Music

Quinn Kelsey

Jovan Stosic March 29, 2019

American baritone Quinn Kelsey made his Royal Opera debut in 2016 as Giorgio Germont (La traviata) and has since returned to sing Count di Luna (Il trovatore).

Kelsey was born in Honolulu. He represented the USA in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 2008 he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Schaunard (La bohème). He has since sung for many major international opera companies, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Zürich Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Norwegian National Opera, Paris Opéra, Semperoper Dresden, Rome Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Frankfurt Opera and for the Bregenz and Edinburgh festivals. He has sung Germont for the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Zürich Opera and in Seoul. Other Verdi roles include Rigoletto, Ezio (Attila), Count di Luna (Il trovatore), Montfort (Les Vêpres siciliennes), Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra), Amonasro (Aida) and Falstaff.

Kelsey’s other repertory includes Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Marcello (La bohème), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Athanaël (Thaïs) and Sancho Panza (Don Quichotte). He has performed in concert and recital in the USA, the UK, Germany and Norway, in such repertory as Beethoven’s Symphony no.9, Mahler’s Symphony no.8, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Szymanowski’s Stabat mater.

http://www.roh.org.uk/people/quinn-kelsey

Arrigo Boito

Jovan Stosic March 23, 2019

Arrigo Boito (Italian: [arˈriːɡo ˈbɔito]; 24 February 1842 – 10 June 1918) (whose original name was Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito and who wrote essays under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio), was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi‘s operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele. Along with Emilio Praga, and his own brother Camillo Boito he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura artistic movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrigo_Boito

Teresa Stolz

Jovan Stosic March 23, 2019

Teresa Stolz (born 2 June 1834, Elbekosteletz (Czech: Kostelec nad Labem), Bohemia – died 23 August 1902, Milan) was a Bohemian soprano, long resident in Italy, who was associated with significant premieres of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, and may have been his mistress. She has been described as “the Verdian dramatic soprano par excellence, powerful, passionate in utterance, but dignified in manner and secure in tone and control”.[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Stolz

Diminished triad

Jovan Stosic March 13, 2019

In music, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth[citation needed]) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered (flattened) fifth. When using popular-music symbols, it is indicated by the symbols “dim”, “o”, “m♭5”, or “MI(♭5)”. For example, the diminished triad built on C, written as Co, has pitches C–E♭–G♭:

Source: Diminished triad – Wikipedia

Cadence

Jovan Stosic March 13, 2019

In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin cadentia, “a falling”) is “a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of resolution [finality or pause].” A harmonic cadence is a progression of (at least) two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music. A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic rhythmic pattern that indicates the end of a phrase.

A cadence is labeled more or less “weak” or “strong” depending on its sense of finality. While cadences are usually classified by specific chord or melodic progressions, the use of such progressions does not necessarily constitute a cadence—there must be a sense of closure, as at the end of a phrase. Harmonic rhythm plays an important part in determining where a cadence occurs.

Cadences are strong indicators of the tonic or central pitch of a passage or piece. Edward Lowinsky proposed that the cadence was the “cradle of tonality”.

Source: Cadence – Wikipedia

Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)

Jovan Stosic March 12, 2019

The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last completed piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven’s patron and pupil. The first performance took place on 13 January 1811 at the Palace of Prince Joseph Lobkowitz in Vienna, with Archduke Rudolf as the soloist, followed by a public concert on 28 November 1811 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig under conductor Johann Philipp Christian Schulz, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider. On 12 February 1812, Carl Czerny, another student of Beethoven’s, gave the Vienna debut of this work.

The epithet of Emperor for this concerto was not Beethoven’s own but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto.[4] Its duration is approximately forty minutes.
Source: Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven) – Wikipedia