1. Arnold George Dorsey (born 2 May 1936 in Madras, India) is a pop singer of the 1950s-present. Of Anglo Indian ethnicity, he was raised in Leicester, England and adopted the stage name Engelbert Humperdinck, after the German composer best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel (1893). The son of a British engineer and the youngest boy in a family of ten children, he moved to England at the age of 10. Growing up, he wanted to be a bandleader. But, things went in a different direction and, at 17, he sang on a public stage for the first time. At this point, he decided to use the name Gerry Dorsey as his professional name and he became quite popular working around the United Kingdom until his progress was interrupted by a stint in the military. He returned and picked up where he had left off but a bout with tuberculosis took him out of the scene again. When he was finally ready to re-start his career again, at the suggestion of his manager, he decided it would be a good idea to re-emerge with a new image and, thus, Engelbert Humperdinck was born. Dubbed music’s “King Of Romance,” the multiple Grammy nominee with the ultra-smooth three and one half octave range has sold over 150 million records worldwide, including 64 gold and 24 platinum albums and is currently marking four decades since he first entered the American pop charts with his smash hit “Release Me (And Let Me Love Again).” The song went to # 1 in eleven countries and it was so big in the United Kingdom that it managed to prevent The Beatles’ two-sided hit “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever” from reaching the top of the charts. The next decade brought such hits as “After the Lovin’,” “Winter World Of Love,” “Am I That Easy To Forget,” “The Last Waltz,” “There Goes My Everything,” “Les Bicyclettes De Belsize” and “A Man Without Love.” He has now recorded almost 80 albums including many multi-language versions. This singer extraordinaire, whose music is instantly recognizable, has withstood the test of time with his sensitive interpretation of lyrics. But he has never limited himself to just one genre having recorded everything from movie themes to disco, rock and even gospel. He is also extremely proud of the fact that he has been able to use his fame to help raise funds for numerous charitable causes. Engelbert has performed for Her Majesty the Queen, several Presidents and many heads of state. In 1978 he received a “Georgie Award” from the American Guild of Variety Artists recognizing him as “Entertainer of the Year.” Other “Georgie” winners over the years include Johnny Carson, Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow. In 1989 he joined the elite performers from the worlds of Movies, Television and Music when he was honored with a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fam 2. Engelbert Humperdinck (1 September 1854 – 27 September 1921) was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province His reputation rests chiefly on his opera Hänsel und Gretel, which he began work on in Frankfurt in 1890. He first composed four songs to accompany a puppet show his nieces were giving at home. Then, using a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette rather loosely based on the version of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, he composed a Singspiel of 16 songs with piano accompaniment and connecting dialogue. By January 1891 he had begun working on a complete orchestration. The opera premiered in Weimar on December 23, 1893, under he baton of Richard Strauss, who called it “a masterpiece of the highest quality… all of it original, new, and so authentically German.” With its highly original synthesis of Wagnerian techniques and traditional German folk songs, Hänsel und Gretel was an instant and overwhelming success. Hänsel und Gretel has always been Humperdinck’s most popular work. In 1923 the Royal Opera House (London) chose it for their first complete radio opera broadcast. Eight years later it was the first opera transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera (New York). It remains a worldwide favorite. |
|
 | ||||||||||||||||
