Wikipedia

Konrad Dryden

Konrad Claude Dryden(born September 13, 1963) is an American author who has written extensively onItalian opera,particularly about the movement known asVerismo.

Konrad Dryden
BornKonrad Claude Dryden
(1963-09-13)September 13, 1963(age 60)
Pasadena, California,U.S.
Occupation
  • Musicologist
  • biographer
  • journalist
Period1990–present
GenreOpera
SpouseCountess Florence de Peyronnet (1991–2007)

Lineage

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Dryden inTorre del Lago,Italy, 1987

Dryden is the son of a British father, Kenneth Dryden (anRAFpilot and descendant of poet laureateJohn Dryden), and a German mother, Ingeborg Rudhart, a descendant ofIgnaz von Rudhart,Prime Minister of Greece under the reign of KingOtto of Greece.His cousin, Karin Seehofer, is married toBavaria's former Minister President and current Federal Minister of the Interior,Horst Seehofer.[1]

Life

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Born inPasadena, California,Dryden moved to Northern California at an early age. In Marin County, he attended St. Rita School and Sir Francis Drake High School (his math teacher being Olympic medalist Archie Williams). Performances at theWar Memorial Opera Housein San Francisco sparked an innate love for the lyric theatre, leading him to train as an operaticbaritoneat theSan Francisco Conservatory of Musicin 1980 with the French-Canadian tenorLéopold Simoneau.[1]

A European resident since 1981, Dryden continued his operatic tuition with the baritoneKarl Schmitt-Walterin Munich, Germany. Schmitt-Walter was noted for his numerous recordings as well as his involvement with the reopening of theBayreuth Festivalafter World War II. Following Schmitt-Walter's death, Dryden, from 1982 to 1983, continued his studies with the American tenorJames King,both in Munich and Salzburg. Thereupon followed a move toFeldafingonLake Starnberg,where Dryden spent the better part of two years working with the German baritoneJosef Metternich.In Italy,mezzo-sopranoGianna Pederzinihelped Dryden to complete his studies with the baritoneGino Bechiin Florence. Bechi, one of Italy's most noted baritones, had sung Alfio in theHMVrecording of Mascagni'sCavalleria rusticanaunder the composer's direction in 1940.[1]

Dryden recorded an album of arias and songs in 1987 (reviewed inDas Orchesterduring the same year) before making his operatic debut in a nationally televised production as Uberto inPergolesi'sLa serva padronain 1988. In 1991, Dryden married the historian Countess Florence de Peyronnet (born 1968). Their son, Werther Claude Dryden, was born in 1991.[1]

Career

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In 1999, Dryden publishedRiccardo Zandonai,A Biography,[2]the first fully documentedmonographdevoted to the composer ofFrancesca da Rimini.Written specifically for this volume were forewords byRenata Scottoas well as the composer's daughter, Tarquinia Jolanda Zandonai. A second biography,Leoncavallo:Life and Works,[3]with a foreword byPlácido DomingoandPiera Leoncavallo,appeared in 2007. An earlier edition, sponsored by Baroness Hildegarde von Münchhausen, who had purchased a large amount of the composer's estate, preceded this in 2007. Following the publication, Dryden took part in a series of interviews recorded for German radio (NDR) and the Bayerische Kammeroper. His most recent biography,Franco Alfano,Transcending Turandot[4](foreword byMagda Olivero), was released in 2010. For these monographs, Dryden himself insisted on translating into English all archival material from German, Italian, and French.[1]

Since the year 2000, Dryden has regularly contributed essays and articles for the following opera houses and concert halls:San Francisco Opera;Royal Opera, Covent Garden;Metropolitan Opera,New York;Teatro Real,Madrid;Concertgebouw,Amsterdam;Gran Teatro del Liceu,Barcelona;Opéra de Paris;San Diego Opera;Wexford Festival Opera;Rome Opera;Deutsche Oper BerlinandEnglish National Opera.He has lectured in the United States, Switzerland and Germany as well as writing articles forOpera Quarterly,CPO Records,Naxos RecordsandDie Musikforschung.Dryden was the subject of a biographical entry in volume 267 ofContemporary Authors,published in 2008.[5]Since the year 2000, Dryden has been a contributing editor of the German music magazineOpernglas[de].During this time, he was noted for numerous interviews dealing with such personalities as Magda Olivero, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sherrill Milnes, Martina Arroyo,Carlisle Floyd,Birgit Nilsson,Astrid Varnay,Wolfgang Wagner,Simonetta Puccini,Inge Borkh,Gina Cigna,Dame Eva Turner,Maria Carbone,Adelaide Saraceni,Virginia ZeaniandAlexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia.Dryden also befriended bestselling authorBarbara Cartland.[1]

Dryden may be credited for advancing musical research in the realm of Italian operatic composers during theFin de sièclethat, until the advent of his works, centered almost exclusively onPuccini.His uncovering of original manuscripts – whether of composersGiacomo Meyerbeerand Ruggiero Leoncavallo or authorE. T. A. Hoffmann– enabled many archives to acquire invaluable material. These findings also helped clear up erroneous historical data found for decades in reference guides, includingThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musiciansand the German music encyclopediaMusik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,among others. Whether it was simply the inaccurate date of Leoncavallo's birth, or that his operaEdipo Rewas solely an adaptation of the earlierDer Roland von Berlinor that hisSardou-basedLa jeunesse de Figaronever existed was, until these publications, relatively, if not completely, unknown.[6][failed verification]Dryden received hisPh.D.in 2003 from theUniversity of Marburg,Germany.[1]From 2004-2018 Dryden was Professor of Humanities at the University of Maryland, University College, Europe.

Works

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  • Riccardo Zandonai, A Biography,1999.ISBN0820436496
  • Leoncavallo: Life and Works,2007.ISBN0810858800
  • Franco Alfano, Transcending Turandot,2010.ISBN0810869705

References

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  1. ^abcdefg"www.konrad-dryden.de".www.konrad-dryden.de.Retrieved2020-02-07.
  2. ^Dryden, Konrad (1999).Riccardo Zandonai, A Biography.Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.ISBN0820436496.
  3. ^Dryden, Konrad (2007).Leoncavallo: Life and Works.Scarecrow Press.ISBN0810858800.
  4. ^Dryden, Konrad (2009).Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot.Scarecrow Press.ISBN0810869705.
  5. ^Contemporary Authors,vol. 267, Gale Publishers 2008.
  6. ^"Off with the motley"by R. J. Stove, a review ofLeoncavallo: Life and WorksinThe New Criterion,vol. 26, no. 10, June 2008

Sources

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  • Alan Mallach,The Autumn of Italian Opera,Northeastern University Press, 2007.
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