Word: hahn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most famous fictitious pieces of music in all literature is the "Vinteuil theme" described by Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things Past. Explored and dissected for pages, the theme not only prodded Proust's memory but also helped preserve the memory of Venezuela-born Composer Reynaldo Hahn. A pampered favorite of Parisian society. Hahn was the man on whom Proust modeled the character of Vinteuil, and at his death in 1947, Hahn was remembered chiefly for his friendship with Proust. Last week in Munich's Gärtner Theater, Hahn's little-known operetta, Ciboulette, was drawing...
...Although Hahn wrote Ciboulette in 1923, he gave it an air of jaded elegance characteristic of turn-of-the-century Paris. The libretto, by Dramatist Robert de Flers, was kept deliberately naive-building ironic contrasts between text and music. The plot is constructed around a country girl, Ciboulette, who is in love with a count who is in turn dazzled by an actress. In Act III, the country girl becomes an actress herself and the count's eyes are opened to her beauty...
...last week's excellent production, the libretto seemed dated and fussy. The strength of the evening lay in Hahn's music: iridescent, fresh as a breeze, it sometimes suggested Debussy or Massenet, but never lost its own highly personal charm. Underneath the sophistication, critics found far more real thought than they had ever credited Hahn with before. Said the Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "Behind every note one feels a man with a superb feeling for his time and a handwriting of his very...
...Italian composer Giro Pinsuti experimented with the theme in his Mer-cante di Venezia in 1873. After that there was Deffès' Jessica (1898), Foerster's Jessika (1905), Alpaerts' Shylock (1913), and Hahn's Le Marchand de Venise (1935). The various operatic treatments of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice have one quality in common: they have all but disappeared from the stage. Last week yet another Merchant had arrived-with a good chance of beating the old jinx. The composer: Italy's Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco...
...laws to work in founding Germany's Salem School at Baden-Baden. Headmaster Hahn flourished until Hitler came to power and jailed him for loudly defying Naziism. Britain's Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald petitioned Germany's President Hindenburg, who freed Hahn to go to England. While Salem continued fitfully in other hands, Hahn started a new school at Gordonstoun on the bleakly beautiful Morayshire coast of Scotland...