"Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1762, the son of the Marquis and Marie-Cessette Dumas, his Haitian slave. In addition to being the father of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, he was the grandfather of playwright Alexandre Dumas, known for ""La Dame aux Camélias"", the source for Giuseppe Verdi's ""La traviata"". Dumas was born the son of a renegade French nobleman and his black slave in 1762 in the French sugar colony of Saint Domingue (the future Haiti); at the time of his birth, his father was living on the run from the royal authorities"
"the death of his mother in June 1851. The fact that this is ""the one opera of Verdi's which focuses on a mother rather than a father"" is perhaps related to her death. In the winter of 1851–52 Verdi decided to go to Paris with Strepponi, where he concluded an agreement with the Opéra to write what became ""Les vêpres siciliennes"", his first original work in the style of grand opera. In February 1852, the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas ""fils""'s play, ""The Lady of the Camellias""; Verdi immediately began to compose music for what would later become"
"spring, but after ""Rigoletto""s success in Venice, an additional commission was offered by Brenna, the secretary of La Fenice. After Verdi's return from Paris a contract was signed in May 1852, with performances scheduled for March 1853, although no subject was chosen at that time. Verdi sees ""The Lady of the Camellias"" play Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi had visited Paris from late 1851 and into March 1852. In February the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas ""fils""s ""The Lady of the Camellias"". As a result of this, Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz reports, the composer immediately began to compose"
"Les vêpres siciliennes Les vêpres siciliennes (""The Sicilian Vespers"") is a grand opera in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier from their work ""Le duc d'Albe"", which was written in 1838. ""Les vêpres"" followed immediately after Verdi's three great mid-career masterpieces, ""Rigoletto"", ""Il trovatore"" and ""La traviata"" of 1850 to 1853 and was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 13 June 1855. Today the opera is performed both in the original French and sometimes in its post-1861 Italian version as I vespri siciliani . The"
"of 1796. The form ""Camille"" was later associated with the heroine of Dumas' ""The Lady of the Camellias"" (1848), which served as the basis for Verdi's opera ""La Traviata"" and several films. In Dumas' novel, ""Camille"" is not the given name of the heroine; this name was applied to her in derived works in the English-speaking world, presumably due to the similarity in sound to the floral name ""Camellia"" (which was coined by Linnaeus (1753) after the name of the Czech Jesuit missionary Georg Joseph Kamel). The name ""Camille"" was given to the heroine as early as in a silent"
"(Reprise)""). The storyline of ""Moulin Rouge"" can be traced back to Alexandre Dumas, ""fils""' ""The Lady of the Camellias"", although Luhrmann, as an opera director, was probably more directly influenced by Verdi's adaptation, ""La traviata"". When asked about his inspiration for ""Moulin Rouge!"", Luhrmann remarked: Luhrmann revealed that he drew from the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice in the DVD's audio commentary. The legend of Orpheus says he was a musical genius, far surpassing anyone in his world; the filmmakers chose to replicate this by using songs from the mid-to-late 20th century, many decades after the film's 1899 setting."
"awarded musical scholarships from the Austrian and Italian governments. He studied music at the Milan Conservatory where a friend was Arrigo Boito who wrote the libretto for Visetti's ""Cantico des Cantici"", and where he was a pupil of Alberto Mazzucato in class composition, winning several awards. While here he made the acquaintance of Verdi. Visetti was later engaged as a conductor at Nice before moving to Paris where he was an assistant to the composer Daniel Auber at the Court of Napoleon III. While in Paris he composed the opera ""Le Trois Mousequetaires"" after he met Alexander Dumas, who wrote"
"Roger Dumas (composer) Roger Dumas (31 December 1897 – 15 June 1951) was a French composer and conductor. After he finished his musical studies, first at the Conservatory of Nice then the Conservatoire de Paris, Roger Dumas was conductor during the 1920s and 1930s at the Casino de Toulon (a city where he also taught at the conservatory). It is in this entertainment venue and under his musical direction that his first operetta, ""Flouette"", was created in 1924. The second was ""Le Danseur du casino"", premiered at Orange in 1935. He became film score composer on two productions respectively released"
"concert in several other cities. A number of live recordings exist of the Caballé performances from Naples, Paris and New York. Notes Cited sources Other sources Gemma di Vergy Gemma di Vergy is an 1834 ""tragedia lirica"" (tragic opera) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Giovanni Emanuele Bidera. It is based on the tragedy ""Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux"" ""(Charles VII and His Chief Vassals)"" (1831) by Alexandre Dumas ""père"", which was later to become the subject of the opera ""The Saracen"" by the Russian composer César Cui. The heroine is the childless wife of"
"the stage. Including work on ""Trovatore"", other projects consumed him, but a significant event occurred in February, when the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas ""fils""'s ""The Lady of the Camellias"". What followed is reported by Verdi's biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz who states that the composer revealed that, after seeing the play, he immediately began to compose music for what would later become ""La traviata"". The couple returned to Sant'Agata by mid-March 1852 and Verdi immediately began work on ""Trovatore"" after a year's delay. Death of Cammarano and work with Bardare Then, in July 1852, by way of an"
"I vespri siciliani I vespri siciliani (; ""The Sicilian Vespers"") is a five-act Italian opera originally written in French for the Paris Opéra by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi and translated into Italian shortly after its premiere in June 1855. Under its original title, ""Les vêpres siciliennes"", the libretto was prepared by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier from their work ""Le duc d'Albe"", which was written in 1838 and offered to Halévy and Donizetti before Verdi agreed to set it to music in 1854. The story is loosely based on a historical event, the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, using"
"Camellia"", whose five handsome folio colored illustrations have usually been removed from the slender text and framed. Camellias that set seed, though they did not flower for more than a decade, rewarded their growers with a wealth of new varieties. By the 1840s, the camellia was at the height of its fashion as ""the"" luxury flower. The Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died young in 1847, inspired Dumas' ""La Dame aux camélias"" and Verdi's ""La Traviata"". The fashionable imbricated formality of prized camellias was an element in their decline, replaced by the new hothouse orchid. Their revival after World War"
"Don Carlos Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play ""Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien"" (""Don Carlos, Infante of Spain"") by Friedrich Schiller. In addition, it has been noted by David Kimball that the Fontainebleau scene and auto da fé ""were the most substantial of several incidents borrowed from a contemporary play on Philip II by Eugène Cormon"". The opera is most often performed in Italian translation, usually under the title Don Carlo. The opera's story is based on conflicts in"
"and by Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Alexis Roland-Manuel and Henri Sauguet. That work was then used for a 1966 ballet of the same name by John Taras. Camille, reine des Volsques Camille, reine des Volsques (Camilla, Queen of the Volsci) is an opera by the French composer André Campra, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 9 November 1717. It takes the form of a ""tragédie en musique"" in a prologue and five acts. The libretto, by Antoine Danchet, is based on Virgil's ""Aeneid"" and concerns the Volscian queen Camilla. Motives from this opera were the inspiration"
"in 1870. French novelist Alexandre Dumas wrote two stories about her and her plotting. Even as a member of the royal family, the Duchess of Berry was an exceptional theatre-goer. She was the patron of the Théâtre du Gymnase, which changed its name, for a time, to the ""théâtre de Madame"", in her honor. She attended the Odéon at least nine times during 1824 to 1828. She contributed to benefit performances, such as that of Giacomo Rossini's ""La dame du lac"" (1826), for victims of the fire at Antonio Franconi's Cirque Olympique; she contributed 500 francs. The Duchess of Berry"
"works. Lady of the Camellias was conceived by Norbert Vesak and Robert de La Rose to be a full-length ballet based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Dumas. Although Vesak worked on the concept, the libretto, selected the music, and even had the costumes designed by de La Rose, ""Lady of the Camellias"" was ultimately choreographed by another international choreographer, Val Caniparoli. Vesak died suddenly of a brain aneurysm while on his way to attend the 20th anniversary celebration of North Carolina Dance Theater, where a work that he had designed for that company in 1975, ""The"
"L. D. R..."" and ""Portrait de Monsieur A. L..."" (both at the Paris Salon 1870). Viénot also painted Marie Duplessis (reproduced in the Royal Opera's programme for Verdi's ""La Traviata"" at the Royal Albert Hall in May 1998). Marie Duplessis was the real-life actress and courtesane on whom Dumas modelled the heroine in ""La Dame aux Camélias"", on which ""La Traviata"" is based. Viénot's portrait of the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is in the Imperial Museum in Brazil (housed in what was formerly his summer palace). Also in Brazil is his ""Retrato de Menina"" [a portrait of a young"
"based on the Byron poem of 1814, ""The Corsair"". Verdi accepted Lumley's proposal and production was scheduled for the world premiere of the new opera in the summer of 1846. Unfortunately, Verdi's health deteriorated and the premiere of the new work had to be postponed until 1847. During his period of recovery, one of Verdi's close friends, Andrea Maffei, a distinguished poet who had translated both Shakespeare and Schiller into Italian, suggested that ""Macbeth"" and Schiller's ""Die Räuber"" might provide suitable operatic subjects. With an offer to present a new opera in Florence, Verdi had the choice of two locations,"
"Parisians after a long struggle."" Besides the Imperial Opera Theater, Paris had three other important opera houses; the Théâtre Italien, the Opéra-Comique, and the Théâtre-Lyrique. The Théâtre Italien was the oldest opera company in Paris. During the Second Empire, it was based in the Salle Ventadour and hosted the French premieres of many of Verdi's operas, including ""Il Trovatore"" (1854), ""La Traviata"" (1856), ""Rigoletto"" (1857) and ""Un ballo in maschera"" (1861). Verdi conducted his ""Requiem"" there, and Richard Wagner conducted a concert of selections from his operas. The soprano Adelina Patti had an exclusive contract to sing with at the"
"melancholy angel"". In France, at least five novels were published expressing the ideals of tuberculosis: Dumas's ""La Dame aux camélias"", Murger's ""Scènes de la vie de Bohème"", Hugo's ""Les Misérables"", the Goncourt brothers' ""Madame Gervaisais"" and ""Germinie Lacerteux"", and Rostand's ""L'Aiglon"". The portrayals by Dumas and Murger in turn inspired operatic depictions of consumption in Verdi's ""La traviata"" and Puccini's ""La bohème"". Even after medical knowledge of the disease had accumulated, the redemptive-spiritual perspective of the disease has remained popular (as seen in the 2001 film ""Moulin Rouge"" based in part on ""La traviata"" and the musical adaptations of ""Les"
"One of the company's longest standing initiatives is the Verdi Cycle, an effort—which began in 1989—to perform all of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, including every one of his operas (as well as all alternative versions), all his orchestral and chamber music, as well as the ""Requiem"". In recent years, the Verdi Cycle operas have included ""I due Foscari"", ""Giovanna d'Arco"", ""I Lombardi"" and ""Otello"". In 2009, the company staged performances of the composer's ""Don Carlo"" in the four-act version of 1884 (the ""La Scala"" version) in French. At the time, this was the largest opera ever presented by the"
"""Sylvie"" in ""La Revue des Deux Mondes"" (1853), and ""Émilie"", ""Jemmy"", ""Isis"" and ""Octavie"" in diverse reviews. The precise meaning of the title, which Nerval chose just before publication, is uncertain. Scholars have identified its source as the ceremonies of Irish vestal virgins described in Michelet's ""Histoire de France"" (1833) or a poem in a novel by Alexandre Dumas, ""La Tulipe noire"" (1850). ""Les Filles du feu"" is dedicated to Alexandre Dumas, Nerval's friend and collaborator on works for the theater. The previous December, Dumas had published an essay attributing Nerval's mental crises to an excess of creative imagination, an"
"wading into water with her hair let down and swirling in the current. By the early 1840s Alexandre Dumas, who had become a personal friend of Berlioz and Smithson, had achieved international fame with his historical novels and dramas. With the heightened interest in Shakespeare, and in particular ""Hamlet"", that had been aroused by Smithson's performances at the Odéon, he decided to prepare a new French translation of the play to be presented at his Théâtre Historique. An earlier verse translation of ""Hamlet"" into French by Jean-François Ducis, first performed in 1769, was still being given at the Comédie-Française, and"
"Sainte-Cecile in Bordeaux. He was also invited to conduct the 'French Opera Season' in New Orleans in 1844. Varney composed a well-known ""Chant des Girondins"", written for the play ""Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge"" by Alexandre Dumas. He also composed the music for a drame-lyrique by Alexandre Dumas, fils in 1848 entitled ""Atala"". His opéra comique ""La ferme de Kilmoor"" (first performance 27 October 1852 at the Théâtre-Lyrique) was savaged by the critics. Other stage works by Varney include ""Le moulin joli"" (1849), ""L'opéra au camp"" (1854), ""La polka des sabots"" (1859) and ""Un leçon d'amour"" (1868). He retired in 1878."
"as with the play itself, they are not nearly as well known as those made from the two earlier plays. The first proposal to turn ""The Guilty Mother"" into an opera was by André Grétry, but the project came to nothing. Darius Milhaud's ""La mère coupable"" (1966) was the first to be completed, and Inger Wikström made an adaptation called ""Den Brottsliga Modern"". In John Corigliano's ""The Ghosts of Versailles"", there is a subplot in which the ghost of Beaumarchais, as an entertainment for the ghost of Marie Antoinette (with whom he is in love), conjures up a performance of"
"fact, I must have—a grandiose, impassioned and original subject."" The result was ""Les vêpres siciliennes"", and the scenarios of ""Simon Boccanegra"" (1857), ""Un ballo in maschera"" (1859), ""La forza del destino"" (1862), ""Don Carlos"" (1865) and ""Aida"" (1872) all meet the same criteria. Porter notes that ""Un ballo"" marks an almost complete synthesis of Verdi's style with the grand opera hallmarks, such that ""huge spectacle is not mere decoration but essential to the drama...musical and theatrical lines remain taut [and] the characters still sing as warmly, passionately and personally as in ""Il trovatore""."" When the composer Ferdinand Hiller asked Verdi"
"Gemma di Vergy Gemma di Vergy is an 1834 ""tragedia lirica"" (tragic opera) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Giovanni Emanuele Bidera. It is based on the tragedy ""Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux"" ""(Charles VII and His Chief Vassals)"" (1831) by Alexandre Dumas ""père"", which was later to become the subject of the opera ""The Saracen"" by the Russian composer César Cui. The heroine is the childless wife of the Count of Vergy, and the plot deals with her jealousy and grief as her husband arranges an annulment of their marriage in preparation for the"
"the Seven Veils. As with the Wilde play, it turns the action to Salome herself, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the opera is less centered on Herod's motivations than the play. Shortly after the success of Strauss' opera, Antoine Mariotte created another opera based on Wilde's original French script. It was premiered on 30 October 1908 at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon. This opera was revived only in 2005 at the Montpellier Festival. In 1907 Florent Schmitt received a commission from Jacques Rouché to compose a ballet, ""La tragédie de Salomé"", for Loie Fuller to perform at the"
"Salome (opera) Salome, Op. 54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the French play ""Salomé"" by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer. The opera is famous (at the time of its premiere, infamous) for its ""Dance of the Seven Veils"". The final scene is frequently heard as a concert-piece for dramatic sopranos. Oscar Wilde originally wrote his ""Salomé"" in French. Strauss saw the play in Lachmann's version and immediately set to work on an opera. The play's"
"successful playwright of the Second Empire. His 1852 drama The Lady of the Camellias ran for one hundred performances, and was adapted by Giuseppe Verdi into the opera ""La Traviata"" in 1853. After Victor Hugo, he most prominent writer of the Second Empire was Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880). He published his first novel, ""Madame Bovary"", in 1857, and followed it with ""Sentimental Education"" and ""Salammbo"" in 1869. He and his publisher were charged with immorality for ""Madame Bovary"". Both were acquitted, and the publicity from the trial helped make the novel a notable artistic and commercial success. The most important poet"
"role, Luciano Pavarotti as Radamès, Olga Borodina as Amneris, and James Levine conducting. He has since been heard at the Met as Alfio in Pietro Mascagni's ""Cavalleria rusticana"", Carlo Gérard in ""Andrea Chénier"", Count Tomsky in ""The Queen of Spades"", Don Carlo in Verdi's ""La Forza del Destino"", the Messenger in Richard Strauss' ""Die Frau ohne Schatten"", Scarpia, and the title roles in Verdi's ""Nabucco"", Verdi's ""Rigoletto"", and Verdi's ""Simon Boccanegra"". Delavan has also sung roles with other leading American companies like the Houston Grand Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York City Opera,"
"Otello Otello () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ""Othello"". It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. With the composer's reluctance to write anything new after the success of ""Aida"" in 1871 and his retreat into retirement, it took his Milan publisher Giulio Ricordi the next ten years, first to persuade him to write anything, then to encourage the revision of Verdi's 1857 ""Simon Boccanegra"" by introducing Boito as librettist, and finally to begin"
"Beatrice di Tenda Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, after the play of the same name by . Initially, a play by Alexandre Dumas was chosen as the subject for the opera, but Bellini had reservations about its suitability. After he and Giuditta Pasta (for whom the opera was to be written) had together seen the ballet based on the very different play, Tedaldi-Fores' ""Beatrice Tenda"", in Milan in October 1832, she became enthusiastic about the subject and the composer set about persuading Romani that this was"