Happy Birthday
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The Life You Give: Bertolt Brecht *1898
Bertolt Brecht, born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, on February 10 1898, in Augsburg, Germany, is the poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes. Until 1924 Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied…
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“Whenever Leontyne Price sang, it was an event.”
“Whenever Leontyne Price sang, it was an event.” Peter Clark, Met’s Director of Archives
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The Life You Give: Alban Berg *1885
Alban Berg, born Alban Maria Johannes Berg, on February 9 1885, in Vienna, Austria, is the composer who wrote atonal and 12-tone compositions that remained true to late 19th-century Romanticism. He composed orchestral music (including Five Orchestral Songs, 1912), chamber music, songs, and two groundbreaking operas, Wozzeck (1925) and Lulu (1937). Apart from a few…
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The Life You Give: Claudio Arrau *1903
Claudio Arrau, born February 6 1903, in Chillán, Chile, was one of the most-renowned pianists of the 20th century. Arrau’s father, an eye doctor, died when Arrau—the youngest of three children—was one year old. His mother supported the family by giving piano lessons and must have been gratified when her own son proved to be…
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The Life You Give: Virginia Woolf *1882
Virginia Woolf, born Adeline Virginia Stephen, on January 25, 1882, in London, England, is the writer whose novels, through their nonlinear approaches to narrative, exerted a major influence on the genre. While she is best known for her novels, especially Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), Woolf also wrote pioneering essays on artistic…
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The Life You Give: Witold Lutosławski *1913
Lutoslawski was the leading progressive figure in Polish music of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Warsaw, he showed an exceptional musical talent at an early age, with his first compositions dating from 1922. He studied piano, violin, and composition (with Witold Maliszewski, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov), graduating from the Warsaw Conservatory…
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The Life You Give: Marcello Giordani *1963
Marcello Giordani was widely regarded as a standout among his generation’s operatic tenors, both for his numerous acclaimed performances at the world’s major operatic venues, including more than 240 at the Met, and for his many highly praised recordings. He was well known for several roles in the operas of Verdi and Puccini, but he…
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The Life You Give: Neil Diamond *1941
Neil Diamond, born Neil Leslie Diamond on January 24, 1941, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. is singer-songwriter who began his career writing pop songs for other musicians and then launched a solo recording career that spanned more than five decades. Diamond’s interest in music began at age 16, when he obtained his first guitar. After graduating…
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The Life You Give: Jim Jarmush *1953
Jim Jarmusch, born January 22, 1953, in Akron, Ohio, is the director and screenwriter whose darkly humorous tone and transcendence of genre conventions established him as a major independent filmmaker. Jarmusch studied at Columbia University and at New York University Film School, where he directed his first feature-length film, Permanent Vacation (1980; released 1986). His…
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The Life You Give: George Balanchine *1904
George Balanchine, born Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze on January 22 [January 9, Old Style], 1904, in St. Petersburg, Russia, was the most influential choreographer of classical ballet in the United States in the 20th century. His works, characterized by a cool neoclassicism, include The Nutcracker (1954) and Don Quixote (1965), both pieces choreographed for the New…
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The Life You Give: David Lynch *1946
David Lynch, born David Keith Lynch on January 20 1946 in Missoula, Montana, U.S.A., is the filmmaker and screenwriter known for his uniquely disturbing and mind-bending visual work. His films juxtapose the cheerfully mundane with the shockingly macabre and often defy explanation. Lynch’s father was a research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, and the…
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The Life You Give: Marilyn Horne *1934
Marilyn Horne, born January 16, 1934 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, was one of the most admired singers of her generation, and was a major factor in the bel canto revival of the 1960s. While she was especially associated with the works of Rossini and Handel (she persuaded the Metropolitan Opera to mount Rinaldo for her in…
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The Life You Give: Eva Hesse *1936
Eva Hesse created innovative sculptural forms using unconventional materials such as latex and fiberglass and gave minimal art organic, emotional, and kinetic features. She scorned good taste and the decorative, creating sculptures out of repeated units which embodied opposite extremes. These extremes were born from the extremes of her own life. Hesse is recognized as…
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The Live You Give: Sherrill Milnes *1935
Sherrill Milnes was born on January 10, 1935, and grew up on a dairy farm in Downers Grove, Illinois. Despite a childhood devoted to daily chores, he took voice lessons and studied piano, violin, viola, double bass, clarinet, and tuba. But when it came time for college, he pursued pre-medical studies. After a year and…
Sila Blume 