Here are some historical tidbits that I have been considering as we have been preparing for this recital tour. Some of them are a bit random, but I've found them fascinating as I have been thinking about these composers and poets and the worlds that surrounded them. Digging deeper and deeper into the emotional core of their works, it never ceases to amaze me how little the human experience has changed over the past 550 years.
1469 Lorenzo de’ Medici takes power in Florence
1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti born in Caprese, Italy
1488 Michelangelo apprenticed to the painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, in Florence
1490 – 1492 Michelangelo taken in by Lorenzo de’ Medici
1492 Christopher Columbus sails to the New World
1494 Girolamo Savonarola assumes power from the Medici in Florence
1496 Michelangelo moves to Rome
1498 Savonarola executed by order of Pope Alexander VI in Florence
1499 Michelangelo carves the Pietà
1508 – 1512 Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Niccolò Macchiavelli’s The Prince is published
1533 Elizabeth I born in Greenwich Palace, England
1551 Giulio Caccini is born in Rome, Italy
1559 Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England
1564 Michelangelo dies in Rome, Italy – Cavalieri is at his bedside
1567 Claudio Monteverdi is born in Cremona, Italy
1597 The first opera, Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, produced in Florence
1631 John Dryden Born
1642 – 1651 English Civil War
Charles I beheaded in London
1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes “Lord Protector of the Commonwealth”
1659 Henry Purcell born in London, England
1660 Charles II returns to England from exile
1661 Charles II’s coronation at Westminster Abbey
1679 Purcell becomes Organist of Westminster Abbey
1683 Purcell’s Sonatas in III Parts – his 1st printed work – published
Johann Sebastian Bach born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach
The Bill of Rights passed by English Parliament
Mary II and William III crowned as joint Sovereigns
1691 Purcell composes the music for King Arthur
1692 Purcell composes The Fairy Queen
Mary II dies of smallpox, Purcell commissioned for Funeral Music
1695 Purcell composes The Indian Queen
2nd Version of If Music be the Food of Love published
Purcell dies and is buried next to the organ at Westminster
1698 First Volume of Purcell's Orpheus Britannicus is published
1702 Second Volume of Purcell's Orpheus Britannicus is published
1838 Victoria crowned Queen of the United Kingdom
1840 Thomas Hardy born in Dorchester, Dorset, United Kingdom
1861 Prince Albert dies
1871 Hardy publishes his first novel, Deperate Remedies
1891 Hardy publishes Tess of the d’Urbervilles
1895 Hardy publishes Jude the Obscure
1898 Hardy publishes his first collection of poetry, Wessex Poems
1901 Queen Victoria dies on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
1902 Edward VII’s coronation in Westminster Abbey
1910 Peter Pears born in Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom
Edward VII dies at Windsor Castle, United Kingdom
1911 George V’s coronation in Westminster AbbeyGustav Mahler dies in Vienna, Austria-Hungary
1913 Benjamin Britten born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring premiere causes a riot in Paris
1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary
World War I begins
1917 Russian Empire collapses
1919 Treaty of Versailles is signed
1928 Thomas Hardy dies in Dorchester, Dorset, United Kingdom aged 87
1936 Britten and Pears meet for the first time
Edward VIII abdicates the British Throne to marry Wallis Simpson
1939 Germany invades Poland – World War II begins
Britten and Pears move to the United States
1940 Britten composes Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22
1942 Britten and Pears return to England
1944 The Western Allies invade France
1945 Britten’s opera Peter Grimes premieres at Sadler’s Wells in London
United States drop atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan
World War II ends
1947 The English Opera Group is formed
1953 Britten composes Winter Words, Op. 52
Elizabeth II’s coronation in Westminster Abbey
1961 Britten writes the War Requiem, Op. 66
1973 Britten completes Death in Venice, Op. 88 – his last opera
1975 Janet Baker premieres Britten’s dramatic cantata, Phaedra, Op. 93
1976 Britten dies in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, United Kingdom
1986 Pears dies in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, United Kingdom
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