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Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-78) was born in the Covent Garden area of London. Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808. |
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Marguerite-Joséphine-Désirée Montagney Artôt (1835-1907), Belgian mezzo-soprano, member of a famous family of musicians. Acclaimed in France as an opera singer, she married the Spanish baritone Mariano Padilla y Ramos (1842–1906) while briefly engaged to Tchaikovsky. Her daughter Lola Artôt de Padilla (1885–1933), a soprano whom she trained, became a prima donna with the Royal Opera, Berlin. |
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Daniel François Esprit Auber (1782-1871) was a French composer. Fra Diavolo, was his most successful opera. |
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Domenico Zampieri (1581-1641), Italian Baroque painter. |
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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer, pianist, teacher and publisher. - Albert Gräfle (1807-89), German genre painter. |
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Franz Betz (1835-1900) was a German bass-baritone opera singer who sang at the Berlin State Opera from 1859 to 1897. He was particularly known for his performances in operas by Richard Wagner and created the role of Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. |
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Elizabeth Billington (1768–1818) was a British opera singer born in London, her father being a German musician named Weichsel, and her mother a popular vocalist. She had a voice of unusual compass, and as Rosetta in Love in a Village she had a great success at Covent Garden in 1786, being engaged for the season at a salary of 1000, a large sum in those days. Her position as a singer in London was now assured. In 1794 she and her husband went to Italy, and Mrs Billington appeared at Naples (where she was the heroine of a new opera, Inez di Castro, written for her by F. Bianchi), at Florence, at Venice and at Milan. |
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Elizabeth Billington (1768-1818) was a British opera singer born in London, her father being a German musician named Weichsel, and her mother a popular vocalist. She had a voice of unusual compass, and as Rosetta in Love in a Village she had a great success at Covent Garden in 1786. Her position as a singer in London was now assured. In 1794 she and her husband went to Italy, and Mrs Billington appeared at Naples (where she was the heroine of a new opera, Inez di Castro, written for her by F. Bianchi), at Florence, at Venice and at Milan. |
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Elizabeth Billington (1765-1818), English soprano. |
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Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), Italian tenor, the most famous tenor in history and one of the pioneers of recorded music. Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its range, power, and beauty, made him one of the best-known stars of his time. |
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The ‘WANDERING MINSTRELS’ was an amateur orchestral society, founded in 1860. In 1873 Lord Gerald Fitzgerald became the second president and conductor and remained in this post until 1881. The meetings of the society for the first twenty years took place at Lord Gerald Fitzgerald's house, to which he added a concert room with orchestra for the exclusive use of the Society. |
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1650-1704), French composer. - Georges Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938), French painter, illustrator and lithographer. |
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Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw (1850-1925) was a Polish tenor. He enjoyed international renown for the quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing and he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century. |
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The Semper Opera was built in 1841 by the German architect Gottfried Semper. It is situated at the Theater Square in the heart of Dresden. The portal of the Semper Opera depicts famous artists such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Molière, and Euripides. The Semper Opera was completely destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945. After extensive reconstruction, the Opera reopened in 1985 - with the same piece that was performed last before the destruction: Weber's opera "Der Freischütz". |
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Gilbert Duprez (1806-96), French tenor, teacher of voice, and composer. Duprez studied at the Paris Conservatory. In 1825 he made his debut at the Odéon Theatre, Paris, as Almaviva in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). After limited success at the Odéon, he went to Italy for further study and achieved considerable popularity, notably in Naples, where Gaetano Donizetti chose him for the role of Edgardo in the premiere of his Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835. |
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Friedrich von Flotow was a German (born in 1812, the son of a landed nobleman), and he has been classed with composers of the German romantic school. He established himself in Paris in 1827, and one opera produced there, in 1839, ran for fifty-three nights in twelve months. From 1856 to 1863 he was intendant of the Court Theatre at Schwerin, but he lived near Vienna from 1868 till his death in 1883. |
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Joseph Frezzolini (1789 - 1861) was a ‘buffo cantate’ singer of Italian opera. He was the first interpreter of the character of Dulcamara, a quack-doctor in L'Elisir d'Amore by Gaetano Donizetti, at the Teatro alla Canobbiana, Milan. |
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Pauline Viardot [née García] (1821-1910) was a nineteenth century French mezzo-soprano and composer of Spanish descent In 1837, 16-year-old Pauline García gave her first concert performance in Brussels and in 1839, made her opera debut as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello in London. |
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"Iolanthe", or "The Peer and the Peri", opened at the Savoy Theatre on November 25, 1882. |
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The Gondoliers or, The King of Barataria, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances. |
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The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and his Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances. |
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Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, but had no great theatrical success until Faust (1859), based on the play by Goethe. From 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, becoming the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. |
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Charles-François Gounod (1818-93) was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette. He was made a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in July 1888. In 1893, apparently shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, he died in Saint-Cloud, France. |
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Giulia Grisi (1811-69) was an Italian opera singer. Giulia was trained to a musical career, and made her stage debut as Emma in Rossini's Zelmira in Bologna in 1828. Rossini and Bellini both took an interest in her, and at Milan she was the first to play the part of Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, in which Giuditta Pasta took the title role. Grisi appeared in Paris in 1832, as Semiramide in Rossini's opera, and had a great success; and in 1834 she appeared in London, making her debut as Ninetta in La gazza ladra. In 1842, Donizetti wrote the parts of Norina and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Grisi and Giovanni Matteo De Candia, usually known by his stage-name of Mario, who was to become the love of her life. |
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Giulia Grisi (1811-69) was an Italian opera singer. Giulia was trained to a musical career, and made her stage debut as Emma in Rossini's Zelmira in Bologna in 1828. Rossini and Bellini both took an interest in her, and at Milan she was the first to play the part of Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, in which Giuditta Pasta took the title role. Grisi appeared in Paris in 1832, as Semiramide in Rossini's opera, and had a great success; and in 1834 she appeared in London, making her debut as Ninetta in La gazza ladra. In 1842, Donizetti wrote the parts of Norina and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Grisi and Giovanni Matteo De Candia, usually known by his stage-name of Mario, who was to become the love of her life. |
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Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), famous Italian violin-maker. ‘It has been supposed that this might have been the only guitar made by the illustrious violin-maker’. |
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Johanna Jachmann-Wagner or Johanna Wagner (1826-94) was a mezzo-soprano singer, tragédienne in theatrical drama, and teacher of singing and theatrical performance who won great distinction in Europe during the third quarter of the 19th century. She was a niece of the composer Richard Wagner and was the original performer, and in some respects the inspiration, of the character of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She was also the original intended performer of Brünnhild in Der Ring des Nibelungen, but in the event assumed other roles. |
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Jan Kubelík (1880-1940) was a Czech violinist and composer. He was born in Prague. After great success following his debut in Vienna, and in London (where he first appeared at a Hans Richter concert in 1900), Kubelík toured the USA in 1901 for the first time. He made his first appearance for the Royal Philharmonic Society, London in the season of 1901-2, and in 1902 was awarded the Society's Gold Medal. In 1902 he brought the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra to London. In his personal life, in 1903 he married countess Marianne Czáky-Szell, with whom he had eight children, five violinist daughters and three sons, among them conductor Rafael Kubelík. |
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Luigi Lablache (1794-1858), Italian operatic bass admired for his musicianship and acting. He had great success in London and Paris as Geronimo in Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage). In 1836 he lived in London, where with Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Mario, and Antonio Tamburini he was part of the celebrated quartet of singers for whom Gaetano Donizetti wrote his Don Pasquale. He was admired by contemporary composers, among them Franz Schubert, who wrote songs for him. |
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Luigi Lablache (1794-1858), Italian operatic bass admired for his musicianship and acting. He had great success in London and Paris as Geronimo in Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage). In 1836 he lived in London, where with Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Mario, and Antonio Tamburini he was part of the celebrated quartet of singers for whom Gaetano Donizetti wrote his Don Pasquale. He was admired by contemporary composers, among them Franz Schubert, who wrote songs for him. |
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Richard Leveridge (1670-1758) was an English bass singer of the London stage and a composer of baroque music, including many popular songs. He was born in London, in 1670, and in 1695 became the leading bass singer in the company with which Henry Purcell worked, playing roles such as the magician Ismeron in The Indian Queen, where he sang the major aria "Ye twice ten hundred deities". Two books of his songs were published in 1697 and 1699, and his popular theatre songs also appeared as single sheet music. Leveridge became involved in the new trend for operas in the Italian style from 1705. He then began a short association with Handel in 1713 to 1714, and acted in the first performances of Il pastor fido and Teseo and played Argantes in a revival of Rinaldo. Later in his career, in 1731, he played the role of Polypheme in the first public performance of Acis and Galatea, and several of Handel's Italian arias were published with English translations by Leveridge. From the 1720s he was the leading bass at Lincoln's Inn Fields and then at Covent Garden. He composed over 150 songs, and is best known for the patriotic ballad "The Roast Beef of Old England". |
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Lind became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838. After this, she was in great demand throughout Sweden and the rest of Europe for a decade. After three acclaimed seasons in London, she was invited to America by P. T. Barnum, where she gave 93 concerts. |
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Johanna Maria Lind (1820-87), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale" |
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Mario (1810-83) was an Italian opera singer, considered to be the most famous tenor of the 19th century. His real name and hereditary title was cavaliere nobile ("noble knight") don Giovanni Matteo de Candia. Born in Cagliari, Mario came from a noble Sicilian family. He made his operatic debut in Paris in 1838, as the hero of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. In 1839, he joined the Théâtre Italien, which included on its roster of artists such celebrated singers as Maria Malibran, Henriette Sontag, Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache. His initial appearance with this company was in the role of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. London heard him for the first time during the course of that same year. |
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Mario (1810-83) was an Italian opera singer, considered to be the most famous tenor of the 19th century. His real name and hereditary title was cavaliere nobile ("noble knight") don Giovanni Matteo de Candia. Born in Cagliari, Mario came from a noble Sicilian family. He made his operatic debut in Paris in 1838, as the hero of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. In 1839, he joined the Théâtre Italien, which included on its roster of artists such celebrated singers as Maria Malibran, Henriette Sontag, Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache. His initial appearance with this company was in the role of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. London heard him for the first time during the course of that same year. |
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Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) is one of the most important Italian composers of the turn of the 20th century. The formidable success of his first masterpiece in 1890, Cavalleria Rusticana, unfortunately eluded many of his following works. Mascagni however wrote 15 operas, an operetta, several beautiful orchestral and vocal works, as well as songs and piano music. He enjoyed amazing operatic successes during his lifetime, and at the same time pursued a very successful career of conductor. |
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Printed and published by Goupil & Cie in Berlin and M. Knoedler in New York. - White margins spotted and browned, otherwise very good condition. |
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Karl Muck (1859-1940) was a German conductor. Muck earned a Ph.D. in classical philolology at Heidelberg. He began conducting in 1884 and led orchestras in Zurich, Brno, Salzburg, Graz, and Prague. In 1892 he began conducting the Royal Opera in Berlin, where he remained until 1912. Along the way he also conducted at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth and also worked with the Vienna Philharmonic. He became music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1912. He was considered a modern, adventurous conductor and was responsible for leading the orchestra in historic recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey. |
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Albert Wilhelm Karl Niemann (1831-1917) was a leading German tenor opera singer especially associated with the operas of Richard Wagner. He gave important premieres in France, Germany, England and the United States, and played Siegmund in the first complete (Bayreuth 1876) production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. |
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Jacques Offenbach (1819-80), German, later French, composer and conductor. - Jules Chéret (1836-1933), French painter, designer and lithographer. |
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Fanny Persiani was the second daughter of the tenor Tacchinardi, born in Rome October 4, 1818. She had a voice of immense range, though somewhat lacking in sweetness and flexibility, defects which she subsequently overcame by study and practice. In 1830 she married Joseph Persiani. One of the most important events of her early career was her association, in 1834, at the San Carlo, Naples, with Duprez, Caselli, and Lablache, in a performance of ‘Lucia Di Lammermoor’. |
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Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) was a popular Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), La Cenerentola, La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). |
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Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854) was an Italian tenor, as famous in his time as Enrico Caruso in a later day. His ringing and expressive coloratura dexterity in the highest register of his voice, the tenorino, inspired the writing of operatic roles which today are almost impossible to cast. As a singer Rubini was the major early exponent of the Romantic style of Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. Rubini is remembered as an extraordinary bel canto singer, one of the most famous singers in Europe in the 1830s and 40s. |
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Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854) was an Italian tenor, as famous in his time as Enrico Caruso in a later day. His ringing and expressive coloratura dexterity in the highest register of his voice, the tenorino, inspired the writing of operatic roles which today are almost impossible to cast. As a singer Rubini was the major early exponent of the Romantic style of Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. Rubini is remembered as an extraordinary bel canto singer, one of the most famous singers in Europe in the 1830s and 40s. |
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Henriette Sontag (1806-54), German soprano. |
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From a painting by Henry Fradelle, engraved by Samuel William Reynolds. - Catherine Stephens (1794-1882), English soprano and actress. |
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Eugenia Tadolini (née Savorani) (1809-72) was an Italian operatic soprano. Admired for the beauty of her voice and stage presence, she was one of Donizetti's favourite singers. During her career she created over 20 leading roles, including the title roles in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan and Verdi's Alzira. She was born in Forlì and studied music there and in Bologna before making her debut in Florence in 1828. She sang in all of Italy's leading opera houses, as well as in Paris, Vienna, and London before retiring from the stage in 1852. |
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Antonio Tamburini (1800-76), Italian baritone. In Paris and London he was successful as an interpreter of Mozart, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, creating the parts of Ernesto in Bellini's Il pirata (1827), Valdeburgo in La straniera (1829), Sir Richard Forth in I puritani (1835) and Israele in Donizetti's Marino Faliero (1835). His extreme popularity in London is attested by the ‘Tamburini riots’ of 1840. |
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Antonio Tamburini (1800-76), Italian baritone. In Paris and London he was successful as an interpreter of Mozart, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, creating the parts of Ernesto in Bellini's Il pirata (1827), Valdeburgo in La straniera (1829), Sir Richard Forth in I puritani (1835) and Israele in Donizetti's Marino Faliero (1835). His extreme popularity in London is attested by the ‘Tamburini riots’ of 1840. |
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Verdi’s three-act opera "Luisa Miller," based on a play by Schiller, "Kabale und Liebe" (Love and Intrigue), was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1849. It appears to have been Verdi’s first real success since "Ernani" and to have led up to that achieved by "Rigoletto" a year later, and to the successes of "Il Trovatore" and "La Traviata." |
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Don Carlos, originally produced at the Grand Opéra, Paris, March 11, 1867 during the Universal Exposition, was the last opera composed by Verdi before he took the musical world by storm with ‘Aida’. The work is in five acts (a later version in four acts), the libretto, by Méry and du Locle, having been reduced from Schiller’s tragedy of the same title. |
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Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), one of the greatest and most popular operatic composers of the 19th century. |
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Niccolò Paganini (1784-1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. |
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Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alfred Ernest Albert, 1844-1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha reigning between 1893 and 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in the peerage of the United Kingdom in1866. |
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Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) and Giuseppe Guarnieri (1687-1745) belonged to the two most famous Italian families of violin makers. |
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Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German opera composer and key figure in the development of late Romantic music. He stretched the tonal systems of his day, using chromaticism for dramatic effect. Wagner also introduced the concept of the leitmotiv in his operatic plot development, a recurring musical theme associated with a particular person, place, or idea. |
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Richard Wagner (1813-83), was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as they were later called). Unlike most other opera composers, Wagner wrote both the music and libretto for every one of his works. - Rogelio De Egusquiza, Spanish 19th century painter of historical subjects and genre. |
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Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (1786 – 1826) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school. Weber's works, especially his operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantic opera in Germany. |
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