Veronica Micle (born Ana Câmpeanu; April 22, 1850—August 3, 1889) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian poet, whose work was influenced by Romanticism. She is best known for her love affair with the poet Mihai Eminescu, one of the most important Romanian writers.

Biography

In March 1872, in Vienna, she met Eminescu, beginning a relationship that would last for the rest of their lives. At first he would visit the literary salon that she hosted. Their friendship had become love sometime between 1875, when they started dedicating poems to each other, and 1878 (sources vary). Their romance went through several ups and downs—for instance, Eminescu left for Bucharest in 1877 to edit Timpul and that year Micle published poems in which she expressed her sadness at being left behind. Her husband died in 1879, leaving her rather poor. She came to Bucharest to seek a pension and Eminescu publicly called her his fiancée, but further stresses intervened (including a stillborn child in May 1880) and while he took up the subject again in 1881, he was diagnosed with syphilis in 1883.

In 1887, she moved to Bucharest in an effort to keep up Eminescu's spirits. After his death in June 1889, she retired to Văratec Monastery, where she put together a volume called Dragoste şi Poezie (Love and Poetry), in which she included poems of her own and those of Eminescu dedicated to her, to which she added commentary. A shaken Micle took arsenic not two months after Eminescu's death. She is buried on the monastery grounds, in Văratec. Her house in Târgu Neamţ, given to her by her parents as a wedding dowry and which she donated to the monastery in 1886, is now a museum.

Literary activity

Additionally, a volume containing 93 of Eminescu's letters to Micle and 15 of her replies was published in 2000.

Works

References

External links

Category:Female suicides Category:Romanian poets Category:Romantic poets Category:People from Năsăud Category:Romanian Austro-Hungarians Category:Romanian Orthodox Christians Category:Writers who committed suicide Category:Suicides by poison Category:Suicides in Romania Category:1850 births Category:1889 deaths

Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; January 15, 1850 – June 15, 1889) was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet.

Notation

External links

Category:1850 births Category:1889 deaths Category:People from Botoşani Category:Romanian poets Category:Romanian essayists Category:Romanian folklorists Category:Romanian short story writers Category:Romantic poets Category:Members of the Romanian Academy elected post-mortem Category:Burials at Bellu Category:Romanian Orthodox Christians

Biography

Martinez received her MMus in composition from the University of Surrey in 1977, where she studied with Reginald Smith Brindle. This was followed by composer awards from the American National Endowment for the Arts (1979) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1980), supporting the composition of her first opera Sister Aimee: An American Legend (1984). Sister Aimme was premiered at Tulane University in 1984, followed by two other productions at the Royal College of Music (1987) and in Marin County College, California, in 1995.

In 1984 Martinez became the first woman to conduct at a BBC Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. 1987 she was awarded the Villa Lobos medal from the Brazilian government for her championing of the music of Heitor Villa Lobos and other Brazilian composers. Her continuing commitment to showcase the music of Latin America for UK and European audiences led her in 1989 to co-direct with Eduardo Mata VIVA! - a festival of Latin-American music - at London's South Bank Centre. In 1990 she was made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and in 1992 she founded LORELT (Lontano Records Limited) with the intent of promoting the work of living composers and women and Latin American composers from all periods. The label has since released over 30 CDs to critical acclaim.

In the summer of 1994 Martinez conducted the BBC Proms premiere of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers, later released on CD by Conifer Records. A CD recording of Smyth's orchestral music for Chandos Records followed.

After a gap of of almost ten years, Martinez began composing again. First, music to a radio play commissioned by BBC Radio 4 (1998), followed by the Hansen Variations for Piano (1999) - commissioned by the Music Department of Tulane University. In 2008 she completed her second opera, Imoinda , with a libretto by Joan Anim-Addo about slavery and the beginning of the Afro-Caribbean culture.

In the autumn of 2006 together with Lontano Ensemble she founded the London Festival of American Music aiming to introduce UK audiences to a broader spectrum of works from contemporary American and US-based composers, and it has since been celebrated biennally. Several major works have received their UK premieres there, including works by John Harbison, Marjorie Merryman, Daniel Asia, Peter Child and Roberto Sierra.

External links