The audience at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, the birthplace of Offenbach's operettas (1860)

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.

Operetta in French[link]

Origins[link]

Operetta grew out of the French opéra comique around the middle of the 19th century, to satisfy a need for short, light works in contrast to the full-length entertainment of the increasingly serious opéra comique. By this time, the "comique" part of the genre name had become misleading: Carmen (1875) is an example of an opéra comique with a tragic plot. The definition of "comique" meant something closer to "humanistic," meant to portray "real life" in a more realistic way, representing tragedy and comedy next to each other, as Shakespeare had done centuries earlier. With this new connotation, Opéra comique had dominated the French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique.

Most researchers acknowledge that the credit for creating the operetta form should go to Hervé (1825–1892), a singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter.^[1] In 1842 he wrote the little opérette, L'Ours et le pacha, based on the popular vaudeville show by Scribe and Saintine. In 1848, Hervé made his first notable appearance on the Parisian stage, with Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança (after Cervantes), which can be considered the starting point for the new French musical theatre tradition. Hervé's most famous works are the Gounod-parody Le Petit Faust (1869) and Mam'zelle Nitouche (1883).

Offenbach[link]

1858 playbill for Orphée aux enfers

Jacques Offenbach further developed and popularized operetta, giving it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire and afterwards.^[2] Offenbach's earliest one-act pieces included Les deux aveugles, Le violoneux and Ba-ta-clan (all 1855), and his first full-length operetta success was Orphée aux enfers (1858). These led to the so-called "Offenbachiade": works including Geneviève de Brabant 1859, Le pont des soupirs 1861, La belle Hélène 1864, Barbe-bleue and La Vie parisienne both 1866, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein 1867, La Périchole 1868 and Les brigands 1869. Offenbach's tradition was then carried on by Robert Planquette, André Messager, and others.

What characterizes Offenbach's operettas is both the grotesque way they portray life, and the extremely frivolous way this is done, often bordering on the pornographic. Émile Zola describes the back-stage and on-stage situation in the Théâtre des Variétés during the Second Empire in his novel Nana, which takes place in late 1860s and describes the career of operetta diva/courtesan Nana. The character was closely modeled after Offenbach's female star Hortense Schneider, and Offenbach's librettist Ludovic Halévy gave Émile Zola the details. Considering how Zola's Nana describes an Offenbach-style operetta performance in Paris, it is not surprising that the mostly male, upper-class audience crowded the various theaters every evening. Upper-class audiences in other cities like Vienna and Berlin longed to see these shows in their home towns as well, which inspired worldwide performance of Offenbach's works.

The highly erotic way Offenbach's operettas were originally played, with stars like Hortense Schneider — or the legendary courtesan Cora Pearl, who appeared in a revival of Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers in 1867 completely covered in diamonds and little else — created a scandalized reaction from certain parts of the general public. Operetta was considered a "frivolous" art form. Indeed, together with its grotesque qualities, frivolity is one of the defining elements of "authentic" operetta à la Offenbach and Hervé.

It was only later, when audiences widened and became more middle and lower class, that operetta became more "serious" and "nostalgic". Many of the originally pornographic French (and Viennese) operettas were later played in a toned-down, "classical" version, which is how audiences today are mostly presented with the genre — in an opera house with opera singers, rather than in a private theatre with courtesans in the lead roles.^[3]

Operetta in German[link]

Austria[link]

This section requires expansion.

Johann Strauss II

The most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825–1899). His first operetta was Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (1871). His third operetta, Die Fledermaus (1874), became the most performed operetta in the world, and remains his most popular stage work. Its libretto was based on a comedy written by Offenbach's librettists.^[4] In all, Strauss wrote 16 operettas and one opera, most with great success when first premiered. Many of his lesser operettas are now largely forgotten, since his later librettists were less talented and he often composed independently of the plot.

Strauss's operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style, and his popularity causes many to think of him as the national composer of Austria. In fact, when his stage works were first performed, the Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds, and after many of the numbers the audience would call noisily for encores.

Franz von Suppé, a contemporary of Strauss, closely modeled his operettas after Offenbach. The Viennese tradition was carried on by Franz Lehár, Oscar Straus, Carl Zeller, Karl Millöcker, Leo Fall, Richard Heuberger, Edmund Eysler, Ralph Benatzky, Robert Stolz, Emmerich Kálmán and Nico Dostal in the 20th century.

Germany[link]

In the same way that Vienna was the center of Austrian operetta, Berlin was the center of German operetta. Berlin operetta often had its own style, including, especially after World War I, elements of jazz and other syncopated dance rhythms, a transatlantic style, and the presence of ragged marching tunes. Berlin operettas also sometimes included aspects of burlesque, revue, farce, or cabaret.

Paul Lincke, father of the Berlin operetta

Paul Lincke pioneered the Berlin operetta in 1899 with Frau Luna, which includes "Berliner Luft" ("Berlin Air"),^[5] which became the unofficial anthem of Berlin. His Lysistrata (1902) includes the song and tune "The Glow-Worm", which remains quite popular internationally. Much later, in the 1920s and 1930s, Kurt Weill took a more extreme form of the Berlin operetta style and used it in his operas, operettas, and musicals.

The Berlin-style operetta coexisted with more bourgeois, charming, home-loving, and nationalistic German operettas — some of which were called Volksoperetten (folk operettas). A prime example is Leon Jessel's extremely popular 1917 Schwarzwaldmädel (Black Forest Girl).^[6] These bucolic, nostalgic, home-loving operettas were officially preferred over Berlin-style operettas after 1933, when the Nazis came to power and instituted the Reichsmusikkammer (State Music Institute), which deprecated and banned "decadent" music like jazz and similar "foreign" musical forms.

Notable German operetta composers include Paul Lincke, Eduard Künneke, Walter Kollo, Jean Gilbert, Leon Jessel, Rudolf Dellinger, and Walter Goetze.

Operetta in English[link]

H.M.S. Pinafore

English-language operettas were first composed in England in the 1860s — for example, Arthur Sullivan's Cox and Box (1866). Gilbert and Sullivan solidified the format in England with their long-running collaboration during the Victorian era. With W. S. Gilbert writing the libretti and Sullivan composing the music, the pair produced 14 comic operas, which were later called Savoy Operas. Most were enormously popular in Britain, the U.S., and elsewhere. Sullivan and Gilbert and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte themselves call their joint works comic operas to distinguish this family-friendly fare from the risqué French operettas of the 1850s and 1860s.^[7] Their works, such as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, continue to enjoy regular performances throughout the English-speaking world.^[8]

English operetta continued into the 1890s, with works by composers such as Edward German, Ivan Caryll and Sydney Jones. These quickly evolved into the lighter song-and-dance pieces known as Edwardian musical comedy. Beginning in 1907, with The Merry Widow, many of the Viennese operettas were adapted very successfully for the English stage. Old-fashioned musicals in Britain retained an "operetta-ish" flavour, at least musically, into the 1950s.

American operetta composers included Victor Herbert, whose works at the beginning of the 20th century were influenced by both Viennese operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan.^[9] He was followed by Sigmund Romberg and Rudolph Friml. More modern American operettas include Leonard Bernstein's Candide. Nevertheless, American operetta largely gave way, by the end of World War I, to musicals, such as the Princess Theatre musicals, and revues, followed by the musicals of Rogers and Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others.

Definitions[link]

Operettas have similarities to both operas and musicals, and the boundaries between the genres are sometimes blurred. For instance, American composer Scott Joplin insisted that his serious but ragtime-influenced work Treemonisha (1911) was an opera, but some reference works characterize it as an operetta. Likewise, some of Leonard Bernstein's works he designated as operas (e.g., Trouble in Tahiti) are categorized as operettas, and his operetta Candide is sometimes considered a musical.

Operettas and operas[link]

Operettas are usually shorter than operas, and are usually of a light and amusing character. Operettas are often considered less "serious" than operas.

Topical satire is a feature common to many operettas. However, satire is used in some "serious" operas as well: Formerly, in countries such as France, operas expressed politics in code — for example, the circumstances of the title character in the opera Robert le diable referred, at its first performance, to the French king's parental conflict and its resolution.

Normally some of the libretto of an operetta is spoken rather than sung. Instead of moving from one musical number to another, the musical segments — e.g. aria, recitative, chorus — are interspersed with periods of dialogue. There is usually no musical accompaniment to the dialogue, although sometimes some musical themes are played quietly under it. Short passages of recitative are, however, sometimes used in operetta, especially as an introduction to a song.

Operettas and musicals[link]

The operetta is a precursor of the modern musical theatre or the "musical".^[10] In the early decades of the 20th century, the operetta continued to exist alongside the newer musical, with each influencing the other.

The main difference between the two genres is that most operettas can be described as light operas with acting, whereas most musicals are plays with singing and dancing. This can be seen in the performers chosen in the two forms. An operetta's cast will normally consist of classically-trained opera singers. A musical may use actors who are not operatically trained, and usually the principals are called upon to dance. These distinctions can be blurred: Ezio Pinza and other opera singers have appeared on Broadway. There are features of operetta in Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat (1927), among others.^[11]

The characters in a musical may be more complex than those in an operetta, given the generally larger amount of dialogue. For example, the characters in Lerner and Loewe's musical My Fair Lady, which is based on George Bernard Shaw's 1914 play Pygmalion, are essentially unchanged from those in Shaw's stage work, because the musical version is quite faithful to the original (except for the changed ending, which is pessimistic in the play), even to the point of retaining most of Shaw's dialogue. Man of la Mancha, adapted by Dale Wasserman from his own ninety-minute television play I, Don Quixote, retains much of the dialogue in that play, cutting only enough to make room for the musical numbers which were added when the play was converted into a stage musical.

See also[link]

• List of operetta composers
• The opera corpus which includes operettas
• Opera
• Zarzuela
• Comic opera
• Savoy opera
• Musical theatre
• Operetta film

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Jacobs, Arthur (1984). Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-315443-9. 

Further reading[link]

• Ganzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
• Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983
• Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Linhardt, Marion, Residenzstadt und Metropole. Zu einer kulturellen Topographie des Wiener Unterhaltungstheaters (1858–1918). Berlin: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2006 (German)
• Clarke, Kevin, Glitter and be Gay: Die authentische Operette und ihre schwulen Verehrer. Hamburg: Männerschwarm Verlag, 2007 (German)
• Riccardo Viagrande, Tu che m'hai preso il cuor. Un viaggio nel mondo dell'operetta, Casa Musicale Eco, Monza, 2009 (Italian)

External links[link]

• Extensive site with information about operettas, light operas and their composers
• Essay on operettas of Offenbach, Johann Strauss Jr. and their contemporaries
• Operetta Research Center (with a large archive of historical reviews)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Operetta

Mary Costa (born April 5, 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American singer, actress, and Disney Legend. She is best known for playing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty. She is also a professional opera singer.

Biography[link]

Costa was born in 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she lived for much of her childhood. She sang Sunday School solos at the age of six. When she was in her early teens, Costa's family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she completed high school and won a Music Sorority Award as the outstanding voice among Southern California High School seniors. Following high school, she entered the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to study with famed maestro Gaston Usigli. Between 1948 and 1951, she appeared with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Bergen radio show. She also sang with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in concerts at UCLA, and made numerous commercials for Lux Radio Theatre.

In 1952, after meeting people at a party with her future husband, director Frank Tashlin, she auditioned for the part of Disney's Princess Aurora. Walt Disney called her personally within hours of the audition to inform her that the part was hers. In 1958, Costa was called upon to substitute for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at a gala concert in the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Carmen Dragon. Because of her glowing reviews from that performance, she was invited to sing the lead in her first fully staged operatic production, The Bartered Bride, produced by the renowned German producer, Carl Ebert, for the Los Angeles Guild Opera. Ebert later requested that Mary appear at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she made a debut.

Costa went on to perform in 44 operatic roles on stages throughout the world, including Jules Massenet's Manon at the Metropolitan Opera, and Violetta in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Cunegonde in the 1959 London premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. In 1961, for RCA, she recorded Musetta in La bohème, opposite Anna Moffo and Richard Tucker, with the Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. Among numerous roles sung for San Francisco Opera, she was Tytania in the American premiere of Britten's A Midsummer Nights Dream (1961), Ninette in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's Blood Moon (1961) and Anne Truelove in the San Francisco premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Violetta in La Traviata on January 6, 1964 receiving one of the season’s greatest ovations and enthusiastic praise from critics.

Ms. Costa impressed television audiences throughout her career with guest appearances on many shows, such as Bing Crosby’s Christmas Show on NBC-TV. She appeared with Bing Crosby and Sergio Franchi on The Hollywood Palace in 1970. She also appeared on Frank Sinatra’s “Woman of the Year” Timex Special for NBC, where she was honored, along with Juliet Prowse, Lena Horne, and Eleanor Roosevelt, as women of the year. In 1972, Sammy Davis Jr. asked Mary to appear on his first NBC Follies. Among his other guests that evening, were Mickey Rooney and Ernest Borgnine. Mary performed a blues selection with Sammy, backed up by one of her favorite performers, Charlie Parker. Her other television credits include appearances on the Academy Awards, and the shows of Jim Nabors, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Della Reese, Joey Bishop, George Burns, Don Knotts, Dinah Shore, and many others.

Jacqueline Kennedy asked her to sing at a memorial service for her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, from the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1963. She sang for the inaugural concert of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971. In 1972, she starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature The Great Waltz, depicting the life of Austrian composer Johann Strauss II. Additional movie credits include The Big Caper (1957) and Marry Me Again (1953).

Costa has dedicated her later years to inspiring children and teenagers, giving motivational talks at schools and colleges across the country. She is also a celebrity ambassador for Childhelp, a child abuse prevention and treatment non-profit organization. She continues to do promotional appearances for Disney, most recently for the Blu-ray release of "Sleeping Beauty" and the 50th anniversary of the film.

In 1989 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation. In November 1999 she received the Disney Legends Award, and her handprints are now a permanent part of the Disney Legends Plaza at the entrance to Disney Studios. In 2000 she was selected as the Tennessee Woman of Distinction by the American Lung Association. And in April 2001, she was honored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild for Distinguished Verdi Performances of the 20th Century. In 2003 she was appointed by President Bush to the National Council on the Arts, where she served until 2007. In December 2007, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. On November 2, 2007, she was inducted into the Knoxville Opera Hall of Fame. Earlier she had launched the inaugural Knoxville Opera season in 1978 as Violetta in La Traviata.

Filmography[link]

• Titus Andronicus (2000) - Mourner
• The Great Waltz (1972) - Jetty Treffz
• Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Princess Aurora (voice/singing voice)
• The Big Caper (1957) - Kay
• Marry Me Again (1953) - Joan

Sources[link]

• Cummings, David (ed.), "Costa, Mary, International Who's Who in Classical Music, Routledge, 2003, p. 158. ISBN 1-85743-174-X
• Hayes, John "2 with Futures to Follow: Mary Costa and Marilyn Horne", Billboard 16 May 1964 p. 38
• Hollis, Tim and Ehrbar, Greg, Mouse tracks: the story of Walt Disney Records, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 52. ISBN 1-57806-849-5
• Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce, "Costa, Mary", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1996. (accessed via Encyclopedia.com. 26 January 2010)
• Metropolitan Opera, Performance Record: Costa, Mary (Soprano), on the MetOpera Database
• Sleeman, Elizabeth (ed.), "Costa, Mary" The International Who's Who of Women, Routledge, 2001, p. 116. ISBN 1-85743-122-7
• The Walt Disney Company, Disney Legends: Mary Costa (accessed 26 January 2010)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Mary Costa at the Internet Movie Database
• Mary Costa at the Disney Legends Website

Jeremy Brett (3 November 1933 – 12 September 1995), born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.

Early life[link]

Peter Jeremy William Huggins was born at Berkswell Grange in Berkswell in December 1933.^[1] He was the son of a Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire and an heir of the Cadbury chocolate family. Educated at Eton College, he claimed to have been an "academic disaster", attributing his learning difficulties to dyslexia.

Although he eventually developed precisely honed diction, he was born with "rhotacism", a speech impediment which prevented him from pronouncing the "R" sound correctly. He underwent corrective surgery as a teenager and followed it with years of practicing. Much later he claimed that he practiced all of his speech exercises daily, whether he was working or not.^{[citation needed]}

However, while at Eton he excelled at singing and was a member of the college choir. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama^[2] in London, graduating in 1954, but his father had demanded that he change his name for the sake of family honour.^[3]

Career[link]

Stage and screen[link]

Brett made his professional acting debut at the Library Theatre in Manchester in 1954, and made his London stage debut with the Old Vic company in Troilus and Cressida in 1956.^[4] Brett had his first appearance in a major film with War and Peace (1956), which starred Audrey Hepburn.

Also in 1956 he appeared on Broadway as the Duke of Aumerle in Richard II.^[5] He played many classical roles on stage, including about a dozen Shakespearean parts at the Old Vic, in New York and four while Brett was a member of the National Theatre Company from 1967 to 1970.^[6]

From the early 1960s, Brett was often on British television. He starred in several serials, including as d'Artagnan in an adaptation of The Three Musketeers (1966). His highest profile film appearance was as Freddie Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady (1964), which reunited him with Audrey Hepburn. Although his singing voice was dubbed in the film, Brett could still sing, as he later demonstrated when he played Danilo in a BBC Television broadcast of The Merry Widow (Christmas Day 1968).

Some of his appearances were in classical comedic roles, such as Captain Absolute in a television version of The Rivals (1970) and Bassanio in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1970) in a National Theatre Company production directed by Jonathan Miller which also featured Laurence Olivier (as Shylock) and Joan Plowright (as Portia). This was adapted for television in 1973 with the same three leads. Brett joked that, as an actor, he was rarely allowed into the 20th century and never into the present day. He did though appear in a few contemporary guest roles, in a couple of the ITC series such as The Baron (1967) and The Champions (1969) where he was cast as swarthy, smooth villains. Brett also appeared in The Incredible Hulk ("Of Guilt, Models and Murder", 1977).

Jeremy Brett's final, posthumous film appearance was an uncredited bit part as the artist's father in Moll Flanders, a 1996 Hollywood feature film starring Robin Wright Penn in the title role. The film (not to be confused with the 1996 ITV adaption starring Alex Kingston) was released nearly a year after Brett's death.

As Sherlock Holmes[link]

Although Brett appeared in many different roles during his 40-year career, he is best remembered for his performance as Sherlock Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series of Granada Television films made between 1984 and 1994. These were adapted by John Hawkesworth and other writers from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even though he reportedly feared being typecast, Brett appeared in 41 episodes of the Granada series, alongside David Burke and, latterly, Edward Hardwicke as Dr Watson.

After taking on the demanding role ("Holmes is the hardest part I have ever played — harder than Hamlet or Macbeth"^[7]) Brett made few other acting appearances, and he is now widely considered to be the definitive Holmes of his era, just as Basil Rathbone was during the 1940s. Brett had previously played Doctor Watson on stage opposite Charlton Heston as Holmes in the 1980 Los Angeles production of The Crucifer of Blood, making him one of only four actors to play both Holmes and Watson professionally (the other three are Reginald Owen, as Watson in the 1932 film Sherlock Holmes and Holmes in 1933's A Study in Scarlet,^[8] fellow Old Etonian Patrick Macnee, who played Watson first in 1976's Sherlock Holmes in New York and Holmes in 1993's The Hound of London)^[9] while Carleton Hobbs who portrayed both roles on the radio.^[10]

Brett had been approached in February 1982 by Granada TV to play Holmes. The idea was to make a totally authentic and faithful adaptation of the character's best cases. Eventually Brett accepted the role. He wanted to be the best Sherlock Holmes the world had ever seen.^[11] He conducted extensive research on the great detective and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and was very attentive to discrepancies between the scripts he had been given and Conan Doyle's original stories.^[12] One of Brett's dearest possessions on the set was his 77-page "Baker Street File" on everything from Holmes' mannerisms to his eating and drinking habits. Brett once explained that "some actors are becomers — they try to become their characters. When it works, the actor is like a sponge, squeezing himself dry to remove his own personality, then absorbing the character's like a liquid".^[13]

Brett was obsessed with bringing more passion to the role of Holmes. He introduced Holmes' rather eccentric hand gestures and short violent laughter. He would hurl himself on the ground just to look for a footprint, "he would leap over the furniture or jump onto the parapet of a bridge with no regard for his personal safety."^[14]

Holmes' obsessive and depressive personality fascinated and frightened Brett. In many ways Holmes' personality resembled the actor's own, with outbursts of passionate energy followed by periods of lethargy. It became difficult for him to let go of Holmes after work. He had always been told that the only way for an actor to stay sane was for him to leave his part behind at the end of the day, but Brett started dreaming about Holmes, and the dreams turned into nightmares.^[15] Brett began to refer to Sherlock Holmes as "You Know Who" or simply "HIM": "Watson describes You Know Who as a mind without a heart, which is hard to play. Hard to become. So what I have done is invent an inner life".^[16] Brett invented an imaginary life of Holmes to fill the hollowness of Holmes' "missing heart", his empty emotional life. He imagined: "...what You Know Who's nanny looked like. She was covered in starch. I don't think he saw his mother until he was about eight years old..." etc.^[16] While the other actors disappeared to the canteen for lunch, Brett would sit alone on the set reading the script, looking at every nuance,^[17] reading Holmes in the weekends and on his holidays. A theatrical adaptation, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, by Brett's friend playwright Jeremy Paul ran at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End with Brett and Edward Hardwicke during 1988 and 1989; the production subsequently toured.^[6]

"Some actors fear if they play Sherlock Holmes for a very long run the character will steal their soul, leave no corner for the original inhabitant", he once said,^[18] but: "Holmes has become the dark side of the moon for me. He is moody and solitary and underneath I am really sociable and gregarious. It has all got too dangerous".^[7]

Private life and health issues[link]

Brett was bisexual, but intensely private. On 24 May 1958 he married the actress Anna Massey (daughter of Raymond Massey). Their son, David Huggins, born in 1959, is a British cartoonist, illustrator and novelist.^[19] Brett and Massey divorced on 22 November 1962 after she claimed he left her for a man.^[20][21] In the 1960s and early 1970s, Brett was in a romantic relationship with the actor Gary Bond.^[22] In the late 1970s he was involved with actor Paul Shenar.^[23] In 1976, Brett married Joan Sullivan Wilson, who died of cancer in July 1985.^[24]

In the latter part of 1986, Brett exhibited wide mood swings that alarmed his family and friends, who persuaded him to seek diagnosis and treatment of manic depression.^[25] Brett was given lithium tablets to fight his manic depression. He knew that he would never be cured; he had to live with his condition, look for the signs of his disorder and then deal with it.^[26] He wanted to go back to work, to play Holmes again. The first episode to be produced after his discharge was a two-hour adaptation of The Sign of the Four in 1987. From then on the difference in Brett's appearance slowly became more noticeable as the series developed. One of the side effects of the lithium tablets was fluid retention. Brett began to look and act differently. The drugs were slowing him down; he was putting on weight and retaining water.^[27] According to Edward Hardwicke, Brett smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day, which "didn't help his health."^[28] He also had heart troubles. His heart was twice the normal size,^[29] he would have difficulties breathing and would need an oxygen mask on the set. "But, darlings, the show must go on", was his only comment.^[30]

During the last decade of his life, Brett was treated in hospital several times for his mental illness, and his health and appearance visibly deteriorated by the time he completed the later episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series. During his last years, he discussed the illness candidly, encouraging people to recognise its symptoms and seek help.

Death[link]

Brett died on 12 September 1995 at his home in Clapham, London, from heart failure. His heart valves had been scarred by rheumatic fever contracted as a child.^[29]

Mel Gussow wrote in an obituary for New York Times: "Mr. Brett was regarded as the quintessential Holmes: breathtakingly analytical, given to outrageous disguises and the blackest moods and relentless in his enthusiasm for solving the most intricate crimes."^[31]

Filmography[link]

• Svengali (1954)
• War and Peace (1956) as Nikolai Rostov
• The Very Edge (1962)
• The Wild and the Willing (1962)
• Girl in the Headlines (1963)
• Act of Reprisal (1964)
• My Fair Lady (1964) as Freddy Eynsford-Hill
• Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
• A Picture of Katherine Mansfield (1973) as John Middleton Murry
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976) as Basil Hallward
• The Medusa Touch (1978)
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1995)
• Moll Flanders (1996)

See also[link]

• List of actors who have played Sherlock Holmes

References[link]

General

Specific

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jeremy Brett

• Jeremy Brett at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeremy Brett biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Jeremy Brett at Find a Grave

Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE (9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006) was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.

Early life[link]

Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf was born in Jarotschin in the province of Posen in Prussia to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth (née Fröhling). Schwarzkopf showed an interest in music from an early age. She performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik.^{[citation needed]}

However at the suggestion of the baritone Karl Schmitt-Walter, she switched teachers and started working with the coloratura soprano Maria Ivogün as well as with Ivogün's husband, the pianist Michael Raucheisen. Ivogün's advice to her new pupil was, "Be noble, my child!"^{[citation needed]}

Early career[link]

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In 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's father, a local school headmaster, was dismissed from his position by the new ruling authorities for having refused to allow a Nazi party meeting at his school. He was also banned from taking any new teaching post. Prior to Friedrich Schwarzkopf's dismissal, the probability was that the 17-year-old Elisabeth would have studied medicine after passing her Abitur, but now, as the daughter of a banned schoolteacher, she was not allowed to enter university and – fortunately for posterity – she commenced music studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Schwarzkopf made her professional debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (then called Deutsches Opernhaus) on 15 April 1938, as the Second Flower Maiden (First Group) in act 2 of Richard Wagner's Parsifal. In 1940 Schwarzkopf was awarded a full contract with the Deutsches Opernhaus, a condition of which was that she had to join the Nazi party.^[1]

Since the theme was brought up in the dissertation of the Austrian historian Oliver Rathkolb in the year 1982, the discussion of the singer's (Schwarzkopf) relationship with National Socialism (i. e. Nazi Party) has been discussed repeatedly in the media and in literature. There was criticism that Schwarzkopf, not only in the years immediately after the war but also in confrontation with revelations made in the 1980s and 1990s made contradictory statements, including in regard to her membership in the NSDAP (Member No. 7,548,960). At first, she denied this and then with varying explanations defended it. In one version, for example, she claimed that she joined the party only at the insistence of her father who, himself, earlier had lost his position as school principal after forbidding a Nazi program in the school. Critics have accused her, however, of typical suppression reactions and ruthless careerism in the Nazi era.

Further publications discussed her musical performances during the war before (Nazi) party conferences and for units of the Waffen-SS (combat SS). Her defenders argue in favor of her claim that she always strictly separated art from politics and that she was a non-political person. "That she tried to cover up these misdeeds, even as the truth of them became known, and didn't admit them voluntarily, has led some to attack her as being a profiteer of the Nazi cultural system".^[2]

In 1942, she was invited to sing with the Vienna State Opera, where her roles included Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Musetta and later Mimì in Puccini's La bohème and Violetta in Verdi's La traviata.

Post-war career[link]

In 1945, Schwarzkopf was granted Austrian citizenship to enable her to sing in the Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper). In 1947 and 1948, Schwarzkopf appeared on tour with the Vienna State Opera at London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on 16 September 1947 as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni and at La Scala on 28 December 1948, as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which became one of her signature roles.

Schwarzkopf later made her official debut at the Royal Opera House on 16 January 1948, as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute, in performances sung in English, and at La Scala on 29 June 1950 singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. Schwarzkopf's association with the Milanese house in the early 1950s gave her the opportunity to sing certain roles on stage for the only time in her career: Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Jole in Handel's Eracle, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, as well as her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and her first Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Piccola Scala. On 11 September 1951, she appeared as Anne Trulove in the world premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. Schwarzkopf made her American debut with the San Francisco Opera on 20 September 1955 as the Marschallin, and her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 19 December 1964, also as the Marschallin.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at the Lucerne Festival around 1948

In March 1946, Schwarzkopf was invited to audition for Walter Legge, an influential British classical record producer and a founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Legge asked her to sing Hugo Wolf's lied Wer rief dich denn? and, impressed, signed her to an exclusive contract with EMI. They began a close partnership and Legge subsequently became Schwarzkopf's manager and companion. They were married on 19 October 1953 in Epsom, Surrey; Schwarzkopf thus acquired British citizenship by marriage. Schwarzkopf would divide her time between lieder recitals and opera performances for the rest of her career. When invited in 1958 to select her eight favourite records on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings,^[3] and an eighth of Karajan conducting the Rosenkavalier prelude, as they evoked fond memories of the people she had worked with.^[4][5][6][7]

In the 1960s, Schwarzkopf concentrated nearly exclusively on five operatic roles: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Countess Madeleine in Strauss's Capriccio, and the Marschallin. She also was well received as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff. However, on the EMI label she made several "champagne operetta" recordings like Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow and Johann Strauss II's The Gypsy Baron.

Schwarzkopf's last operatic performance was as the Marschallin on 31 December 1971, in the theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. For the next several years, she devoted herself exclusively to lieder recitals. On 17 March 1979, Walter Legge suffered a severe heart attack. He disregarded doctor's orders to rest and attended Schwarzkopf's final recital two days later in Zurich. Three days later, he died.

After retiring, Schwarzkopf taught and gave master classes around the world, notably at the Juilliard School in New York City. After living in Switzerland for many years, she took up residence in Austria. She was made a doctor of music by the University of Cambridge in 1976, and became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1992.^[8]

Schwarzkopf died in her sleep during the night of 2–3 August 2006 at her home in Schruns, Vorarlberg, Austria, aged 90. Immediately following her death, an urban myth resurfaced: that she was an aunt of Norman Schwarzkopf. This myth was published in several obituaries.^[9] However, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was an only child, and thus had no nieces or nephews.

Legacy[link]

She leaves a discography that is considerable both in quality and in quantity and will be mostly remembered for her Mozart and Richard Strauss operatic portrayals, her two commercial recordings of Strauss's Four Last Songs, and her countless recordings of lieder, especially those of Wolf.

The Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Walter Legge Society, chaired by Dr Daphne Kerslake, continues to keep her name alive.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[link]

• 1950: Lilli Lehmann Medal, Mozarteum International Foundation, Salzburg
• 1959: 1. "Orfeo d'Oro", Mantua (?)
• 1969: Orphée d'or recording award from the Académie du disque lyrique in Paris
• 1961: Edison Award, Amsterdam
• 1961: Awarded the title Deutsche Kammersängerin
• 1964: Honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
• 1967: Stockholm television award for best European soprano Stockholmer
• 1971: Hugo-Wolf Medal
• 1974: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1982: Mozart Medal of the city of Frankfurt am Main
• 1983: Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera and title of Kammersängerin
• 1986: Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• 1991: UNESCO Mozart Medal
• 1992: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music
• 2002: Honorary medal from the city of Vienna
• 2012: Voted into Gramophone Hall of Fame^[10]

Quotations[link]

This section is a candidate to be copied to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process.

• (After being asked about Peter Sellars) "There are names I do not want mentioned in my home. Do not say that name in my presence. I have seen what he has done, and it is criminal. As my husband used to say, so far no one has dared go into the Louvre Museum to spray graffiti on the Mona Lisa, but some opera directors are spraying graffiti over masterpieces." – Newsweek interview, 15 October 1990
• "Many composers today don't know what the human throat is. At Bloomington, Indiana, I was invited to listen to music written in quarter tones for four harps and voices. I had to go out to be sick." – Newsweek interview, 15 October 1990

Further reading[link]

• Jefferson, Alan Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Northeastern University Press (August 1996) ISBN 1-55553-272-1 Chapter One extract
• Sanders, Alan 'The Schwarzkopf Tapes: An artist replies to a hostile biography' (2010) ISBN 978-0-9567361-0-9
• Legge, Walter; postscript by Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth; ed. Sanders, Alan Walter Legge: Words and Music Routledge (1998) ISBN 0-415-92108-2
• Sanders, Alan and Steane, John B Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: A Career on Record Amadeus Pr (January 1996) ISBN 0-931340-99-3
• Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Les autres soirs Tallandier (August 16, 2004) ISBN 2-84734-068-8
• Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth On and Off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legge Faber and Faber Ltd (December 31, 1982) ISBN 0-571-11928-X; Scribner (March 1982) ISBN 0-684-17451-0; (paperback) ISBN 0-571-14912-X; University of British Columbia Press (January 1, 2002) ISBN 1-55553-519-4
• Liese, Kirsten, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. From Flower Maiden To Marschallin. Molden, Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-85485-218-6

Recordings[link]

Recordings include the following.

Bach

• St Matthew Passion (Klemperer), Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI 1961)

Brahms

• A German Requiem (Klemperer), Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI 1961)

Humperdinck

• Hänsel und Gretel (Karajan) (1953) Naxos 8.110897-98

Lehár

• Das Land des Lächelns (Ackermann) (1953) and excerpts from Lehar Operettas Naxos 8.111016-17
• Die lustige Witwe (Kunz, Gedda) (1953) Naxos 8.111007

Mozart

• Don Giovanni (Carlo Maria Giulini, Philharmonia Orchestra) (EMI 1959) with Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna.
• Le nozze di Figaro (Carlo Maria Giulini, Philharmonia Orchestra) (EMI 1959)
• Così fan tutte (Otto, Karajan) (1954) Naxos 8.111232-34

Johann Strauss II

• Die Fledermaus (Gedda, Karajan) (1955) Naxos 8.111036-37

Richard Strauss

• Four Last Songs / Arabella (highlights) (Ackermann, Matacic) (1953, 1954) Naxos 8.111145
• Four Last Songs (Szell; 1965; EMI Classics "Great Recordings of the Century"; Cat: 0724356696020)
• Ariadne auf Naxos (Streich, Karajan) (1954) Naxos 8.111033-34
• Capriccio (Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nicolai Gedda, Wolfgang Sawallisch) (1957) EMI CDS 7 49014-8

Verdi

• Messa da Requiem (Di Stefano, De Sabata) (1954) Naxos 8.111049-50

Richard Wagner

• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Karajan) (1951) Naxos 8.110872-75

Notes and references[link]

1. ^ Guilty victim: Austria from the Holocaust to Haider - Page 89 Hella Pick - 2000 "Schwarzkopf who justified Party membership as a passport to performance"
2. ^ Tagliabue, John (17 March 1983). "Germans Explore Ties of Musicians of Nazis". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/17/arts/germans-explore-ties-of-musicians-of-nazis.html.  (Subscription required)
3. ^ BBC list of the eight recordings chosen in the 1958 broadcast
4. ^ Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Alan Jefferson - 1996 "In any case, this famous Desert Island Discs broadcast has gone down in legend, immediately identifying Schwarzkopf for many who had never previously heard of her.17 "
5. ^ The gramophone: Volume 83 - 2006 "1958 Appears on Desert Island Discs and raises eyebrows by ..."
6. ^ The gramophone: Volume 83 2005 Letters SCHWARZKOPF'S DESERT ISLAND DISCS Talk has come up again of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and her Desert Island Discs broadcast in 1958 [and recently repeated on Radio 3] with her unique choice of seven of her ..."
7. ^ Prima donna: a history , Rupert Christiansen - 1995 "It made Schwarzkopf into a uniquely self-conscious interpreter: it was perfectly natural to her that when asked on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs to select eight recordings to be shipwrecked with, she should choose only her ..."
8. ^ Notice of damehood in London Gazette
9. ^ This urban myth was included in, for example, William J. Kole Famed Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dies, Associated Press obituary via Forbes, 3 August 2006, Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dead at 90 (MSNBC based on AP wire) and Tom Huizenga, Soprano Schwarzkopf Dies at 90 (link to audio), National Public Radio, 3 August 2006.
10. ^ "Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano)". Gramophone. http://www.gramophone.co.uk/HallofFame/ArtistPage/Schwarzkopf. Retrieved 11 April 2012. 

External links[link]

• Bach Cantatas biography
• BBC Obituary: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
• The Guardian (Alan Blyth) Obituary: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
• The Times Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (obituary)
• The Daily Telegraph Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (obituary)
• The Washington Post (Adam Bernstein) Renowned Coloratura Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 90 (obituary)
• The New York Times (Anthony Tommasini) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Opera Singer, Dies at 90 (obituary) (requires registration)
• Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (Sony biography)
• Gramophone Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dies, aged 90
• The Washington Post (Tim Page) The Plaintive Last Song of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (appreciation)
• Norman Lebrecht Schwarzkopf's Career Had Somber Side
• BBC Soprano Schwarzkopf dies aged 90
• BBC Diva's 'place in history assured'
• The Guardian (Charlotte Higgins) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dies at 90
• Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC database entry
• Prewar photo of Schwarzkopf as Zerbinetta (scroll down)
• Discography from sopranos.freeservers.com
• Another Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)

Ave Ninchi (14 December 1915 - 10 November 1997) was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage, television, and in over 98 feature films that included Tomorrow Is Too Late (1949) and Louis Malle's Lacombe Lucien (1974). She has worked with some of Italy's top movie stars, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi, and Gina Lollobrigida; her performances playing in duo with Aldo Fabrizi and Totò are particularly memorable. Her television career was at its peak during the 1960s and 1970s when she was appearing in some of Italy's top-rated series.

Filmography[link]

• La Donna serpente
• Lacombe Lucien
• Nel mondo di Alice (mini) TV Series
• Pulp
• I Due assi del guantone
• Murmur of the Heart (Le souffle au coeur)
• Il Furto è l'anima del commercio
• Sapho ou La fureur d'aimer
• Il Mulino del Po (mini) TV Series
• I Due magnifici fresconi
• House of Cards
• Il Sole è di tutti
• Gli altri e noi
• Non son degno di te
• Cleopazza
• Biblioteca di Studio Uno: La primula rossa (TV)
• In ginocchio da te
• Las Otoñales
• Ragazzi dell'hully-gully
• Il Mulino del Po
• Le Motorizzate
• L' assassino si chiama Pompeo
• Le Magnifiche sette
• Scandali al mare
• Walter e i suoi cugini
• Les Bonnes femmes
• Plein soleil
• Le Ambiziose
• Madri pericolose
• Un Mandarino per Teo
• I Teddy boys della canzone
• Vita col padre e con la madre
• Le Notti dei Teddy Boys
• The Nun's Story
• La Prima notte
• Le Donne ci tengono assai
• Prepotenti più di prima
• I Prepotenti
• Liebe
• Il Bigamo
• Le diciottenni
• I Pinguini ci guardano
• L'Air de Paris
• Delirio
• La Grande avventura
• Madonna delle rose
• Il Matrimonio
• Una Pelliccia di visone
• Totò cerca pace
• Canto per te
• Condannatelo!
• La Domenica della buona gente
• Martin Toccaferro
• Wir tanzen auf dem Regenbogen
• Imbarco a mezzanotte
• La Colpa di una madre
• È arrivato l'accordatore
• Gioventù alla sbarra
• Ho scelto l'amore
• Papà diventa mamma
• La Presidentessa
• Three Girls from Rome (Le ragazze di piazza Spagna)
• Serenata amara
• Totò e le donne
• La Famiglia Passaguai fa fortuna
• I Sette nani alla riscossa
• Parigi è sempre Parigi
• Teresa
• Bellezze a Capri
• La Famiglia Passaguai
• Guardie e ladri
• Domani è troppo tardi
• Il Vedovo allegro
• Cavalcata d'eroi
• Domenica d'agosto
• Il Diavolo in convento
• Sambo
• Totò cerca moglie
• Yvonne la nuit
• Au-delà des grilles
• Amori e veleni
• Duello senza onore
• La Figlia del mendicante
• Il Patto col diavolo
• I Peggiori anni della nostra vita
• I Pompieri di Viggiù
• Signorinella
• La Sposa non puo attendere
• Anni difficili
• Cuore
• Emigrantes
• Natale al campo 119
• L' Onorevole Angelina
• La Figlia del capitano
• Vivere in pace
• Il Delitto di Giovanni Episcopo
• Giorno nella vita
• Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma
• Un Uomo ritorna
• Canto, ma sottovoce
• Circo equestre Za-bum

External links[link]

• Ave Ninchi at the Internet Movie Database