Portal:Opera/DYK

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DYK list[edit]

Portal:Opera/DYK/1

... that the majority of the more than 90 stage works composed by Thomas Arne (pictured) are now lost, probably destroyed in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808?
... that Partenope was the first opera written by an American-born composer?
... that opera singer Nell Rankin used her pet jaguar, King Tut, as a negotiating tool at the Metropolitan Opera?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/2

... that an intense rivalry between composers Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (pictured) and Emilio Arrieta helped rekindle the popularity of Spanish opera during the mid 19th century?
... that Nino Martini appeared in numerous Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s while simultaneously starring regularly in leading tenor roles at the Metropolitan Opera?
... that Udo Zimmermann's opera, Weiße Rose tells the true story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, a brother and sister who were guillotined by the Nazis for leading a non-violent resistance group?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/3

... that a riot erupted at the opening night of Adelia, an opera by Gaetano Donizetti (pictured), because an unscrupulous promoter sold too many tickets?
... that Julian Konstantinov, the brother of Bulgarian volleyball team captain Plamen Konstantinov, is an opera singer?
... that in exchange for shutting down the Manhattan Opera Company and refraining from producing opera in the United States for ten years, Oscar Hammerstein I received over a million dollars from the Metropolitan Opera?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/4

...that Maurice Maeterlinck threatened legal action and physical violence against Claude Debussy after he did not cast Maeterlinck's lover, Georgette Leblanc (pictured) , in the title role of their opera Pelléas et Mélisande?
...that operatic tenor Andreas Dippel portrayed the title role in Alberto Franchetti's Asrael in its United States premiere at the Metropolitan Opera?
...that soprano Cesira Ferrani originated two of the most iconic roles in opera history, Mimì in the world premiere of Puccini's La bohème and the title role in the premiere of Puccini's Manon Lescaut?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/5

...that operatic soprano Celestina Boninsegna (pictured) sang her first leading role at the unusually young age of 15?
...that opera superstar Giuseppe Cremonini's career was tragically cut short upon his sudden death at the age of 36?
...that Marguerite Sylva modestly told W. S. Gilbert at her sister's audition that she "sang a little" and, after demonstrating, was offered a part?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/6

...that the Théâtrophone service (1890-1932) allowed the subscribers (pictured) to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines?
...that the 19th century Mexican soprano Ángela Peralta once sang Donizetti's opera Maria di Rohan in a theatre improvised from a disused sand pit in La Paz, Baja California?
...that composer Michael Arne's obsession for alchemy and the search for the philosopher's stone led him into serious financial problems resulting in his arrest and confinement in a Dublin sponging-house?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/7

...that when it was shown at the Metropolitan Opera, Diana von Solange by Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (pictured), was so poorly received that three hundred people signed a petition demanding that it be removed from the repertory?
...that La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini first performed in Warsaw in 1628, was the first opera by a woman composer?
...that in the 1720s and 1730s, at the height of the craze for castrato singers, it has been estimated that up to 4000 boys were castrated annually?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/8

...that Europa riconosciuta by Antonio Salieri (pictured) was first performed at the opening of La Scala in 1778 and was not performed again for more than two hundred years?
...Bantcho Bantchevsky, former singer and voice coach, committed suicide during a nationally-broadcast performance from the Metropolitan Opera?
...that Antonio Bagioli, musical director for one of the first Italian opera companies to tour the United States, stayed behind for love, rather than continuing on to Cuba?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/9

... that Gaetano Donizetti's opera Le duc d'Albe didn't receive its first performance (stage set pictured) until more than 40 years after his death?
... that La púrpura de la rosa is the first known opera to be written in and performed in the Americas?
... that 17th-century Italian composer Filippo Acciaiuoli was also an inventor of machines used for theatrical effects in operas and plays?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/10

... that although Antonio Maria Bononcini's (Bononcini pictured) 1718 opera Griselda was successful, his older brother, Giovanni Bononcini, composed a more popular version in 1722?
... that the Balık sisters from Turkey are the only identical twins singing opera?
... that composer Jonathan Battishill once performed several airs from Samuel Arnold's oratorio The Prodigal Son without the sheet music, and after not hearing the work for more than 20 years?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/11

... that composer Egidio Duni (pictured) was particularly influential in creating a new genre of opera which blended Italian opera elements with traditional French ones?
... that Vivaldi's opera Griselda is based on the folklore character Griselda as told by Giovanni Boccaccio in the The Decameron?
... that Anthony, Charles, Cecilia, Isabella, Sr., Isabella, Jr., Esther, Elizabeth, and Polly Young were part of an English family of musicians that included several professional opera singers and organists in the 17th and 18th centuries?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/12

... that lyric coloratura soprano Harolyn Blackwell (pictured) replaced opera diva Kathleen Battle when she famously got fired from the Metropolitan Opera?
... that the musical play Are You There? was widely promoted because of its score by Ruggero Leoncavallo (best known for his opera Pagliacci), but the first-night audience were incensed when it turned out to have very little music?
... that opera singer Rosemary Kuhlmann was an assistant to the international vice-president of PepsiCo for 16 years from the age of 56, despite intending to stay for only four months?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/13

... that soprano Adele Addison (pictured) stepped into the role of Bess in the 1969 film version of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess as a last-minute replacement of a singer who sounded too shrill?
... that French opera singer Gustave Huberdeau performed roles ranging from lead roles to character roles to mute roles?
... that both Herbert Witherspoon and Göran Gentele died before the opening nights of their first seasons as general directors of the Metropolitan Opera?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/14

... that the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City was host to the world-famous opera singer Enrico Caruso (pictured) who sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" from the window of his room on Armistice Day?
... that operatic soprano Gail Robinson won the Metropolitan Opera auditions at the young age of 19?
... that lyric tenor Evan Gorga, who created the role of Rodolfo in the original production of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, reprised the role in several productions, then retired at the age of 34?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/15

... that after retiring from the stage opera singer Emma Carelli (pictured) managed the Rome Opera House for almost 15 years?
... that tenor Albert Reiss sang in 1,070 performances at the Metropolitan Opera?
... that operatic soprano Romilda Pantaleoni sang the role of Desdemona in the original 1887 production of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/16

... that although opera singer Rita Fornia (pictured) began her career as a coloratura soprano, her voice lowered and darkened causing her to sing mostly mezzo-soprano roles?
... that before becoming a famous opera singer, Ines Maria Ferraris had a career as a concert pianist beginning at the age of 12?
... that operatic soprano Maria Zamboni was the first person to record the title role of Puccini's Manon Lescaut in its entirety?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/17

... that Italian mezzo-soprano Flora Perini (pictured) originated the role of the Princess in the world premiere of Puccini's Suor Angelica at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918?
... that Isaac Albéniz's opera Pepita Jiménez has been adapted several times by numerous people into different constructs and languages?
... that the first performance of Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar (1836) was conducted by Catterino Cavos, who composed an opera on the same subject 20 years before Glinka?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/18

...that in the late 1860s, the soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa (pictured) and her husband Carl Rosa founded the Parepa-Rosa English Opera Company, which introduced opera to places in the United States that had never staged it before?
...that composer Veniamin Fleishman was killed early in WWII before he could complete his opera Rothschild's Violin, but that his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich rescued his sketches from besieged Leningrad, and completed the opera?
...that the Balkan comic opera Ero the Joker was first performed on November 2, 1935?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/19

...that Catherine the Great (pictured) wrote several comedies and an opera libretto for the productions of the Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg?
...that the Cork Opera House in Ireland was built in 1855, burned down in 1955, and was rebuilt in 1963?
...that although opera contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink had a son fighting with the German Kaiserliche Marine, she toured the U.S. to raise money for American forces in World War I?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/20

...that although Thomas S. Hamblin (pictured) preferred ballet and opera, he staged low-brow melodrama, farce, and variety acts at the Bowery Theatre?
...that the painting The Face on the Barroom Floor, in Central City, Colorado, was inspired by a poem, and that it in turn inspired a chamber opera?
... that professional wrestler Antonio Pugliese was a fan of opera music and would sing opera before his matches?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/21

...that Teresa Saporiti (pictured), the soprano who created the role of Donna Anna in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, lived to be 106?
...that The Amber Witch, an opera by William Vincent Wallace, was based on a popular Gothic novel of the same name, first published in Britain in 1844?
... that although La princesse jaune is the third opera that Saint-Saëns’ composed, it was his first opera to actually be mounted on the stage?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/22

... that Donizetti wrote the title role of his opera Adelia for Giuseppina Strepponi (pictured), the second wife of Giuseppe Verdi?
...that the Pyne and Harrison Opera Company paid composer William Vincent Wallace only 10 shillings for the rights to his opera Lurline and later made £50,000 from its performances?
...that the librettists for Saint-Saëns's Le timbre d’argent, Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, also wrote the librettos for Gounod’s Faust and Offenbach’s Les contes d'Hoffmann?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/23

...that following the London premiere of Fabio Campana's opera Esmeralda in 1870 (Adelina Patti pictured in the title role), The Saturday Review pronounced it "irredeemably bad"?"
...that Patience and Sarah has been called the first lesbian opera?
...that the two leading sopranos in the 1711 world premiere of Handel's Rinaldo, Isabella Girardeau and Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti, were bitter rivals?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/24

... that soprano Marie Sasse (pictured) created the role of Elisabeth de Valois in the world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos?
... that Mikhail Sokolovsky's 1779 opera The Miller who was a Wizard, a Cheat and a Matchmaker was for many years mistakenly attributed to Yevstigney Fomin?
... that Hans Pfitzner composed Das Christ-Elflein (The Little Elf of Christ, sometimes given as The Little Christmas Elf) first as incidental music, then in 1917 as an opera?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/25

...that music from Joaquin Turina's opera Margot (libretto cover pictured) about a Parisian courtesan has become a popular piece during the processions of Holy Week in Seville?
...that in Roger Scruton's musical vision of the eccentric love-life of Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, a leading lady is sung by a baritone?
...that The sacred duck was seen widely across Germany until the Third Reich silenced it?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/26

...that the mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, who recorded music by Hildegard von Bingen and Fanny Mendelssohn, translated all texted works by Bach?
...that only a year after joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at age 21, Eileen Sharp (pictured) was promoted to be the company's principal mezzo-soprano?
...that in 1957, at the pinnacle of the Cold War, mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom became the first American to perform at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/27

...that Bernardo De Pace {pictured), an Italian immigrant, started his own opera company and eventually performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York?
...that Otar Taktakishvili's opera Mindia was based on Vazha-Pshavela's epic poem The Snake-eater and premiered in 1961, the centenary of the poet's birth?"
....that in Telemaco, one of Alessandro Scarlatti's last operas, Minerva enters in a chariot which holds a string orchestra with trumpets?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/28

...Céleste Mogador (pictured) may have been the inspiration for the title character in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen?
... that Berlin's Theater des Westens was the stage for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with Anna Pavlova, the premiere of Henze's opera König Hirsch, and the premiere in German of My Fair Lady?
... that Don Checco, composed by Nicola De Giosa, was one of the greatest successes in the history of Neapolitan opera buffa and a favourite of King Ferdinand II?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/29

...that Signor Brocolini (pictured), the original Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, took his stage name in honor of Brooklyn, where he grew up?
... that the Royal Opera House in Mumbai is India's only surviving opera house?
... that in the John Gay version of Achilles, the hero is introduced as a cross-dresser?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/30

...that Ernst Christoph Dressler (pictured), an 18th-century operatic tenor, violinist, composer, and music theorist, composed a march on which Beethoven based his earliest published work?
...that for his opera Stephen Climax, composer Hans Zender wrote a libretto which juxtaposes the life of Simeon Stylites with scenes from Ulysses by James Joyce?
...that Celestina Casapietra, an Italian soprano at the Berlin State Opera, and the conductor Herbert Kegel were regarded as the glamour couple of the GDR in the 1960s?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/31

...that Alma Webster Powell (pictured) earned a law degree from New York University while on a break from her operatic career?
...that the Austrian actor and librettist Karl Lindau co-wrote The Nazi, a comedy, in 1895?
...that Johannes Brahms attended the premiere of the operetta Die Göttin der Vernunft by Johann Strauss, but the composer himself did not, and heard about its reception only by telephone?

All Did you know?

Portal:Opera/DYK/32

...that the 1753 opera Ciro in Armenia was created by Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini (pictured), one of the earliest female Italian opera composers?
...that that no more than twelve people at a time can ascertain what is found and lost at a London hotel?
...that Daniel Catán's opera Il Postino is set in Italy but sung in Spanish?

All Did you know?

Nominations[edit]

Any Opera-related WP:DYKs that have previously appeared at Template:DYK may be added to the next available subpage, above. A list of such DYKs is located at Portal:Opera/DYK/Did you know?.
All hooks must first have appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know section.
Note: -- Each hook and selected fact requires a link cited at its respective subpage to the time it appeared on the Main Page in Template:Did you know, or the associated WP:DYK archive at Wikipedia:Recent additions.