Opera
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Grace Bumbry *I 4 1937 — The Life You Give
Grace Bumbry is a pioneering Mezzo & Soprano. Few mezzo-sopranos have successfully made the transition to becoming top sopranos. Grace Bumbry managed that. She was also a major figure in helping black singers find their rightful place on the opera stage in an era where segregation ran rampant. Born on Jan. 4, 1937, the mezzo…
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Edita Gruberova *XII 23 1946 — The Life You Give
Edita Gruberova, born December 23, 1946, in Bratislava, was a Slovak soprano and one of the most acclaimed coloraturas of recent decades. She is noted for her great tonal clarity, agility, and ability to sing high notes with great power, making her an ideal Queen of the Night in her early years. In recent years,…
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Giacomo Puccini *XII 22 1858 — The Life You Give
Giacomo Puccini, born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, December 22, 1858, in Lucca, Tuscany [Italy], is the composer, and one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas included La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (left…
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Hector Berlioz *XII 11 1803 — The Life You Give
Hector Berlioz, born Louis-Hector Berlioz on December 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André, France, is the composer, critic, and conductor of the Romantic period, known largely for his Symphonie fantastique (1830), the choral symphony Roméo et Juliette (1839), and the dramatic piece La Damnation de Faust (1846). His last years were marked by fame abroad and…
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César Franck *XII 10 1822 — The Life You Give
César Franck, born César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck, on December 10, 1822, in Liège, Neth.—died Nov. 8, 1890, Paris, France), Belgian-French Romantic composer and organist who was the chief figure in a movement to give French music an emotional engagement, technical solidity, and seriousness comparable to that of German composers. Franck was born of a…
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Elisabeth Schwarzkopf *XII 9 1915 — The Life You Give
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, born December 9 1915, in Jarotschin, near Posen, Germany, [now Poznań, Poland] is the soprano who performed in the major opera houses of the Western world, and is remembered especially for her mastery of German songs known as lieder. Schwarzkopf studied at the Berlin High School for Music from 1934, winning various…
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María Callas *XII 2 1923 — The Life You Give
Maria Callas, born Maria Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulos, on December 2, 1923, in New York, New York, U.S.A., is the operatic soprano who revived classical coloratura roles in the mid-20th century with her lyrical and dramatic versatility. Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants and early developed an interest in singing. Accompanied by her mother,…
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Gaetano Donizetti *XI 29 1797 — The Life You Give
Gaetano Donizetti, born on Nov. 29, 1797, in Bergamo, Cisalpine Republic, was an Italian opera composer whose numerous operas in both Italian and French represent a transitional stage in operatic development between Rossini and Verdi. Among his major works are Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), La fille du régiment (1840), and La favorite (1840). In his…
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Virgil Thomson *XI 25 1896 — The Life You Give
Virgil Thomson, born November 25, 1896, in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is the composer, conductor, and music critic whose forward-looking ideas stimulated new lines of thought among contemporary musicians. Thomson studied at Harvard University and later in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a noted teacher of musical composition. There he was influenced by early 20th-century French…
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Scott Joplin *XI 24 1868 — The Life You Give
Scott Joplin, born November 24 1867 or 1868, in Texas, USA, is the composer and pianist known as the “king of ragtime” at the turn of the 20th century. Joplin spent his childhood in northeastern Texas. By 1880 his family had moved to Texarkana, where he studied piano with local teachers. Joplin traveled through the…
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Alfredo Kraus *XI 24 1927 — The Life You Give
One of the most stylistic, professional and refined tenors of the century, Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus, had a long and outstanding career in the world of opera. The Kraus personality gravitated between two poles. On one side the tenor of Mozart and on the other side the lyrical tenor of Donizetti, Verdi but above all…
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Krzysztof Penderecki *XI 23 1933 — The Life You Give
Krzysztof Penderecki, born November 23, 1933, in Debica, Poland, is an outstanding composer of his generation whose novel and masterful treatment of orchestration won worldwide acclaim. musicus, organicuscelebrates the life in music ofKrzysztof PendereckiNovember 23 at 1 pm ESTon Clubhouse Penderecki studied composition at the Superior School of Music in Kraków (graduated 1958) and subsequently…
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Benjamin Britten *XI 22 1913 — The Life You Give
Benjamin Britten, born Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten Of Aldeburgh, November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, is the composer of the mid-20th century, whose operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century. He was also an outstanding pianist and conductor. Britten composed as a child and…
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Meredith Monk *XI 20 1942 — The Life You Give
Meredith Monk, born Meredith Jane Monk, November 20, 1942, New York City, New York, U.S.A., is the performance artist, a pioneer in the avant-garde, whose work skillfully integrated diverse performance disciplines and media. Monk studied piano and eurythmics from an early age. She earned a B.A. in 1964 from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York.…
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Carl Maria von Weber *XI 18 1786 — The Life You Give
Carl Maria von Weber, born Nov. 18, 1786, in Eutin, Holstein, Germany, is the composer and opera director during the transition from Classical to Romantic music, noted especially for his operas Der Freischütz (1821; The Freeshooter, or, more colloquially, The Magic Marksman), Euryanthe (1823), and Oberon (1826). Der Freischütz, the most immediately and widely popular…
Sila Blume 