She sang a few dramatic roles, such as Salome in "Salome" at the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich in 1961, but mostly she sang lyrical roles. When the famous soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf first sang at the Met she sang the part of the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" with Della Casa singing Octavian..
After singing Arabella in Salzburg in 1974, she surprised everyone by announcing her retirement. She gave up her musical career and enjoyed a quiet, domestic life.
She made several complete opera recordings including her singing of Countess Almaviva in "Le nozze di Figaro" (Erich Kleiber conducting) and the role of Arabella in "Arabella" (Georg Solti conducting). These recordings are still thought of as among the finest ever made. She made a wonderful recording of Richard Strauss' "Vier letzte Lieder" "(Four Last Songs)" (Karl Böhm conducting) in 1953.
In 1947, she married Yugoslavian-born journalist Dragan Debeljevic. They had one daughter, who became very ill when she was young. Her daughter says that, later in life, when Lisa had her own health problems, she was able to give back to her mother some of the love and care that she herself had received as a child. Casa died on December 10, 2012 in Münsterlingen, Switzerland from natural causes, aged 93. A black flag was hung in her honor.
Samoyed (dog)
The Samoyed is a dog breed that are usually white in color but they can be grey or cream too. They can get between 2-3 feet in height. The Samoyed breed is known for having a curled tail, much like a Husky. They have a thick coat of fur to protect them from the cold because they were used to drag sleighs in the cold. Samoyeds are really friendly, so they will not make good guard dogs because they are too cute and fluffy and are really friendly.
Emperor Hanzei
No certain dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign. The conventionally accepted names and sequence of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu, who was the 50th monarch of the Yamato dynasty.
According to "Nihonshoki" and "Kojiki", he was a son of Emperor Nintoku. The eldest son would become known as Emperor Richū.
Hanzei was the brother of Richū. Hanzei's enthronement by-passed Richū's two sons. Few other details have survived.
Very little is known about the events of Hanzei's life and reign. Only limited information is available for study prior to the reign of the 29th monarch, Emperor Kimmei.
Hanzei's reign is described as a time of peace. He died quietly in his palace.
This emperor's official name after his death (his posthumous name) was regularized many centuries after the lifetime which was ascribed to Hanzei.
According to the Imperial Household Agency, the emperor's final resting place is in an earthen tumulus ("kofun") at Sakai. Hanzei is venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine ("misasagi") which is associated with the burial mound.
Title role
The title role in a play or an opera is the role (the part) which is also the title of the play or opera.
We say that the actor, singer or dancer who performs that part has the "title role". For example: in the opera "Carmen" by Georges Bizet the part played by the girl called Carmen is the "title role". We may say that a singer took the title role in the opera "Carmen". That means that she sang the part of Carmen in the opera.
The title role is not necessarily the most important role in the play or opera, although it often is.
A few other well-known examples in which the performance is named after one of the characters include the operas "Aida" (by Giuseppe Verdi), "Madame Butterfly" (by Giacomo Puccini) and "Peter Grimes" (by Benjamin Britten), the ballets "Coppélia" (by Léo Delibes) or "Petrushka" (by Stravinsky), or the plays "Othello" or "Hamlet" (by William Shakespeare).
The title character is the character whose name is in the title (or suggested in the title), such as "Harry Potter" in Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, or Simba in Disney's "The Lion King" (Simba is the Lion King).
"Title character" always refers to a character.
Character actor
A character actor is an actor who plays a particular kind of character in a play, movie, television program, opera or ballet. The character actor is not the main part. He is not the lover or hero. He has a character which helps to support the main characters and therefore the story.
Character roles may be roles such as: the faithful servant, the maid, the villain, the mother-in-law, the priest etc. They may or may not be comic characters.
For example, in "The Wizard of Oz" the main character is Dorothy. The Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man are character roles.
Some actors or singers prefer character roles to main roles. It may be because this kind or role suits their personality or their singing voice. Some people nearly always play the same kind of character role. We say that people like that are "typecast". Some actors are happy to remain typecast. Others may wish to broaden their repertoire and take on different roles.
Giulio Caccini
Giulio Caccini (born Rome, 8 October 1551; died Florence, 10 December 1618), also known as Giulio Romano, was an Italian composer and singer. He lived at the very end of Renaissance period and the beginning of the Baroque period. It was the time when opera was starting, and he was one of the first composers to write an opera. His daughter, Francesca Caccini, also became a composer.
We do not know much about his life. He was born in Rome. His father was a carpenter. He learned to play the lute, the viol and the harp, and soon became known as a singer. In the 1560s, Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence, was impressed with his talent, so he took him to Florence to study.
By 1579, Caccini was singing at the Medici court. He was a tenor, and he was able to accompany himself on the viol or the archlute; he sang at weddings and other important occasions. He worked closely with the Florentine Camerata, a famous group of people who met at the home of Count Giovanni de' Bardi, and tried to bring the tradition of Greek dramatic music back to life. They liked monody, which means a tune with a simple accompaniment. This was different from polyphony in which several things are being sung at once. Monody made it easy to tell a story because the words could be heard clearly. This was necessary for opera, where it became heard in a simple form called recitative.
Caccini went to Rome, but in Rome the musicians were not so interested in change.
Caccini often got involved in arguments because he was envious and jealous. He often got people into trouble, and he rushed his own opera "Euridice" into print before Peri's opera on the same subject could be published, while telling his own singers not to have anything to do with Peri's opera.
He died in Florence and is buried in the church of St. Annunziata.
Free Soil Party
The Free Soil Party was, for a short duration, a political party in the United States. It was active in the 1848 and 1852 president elections, and in some state elections. It got lots of its strength from New York. Most of the important party members were former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its main purpose was stopping slavery from spreading into the western lands, arguing that free men on free soil had a morally and economically better system than slavery. Also, many workers feared that slave labor would take away work for white workers.
The party membership was largely taken over by the Republican Party in 1854.
The Jungle