125 years ago today, Tosca debuted in Rome. A mainstay on opera calendars around the world, Giacomo Puccini’s enduring tale of feminine resilience and defiance in the face of corruption has featured some of the best-known singers in the art. Puccini’s arias in Tosca are some of his finest, and The Three Tenors often featured E Lucevan le stelle (And the stars shone) in their concerts. The story was originally written by a successful French playwright and Puccini felt it was born to be sung. In May of 1887, he wrote to his publisher begging to get the rights to make it into an opera, writing “I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music.” HEAR Tosca’s arias performed by legendary singers… (1900)
Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher, relinquished the rights, and then got them back again. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances. Despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public.
Maria Callas is said to have been the master interpreter of the Tosca character, who in the opera sees her loved one arrested and must suffer the indignation of petitioning for his release from the police captain Scarpia. The captain desires to marry Tosca in return for the release of her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, but gets more than he bargained for. Maria Jeritza was the first to ever perform the marquee aria, Vissi D’arte, Vissi D’amore, from a prone position, and Puccini regarded her as his favorite.
Famous Cavaradossi include Enrico Caruso, the second man to take the role, and Luciano Pavarotti, who performed it as his final as part of a full production.
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Happy 56th Birthday to Dave Grohl. The charming rocker fronts the Foo Fighters, after making his name as a drummer for Nirvana. He also lent his drum kit to the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. In 2010, he was described by Classic Rock Drummers co-author Ken Micallef as one of the most influential rock musicians of the last 20 years. Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Nirvana in 2014 and as a member of Foo Fighters in 2021.
Taking up the guitar at age 12, he remembered a childhood full of musical self-education. “I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We’d meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees,” Grohl once said.
An intrepid musician with rich self-belief, Grohl would continue to record his own material in the margins of the studio time spent with Nirvana’s Chris Novaselic and Kurt Cobain. In the twelve months following Cobain’s death, Grohl played shows with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Pearl Jam, but turned down offers to be the drummer for both.
Instead, he recruited some other musicians like Pat Smear and Nate Mendel to release Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut album, and the band grew into superstars ever since. By 2012, Grohl had amassed a fortune of $260 million, estimated at the time in a Stereogum article to be the third wealthiest drummer in the world, behind Ringo Starr and Phil Collins. (1969)
Happy Birthday to American actress Faye Dunaway, who turns 84 years old today. Born a farm girl in Florida, Dorothy Faye moved to New York and, a half-century ago, shot to stardom as a young starlet alongside Warren Battie in the film release of Bonnie and Clyde.
Dunaway believed her role in Network as a ruthless TV executive who will do anything for higher ratings was “one of the most important female roles to come along in years.” When the film—which is still discussed today due to its almost prophetic take on the television industry—was nominated for ten Oscars—Dunaway won for Best Actress, after two previous nominations.
She later won an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and Emmy, starring in some of the greatest films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Network, Chinatown, and Three Days of the Condor, co-starring Robert Redford.
In 2017, Dunaway reunited with her Bonnie and Clyde co-star Warren Beatty at the 89th Academy Awards, in celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary. She says she she has no intention to retire as an actor: “We live for work. We live for what we do. I just want to keep working. It’s where I’m happiest.”
In 1995, Dunaway co-authored a memoir Looking for Gatsby that earned her great reviews. Entertainment Weekly said, “To read her accounts of her Oscar-nominated performances as the taut, sexy, neurotic femmes fatales of Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and Network is to learn from an expert about the instincts, collaborations, and compromises that go into great film acting.”
386 years ago today, colonists residing in the Connecticut River towns (including Hartford), adopted what some consider to be the first written constitution that created a government. Desiring to unite and “walk peaceably and lovingly together,” they signed the Fundamental Orders, which gave voters and citizens more rights and established Connecticut as a self-ruled colony… That’s why Connecticut’s nickname today is ‘The Constitution State’. (1639)
Photo of Anthony McGill at Lincoln Center by Steven Pisano, CC license335 years ago today, the clarinet was invented in Nuremberg, Germany, by Johann Christoph Denner. The tinkerer added two register keys to the deep-sounding instrument called the chalumeau to create the clarinet, which could play higher notes.
Also made of boxwood, it was given a better mouthpiece (with its own separate reed) and an improved bell. Slowly, the clarinet replaced the use of the chalumeau after more additions which allowed a chromatic scale to be played. Mozart was the first composer to use a clarinet in a symphony, taking advantage of its range and versatility following Denner’s improvements. (1690)
And, Happy 56th Birthday to the first rap superstar, LL Cool J. His debut album, Radio (“I Need a Beat”), went platinum when he was 17, and his 1990 LP, Mama Said Knock You Out, is considered one of the best hip-hop albums of all time.
Born James Todd Smith (he abbreviated his stage name from Ladies Love Cool James), the author, actor, and entrepreneur from Queens, New York began rapping at the age of 9. He was signed by Def Jam at 16 after creating demo tapes with $2,000 worth of turntables and sound equipment bought for him by his grandfather, a jazz saxophonist. Currently the TV host of Lip Sync Battle, in 2017 LL became the first rapper celebrated by The Kennedy Center Honors. He is also the author of I Make My Own Rules, and Platinum 360 Diet and Lifestyle: A Full-Circle Guide to Developing Your Mind, Body, and Soul. (1968)
Also, Happy 55th Birthday to Jason Bateman, film and tv actor known for his roles in Horrible Bosses and the cult TV series Arrested Development. WATCH him break down his top roles… (1969)
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