AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Classical
• Modern Era
• Singer

1912–53 English contralto Ferrier sang in concerts during World War II and made her opera debut in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne in 1946. The two performances she sang at Covent Garden in 1953 were her last appearances in public before her death from cancer. She was a famous Angel in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and recorded ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Modern Era

1913–76 English composer The finest English composer of his generation, Britten reacted against the folksong-derived pastoralism of his elder compatriots, finding inspiration in Purcell and influences as various as Mahler and Stravinsky. The international success of his opera Peter Grimes (1945) brought financial security, but he continued to appear as a pianist, accompanying his partner and outstanding ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Modern Era
• Singer

1912–79 English countertenor Deller was responsible for the revival of the alto voice in the concert hall and opera house. With his ensemble, the Deller Consort, he made many recordings of early music, and he recorded English lute-songs with Desmond Dupré. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Kathleen Ferrier | Modern Era | Classical ...

• The Voice
• Classical
• Classical Era

From the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century, heroic roles were generally composed for castratos: male sopranos or altos who had been castrated before puberty to preserve their high voice. Throughout the Baroque and classical eras castratos were common on the stage. They disappeared, however, in the early nineteenth century as the practice of castration for musical purposes was ...

• Personalities
• American Punk
• Nineties
• Riot Grrrl
• Rock

(Vocal/instrumental group, 1990–98) Named after a feminist magazine of the same name, Seattle’s Bikini Kill spearheaded the riot grrrl movement. Kathleen Hanna (vocals), Tobi Vail (drums) and Kathi Wilcox (bass) published the magazine and roped in Billy Boredom on guitar. Musically a mixture of punk and feminist lyrics, the band built up a no-compromise reputation as a live ...

• Styles & Forms
• Riot Grrrl
• Rock

A potent though short-lived force in the early 1990s, lyrically, riot grrrl had a strong feminist agenda, whilst musically it was strongly influenced by punk rock. The spiritual roots of riot grrrl can be traced back to the all-female British punk band The Slits from the 1970s. With its origins in America, and an agenda of ‘cutting ...

• The Voice
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical

Baritones Baritones, it is said, sing and act, while tenors merely sing. That may tell us more about the roles they take than about the singers themselves, but certainly the finest baritones excel in both skills, none more than Tito Gobbi, whose most noted roles were Falstaff in Verdi’s eponymous opera, and Scarpia in ...