg invited his teacher to conduct the performance of his newly composed "Altenberger Lieder". The concert was interrupted by the rioting public. Schoenbrg, who traveled from Berlin for the occasion, was somewhat critical of the music of his pupil. Still the teacher and his apprentice maintained their special ties.
Berg interrupted composition during his military service in WWI. But his creative thinking never stopped. His impressions from the play 'Wozzeck', by Georg Buchner, seen in Vienna in 1914, inspired Berg on making it into an opera. He wrote sketches for several years, until the work was completed in 1921. It's three parts were premiered in Frankfurt in 1924, under the baton of Hermann Scherchen. In 1925 the whole opera was premiered at the Berlin State Opera under Erich Kleiber. In 1927 Berg made a trip to Leningrad, Russia for the successful performance of 'Wozzeck' by the Leningrad Opera. It had several performances at the Mariinsky (former Imperial) Opera House, the best Russian opera company. 'Wozzeck' was in the Marrinsky repertoire after the 'Love for Three Oranges' by Sergei Prokofiev, with both composers in attendance. Both operas were soon banned by the rigid Soviet censorship. In 1930 'Wozzeck' had it's premiere at the Vienna State Opera, a success, and in 1931 it had the American premiere in Philadelphia.
Berg's second opera 'Lulu' was strongly condemned by the Nazi ideologists after it's Symphonic premiere in Berliner Staatsoper under Erich Kleiber in November of 1934. Two months later Erich Kleiber emigrated. Berg's music was banned in Germany and even the favorable critics were officially condemned. Berg interrupted his work on the opera, and composed the Violin Concerto, dedicated to Alma Mahler's daughter. He died of blood poisoning, caused by the insect bite, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1935. The Nazi control extended to Austria after the "Anschluss" in 1938 and brought the ban on all music from the 'New Viennese School'.1885-1935
+Wozzeck, 1925
Lulu, 1937, 1- Music Department
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Prokofiev was a multi-talented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest marks from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1914), and was rewarded with a grand piano. He emigrated from Russia after the revolution, and made successful concert tours in Europe and the U.S. In 1918 in New York he met Spanish singer Carolina Codina (Lina Llubera), they married in Paris, in 1923, and had two sons.
Prokofiev's radiant optimism and his childlike personality shines in his popular orchestral suite "Peter and the Wolf" and in the "Classical Symphony". His humorous irony and wit is popping up in piano pieces named "Sarcasms", also in his five piano concertos, ballets and film scores, all written in his instantly identifiable musical language. He wrote film scores for The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934), Alexander Nevsky (1938), Cinderella (1961), and the two-part Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
All of his music, that he created while outside of the Soviet Union, was sometimes criticized as cosmopolitan and anti-Soviet. Prokofiev divorced his wife in 1948. His ninth sonata, dedicated to Svyatoslav Richter, was welcomed warmly, but another official critic on his music and life started in 1948. He died in 1953, the same day of Joseph Stalin.- Composer
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One of the driving forces, both as critic and musician, of 20th century American music, Thomson studied music at both Harvard University and elsewhere in the Boston area before moving to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger in 1921. After spending a short time in his native land, he returned to Paris and remained there until 1940, working with many of the major composers, writers, and artists of the period, most significantly Gertrude Stein, with whom he wrote the opera "Four Saints in Three Acts" (1927-28). Upon returning to the US, Thomson became the music critic for the NY Herald-Tribune, earning himself a Pulitzer Prize in Music for his score for the film Louisiana Story (1948). Hated by many in the music world for his acerbic criticism, Thomson nevertheless won numerous accolades, including the Legion d'honneur (1947) and the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1983).1896-1989
+Four Saints in Three Acts, 1934- Music Department
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He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La, La, Lucille." In less than three weeks in 1924 he composed "Rhapsody in Blue," originally for Paul Whiteman's relatively small swing band and later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. "Concerto in F" followed the next year, and his musical success "Oh, Kay!" (which included "Someone to Watch Over Me") the year after that. Success continued: "Funny Face" (1927), the tone poem "American in Paris" (1928), "Girl Crazy" (1929), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize), and the first true American opera: "Porgy and Bess" (1935). He moved to Hollywood were his songs were performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In 1937 he fell in love with Paulette Goddard, then married to Charlie Chaplin. He was heartbroken that she would not leave her husband for him. When he fell ill, that June, it was written off as stress. A month later he died of a brain tumor, five hours after a failed surgical attempt to remove it. Funerals were hold in both Hollywood and New York.1898-1937
+Porgy and Bess, 1935, 2- Music Department
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Francis Poulenc was born on 7 January 1899 in Paris, France. He was a composer and writer, known for Call Me by Your Name (2017), The Great Beauty (2013) and The Metropolitan Opera HD Live (2006). He died on 30 January 1963 in Paris, France.1899-1963
Dialogues des Carmélites, 1957, 1- Writer
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Gian Carlo Menotti was born on 7 July 1911 in Cadegliano-Viconago, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and composer, known for The Medium (1951), Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951) and Great Performances (1971). He was married to Samuel Barber. He died on 1 February 2007 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.1911-2007
+The Medium, 1946, 1
+The Telephone, 1947
+The Consul, 1950
+Amahl and the Night Visitors, 1951- Music Department
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Benjamin Britten was born on 22 November 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, UK. He was a composer and writer, known for Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Lobster (2015) and The Machine (2013). He died on 4 December 1976 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, UK.- Music Department
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John Adams was born on 15 February 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He is a composer, known for Shutter Island (2010), Run Lola Run (1998) and We Are Who We Are (2020).- Composer
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Kaija Saariaho was one of the group of Finnish modernists who received their early training under Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Magnus Lindeberg was another), where she was one of the founder members of the group Korvat auki ("Ears Open"), which met to discuss new music and occasionally put on concerts of both their own works and new music that deserved an airing in Finland. She went on the study with Brian Ferneyhough in Freiburg im Breisgau, also attending the summer courses at Darmstadt. A decisive move - in both professional and personal terms - came in 182, when she first went to Paris to study computer music at IRCAM : Paris is now her home.
It was there that she became more deeply acquainted with the "spectral" approach to composition of Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, with considerable effect on her own scores, which increasingly focused on music and sound, examining its constituent elements in microscopic detail, this spectral analysis suggesting larger harmonic patterns. Over the last decade, though - spurred by the opera "L'Amour de loin" ("Love from Afar"), which occupied her thoughts for years before she sat down to its actual composition in 1997 - her style has lightened, admitting a lyrical element, even adopting a degree of classicality.
Saarioho's music has often been written for close friend - musicians like Esa-Pekka Salonen and the cellist Anssi Karttunen have been associated with it more or less since the outset.L'Amour de Loin, 2000, 1- Composer
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Douglas J. Cuomo was born on 13 February 1958 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He is a composer, known for Sex and the City (1998), Sex and the City 2 (2010) and Sex and the City (2008).Doubt, 2013, 1- Music Department
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Thomas Adès is known for Colette (2018), Mozart in the Jungle (2014) and The Edge of Democracy (2019).1Mar1971
The Exterminating Angel, 2016, 1- Composer
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Nico Muhly was born on 26 August 1981 in Randolph, Vermont, USA. He is a composer, known for The Reader (2008), The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Notes on a Scandal (2006).Marnie, 2017, 1