🔍 MăreșteIn memoriam
Alfred Piccaver (5 February 1884 – 23 September 1958) was a British-American operatic dramatic/spinto tenor. He was particularly noted for his performances as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and other popular mainstream operatic roles.
Alfred Piccaver a adăugat o fotografie
acum 24 minute
Alfred Piccaver (5 February 1884 – 23 September 1958) was a British-American operatic dramatic/spinto tenor. He was particularly noted for his performances as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and other popular mainstream operatic roles.
Alfred Piccaver a adăugat o fotografie
acum 25 minute
Early years Piccaver was born on 5 February 1884 in the Lincolnshire town of Long Sutton to chemist Frederick Herman Piccaver (1864 - 17 February 1916) and his wife Sarah Ann Sissons. The Piccavers had been farm laborers, but there were also claims of Spanish ancestry dating back to the Spanish Armada. At a young age, Alfred emigrated with his family to the United States of America. The family resettled in Albany, NY and took American citizenship. Frederick Piccaver worked as head brewer of the Beverwyck Brewery. Alfred joined the choir of Albany's St. Peter's Episcopal Church as a boy soprano. He also became a soloist at the North Reformed Church in Watervliet. The young Piccaver went on to study voice with S. Graham Nobbes, who had been chief instructor of the Emma Willard Conservatory of Music and with Allan Lindsay, conductor of the Troy Conservatory of Music. Alfred later trained to be electrical engineer but he had a talent for singing and in 1905 he enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Opera. The school's director Heinrich Conried recognised his considerable vocal ability and in 1907 sent the young Alfred to Prague, where he studied with Ludmilla Prochazka-Neumann (1872–1954).
Alfred Piccaver a adăugat o fotografie
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Debut and work in Europe His studies led to a three-year contract with the Deutsches Landes-Theater in Prague where he made his debut on 9 September 1907 in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the following three years, he sang in operas by Flotow, Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Puccini and Gounod. This variety stood him in good stead, because in 1910, he was invited to appear as a guest in Mattia Battistini's touring company that was performing in Prague. He must have impressed Battistini because Piccaver was persuaded to travel with the company to their next venue in Vienna where the Vienna Hofoper showed an interest in him. However, he continued to sing with the Prague company for the remainder of his contract and it was not until 6 September 1912 that he gave his first performance with the Vienna State Opera as a permanent member.
Alfred Piccaver a lăsat un gând
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A star in Vienna Piccaver had a warm, velvety, lyric tenor voice with a fine cantilena style and excellent legato and diction. Later on it became what an English critic has described as 'slack muscled' and acquired a baritonal quality, but in the early years of his prime he was known to the Viennese as 'the Caruso from Prague'. His roles included Rodolfo (Puccini called him 'my ideal Rodolfo'), Cavaradossi, Canio, Radames, Florestan, Lensky and Walther. He made a large number of recordings by both the acoustic and electrical processes and many of these are available on CD reissues. Piccaver loved Vienna and the Viennese way of life, so much so that when the director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, made a lucrative offer for him to appear at the Met, he turned it down. He was never asked again. In return, the Viennese were devoted to 'Picci', as he was affectionately known. When the First World War broke out Piccaver as an American citizen was unaffected, though when the United States joined the war in 1917 he was found trying to leave the country but was spared internment if he agreed to continue singing at…
Alfred Piccaver a lăsat un gând
acum 28 minute
Personal life Piccaver's first marriage was to Baroness Mariette Styrcea (born Marietta Johanny, died 11 Nov 1934), the daughter of an Austrian Lutheran minister. Mariette worked for the Volkstheater company in Vienna. She was still a teenager when she met Piccaver. The union later ended in divorce. In 1926, Piccaver married Ria Günzel, an Austrian dancer. Piccaver for a time had a home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Alfred Piccaver a lăsat un gând
acum 29 minute
Alfred Piccaver at WN Recordings with Alfred Piccaver in the Online Archive of the Österreichischen Mediathek