1.
Bayreuth Festival
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The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagner enthusiasts, who often must wait years to obtain tickets. The origins of the Festival itself lie rooted in Richard Wagners interest in establishing his financial independence, a souring of the relationship with his patron, Ludwig II of Bavaria, led to his expulsion from Munich, where he had originally intended to launch the festival. Wagner next considered Nuremberg, which would have reinforced the significance of works such as Die Meistersinger. On the advice of Hans Richter, however, the focus fell upon Bayreuth which enjoyed three distinct advantages, first, the town boasted a splendid venue, the Markgräfliches Opernhaus built for Margrave Frederick and his wife, Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine in 1747. With its ample capacity and strong acoustics, the house was a good match for Wagners vision. Finally, the town had no cultural life that could offer competition to Wagners own artistic dominance, the Festival, once launched, would be the dominant feature of Bayreuths cultural landscape. In April 1870, Wagner and his wife Cosima visited Bayreuth, on inspection, the Opera House proved to be inadequate. It was built to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the 18th century and was unsuited for the complex stagings. Nonetheless, the Burgermeisters proved open to assisting Wagner with the construction of a new theatre. After a fruitless meeting in the spring of 1871 with the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to obtain funds, Wagner embarked on a tour across Germany, including Leipzig. Societies were established, among other places, in Leipzig, Berlin, despite making direct appeals based on Wagners role as a composer of the new German Reich, the Societies and other fundraising channels were well short of the needed sum by the end of 1872. Wagner made another appeal to Bismarck in August 1873 and was again denied, desperate, Wagner turned to his former patron, Ludwig II who reluctantly agreed to help. In January 1874, Ludwig granted 100,000 Thaler and construction on the theatre, designed by architect Gottfried Semper, a planned 1875 debut was postponed for a year due to construction and other delays. Since its opening in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has been a socio-cultural phenomenon, the inauguration took place on 13 August 1876, with a performance of Das Rheingold. Artistically, the festival was a success, financially, however, the festival was a disaster and did not begin to make money until several years later. Wagner abandoned his plan to hold a second festival the following year
2.
Bayreuth
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Bayreuth is a sizeable town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The towns roots date back to 1194, in the early 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,576. It is world-famous for its annual Bayreuth Festival, at performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. The town is believed to have founded by the counts of Andechs probably around the mid-12th century. The syllable -rute may mean Rodung or clearing, whilst Baier- indicates immigrants from the Bavarian region, already documented earlier, were villages later merged into Bayreuth, Seulbitz and St. Johannis. Even the district of Altstadt west of the centre must be older than the town of Bayreuth itself. Even older traces of human presence were found in the hamlets of Meyernberg, pieces of pottery, while Bayreuth was previously referred to as a villa, the term civitas appeared for the first time in a document published in 1231. One can therefore assume that Bayreuth was awarded its town charter between 1200 and 1230, the town was ruled until 1248 by the counts of Andechs-Merania. After they died out in 1260 the burgraves of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern took over the inheritance, initially, however, their residence and the centre of the territory was the castle of Plassenburg in Kulmbach. The town of Bayreuth developed slowly and was affected time and again by disasters, as early as 1361 Emperor Charles IV had conferred on Burgrave Frederick V the right to mint coins for the towns of Bayreuth and Kulmbach. Bayreuth was first published on a map in 1421, in February 1430, the Hussites devastated Bayreuth and the town hall and churches were razed. In 1605 a great fire, caused by negligence, destroyed 137 of the towns 251 houses, in 1620 plague broke out and, in 1621, there was another big fire in the town. The town also suffered during the Thirty Years War, the first Hohenzollern palace was built in 1440-1457 under Margrave John the Alchemist. It was the forerunner of todays Old Palace and was expanded and renovated many times, the development of the new capital stagnated due to the Thirty Years War, but afterwards many famous baroque buildings were added to the town. After Christians death in 1655 his grandson, Christian Ernest, followed him and he was an educated and well-travelled man, whose tutor had been the statesman Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He founded the Christian-Ernestinum Grammar School and, in 1683, participated in the liberation of Vienna which had been besieged by the Turks. To commemorate this feat, he had the Margrave Fountain built as a monument on which he is depicted as the victor of the Turks, during this time, the outer ring of the town wall and the castle chapel were built. In 1705 he founded the Order of Sincerity, which was renamed in 1734 to the Order of the Red Eagle and had the church built
3.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Gottfried Semper
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Gottfried Semper was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture, who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the May Uprising in Dresden and was put on the wanted list. Semper fled first to Zürich and later to London, later he returned to Germany after the 1862 amnesty granted to the revolutionaries. Semper designed works at all scales, from a baton for Richard Wagner to major urban interventions like the re-design of the Ringstraße in Vienna, Semper was born into a well-to-do industrialist family in Altona. The fifth of eight children, he attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg before starting his university education at Göttingen in 1823 and he subsequently studied architecture in 1825 at the University of Munich under Friedrich von Gärtner. In 1826, Semper travelled to Paris in order to work for the architect Franz Christian Gau, between 1830 and 1833 he travelled to Italy and Greece in order to study the architecture and designs of antiquity. In 1832 he participated for four months in archaeological research at the Acropolis in Athens, the drawn reconstructions of the painterly decorations of ancient villas he created in Athens inspired his later designs for the painted decorations in Dresden and Vienna. The flourishing growth of Dresden during this period provided the young architect with considerable creative opportunities, in 1838-40 a synagogue was built in Dresden to Sempers design, it was ever afterward called the Semper Synagogue and is noted for its Moorish Revival interior style. The Synagogues exterior was built in romanesque style so as not to call attention to itself, the interior design included not only the Moorish inspired wall decorations, but furnishings, specifically, a silver lamp of eternal light, which caught Richard Wagner and his wife Cosimas fancy. They gave a great deal of effort to have a copy of this lamp, Sempers student, Otto Simonson would construct the magnificent Moorish Revival Leipzig synagogue in 1855. Certain civic structures remain today, such as the Elbe-facing gallery of the Zwinger Palace complex and his first building for the Dresden Hoftheater burnt down, and the second, today called the Semperoper, was built in 1841. Other buildings also remain indelibly attached to his name, such as the Maternity Hospital, the Synagogue, the Oppenheim Palace, and this last construction stands as a prototype of German villa architecture. On September 1,1835 Semper married Bertha Thimmig, the marriage ultimately produced six children. A convinced Republican, Semper took a role, along with his friend Richard Wagner. He was a member of the Civic Guard and helped to erect barricades in the streets, when the rebellion collapsed, Semper was considered a leading agitator for democratic change and a ringleader against government authority and he was forced to flee the city. He was destined never to return to the city that would, ironically, the Saxon government maintained a warrant for his arrest until 1863. When the Semper-designed Hoftheater burnt down in 1869, King John, on the urging of the citizenry, Semper produced the plans, but left the actual construction to his son, Manfred. What must I have done in 48, that one persecutes me forever, one single barricade did I construct - it held, because it was practical, and as it was practical, it was beautiful, wrote Semper in dismay
6.
Opera house
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An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
7.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
8.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
9.
Ludwig II of Bavaria
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Ludwig II was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or der Märchenkönig and he also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, and Duke in Swabia. He succeeded to the throne aged 18, two years later Bavaria and Austria fought a war against Prussia, which they lost. However, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 Bavaria sided with Prussia against France and he commissioned the construction of two lavish palaces and the Neuschwanstein Castle, and was a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig spent all his royal revenues on these projects, borrowed extensively and this extravagance was used against him to declare him insane, an accusation which has since come under scrutiny. Today, his architectural and artistic legacy includes many of Bavarias most important tourist attractions, born in Nymphenburg Palace, he was the elder son of Maximilian II of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach, and his wife Princess Marie of Prussia. His younger brother, born three years later, was named Otto, like many young heirs in an age when kings governed most of Europe, Ludwig was continually reminded of his royal status. King Maximilian wanted to both of his sons in the burdens of royal duty from an early age. Ludwig was both extremely indulged and severely controlled by his tutors and subjected to a regimen of study. There are some who point to these stresses of growing up in a family as the causes for much of his odd behavior as an adult. Ludwig was not close to either of his parents, King Maximilians advisers had suggested that on his daily walks he might like, at times, to be accompanied by his future successor. The King replied, But what am I to say to him, after all, my son takes no interest in what other people tell him. Later, Ludwig would refer to his mother as my predecessors consort and he was far closer to his grandfather, the deposed and notorious King Ludwig I, who came from a family of eccentrics. Ludwigs childhood years did have happy moments and he lived for much of the time at Castle Hohenschwangau, a fantasy castle his father had built near the Alpsee near Füssen. It was decorated in the Gothic Revival style with frescoes depicting heroic German sagas. The family also visited Lake Starnberg, as an adolescent, Ludwig became close friends with his aide de camp, Prince Paul, a member of Bavarias wealthy Thurn und Taxis family. The two young men together, read poetry aloud, and staged scenes from the Romantic operas of Richard Wagner. The friendship ended when Paul became engaged in 1866, during his youth Ludwig also initiated a lifelong friendship with his cousin, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, later Empress of Austria
10.
Cornerstone
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The rite of laying a cornerstone is an important cultural component of eastern architecture and metaphorically in sacred architecture generally. Some cornerstones include time capsules from, or engravings commemorating, the time a building was built. Often, the ceremony involved the placing of offerings of grain, wine and these were symbolic of the produce and the people of the land and the means of their subsistence. This in turn derived from the practice in more ancient times of making an animal or human sacrifice that was laid in the foundations. The object of the sacrifice is to give strength and stability to the building and it is believed that the man will die within the year. Not long ago there were still shadow-traders whose business it was to provide architects with the necessary for securing their walls. In these cases the measure of the shadow is looked on as equivalent to the shadow itself, and to bury it is to bury the life or soul of the man, who, deprived of it, must die. Ancient Japan legends talk about Hitobashira, in which maidens were buried alive at the base or near some constructions as a prayer to ensure the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks and this person is usually asked to place their hand on the stone or otherwise signify its laying. Often still, and certainly until the 1970s, most ceremonies involved the use of a manufactured and engraved trowel that had a formal use in laying mortar under the stone. Similarly, a hammer was often used to ceremonially tap the stone into place. Freemasons sometimes perform the public cornerstone laying ceremony for notable buildings and this ceremony was described by The Cork Examiner of 13 January 1865 as follows. After this, Bishop Gregg spread cement over the stone with a specially made for the occasion by John Hawkesworth, a silversmith. He then gave the stone three knocks with a mallet and declared the stone to be duly and truly laid, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Munster poured offerings of corn, oil and wine over the stone after Bishop Gregg had declared it to be duly and truly laid. The Provincial Grand Chaplain of the Masonic Order in Munster then read out the prayer, May the Great Architect of the universe enable us as successfully to carry out. The choir and congregation sang the Hundredth Psalm. In Freemasonry, which grew from the practice of stonemasons, the initiate is placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge as a foundation stone. This is intended to signify the unity of the North associated with darkness, a cornerstone will sometimes be referred to as a foundation-stone, and is symbolic of Christ, whom the Apostle Paul referred to as the head of the corner and is the Chief Cornerstone of the Church. Many of the ancient churches will place relics of the saints, especially martyrs
11.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
12.
Reverberation
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Reverberation, in psychoacoustics and acoustics, is the persistence of sound after a sound is produced. This is most noticeable when the sound source stops but the reflections continue, decreasing in amplitude, until they reach zero amplitude. In comparison to an echo that is a minimum of 50 to 100 ms after the initial sound. As time passes, the amplitude of the reflections is reduced until it is reduced to zero, Reverberation is not limited to indoor spaces as it exists in forests and other outdoor environments where reflection exists. Reverberation occurs naturally when a person sings, talks or plays an instrument acoustically in a hall or performance space with sound-reflective surfaces. The sound of reverberation is often added to the vocals of singers in live sound systems. The time it takes for a signal to drop by 60 dB is the reverberation time, RT60 is the time required for reflections of a direct sound to decay 60 dB. Reverberation time is stated as a single value, if measured as a wide band signal, however, being frequency dependent. Being frequency dependent, the time measured in narrow bands will differ depending on the frequency band being measured. For precision, it is important to know what ranges of frequencies are being described by a time measurement. In the late 19th century, Wallace Clement Sabine started experiments at Harvard University to investigate the impact of absorption on the reverberation time. Using a portable wind chest and organ pipes as a sound source and he found that the reverberation time is proportional to room dimensions and inversely proportional to the amount of absorption present. The optimum reverberation time for a space in which music is played depends on the type of music that is to be played in the space, rooms used for speech typically need a shorter reverberation time so that speech can be understood more clearly. If the reflected sound from one syllable is still heard when the syllable is spoken. Cat, Cab, and Cap may all sound very similar, if on the other hand the reverberation time is too short, tonal balance and loudness may suffer. Reverberation effects are used in studios to add depth to sounds. Reverberation changes the perceived spectral structure of a sound, but does not alter the pitch, basic factors that affect a rooms reverberation time include the size and shape of the enclosure as well as the materials used in the construction of the room. Every object placed within the enclosure can also affect this time, including people
13.
Auditorium
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An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theatres, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens, auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and theaters, and may be used for rehearsal, presentation, performing arts productions, or as a learning space. The audience in a theatre are usually separated from the performers by the proscenium arch. The price charged for seats in each part of the auditorium usually varies according to the quality of the view of the stage. The seating areas can include some or all of the following, Stalls, orchestra or arena, balconies or galleries, one or more raised seating platforms towards the rear of the auditorium. In larger theatres, multiple levels are stacked vertically above or behind the stalls, the first level is usually called the dress circle or grand circle. The highest platform, or upper circle is known as the gods, especially in large opera houses, where the seats can be very high. Boxes, generally placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage and they are often separate rooms with an open viewing area which generally seat only a handful of people. These seats are considered the most prestigious of the house. A state box or royal box is provided for dignitaries. Seating arrangement, Seating arrangements in a seating layout will either be identified as “multiple-aisle” or “continental. ”These terms are commonly found in design standards manuals, building codes. Each size is unique, with specific guidelines governing row size, row spacing, basically, a multiple-aisle arrangement will have a maximum of 14-16 chairs per row with access to an aisle-way at both ends. In a continental arrangement, all seats are located in a central section, here the maximum quantity of chairs per row can greatly exceed the limits established in a multiple-aisle arrangement. In order to compensate for the length of rows allowed, building codes will require wider row spacing, wider aisles. Although it would seem like more space is called for, a seating plan is often not any less efficient than a multiple-aisle arrangement. In fact, if it’s carefully planned, an arrangement can frequently accommodate more seating within the same space. In other countries, sports venues have luxury boxes, where access is open to anyone who can afford tickets, auditorium Building List of concert halls Music venue Noise mitigation Smoking ban Concert hall acoustics on-line exhibition
14.
Proscenium
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The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same. It can be considered as a construct which divides the actors. But since the curtain comes down just behind the proscenium arch, it has a physical reality when the curtain is down. A proscenium stage is different from a thrust stage or an arena stage. Skene is the Greek word for the tent, and later building, at the back of the stage from which actors entered, in the Hellenistic period it became an increasingly large and elaborate stone structure, often with three storeys. In Greek theatre, which unlike Roman included painted scenery, the proskenion might also carry scenery, in the Greek and Roman theatre, no proscenium arch existed, in the modern sense, and the acting space was always fully in the view of the audience. Modern halls designed mainly for orchestral music often adopt similar arrangements, the oldest surviving indoor theatre of the modern era, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the first example of a proscenium theatre. The Teatro Olimpico was a reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It has a plain proscaenium at the front of the stage, dropping to the level, now usually containing stalls seating. However, the Teatro Olimpicos exact replication of the open and accessible Roman stage was the rather than the rule in sixteenth-century theatre design. Engravings suggest that the arch was already in use as early as 1560 at a production in Siena. The earliest true proscenium arch to survive in a permanent theatre is the Teatro Farnese in Parma, Parma has a clearly defined arco scenico—more like a picture frame than an arch, but serving the same purpose—outlining the stage and separating the audience from the action on-stage. While the proscenium arch became an important feature of the traditional European theatre, often becoming very large and elaborate, what the Romans would have called the proscaenium is, in modern theatres with orchestra pits, normally painted black in order that it does not draw attention. In this early modern recreation of a Roman theatre confusion seems to have introduced to the use of the revived term in Italian. There is no evidence at all for this assumption, the Italian word for a scaenae frons is proscenio, a major change from Latin. It would also be possible to retain the classical frons scaenae. The Italian arco scenico has been translated as proscenium arch, the result is that in this theatre the architectural spaces for the audience and the action. Are distinct in treatment yet united by their juxtaposition, no proscenium arch separates them, a proscenium arch creates a window around the scenery and performers. A proscenium theatre layout also simplifies the hiding and obscuring of objects from the audiences view, anything that is not meant to be seen is simply placed outside the window created by the proscenium arch, either in the wings or in the flyspace above the stage
15.
Thaler
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The thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in the many currencies called dollar and, until recently and this original Bohemian thaler carried a lion, from the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Bohemia, on its reverse side. Etymologically, Thal is German for valley - a thaler is a person or a thing from the valley, the Czech spelling was tolar, many varieties of the term are used in different languages. In the 1902 spelling reform, the German spelling was changed from Thal and Thaler to Tal and Taler, the roots and development of the thaler-sized silver coin date back to the mid-15th century. In 1474 a 9-gram lira was issued but it was in 1484 that Archduke Sigismund of Tirol issued the first truly revolutionary silver coin and this was a very rare coin, almost a trial piece, but it did circulate so successfully that demand could not be met. Finally, with the silver deposits—being mined at Schwaz—to work with and his mint at Hall, Sigismund issued, in 1486, large numbers of the first true thaler-sized coin, the Guldengroschen, nicknamed the guldiner, was an instant and unqualified success. Soon it was being copied widely by many states who had the necessary silver, by 1518, guldiners were popping up everywhere in central Europe. Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary, was portrayed on the coin along with the Bohemian lion, similar coins began to be minted in neighbouring valleys rich in silver deposits, each named after the particular thal or valley from which the silver was extracted. There were soon so many of them that these coins began to be known more widely as thaler in German. From these earliest thaler developed the new thaler – the coin that the Holy Roman Empire had been looking to create as a standard for trade between the regions of Europe, the original Joachimsthaler Guldengroschen was one ounce in weight. The Empires Reichstaler was defined as containing 400.99 grains of silver, in the 17th century, some Joachimsthalers were in circulation in the Tsardom of Russia, where they were called yefimok - a distortion of the first half of the name. The zenith of thaler minting occurred in the late 16th and 17th centuries with the so-called multiple thalers, the first were minted in Brunswick, and indeed the majority were struck there. Some of these coins reached colossal size, as much as sixteen normal thalers, the original reason for minting these colossal coins, some of which exceeded a full pound of silver and being over 12 cm in diameter, is uncertain. The name löser most likely was derived from a gold coin minted in Hamburg called the Portugalöser. Some of the silver löser reached this value, but not all, eventually the term was applied to numerous similar coins worth more than a single thaler. These coins are rare, the larger ones often costing tens of thousands of dollars. Few circulated in any real sense so they remain in well-preserved condition. In the Holy Roman Empire, the thaler was used as the standard against which the various states currencies could be valued, one standard also adopted by Prussia was the Reichsthaler, which contained 1⁄14 of a Cologne mark of silver
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Sultan
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Sultan is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority, rulership, derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate. A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah, but Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, because Turkish grammar uses the same words for women and men. However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans, in a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall. The female leaders in Muslim history are known as sultanas. Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Raja Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess. Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law and these are generally secondary titles, either lofty poetry or with a message, e. g. g. Sultan ul-Mujahidin as champion of jihad, ghaznavid Sultanate Sultans of Great Seljuk Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli Elisu Sultanate and a few others. A Sultan ranked below a Khan and this usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as sultan, but Ottomans themselves used padişah or hünkar to refer to their ruler, the emperors formal title consisted of sultan together with khan. In formal address, the children were also entitled sultan, with imperial princes carrying the title before their given name. Example, Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan, son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title sultan. In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty elected by clans, the best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai. See ru, Казахские султаны In a number of states under Mongol or Turkic rule. These administrations were often decimal, using originally princely titles such as khan, malik, in the Persian empire, the rank of sultan was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West, socially in the fifth-rank class, styled Ali Jah
17.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
18.
Orchestra pit
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An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required, the conductor is typically positioned at the front of the orchestral pit facing the stage. An orchestra pit can be any size, but it is big enough to fit a small sized orchestra or other small ensemble. Many orchestra pits are designed to have reasonably low decibel levels. Typically, a platform in the pit accommodates the conductor, so that he or she can be seen by all of the musicians. Most pits are designed as a lift, jackscrew lift, locking chain lift, rack and pinion lift. The lift can usually be lowered all the way to a space under the stage, or halfway to floor level. When lowered all the way, the lift can be filled with equipment or props from underneath the stage, the pit can be raised so it is level with the floor of the audience seats to accommodate more seating area. This is common when the stage is being used for a rock show, when the pit is raised all the way up, level with the stage, it can be used as part of the stage to give more room for larger shows. Having a lift set up this way gives the theatre much more flexibility and ability to adapt to different events that occur in the theatre and it allows many different setups, each one personal to certain types of productions. Earlier in theatre history from 1500-1650 the orchestra pit was also called the yard and it was generally very crowded and hard to see the full stage. The amount of space in the yard varied with different stages, everyone else would sit in the normal seating where the whole stage was visible. Since then the pit has been changed and enhanced to work better with modern theatre. Now orchestra pits are designed much better and have a lot of different uses and this way the director of the orchestra is able to see what is happening on stage and has a better feel for when to start and stop the music. Sometimes there are very precise cues that director needs to give for certain sound effects, before the 19th century the conductor stood at the stage edge, facing the audience and orchestra, with his back toward the onstage performers as shown in the Palais Garnier orchestra pit plan. During the late 19th century the typical conductor location changed, now the conductor stands in front of the first row of audience, with his back to the audience, facing the orchestra and facing the performers on stage. Musical theater Opera Orchestra Pit orchestra
19.
Parsifal
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Parsifal is an opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival, Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was Wagners last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, the Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel, at Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there be no applause after the first act of the opera. Wagner first read von Eschenbachs poem Parzival while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845, after encountering Arthur Schopenhauers writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in oriental philosophies, especially Buddhism. Out of this interest came Die Sieger a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of Buddha, the themes which were later explored in Parsifal of self-renouncing, reincarnation, compassion, and even exclusive social groups were first introduced in Die Sieger. The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April, full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolframs Parzival. The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendoncks cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich. If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in Mein Leben was accurately dated, it could settle the issue once and for all, Wagner did not resume work on Parsifal for eight years, during which time he completed Tristan und Isolde and began Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven, during this time most of Wagners creative energy was devoted to the Ring cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on Parsifal. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, in September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these was made in pencil on three staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments, the second complete draft was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration. The Gesamtentwurf of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879, the full score was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a copy of the entire opera, with all the voices. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878, the rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
21.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
22.
Die Feen
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Die Feen is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. The German libretto was written by the composer after Carlo Gozzis La donna serpente, Die Feen was Wagners first completed opera, but remained unperformed in his lifetime. It has never established itself firmly in the operatic repertory although it receives occasional performances, on stage or in concert, the opera is available on CD and in a DVD. The overture has been separately recorded, although the music of Die Feen shows the influences of Carl Maria von Weber and other composers of the time, commentators have recognised embryonic features of the mature Wagnerian opera. The fantasy plot also anticipates themes such as redemption that were to reappear in his later works, Die Feen was Wagners first completed opera, composed in 1833, when he was 20 years old and working as a part-time chorus master in Würzburg. He gave it the description of Grosse romantische Oper, the year before he started composition, Wagner had abandoned his first attempt at writing an opera, Die Hochzeit. There were a number of facing new German-language opera in the 1830s. First there was deemed to be a lack of good quality libretti to set and this may have influenced Wagners decision to write the libretto for Die Feen himself. Second, there was a fear among the authorities in Germany and Austria that the performance of operas in German would attract nationalist and this would have added to the difficulties faced by a novice composer seeking an opportunity for his new opera to be performed. Although Gozzis La donna serpente was the source for Wagners plot, the libretto also introduced a fantastic theme that was not in the original play. The libretto displays themes and patterns that were to recur in Wagners more mature works and these include redemption, a mysterious stranger demanding that their lover not ask their name, and long expository narratives. Wagner revised the score of Die Feen in 1834, when he hoped for a production, among the changes in the 1834 version was the rewriting from scratch of Adas grand scene Weh mir, so nah die fürchterliche Stunde. However, it remained unperformed during his lifetime, Wagner personally gave the original manuscript of Die Feen to King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The manuscript was given as a gift to Adolf Hitler. A draft, in Wagners hand, of dialogue he wrote to substitute for some of the recitatives, is in the Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library. Die Feen was premiered in Munich on 29 June 1888 with a cast including several singers who had created roles in Wagners later operas and it is the only Wagner opera that has not been recorded for broadcast television or video. There are some recordings, the one with the best known performers being a live performance conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the composers death. The English premiere was in Birmingham on 17 May 1969 and the American concert premiere was at the New York City Opera on 24 February 1982, in 1981 Friedrich Meyer-Oertel staged Die Feen at the Opernhaus Wuppertal
23.
Das Liebesverbot
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Das Liebesverbot, is an early opera in two acts by Richard Wagner, with the libretto written by the composer after Shakespeares Measure for Measure. Described as a Große komische Oper, it was composed in 1834 and it was never performed again in Wagners lifetime. Restrained sexuality versus eroticism plays an important role in Das Liebesverbot, themes recur throughout much of Wagners output, most notably in Tannhäuser, Die Walküre. In each opera, the self-abandonment to love brings the lovers into mortal combat with the social order. In Das Liebesverbot, because it is a comedy, the outcome is a happy one, Wagners second opera, and his first to be performed, has many signs of an early work, the style is modelled closely on contemporary French and Italian comic opera. It is also referred to as the comedy, in that only two of Wagners works are comedies, the other being Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The opera was performed in the following hundred years. In the United Kingdom, the first performance was given on 16 February 1965 at the Collegiate Theatre of the University of London, the cast was led by Mark Schnaible as Friedrich and Claudia Waite as Isabella, Corrado Rovaris conducted. In 1994 Das Liebesverbot was performed at the Wexford Opera Festival, the first fully staged performance in the United States was at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY, in the summer of 2008. In 2009, a production was presented at the International Festival of Young Singers at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg plus a staged production at the Staatstheater Braunschweig in October. In 2013,200 years after the birth, it was performed in Bayreuth for the first time. A production of the Oper Leipzig was shown in the Oberfrankenhalle and it was staged by Aron Stiehl with elements of operetta and revue, Constantin Trinks conducted the Gewandhausorchester. Since 2011 a production of work has formed part of the repertoire of Helikon Opera Moscow. In Romania it was staged at the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Opera, in 2016 it was staged by the Teatro Real, Madrid. The synopsis is Wagners own description of his scenario, in a translation by William Ashton Ellis published in 1898, Luzio promises to go at once to Isabella in the cloister of the Elisabethans, where she has lately entered her novitiate. A convent Within the quiet cloister walls we make the acquaintance of this sister, in confidential converse with her friend Marianne, Marianne discloses to her friend, from whom she has long been parted, the sad fate that has brought her hither. Isabellas horror finds vent in a tempest of wrath, only to be allayed by the resolve to leave a world where such monstrosities can go unpunished. Her violence unwittingly exhibits her to Luzio in the most seductive light, fired by sudden love, he implores her to leave the nunnery for ever and take his hand
24.
Rienzi
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Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lyttons novel of the same name. The title is shortened to Rienzi. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Hofoper, Dresden, on 20 October 1842, in the end the populace burns the Capitol, in which Rienzi and a few adherents have made a last stand. Each act ends with an extended finale ensemble and is replete with solos, duets, trios, there is also an extended ballet in act 2 according to the accepted Grand Opera format. Hans von Bülow was later to joke that Rienzi is Meyerbeers best opera, Wagner began to draft the opera in Riga in 1837, after reading Lyttons novel. In 1839, meeting Meyerbeer by chance in Boulogne, he was able to read the latter the first three acts of the libretto, and to gain his interest. Meyerbeer also introduced Wagner to Ignaz Moscheles, who was staying at Boulogne, as Ernest Newman comments. When the opera was completed in 1840, Wagner had hoped for it to be premiered at the Paris Opéra, several circumstances, including his lack of influence, prevented this. The full score of Rienzi was completed on 19 November 1840 and this, with the proposed staging of The Flying Dutchman in Berlin, also supported by Meyerbeer, persuaded Wagner to return to Germany in April 1842. No one suspected that what was a joke for them was the means of buying an extra morsel of sorely-needed food. The premiere of Rienzi took place on 20 October in the new Dresden Opera House, designed by the architect Gottfried Semper and opened on 14 April 1841. Semper and Wagner were later to friends in Dresden, a connection which eventually led to Semper providing designs which became a basis of Wagners Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The first performance of Rienzi was well received in Dresden despite running over six hours, one legend is that, fearful of the audience departing, Wagner stopped the clock above the stage. In his later memoirs, Mein Leben, Wagner recalled, No subsequent experience has given me feelings even remotely similar to those I had on this day of the first performance of Rienzi, the initial success of Rienzi was no doubt assured beforehand. But the uproarious way in which the public declared its partiality for me was extraordinary, the public had been forcibly predisposed to accept it, because everyone connected with the theatre had been spreading such favourable reports. That the entire population was looking forward to what was heralded as a miracle, in trying to recall my condition that evening, I can remember it only as possessing all the features of a dream. Subsequently, Wagner experimented with giving the opera over two evenings, and making cuts to enable a more reasonable performance in a single evening, despite Wagners reservations, Rienzi remained one of his most successful operas until the early 20th century. The Paris premiere of Rienzi finally took place on 6 April 1869 at the Théâtre Lyrique under the baton of Jules Pasdeloup
25.
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
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The Flying Dutchman, WWV63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write the following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July. In his 1843 Autobiographic Sketch, Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heines retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski, the central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Semper Oper in Dresden in 1843 and this work shows early attempts at operatic styles that would characterise his later music dramas. In Der fliegende Holländer Wagner uses a number of associated with the characters. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with an ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman. By the beginning of 1839, the now 26-year-old Richard Wagner was employed as a conductor at the Court Theatre in Riga. His extravagant lifestyle plus the retirement from the stage of his actress wife, Minna, Wagner was writing Rienzi and hatched a plan to flee his creditors in Riga, escape to Paris via London and make his fortune by putting Rienzi on to the stage of the Paris Opéra. Boarding the ship Thetis, whose captain had agreed to them without passports, their sea journey was hindered by storms. The ship at one point took refuge in the Norwegian fjords at Tvedestrand, Wagners experience of Paris was also disastrous. He was unable to get work as a conductor, and the Opéra did not want to produce Rienzi, the Wagners were reduced to poverty, relying on handouts from friends and from the little income that Wagner could make writing articles on music and copying scores. Wagner hit on the idea of an opera on the theme of the Flying Dutchman. Wagner wrote the first prose draft of the story in Paris early in May 1840, in Heines tale, the narrator watches a performance of a fictitious stage play on the theme of the sea captain cursed to sail forever for blasphemy. In Heines version, this is presented as a means for ironic humour, however, Wagner took this literally and in his draft. By the end of May 1841 Wagner had completed the libretto or poem as he preferred to call it and these were composed for an audition at the Paris Opéra, along with the sketch of the plot. Wagner actually sold the sketch to the Director of the Opéra, Léon Pillet, for 500 francs, but was unable to convince him that the music was worth anything. Wagner composed the rest of the Der Fliegende Holländer during the summer of 1841, with the Overture being written last, while this score was designed to be played continuously in a single act, Wagner later divided the piece into a three-act work. In doing so, however, he did not alter the music significantly, in his original draft Wagner set the action in Scotland, but he changed the location to Norway shortly before the first production staged in Dresden and conducted by himself in January 1843
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Lohengrin (opera)
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Lohengrin, WWV75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition, the opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his fairy-tale castle New Swan Castle, or Neuschwanstein and it was King Ludwigs patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. The most popular and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as Here Comes the Bride, the literary figure of Lohengrin first appeared as a supporting character in the final chapter of the middle-age epic poem Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Grail Knight Lohengrin, son of the Grail King Parzival, is sent to the duchess of Brabant to defend her and his protection comes under the condition that she must never ask his name. If she violates this requirement, he will be forced to leave her, Wagner attempted at the same time to weave elements of Greek tragedy into the plot. He wrote the following in Mitteilungen an meine Freunde about his Lohengrin plans, Who doesnt know Zeus, the god is in love with a human woman and approaches her in human form. The lover finds that she cannot recognize the god in this form, Zeus knows that she would be destroyed by the sight of his real self. He suffers in this awareness, suffers knowing that he must fulfill this demand and he will seal his own doom when the gleam of his godly form destroys his lover. Is the man who craves for God not destroyed, in composing Lohengrin Wagner created a new form of opera, the through-composed music drama. The composition is not divided into numbers, but is played from act to act without any interruption. This style of composition contrasts with that of the conventional number opera, which is divided into arias, recitatives, Lohengrin still contains lengthy performances—for example, Elsas Alone in dark days and Lohengrins Grail aria—which harken back to the classical solo aria form. Wagner made extensive use of leitmotives in his composition and these motives allowed Wagner to precisely narrate the inner thoughts of the characters on stage, even without speech. The first production of Lohengrin was in Weimar, Germany, on 28 August 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt, Liszt chose the date in honour of Weimars most famous citizen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749. Despite the inadequacies of the lead tenor Karl Beck, it was a popular success. Wagner himself was unable to attend the first performance, having been exiled because of his part in the 1849 May Uprising in Dresden. Although he conducted various extracts in concert in Zurich, London, Paris and Brussels, the operas first performance outside German-speaking lands was in Riga on 5 February 1855. The Austrian premiere took place in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 19 August 1858, the work was produced in Munich for the first time at the National Theatre on 16 June 1867, with Heinrich Vogl in the title role and Mathilde Mallinger as Elsa
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Tristan und Isolde
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Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the not as an opera, but called it eine Handlung. Wagners composition of Tristan und Isolde was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, widely acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, Tristan was notable for Wagners unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonality, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension. Other composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky formulated their styles in contrast to Wagners musical legacy. Many see Tristan as the beginning of the move away from common practice harmony and tonality, both Wagners libretto style and music were also profoundly influential on the Symbolist poets of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Wagner was forced to abandon his position as conductor of the Dresden Opera in 1849 and he left his wife, Minna, in Dresden, and fled to Zürich. There, in 1852, he met the wealthy silk trader Otto Wesendonck, Wesendonck became a supporter of Wagner and bankrolled the composer for several years. Wesendoncks wife, Mathilde, became enamoured of the composer, though Wagner was working on his epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, he found himself intrigued by the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The story of Tristan and Isolde is a romance of the Middle Ages. Several versions of the story exist, the earliest dating to the middle of the 12th century, gottfrieds version, part of the courtly branch of the legend, had a huge influence on later German literature. It was some such mood that inspired the conception of a Tristan und Isolde. I have devised in my mind a Tristan und Isolde, the simplest, yet most full-blooded musical conception imaginable, by the end of 1854, Wagner had sketched out all three acts of an opera on the Tristan theme, based on Gottfried von Strassburgs telling of the story. On 20 August he began the prose sketch for the opera, Wagner, at this time, had moved into a cottage built in the grounds of Wesendoncks villa, where, during his work on Tristan und Isolde, he became passionately involved with Mathilde Wesendonck. Whether or not this relationship was platonic remains uncertain, one evening in September of that year, Wagner read the finished poem of Tristan to an audience including his wife, Minna, his current muse, Mathilde, and his future mistress, Cosima von Bülow. By October 1857, Wagner had begun the composition sketch of the first Act, during November, however, he set five of Mathildes poems to music known today as the Wesendonck Lieder. This was a move by Wagner, who almost never set to music poetic texts other than his own. But Wagner resolved to write Tristan only after he had secured a deal with the Leipzig-based firm Breitkopf & Härtel
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Das Rheingold
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Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, or in English, The Ring of the Nibelung. Das Rheingold premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, with August Kindermann in the role of Wotan, Heinrich Vogl as Loge, and Karl Fischer as Alberich. Wagner wanted this work to premiere as part of the entire cycle, the work was first performed as part of the complete cycle on 13 August 1876, in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Although Das Rheingold comes first in the sequence of Ring operas, so in August 1851, Wagner wrote in Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde, I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas. However, by October, he had decided that this required a prelude. To the sentence quoted above he added the words, which will be preceded by a great prelude, a letter Wagner wrote to Theodor Uhlig confirms that at this time the opera was intended to have three acts. Wagner continued to develop the text and storyline of the prelude in parallel with those of Die Walküre, the prose draft of Das Rheingold was completed between 21 March and 23 March 1852 and its verse draft between 15 September and 3 November. A fair copy of the text was finished by 15 December, during the early years of the 1850s Wagner produced some musical sketches for parts of the Ring and noted down various motifs that were to be used in the work. There also exist three sets of isolated musical sketches for Das Rheingold which were composed between 15 September 1852 and November 1853. The first of these was entered into the draft of the text, the second into Wagners copy of the 1853 printing of the text. All three were used by Wagner. Proper sequential development of the score started on 1 November 1853, by 14 January, Wagner had completed the first draft of the opera on between two and three staves. The next stage involved the development of a detailed draft that indicated most of the vocal and instrumental details. This was completed by 28 May, in parallel with this, Wagner started work on a fair copy of the score on 15 February, a task he completed on 26 September 1854, by which time he had also started work on the sketches of Die Walküre. Das Rheingold was first performed at Munich on 22 September 1869 and its first performance as part of the complete Ring cycle took place at Bayreuth on 13 August 1876. It continues to be performed on a regular basis both in Bayreuth and elsewhere, Das Rheingold, considerably shorter than its three successors, consists of four scenes performed without a break. It has been noted as one of the best-known drone examples in the concert repertory, the curtain rises to show, at the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhine maidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, playing together. The key shifts to A flat as Woglinde begins an innocent song whose melody is used to characterise the Rhine maidens later in the cycle
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Siegfried (opera)
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Siegfried, WWV 86C, is the third of the four music dramas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle, the musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871. Having grappled with his text for Siegfrieds Tod, and indeed having undertaken some musical sketches for it during 1851, at this point he conceived that the prefatory opera, Der junge Siegfried, could act as a comic foil to the tragedy of Siegfrieds Tod. Its all growing out of the ground as if it were wild, shortly afterwards he wrote to Uhlig that he was now planning to tell the Siegfried story in the form of three dramas, plus a prologue in three acts—a clear prefiguring of the Ring cycle. The composition of Acts 1 and 2 was completed by August 1857, Wagner then left off work on Siegfried to write the operas Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He did not resume work on Siegfried until 1869, when he composed the third act, the final revision of the score was undertaken in February 1871. Performance was withheld until the first complete production of the Ring cycle, elements of the plot of Siegfried come from a variety of sources. In a letter to Uhlig, Wagner recounted The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was and it concerns a boy so stupid he had never learned to be afraid. Wagner wrote that the boy and Siegfried are the same character, the boy is taught to fear by his wife, and Siegfried learns it when he discovers the sleeping Brünnhilde. Siegfrieds ability in Act Two to see through Mimes deceitful words seems to have derived from a 19th-century street theatre version of the story of Faust. Some elements of the story are derived from legends of Sigurd, notably the Völsunga saga, scene 1 of Act 3 has a parallel in the Eddic poem Baldrs draumar, in which Odin questions a völva about the future of the gods. A cave in rocks in the forest, as the curtain rises, Alberichs brother, the dwarf Mime, is forging a sword. Mime is plotting to obtain the ring of power created by his brother Alberich. Mime needs a sword for Siegfried to use, but the youth has contemptuously broken every sword Mime has made, Siegfried returns from his wanderings in the forest with a wild bear in tow, and immediately breaks the new sword. Mime is forced to explain how he took in Siegfrieds mother, Sieglinde and he shows Siegfried the broken pieces of the sword Nothung, which Mime had obtained from her. Siegfried orders him to reforge the sword, Mime, however, is unable to accomplish this, Siegfried departs, leaving Mime in despair. An old man arrives at the door and introduces himself as the Wanderer, in return for the hospitality due a guest, he wagers his head on answering any three questions of Mime. The dwarf asks the Wanderer to name the races that live beneath the ground, on the earth and these are the Nibelung, the Giants, and the Gods, as the Wanderer answers correctly
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Die Laune des Verliebten
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Die Laune des Verliebten was Richard Wagners first attempt at an opera project. Written in about 1830, when Wagner was 17, the libretto was based on a play of the name by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Wagner wrote a scene for three voices and a tenor aria before abandoning the project. There is no performance history for these fragments, and neither words nor music have survived
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Die Hochzeit
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Die Hochzeit is an unfinished opera by Richard Wagner which predates his completed works in the genre. Wagner completed the libretto, then started composing the music in the half of 1832 when he was just nineteen. He abandoned the project after his sister Rosalie, who was the main supporter, today, only three pieces survive from the opera. What is still known of the story is that it concerns the events surrounding the marriage of a young woman, Ada. This is a marriage, not one of love. On the eve of the wedding, Adas lover, Cadolt and she rejects his advances, preferring to defend her honour but, in the process, pushes him over the balcony to his death. Ada still loves Cadolt and collapses and dies at the next to his body. The only printed version of the musical score is the edition by Michael Balling. Very little musicological study has been carried out relating to Die Hochzeit, Ada and Arindal were later used as the names of the two principal characters in Die Feen, Wagners first completed opera. As there appear to be some textual commonalities with Die Feen, Die Hochzeit Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel
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Ride of the Valkyries
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The Ride of the Valkyries is the popular term for the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen. As a separate piece, the Ride is often heard in an instrumental version. Together with the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagners best-known pieces, the main theme of the Ride, the leitmotif labelled Walkürenritt, was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851. The preliminary draft for the Ride was composed in 1854 as part of the composition of the entire opera, which was fully orchestrated by the end of the first quarter of 1856. As they are joined by the four, the familiar tune is carried by the orchestra, while, above it. Apart from the song of the Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, it is the ensemble piece in the first three operas of Wagners Ring cycle. The complete opera Die Walküre was first performed on 26 June 1870 in the National Theatre Munich against the composers intent, however, the piece was still printed and sold in Leipzig, and Wagner subsequently wrote a complaint to the publisher Schott. Once the Ring had been given in Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner lifted the embargo and he himself conducted it in London on 12 May 1877, repeating it as an encore. Uses in film include the score for The Birth of a Nation. The Ride is the quick march of the British Parachute Regiment. Within the concert repertoire, the Ride of the Valkyries remains a popular encore, apart from where the Ride is included in the recordings of the Walküre opera, it is a very popular piece, included in various popular classics anthologies. Edited and annotated by Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack, translated by Geoffrey Skelton, Ride of the Valkyries, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Ride of the Valkyries at Project Gutenberg Fantasie from Die Walkure, WWV 86B on Musopen
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