ALFREDO KRAUS TRUJILLO, 'POURQUOI ME RÉVEILLER?'

Arriving to The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, Las Palmas

After visiting Maspalomas, The Grandma and her friends are going to go to The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, built in 1997 to homage the Canary tenor.

The Grandma loves opera and she likes Alfredo Kraus a lot. It is an enormous pleasure for her to visit this emblematic place and to remember who is considered one of the best tenors of the end of the 20th century. She will never forget Alfredo Kraus's performances in the Liceu in Barcelona.

Before going to the opera, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 29).

More information: It and There

Alfredo Kraus Trujillo (24 November 1927-10 September 1999) was a distinguished Spanish tenor from the Canary Islands, known professionally as Alfredo Kraus, particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles. He was also considered an outstanding interpreter of the title role in Massenet's opera Werther, and especially of its famous aria, Pourquoi me réveiller?

Kraus was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His father was Austrian and his mother was Canarian. He began his musical career with piano lessons at the age of four, and he sang in the school choir by age eight. His older brother, Francisco Kraus Trujillo, a baritone, studied music and opera alongside him.

Alfredo Kraus

After refining his technique singing Spanish zarzuela on stage in Madrid and Barcelona, Kraus made his professional opera debut in Cairo during 1956 as the Duke in Rigoletto, which became one of his signature roles.

In 1958, he sang Alfredo at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon in a production of La traviata with Maria Callas, a live recording of which was later released.

Kraus made his Covent Garden debut as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959 and his La Scala debut as Elvino in La sonnambula in 1960. He made his American debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1962, and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1966 in Rigoletto, the role of his last performance there in 1994.

In subsequent decades, Kraus extended his repertoire to include more Italian operas such as Lucrezia Borgia, La fille du régiment, Linda di Chamounix, Don Pasquale and La favorita by Donizetti; and French operas such as Roméo et Juliette, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Faust and Lakmé, while continuing to sing his hallmark roles of Werther and of Des Grieux in Manon.

More information: Gran Canaria

He also recorded a number of rarely performed French operas including La jolie fille de Perth and Les pêcheurs de perles, both by Georges Bizet, and La muette de Portici by Daniel Auber. He also performed in some very well known works, such as Don Giovanni and Faust.

Kraus came to be virtually synonymous with such lyric tenor roles as Werther, Faust, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Nemorino, and Arturo. He was also known for his performances of Spanish music, notably many classics from the zarzuela repertoire, which he continued to perform live on stage in Spain until the end of his career, and many of which he recorded complete for EMI Spain as well as for his own label, Carillon.

Callas & Kraus, La Traviata, Lisbon

Thanks to his superlative technique and careful husbanding of his vocal resources, Kraus sang onstage until his early 70s. He studied voice technique in Milan with Mercedes Llopart.

Kraus was also noted for extremely refined musicianship, accompanied by a seemingly effortless high register.

As a result, many opera connoisseurs consider him to be one of the best tenors of the end of the 20th century. He was admired for his cultivated musical education and his complete respect for his chosen profession.

His first priority was the integrity of his artistic interpretation of a piece, rather than his formidable range and excellent technique.

He performed all over the world, including the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Municipal in Caracas, Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, and the Liceu in Barcelona.

In 1997, his home city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria opened The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in his honor.

The loss of his wife in 1997 affected Kraus so deeply that he stopped performing for eight months. A proud and strong-willed man, he eventually returned to the stage and to teaching. He said, I don't have the will for singing but I must do it, because, in a sense, it is a sign that I have overcome the tragedy. Singing is a form of admitting that I'm alive.

Kraus died on 10 September 1999 in Madrid, at the age of 71, after a long illness.

More information: Auditorio Teatro Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

You have to make a choice when you start to sing

and decide whether you want to service the music,

and be at the top of your art,

or if you want to be a very popular tenor.

Alfredo Kraus

LAS PALMAS, ENJOY THE BEST CLIMATE IN THE WORLD

Visiting Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Today, The Grandma and her friends are visiting Las Palmas, the capital city of Gran Canaria.  

Las Palmas is a beautiful city and the friends have been taken some photos for their own digital albums.

Before visiting Las Palmas, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 26).

More information: Relative Clauses II

Las Palmas, officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a city and capital of Gran Canaria island, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean.

It is the capital jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the most populous city in the Canary Islands.

Las Palmas is located in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, about 150 km off the Moroccan coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Las Palmas experiences a hot desert climate, offset by the local cooler Canary Current, with warm temperatures throughout the year. It has an average annual temperature of 21.2 °C.

According to a study carried out by Thomas Whitmore, director of research on climatology at Syracuse University in the U.S., Las Palmas enjoys the best climate in the world.

Jordi Santanyí visits Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The city was founded in 1478, and considered the de facto without legal recognition capital of the Canary Islands until the seventeenth century.

It is the home of the Canarian Ministry of Presidency, shared in a four-year term with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as well as half of the ministries and boards of the Canarian government, and the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.

The city was founded by Juan Rejón on 24 June 1478, with the name Real de Las Palmas. Rejón was head of the invading Castilian army, which then engaged in war with the locals.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the port of Las Palmas and spent some time on the island on his first trip to the Americas. The Colón House museum in the Vegueta area of the city is named after him.

In 1595, Francis Drake tried to plunder the town, leading to the Battle of Las Palmas. A Dutch raid under vice-admiral Pieter van der Does in 1599 was only slightly more successful; some of the town was destroyed, but the raiders were repelled.

More information: Gran Canaria

Las Palmas' seaport, Puerto de la Luz, known internationally as La Luz port, benefited greatly from the closure of the Suez Canal during the Suez Crisis. Many foreign workers migrated to the city at this time.

Las Palmas is a sister city of San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, which was founded in 1718 by about 25 Canary Islanders.

Las Palmas is divided into five administrative districts, which in turn are subdivided into districts, not necessarily consistent with the traditional neighborhoods: Vegueta, Cono Sur y Tafira; Centro; La Isleta-Puerto-Canteras; Ciudad Alta and Tamaraceite-San Lorenzo. 

Las Palmas has a desert climate with warm dry summers and warm enough winters to classify it as a Tropical climate.  

Joseph contemplates some statues in Las Palmas

Its average annual temperature is 21.2 °C-28 °C during the day and 18 °C at night. 

In January, the coldest month, the temperature typically ranges from 19 to 23 °C, and sometimes higher during the day, and around 15 to 16 °C at night, with an average sea temperature at 20 °C. In the warmest months -August and September- the temperature typically ranges from 27 to 30 °C during the day, above 21 °C at night, with the average sea temperature at 23 °C. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare.

August 1990 was the warmest month on record, with the average maximum temperature of the month during the day being 30.6 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded was 44.2 °C, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was 9.4 °C. The highest wind speed ever recorded was on 28 November 2005, measuring 113 km/h. Las Palmas city has never recorded any snow or sleet.

More information: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Annual average relative humidity is 66%, ranging from 64% in March to 69% in October. The amount of annual sunshine hours is above 2,800 per year, from around 190 in winter, average of 6 hours a day, to around 300 in summer, average of 10 hours a day. It rains on average only 22 days a year, with total precipitation per year of only 151 mm.

Las Palmas offers a variety of theater, cinema, opera, concerts, visual arts and dance performances. The city hosts the Canary Islands Music Festival, the Theatre and Dance and the International Film Festival. The main City Festival, celebrating the foundation of the City Fiestas de San Juan is held in June. The Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is known worldwide, and is one of the main attractions for tourists.

The city center of Las Palmas, specifically the Vegueta and Triana neighbourhoods, are included in the tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

More information: Visit Canary Islands

Happiness is actually found in simple things,

such as taking my nephew around the island by bicycle 

or seeing the stars at night.

Andrea Hirata