Amilcare Ponchielli News
Italian composer (1834-1886)
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Amilcare Ponchielli)
- organ
- opera
- Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia
- composer, conductor, musicologist, music teacher, professor, organist
streaming
Last update
2024-03-29
Refresh
2024-03-15 13:00:14
Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda might not be a perfect opera (though I don’t see why not) but it is one of my favorites…
2023-11-27 15:17:20
Maria Callas, 2023
[…] Maria Meneghini Callas. She moved to Greece in 1940 and studied voice at the Athen Conservatory. There, she sang in the opera for the first time, appearing as Tosca in 1942. She returned to the US in 1945 but soon left for Italy. Tulio Serafin, the famous conductor who coached generations of singers, became her mentor. In 1947, at the Arena of Verona, he conducted Callas in her first Italian role, as La Gioconda in Ponchielli’s eponymous opera. Her appearance was tremendously successful and brought her career to a different level. During that time she often sang in the rarely produced bel canto operas, mostly because she was the only one who could sing these very difficult roles. She was exceptional as Donizetti’s Anna Boleyn, as Imogene and Norma in Bellini’s Il Pirata and Norma, Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Lady Macbeth and Violetta in Verdi's Macbeth and Traviata, […]
2023-03-16 14:28:02
If it makes you happy
Protean Anna Netrebko has booked her first performances of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda .
2022-07-22 12:36:00
Operatic rarities in a striking double bill at Opera Holland Park
[…] that I found the work an interesting curiosity rather than a major discovery.If, in Margot la Rouge, Delius set a libretto that seemed to tell the sort of story that would attract the mature Puccini, for his first opera the young Puccini created a work that was far more abstract and shied away from realism. Puccini was still a student when he wrote the opera and was introduced to the librettist, Ferdinando Fontana, by his teacher Ponchielli (both Ponchielli and Fontana had links to the Scapigliatura movement). Despite Ponchielli being on the Sonzogno competition jury (or perhaps because of this) Puccini's opera was disqualified because it was 'illegible'. It was Fontana who gained support to put on a performance, which attracted the attention of the publishing house Ricordi. The result, for Puccini, was a contract and ongoing support from Ricordi.Ferdinando Fontana's libretto for Le Villi provided a series of tableaux which were linked […]
or
- timeline: Composers (Europe). Conductors (Europe). Performers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): P...