1.
Theatre Square
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Theatre Square or Teatralnaya Square, known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a city square in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. Its located at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street, Petrovka Street, the square is named after the three theatres located on it — the Bolshoi Theatre, Maly Theatre, and Russian Youth Theatre. The square emerged after the 1812 Fire of Moscow and conversion of the Neglinnaya River into an underground channel, the river still flows diagonally under the squares park. It was designed in a symmetrical Neoclassical style by Joseph Bove in the 1820s, however, in the second half of the 19th century the Neoclassical ensemble was destroyed by new buildings in eclectic styles, that were considerably taller than the original ones fronting the square. The square also has the Gothic Revival style TsUM luxury department store building and it was during a meeting in then Sverdlov Square on 5 May 1920, that an iconic picture of Lenin was taken
2.
Tverskoy District
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Tverskoy District is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. The district extends from Kitai-gorod northwest to Belorussky and Savyolovsky Rail Terminals, Tverskoy District houses State Duma, Federation Council, the Mayor of Moscow, Moscow City Council, and Moscow Police Headquarters. It contains Theatre Square, the district of Tverskaya Street with Pushkin Square, Petrovka Street, Dmitrovka Street. It has the highest concentration of theatres, including Bolshoi Theatre, historical areas of Patriarshy Ponds, Malaya Bronnaya Street, and most of Tverskoy Boulevard, while closely associated with Tverskaya Street actually belong to Presnensky District. In the 1990s, Tverskoy District also included Kitai-gorod, which is now a separate territory managed directly by Central Administrative Okrug and this section is based on P. V. Sytins History of Moscow Streets Tverskaya Street emerged, as the road to Tver, in the 12th century. Dmitrovka Street, the road to Dmitrov, and Petrovka Street, leading to Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, until the 1820s, the territory of what is now Tverskoy District was separated from the Moscow Kremlin by the Neglinnaya River. Because of that, the city grew primarily eastward in the Middle Ages—into the Red Square, a stone bridge connecting Tverskaya with the Red Square was built in 1595. Urban development in the western part concentrated along Tverskaya Street, in the late 15th century, it was built out with country-like wooden homes to Pushkin Square, and by the end of the 16th century the city extended beyond the present-day Garden Ring. First stone Boyar houses appeared in downtown Tverskaya around that time, Dmitrovka Street also developed rapidly after the fire of 1648, as marked by the one-of-a-kind eight-tented church of Nativity in Putinki. Unusually for Moscow outskirts, it was financed by the State, as the church was located near the Embassy Inn, home to foreign guests. Peter the Greats move of the capital to Saint Petersburg actually improved the leading role of Tverskaya Street. Tverskaya acquired Moscows first triumphal arch, Gagarin family palace, and Zakhar Chernyshyov mansion, later the seat of Moscow Governor, Mossovet, and currently of the Mayor of Moscow. The Fire of 1812 wiped out wealthy mansions and peasant homes alike, sparing only the Pushkin Square, Tverskaya was rebuilt as an upper-class street, northeastern side of Tverskoy District lagged behind Tverskaya Street and Moscows east side due to frequent floods on the Neglinnaya River. First attempt to control the river, proposed in 1775 by Matvey Kazakov, materialized in 1792 Neglinnaya Canal, once the canal was completed, the old river bed was filled with earth. In 1817–1819, the channel was covered with vaults, locking the stream in an underground tunnel. This created Neglinnaya Street, the youngest street inside Boulevard Ring, the most recent flood, in 1973, led to complete rebuilding of the aging tunnel Another legacy of the Neglinnaya river survives in Central Baths and Sandunovsky Baths. The first public theater, Petrovsky Teatr, was set up in 1780 by English entrepreneur Michael Maddox and it burned down in October 1805 after 425 successful shows. In 1825, Joseph Bove built a new, larger Bolshoi Theatre on the same site, by this time, downtown stretch of the Neglinnaya River was contained in an underground tunnel, Peters bastions of Kitai-gorod were razed, forming the Theatre Square
3.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
4.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
5.
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
6.
Teatralnaya (Moscow Metro)
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The station is unique in that it does not have its own entrance halls. The north escalator leads to Okhotniy Ryad and the escalator to Ploshchad Revolyutsii. Teatralnaya Station was opened on September 11,1938 as part of the stage of construction of the Moscow Metro system. It was the station of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line until the line was extended on January 1,1943. The station is located at a depth of 33.9 meters, the central hall has a diameter of 9.5 meters, with an 8.5 meter lateral lining of cast-iron tubing. It was originally named Ploshchad Sverdlova, and was given its present name in 1990. Teatralnaya Station has fluted pylons faced with labradorite and white marble taken from the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, crystal lamps in bronze frames attached to the center of the room give the central hall a festive appearance. The vault of the hall is decorated with caissons and majolica bas-reliefs by Natyla Danko on the theme of theatre arts of the USSR. These bas-reliefs are a series of fourteen different figures, each representing music, seven male and seven female figures attired in their national costumes are either performing an ethnic dance or are playing a distinctively ethnic musical instrument. The series included Armenia, Byelorussia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, each figure is reproduced four times for a total of 56 figures. Initially, the floor was of black-and-yellow granite patterned as a chessboard, however in 1970, a bust of Yakov Sverdlov, for whom the station was originally named, was located at the end of the platform opposite the escalators. A bust of Vladimir Lenin was however, preserved, from this station it is possible to transfer to Okhotniy Ryad on the Sokolnicheskaya Line and Ploshchad Revolyutsii on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line. Sport in the USSR, physical culture - visual culture, reaktion Books ISBN 1-86189-267-5 Official Teatralnaya station webpage
7.
Okhotny Ryad (Moscow Metro)
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Okhotny Ryad is a station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. It is situated in the centre of Moscow in the Tverskoy District, near the Kremlin, Manezhnaya Square. It is named after a street, which name literally means hunters row. Okhotny Ryad station is located under what was originally the swamplands of the upper Neglinnaya River, later two ancient churches stood on the site, and their graveyards were excavated during the construction of the station. The station opened as part of the original Metro line on 15 May 1935, Okhotny Ryad has been renamed more times than any other Metro station. Planned to be called Okhotnoryadskaya, it was opened as Okhotny Ryad instead, the station was renamed Imeni Kaganovicha in honour of Lazar Kaganovich during the brief period between 25 November 1955 and 1957, when its original name was restored. The stations name was changed once more on 30 November 1961, finally, on 5 June 1990, the original name was restored once more. The construction of Okhotny Ryad presented a number of engineering challenges, the station was built using a so-called German method in which the station walls were constructed above ground and then lowered into the construction site. This helped to brace the foundations of the buildings during the subsequent construction of the station vault. A major setback occurred when accumulated rainwater broke through the vault before it had been sealed and flooded the station. Though no one was injured in the disaster, construction had to be halted while the damage was repaired. The architects, Yuri Revkovsky, N. Borov, and G. Zamskoy, employed a silvery marble from Italy for the finishing of the pylons, the walls are faced with ceramic tile. In 2004, Okhotny Ryad underwent a renovation which included replacing the lighting elements inside the spheres. A further renovation took place in 2007/2008 when the old tiles were replaced by bright marble. An average of 42,110 passengers per day enter the station through its vestibules with an additional 241,000 passengers entering via Teatralnaya, the station has two subterranean vestibules, each linked with the platform via an escalator. During the construction of the vestibules, orders of the Moscows party committee prohibited the obstruction of traffic, the eastern vestibule, through a mezzanine level is situated on the ground floor of a building situated on the corner of Bolshaya Dmitrovka street, Teatralny Drive, and Teatralnaya Square. The facade of this building was redesigned by Dmitry Chechulin and originally incorporated sculptures of athletes which were modeled after performers from the Moscow Circus, the original three N-type escalators were replaced by ET-5M units in 1997. The vestibule also acts as a point to the Teatralnaya station
8.
Moscow Metro
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The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow, Russia and the neighbouring Moscow Oblast cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one 11-kilometre line and 13 stations, it was the first underground system in the Soviet Union. As of 2017, the Moscow Metro excluding the Moscow Central Circle has 206 stations and its length is 339.1 km. The system is underground, with the deepest section 84 metres underground at the Park Pobedy station. The Moscow Metro, an enterprise, is 339. Of the metros 229,78 are deep underground,109 are shallow, the deep stations comprise 55 triple-vaulted pylon stations,19 triple-vaulted column stations, and one single-vault station. The shallow stations comprise 72 spanned column stations,33 single-vaulted stations, in addition, there are 12 ground-level stations, four elevated stations, and one station on a bridge. Two stations have three tracks, and one has double halls, seven of the stations have side platforms. In addition, there were two stations within rail yards. One station is reserved for future service, the Moscow Metro uses the Russian gauge of 1,520 millimetres, like other Russian railways, and an underrunning third rail with a supply of 825 V DC. The average distance between stations is 1.7 kilometres, the shortest section is between Vystavochnaya and Mezhdunarodnaya and the longest is between Krylatskoye and Strogino, long distances between stations have the positive effect of a high cruising speed of 41.7 kilometres per hour. Moscow Metro starts opening at 05,25 and closes at 01,00, the minimum interval between trains is 90 seconds during the morning and evening rush hours. As of 2013 the system has a daily ridership of 6.73 million passengers with the peak of 9.28 million. Since 1 December 2014 free Wi-Fi was available on all lines of the Moscow Metro, the network was launched by MaximaTelecom. Each line is identified by a name, an alphanumeric index, the upcoming station is announced by a male voice on inbound trains to the city center and by a female voice on outbound trains. The metro has a connection to the Moscow Monorail, a 4. 7-km, prior to the official opening, the monorail had operated in excursion mode since 2004. The Filyovskaya and Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya lines had six- and seven-car trains as well, rolling stock on the Koltsevaya line is being replaced with these articulated 81-740/741 «Rusich» four-car trains. The Butovskaya Line was designed by different standards, and has shorter platforms and it employs articulated 81-740/741 trains, which consist of three cars
9.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
10.
Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
11.
Ballet
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Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin
12.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
13.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
14.
Imperial Theatres
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The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre, today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanovs retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the general director. The theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II, there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer. The theatres name has changed throughout its history, reflecting the climate of the time, Note. The theatre building is called the Mariinsky Theatre. Originally, the ballet and opera performances were given in the wooden Karl Knipper Theatre on Tsaritsa Meadow, the Hermitage Theatre, next door to the Winter Palace, was used to host performances for an elite audience of aristocratic guests invited by the Empress. A permanent theatre building for the new company of opera and ballet artists was designed by Antonio Rinaldi, known as the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre the structure was situated on Carousel Square, which was renamed Theatre Square in honour of the building. Both names – Kamenny and Bolshoi – were coined to distinguish it from the wooden Little Theatre, in 1836, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was renovated to a design by Albert Cavos, and served as the principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and opera. On 29 January 1849, the Equestrian circus opened on Theatre Square and this was also the work of the architect Cavos. The building was designed to double as a theatre and it was a wooden structure in the then-fashionable neo-Byzantine style. Ten years later, when this circus burnt down, Albert Cavos rebuilt it as an opera, with a seating capacity of 1,625 and a U-shaped Italian-style auditorium, the theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its patroness, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre and its predecessor, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, hosted the premieres of many of the operas of Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, when the theatre was designated as principal venue of the Imperial Ballet and Opera in 1886, the theatre was extensively renovated. Other notable productions included Rimsky-Korsakovs opera The Golden Cockerel in 1909, the imperial and Soviet theater was the home of numerous great impresarios, conductors, and musicians. Conductors, Mikhail Zhukov, Israel Chudnovsky and others, under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, since 1988 both companies have been under the leadership of Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre
15.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
16.
Maly Theatre (Moscow)
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Maly Theatre is a theatre in Moscow, Russia, principally associated with the production of plays. Established in 1806 and operating on its present site on the Theatre Square since 1824, in the 19th century, Maly was universally recognized in Russia as the leading dramatic theatre of the century, and was the home stage for Mikhail Shchepkin and Maria Yermolova. 40 of Alexander Ostrovskys 54 plays premiered at Maly, and the theatre was known as The House of Ostrovsky, the Maly Theatre in Moscow and Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg to a great extent determined the development of Russian theatre during the 19th and 20th century. Maly Theatre positions itself as a drama theatre that produces classical heritage plays. The current program of Maly includes plays by Russian authors from Denis Fonvizin to Mikhail Bulgakov, the second stage of Maly, located in Zamoskvorechye District, also performs plays by W. Somerset Maugham, Luigi Pirandello and Eugene Scribe. Maly had a tradition of producing William Shakespeare but, as of 2009, performs only one Shakespearian play. Maly Theatre employs a staff of seven hundred, including over one hundred drama actors. It is the drama theatre in Russia that has retained a symphony orchestra. The theatre also operates Shchepkin Theatre School, Moscows oldest drama school, the exact year of Malys establishment is debated. In the 19th and 20th century, it was agreed that it was established in 1824, the centennial of Maly was celebrated in 1924, and the 175th anniversary in 1999. However, the bicentennial was moved to 2006, based on the establishment of the Imperial Moscow Theatre in 1806. Some of the produced by the Imperial Moscow Theatre premiered as early as 1804, and its company continued the tradition of Michael Maddoxs company. The theatre web site, as of August 2009, marks the season of 2009–2010 as its 254th season, referring to the Free Theatre, in 1756 empress Elisabeth of Russia decreed the establishment of a Russian language theatre for comedies and tragedies. When Volkov and his moved to Saint Petersburg, playwright Alexander Sumarokov became the first theatre manager. Also in 1756, Moscow University students formed the Free Theatre, by 1757, the amateur company was recruiting professional female singers and teachers of singing. Rector Ivan Shuvalov planned to build the Universitys own theatre hall, but later made an agreement with Italian impresario Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Locatelli opera, established in the beginning of 1759, was suffering financially, and the impoverished impresario willfully shared his stage with Shuvalovs company. The first show, The New Arrival by Marc-Antoine Legrand, premiered at the Opera House on May 25,1759, between 1763 and 1766, various Russians and foreigners attempted to set up a permanent theatre in Moscow and failed. In 1776, Catherine II of Russia awarded the license to prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Ouroussoff
17.
Hermitage Theatre
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The Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of five Hermitage buildings lining the Palace Embankment of the Neva River. The Hermitage Theatre was the theatre of the Winter Palace. It replaced the Russian Imperial Theater, which operated from 1764 until 1783, the Hermitage Theatre was built between 1783 and 1787 at the behest of Catherine the Great to a Palladian design by Giacomo Quarenghi. The crumbling Third Winter Palace of Peter the Great was demolished to make room for the new structure, quarenghis designs for the theatre were engraved and published in 1787, earning him a European reputation. The semicircular auditorium is decorated with marble and surrounded with ten niches for statues of Apollo. The ceremonial opening of the theatre took place on 22 November 1785, though the auditorium could seat no more than 250 spectators, it was often overcrowded. Usually, the performance would be attended by several dozen aristocratic spectators, as a sign of gratitude, a separate loge was reserved for the architect Quarenghi and his family. In the 19th century, selected members of the corps were admitted to the theatre as well. Although the building was used to entertain the family until the Russian Revolution, it came to be viewed as a rare monument to Catherines personal tastes. The empress brought out several comedies specifically to be staged in this theatre, as for the costumes, they were chosen from a 15, 000-dress personal wardrobe of the late Empress Elizabeth. Mathilde Kschessinska, Anna Pavlova, and Fyodor Chaliapin were among the artists who performed at the Hermitage Theatre for the last Russian tsar. Among the ballets performed there was the premiere of Marius Petipas Harlequinade, the Bolsheviks closed the theatre and utilised the building for administrative purposes. It was not until 1991 that performances were resumed on this stage, with the likes of Svyatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, avramenko S. I. Воспоминания об Эрмитажном театре. Official website of the Hermitage Museum Historical outline Hermitage theatre playbill
18.
Bolshoi Theatre, Saint Petersburg
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The Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was a theatre in Saint Petersburg. It was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldis Neoclassical design as the Kamenny Theatre and it was rebuilt in 1802 according to the designs of the architect Thomas de Thomon and renamed the Bolshoi, but burned down in 1811. The building was restored in 1818, and modified between 1826 and 1836 by Alberto Cavos to accommodate more modern machinery, until 1886, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was principal theatre for both the Imperial Ballet and the Imperial Russian Opera. It was there that the first Russian operas — Glinkas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan, many of the great 19th century ballets of Marius Petipa and Arthur Saint-Léon were given for the first time on the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. The Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was then torn down to place for the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The only surviving sections of the theatre are the grand staircase and landing. Operas A Life for the Tsar — Mikhail Glinka Ruslan and Lyudmila — Mikhail Glinka La forza del destino — Giuseppe Verdi Ballets The Pharaohs Daughter — chor, cesare Pugni The Beauty of Lebanon or The Mountain Spirit chor. by Marius Petipa mus. The Little Humpbacked Horse — chor, cesare Pugni La Bayadère — chor
19.
Mariinsky Theatre
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The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre, today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanovs retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the general director. The theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II, there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer. The theatres name has changed throughout its history, reflecting the climate of the time, Note. The theatre building is called the Mariinsky Theatre. Originally, the ballet and opera performances were given in the wooden Karl Knipper Theatre on Tsaritsa Meadow, the Hermitage Theatre, next door to the Winter Palace, was used to host performances for an elite audience of aristocratic guests invited by the Empress. A permanent theatre building for the new company of opera and ballet artists was designed by Antonio Rinaldi, known as the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre the structure was situated on Carousel Square, which was renamed Theatre Square in honour of the building. Both names – Kamenny and Bolshoi – were coined to distinguish it from the wooden Little Theatre, in 1836, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was renovated to a design by Albert Cavos, and served as the principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and opera. On 29 January 1849, the Equestrian circus opened on Theatre Square and this was also the work of the architect Cavos. The building was designed to double as a theatre and it was a wooden structure in the then-fashionable neo-Byzantine style. Ten years later, when this circus burnt down, Albert Cavos rebuilt it as an opera, with a seating capacity of 1,625 and a U-shaped Italian-style auditorium, the theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its patroness, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre and its predecessor, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, hosted the premieres of many of the operas of Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, when the theatre was designated as principal venue of the Imperial Ballet and Opera in 1886, the theatre was extensively renovated. Other notable productions included Rimsky-Korsakovs opera The Golden Cockerel in 1909, the imperial and Soviet theater was the home of numerous great impresarios, conductors, and musicians. Conductors, Mikhail Zhukov, Israel Chudnovsky and others, under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, since 1988 both companies have been under the leadership of Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre
20.
Bolshoi Ballet
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The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russian Federation. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the worlds oldest ballet companies and it only achieved worldwide acclaim, however, in the early 20th century when Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. Along with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, the Bolshoi is recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in the world, the earliest origins of the Bolshoi Ballet, can be found in the creation of a dance school for a Moscow orphanage in 1773. In 1776, dancers from the school were employed by Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Ouroussoff, originally performing in privately owned venues, they later acquired the Petrovsky Theatre, which, as a result of fires and erratic redevelopment, would later be rebuilt as todays Bolshoi Theatre. The Bolshoi Ballet is a hard place to get into. The first American ballet dancer to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and to join the Bolshoi Ballet company, was Michael Shannon, the Soviet leaderships preference for uncomplicated moral themes in the arts was demonstrated in Yuri Grigorovichs appointment as director in 1964. Anastasia Volochkova has claimed that female dancers were forced to sleep with wealthy patrons and she said, “It mainly happened with the corps du ballet but also with the soloists. I repeatedly received such propositions to share the beds of oligarchs, American dancer Joy Womack echoed this concern when she left the company because she was told that, to secure solo roles she must either pay $10,000 or start a relationship with a sponsor. Reasons for the attack again include corruption within the company, andrei Anikhanov Yuri Fayer Algis Shuraitis Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the worlds foremost ballet companies, as well as being the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. Indeed, the very name means big or grand in Russian. Due to its size, the company operates two troupes of corps de ballet, in 2000, the Bolshoi Ballet opened its first Ballet Academy outside Russia, in Joinville, Brazil. The performance style of the Bolshoi Ballet is typically identified as being colourful and bold, combining technique and athleticism with expressiveness and this style is commonly attributed to Gorsky. The Bolshoi has a rivalry with St. Petersburg heritage ballet company. Both have developed very different performing styles, the Bolshoi has a colourful and bold approach, whereas the Mariinsky is associated with pure. Female Male It was announced 30 January 2013, that Svetlana Lunkina told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that she wants to remain in Canada, the Bolshoi Ballet operates two troupes of corps de ballet, with approximately 120 dancers in total. The Corps de Ballet is known for its precise Vaganova technique
21.
Joinville
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Joinville is the largest city in Santa Catarina State, in the Southern Region of Brazil. It is the third largest municipality in the region of Brazil, after the much larger state capitals of Curitiba. Joinville is also an industrial, financial and commercial center. In 2014, the population of Joinville reached approximately 560,000 people, the metropolitan area is home to 1,212,997 residents according to the 2010 census by IBGE. Owing to urban development and relatively good infrastructure, Joinville has become a center for events. The city has one of the highest standards of living in Latin America, the first inhabitants in the region of Joinville were probably the Tupi people. Archeological indications and more than forty sambaquis found locally indicate human habitation as far back as 4800 BC, although there are signs of agricultural activity, the principal elements in the diet at that time were apparently fish and shell-fish. Joinville was founded on March 9,1851, by German, Swiss, even though it is considered a German-Brazilian city, its name is French. The citys former name was Colônia Dona Francisca, but was changed to Joinville in 1851, the land where Joinville is located was part of the French and Brazilian Royal Family wedding gift, even though the Prince of Joinville and his Brazilian bride had never been to the land. However, a Royal Palace was built in their honor around 1870, in 1851, the French prince, after a financial crisis, sold almost all his lands in Southern Brazil to the German Senator Mathias Schröder. Senator Schröder was a member of the Colonization Society of Hamburg and this society, made up of bankers, businessmen and merchants, attracted immigrants to be sent to Brazil and thereby establish commercial ties between Germany and the German communities in Brazil. In 1851, the first 118 German and Swiss immigrants arrived, followed by 74 Norwegian immigrants, from 1850 to 1888, Joinville received 17,000 German immigrants, most of them Lutherans, poor peasants coming to occupy this part of Brazil. Joinville is located in the northeast of the State of Santa Catarina, close to the Atlantic coast and it is not too far from the borders with the state of Paraná and its capital, Curitiba. The city is surrounded by the municipalities of Garuva, São Francisco do Sul, Araquari, Guaramirim, Schroeder, Jaraguá do Sul, the city contains a port on Babitonga Bay, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean and provides an important route for exporting manufactured products. In 2006–07 there were discussions about creating a Baía da Babitonga Wildlife Reserve to manage the mangroves, fishery. This was defeated by politicians and businesspeople who were concerned about the impact on planned projects including a port expansion, Joinville has a humid subtropical climate. In some rare cases, Joinville gets hit by South Atlantic cyclones, Joinville is famous for its strong German-influenced culture. The city retains many aspects of German culture, in its architecture, in the dishes, parties and in the way of life of its inhabitants
22.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
23.
Neoclassical architecture
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Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro, Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings. In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is referred to as Classicism. Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée, the many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullées ideas and Edmund Burkes conception of the sublime, the baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, the book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book featured the work of Inigo Jones. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain, at the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect earl, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in 1729, he and William Kent, designed Chiswick House. This House was a reinterpretation of Palladios Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and this severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the Palladianism. In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of Englands finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the main block of this house followed Palladios dictates quite closely, but Palladios low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. This classicising vein was also detectable, to a degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for S, by the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s, in France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden. A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire, in France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire or Empire. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg, indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved an audience in the 1760s
24.
Russian ruble
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The Russian ruble is the currency of the Russian Federation, the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the two unrecognized republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The ruble is subdivided into 100 kopeks, the ruble was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. Today apart from Russia, Belarus and Transnistria uses currencies with the same name, the ruble was the worlds first decimal currency, it was decimalised in 1704 when the ruble became legally equal to 100 kopeks. In 1992 the Soviet ruble was replaced with the Russian ruble at the rate 1 SUR =1 RUR. In 1998 following the crisis, the Russian ruble was redenominated with the new code RUB. Today, although RUB being the code of the Russian ruble. The ruble is the oldest national currency after the Pound sterling in the world, the ruble has been used on the Russian territories since the 13th century. The modern Russian ruble actually appeared in December 1991 in parallel with the Soviet ruble, following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet ruble remained the currency of the Russian Federation until 1992. A new set of coins was issued in 1992 and a new set of banknotes was issued in the name of Bank of Russia in 1993. The Russian ruble with the ISO4217 code is RUR and number 810 replaced the Soviet ruble at the rate 1 SUR =1 RUR. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation introduced new coins in 1992 in denominations of 1,5,10,20,50 and 100 rubles, the coins depict the double-headed eagle without a crown, sceptre and globus cruciger above the legend Банк России. It is exactly the same eagle, that the artist Ivan Bilibin painted after the February Revolution as a coat of arms for the Russian Republic. The 1 and 5 ruble coins were minted in brass-clad steel, the 10 and 20 ruble coins in cupro-nickel, in 1993, aluminium-bronze 50 ruble coins and cupro-nickel-zinc 100 ruble coins were issued, and the material of 10 and 20 ruble coins s was changed to nickel-plated steel. In 1995 the material of 50 ruble coins was changed to brass-plated steel, as high inflation persisted, the lowest denominations disappeared from circulation and the other denominations became rarely used. During this period the commemorative one ruble coin was regularly issued and it was practically identical in size and weight to a 5 Swiss franc coin. For this reason, there have been instances of ruble coins being used on a large scale to defraud automated vending machines in Switzerland. In 1961, new State Treasury notes were introduced for 1,3 and 5 rubles, along with new State Bank notes for 10,25,50 and 100 rubles. In 1991, the State Bank took over production of 1,3 and 5 ruble notes and also introduced 200,500 and 1,000 ruble notes, although the 25 ruble note was no longer issued
25.
Soviet Era
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The History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. The original ideology of the state was based on the works of Karl Marx. Displeased by the few changes made by the Tsar after the Russian Revolution of 1905, Russia became a hotbed of anarchism, socialism. The dominant socialist party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, starting in 1903 a series of splits in the party between two main leaders was escalating, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin, and the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov. Up until 1912, both continued to stay united under the name RSDLP, but significant differences between Lenin and Martov thought split the party for its final time. Not only did these groups fight each other, but also had common enemies, notably. This resulted in large territorial changes, albeit temporarily for some of these, eventually crushing all opponents, the RCP spread Soviet style rule quickly and established itself through all of Russia. Following Lenins death in 1924, Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the RCP, became Lenins successor and continued as leader of the Soviet Union into the 1950s. The history of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953 covers the period of the Second World War and of victory against Germany while the USSR remained under the control of Joseph Stalin. Stalins power within the party and the state was established and eventually evolved into Stalins cult of personality, Soviet secret-police and the mass-mobilization Communist party were Stalins major tools in molding the Soviet society. World War II, known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union, after World War II the Soviet Unions armies occupied Eastern Europe, where Socialist governments took power. By 1949 the Cold War had started between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, with the Warsaw Pact pitched against NATO in Europe, after 1945 Stalin did not directly engage in any wars. Stalin continued his rule until his death in 1953. The history of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, referred to as the Brezhnev Era and this period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with a much weaker Soviet Union facing social, political, and economic stagnation. The average annual income stagnated, because needed economic reforms were never carried out. Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin replaced him as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, anastas Mikoyan, and later Nikolai Podgorny, became Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The collective leadership first set out to stabilize the Soviet Union and calm Soviet society, in addition, they attempted to speed up economic growth, which had slowed considerably during Khrushchevs last years in power. In 1965 Kosygin initiated several reforms to decentralize the Soviet economy, after initial success in creating economic growth, hard-liners within the Party halted the reforms, fearing that they would weaken the Partys prestige and power
26.
Alberto Cavos
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Alberto Cavos was a Russian–Italian architect best known for his theatre designs, the builder of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Alberto Cavos was born in Saint Petersburg to Venetian opera composer Catterino Cavos, and his wife, Camilla Baglioni, Alberto Cavos was educated in the University of Padua and then returned to Russia to complete practical training in Carlo Rossis workshop. His brother Giovanni was trained in music and assisted his father in Saint Petersburg opera, in 1826 Cavos received his first commission – rebuilding of the former Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. Built by Antonio Rinaldi in 1770, the burnt down in 1811, restoration was interrupted by the death of its supervisor, Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, in 1813. Cavos dedicated ten years to this project, the theatre reopened as Saint Petersburgs main opera stage in 1836. Nevertheless, the theatre retained its Italian company and became a stage for Marius Petipa ballet and operated until 1886. In 1847–1848 Cavos designed and built a wooden Equestrian Circus Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Cavos retained the Romanesque facade of the Circus, but completely redesigned the interiors, replacing the old circular arena with a horseshoe-shapes Italian opera hall. The new theatre opened in October 1860 as Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, on March 11,1853, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was destroyed by fire that left only exterior wall standing. Cavos secured the contract to rebuild the theatre and substantially expanded and altered Boves original plan, Bolshoi indeed reopened in the presence of Alexander II of Russia on August 20,1856, featuring a new grand hall for 2,150 spectators. Cavos retained a personal box at the Bolshoi, which later passed to his descendants from the Benois family. Henry Sutherland Edwards, contemporary British journalist, praised Cavos as being not only an architect and he understands what does not appear to be understood in London. According to Edwards, Cavos ridiculed the idea that acoustical properties of a building cannot be ensured by design, he designed, built. It is constructed as an instrument, commented Cavos. Modern architects add a note, despite excellent acoustics, the Bolshoi suffered from poor build quality. The former may be in part blamed on local contractors, 16-month rush schedule, large spans of load-bearing brick walls were laid without mortar, weak foundations underneath, placed in the bend of subterranean Neglinnaya River, were shifting erratically since 19th century. By the end of the 20th century, salvaging Bolshoi required a replacement of foundations. In 1859 Cavos completed the rebuilding of Mikhaylovsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, apart from theatres, Cavos is credited with design of dozens of buildings in Saint Petersburg and its suburbs. Most of these buildings were expanded and rebuilt, losing their original architectural trim
27.
Michael Maddox
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Michael Maddox was an English entrepreneur and theatre manager active in Imperial Russia. He was co-founder, with Prince Urusov, of the Petrovsky Theatre, described as a famous equilibrist, Michael Maddox arrived first in Russia in 1766 as the manager of a museum of mechanical and physical representations, visiting both St Petersburg and Moscow. Leaving Russia he travelled to Madrid with his museum, and spent time in London in the ensuing decade and it is unclear whether he was related to Anthony Maddox, the successful slack-wire and theatre performer who drowned on a sea voyage to Dublin in 1758 along with Theophilus Cibber. There exists a possibility of confusion between the two with regard to references to equilibrism, on returning to Russia before 1776, Michael Maddox was taken into partnership in the theatre company formed that year by the Moscow Prosecutor, Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Urusov. Maddox had had a record of success at the Haymarket Theatre, London. His profits in one season are stated to have amounted to £11,000, Urusov had been granted a ten-year licence for theatrical and other performances. For four years they enjoyed success in a theatre at Znamenka Street before it burnt down in early 1780. It thus became known as the Petrovsky Theatre, the theatre had four storeys of boxes and two spacious galleries. The pit had two series of benches, with enclosed seats at the sides, the sumptuously decorated boxes were available to let at from three hundred to a thousand roubles and upwards. Admittance to the pit was one rouble, Empress Maria Feodorovna granted Maddox a life-long pension of 3,000 roubles for his contribution to the creation of Moscow theatre. The theatre was operational until 1805, when it burned down just before a performance of Ferdinand Kauers Rusalka and it was replaced by the Bolshoi Theatre on the same site. Petrovsky Theatre, including the extension contained a rotunda. Relative size and situation of Petrovsky theatre and Bolshoi, plan of 2nd floor with rotunda and theatre. The Maddox troupe delivered 425 performances of drama, ballet and opera during this time, the foreign operas were largely performed in Russian translations by Sergey Glinka, Platon Levshin, Ivan Dmitrievsky, and others. Three notable melodramas were part of the repertoire, Theatre productions in Russian translation included Shakespeares Romeo & Juliet and Voltaires Mahomet. The most successful works, however, were those of August von Kotzebue, such as Menschenhass und Reue, The Papagoy, masquerades for 1,500 people or more, where carnival costume was compulsory, were held in the mirror-bedecked rotunda. This part of the structure alone had cost fifty thousand roubles to construct, the ears are never rent with those noisy marks of disapprobation, which do not correct bad actors, and which distress and overpower the inexperienced and timid. From 1783, Maddox also created and ran a Vauxhall Gardens enterprise concurrently in the Moscow suburbs, a long gallery led to a grand circular hall for dancing
28.
Fernando Sor
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Fernando Sor o Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice. His ballet score Cendrillon received over one hundred performances, Sors works for guitar range from pieces for beginning players to advanced players such as Variations on a Theme of Mozart. Sors contemporaries considered him to be the best guitarist in the world, although modern classical guitar players usually do, Sor rarely used his ring finger and refused the usage of nails when playing. As Sors works were published in countries, his name was translated. Variations have included Joseph Fernando Macari Sors, Fernando Sor, Ferran Sor, Ferdinand Sor and he fell in love with music and abandoned his military career goals. Along with opera, Sors father also introduced him to the guitar, at a young age, Sors parents wouldnt give his musical abilities too much special attention, for fear it would distract from his Latin studies. Therefore, the young Sor began to write songs to words in Latin to impress his parents and he even invented his own system for notating music, as he had not yet received formal training. When he reached the age of 11 or 12, the head of the Barcelona Cathedral took notice of young Sors talent, not long after, his father died, leaving his mother without the funds to continue his education at the Cathedral. Sor reveals in writings, mainly from the last ten years of his life, that he was attached to this place. It was not a turn of events, as he had much free time to play. In 1808, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain, Sor began to write music for the guitar. Sor was even part of traveling bands that would play protest music on the streets. He was also promoted to captain in Córdoba and may have fought battles against the French at this time, after the defeat of the Spanish army, however, Sor accepted an administrative post in the occupying government. Here he was to be labeled an afrancesado along with the other Spaniards who abandoned their defense of Spain to embrace the French Revolutionary ideas. After the Spanish repelled the French in 1813, Sor and other afrancesados left Spain for fear of retribution and he went to Paris, never to return to his home country again. Having abandoned his familys ideal of a military or administrative post and he gained renown at first as a virtuoso guitarist and composer for the instrument. When he attempted composing operas, however, he was rejected by the French and his Opus 7 was a large and strange piece, notated in three clefs, and no guitarist at the time could play it
29.
Catterino Cavos
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Catterino Albertovich Cavos, born Catarino Camillo Cavos, was an Italian composer, organist and conductor settled in Russia. He played an important role in the history of Russian opera and was the father of Alberto Cavos, Cavos is celebrated in Russian musical history as the man who composed the opera Ivan Susanin in 1815,20 years before Mikhail Glinkas opera of the same name. Cavos was born in Venice, Italy, on October 30,1775 and his father, Alberto Giovanni Cavos, was the Primo Ballerino Assoluto and director of the La Fenice theatre in Venice. At the age of twelve, Cavos composed a cantata to celebrate Leopold IIs arrival in Venice, at fourteen he was offered the post of organist to St Marks Basilica, but refused the position, allowing the post to be given to an older, impoverished musician. In his early twenties, Cavos accepted a position as conductor of the Italian operatic company Astariti, in 1803 the Emperor appointed Cavos Kapellmeister of Italian and Russian opera, placing him in charge of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. He also served as a professor at the Saint Catherine School and he began composing his own operas in 1805. These included, Knyaz-nevidimka, Ilya Bogatyr, Zephyre et Flore, Ivan Susanin and he also contributed to the second part of the opera tetralogy Rusalka. The Cossack as Poet, a vaudeville, remained in the repertory until 1852. John Warrack wrote of Cavos work, Cavoss operas draw on Russian subjects, Ilya Bogatyr, for which the fabulist Ivan Krylov wrote the libretto, is a Romantic magic opera continuing the line of Catherines Fevey text and anticipating Glinkas Ruslan and Lyudmila. A few, such as The Firebird, treat the Oriental themes that had become fashionable with Russias expansion, Cavoss main librettist, however, was Alexander Shakhovskoy, Director of the Imperial Theatres. Shakhovskoys text for The Cossack Poet invokes the patriotic sentiments of the times, and so, even more, does his text for Ivan Susanin, for the first time an attempt was made to enter the theatre of the opera stage of the specific features of Russian life. However, in Russian musical literature, the analysis of opera are devoted to only two articles - of Abram Gozenpud and of Viktor Korshikov. Russian music critic Abram Gozenpud considered that this opera was unsuccessful because it is not shown in the main, real Ivan Susanin died from enemies, and the opera was a happy end. And Susanin was walking with very friendly polite enemies across the expanses of the scene, of course, such a naive interpretation of images and heroes and enemies could not satisfy the sense of Patriotic consciousness, it did not reach the expected tragic pathos. Therefore, a new creation on the same topic was required But both critics celebrate the musical successes of the opera, especially in the chorus melodies. In this snippet, introduced principles of folk supporting voices, bass and this is a unique case for the beginning of the 19th century. The work in question, based on the tale of Ivan Susanin, was Glinkas epoch-making A Life for the Tsar, Mikhail Glinka took his creation A Life for the Tsar in the Petersburg Imperial theatre, in which the Department of opera was headed by Cavos. Cavos immediately adopted a new opera, moreover, Cavos himself conducted the orchestra at the premiere of the opera A Life for the Tsar December 91836
30.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 piano concertos,1 violin concerto,32 piano sonatas,16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and he lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose, many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the town of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant in the Flemish region of what is now Belgium, who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Ludwig was employed as a singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761. The portrait he commissioned of himself towards the end of his life remained proudly displayed in his grandsons rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had one son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the musical establishment and gave keyboard. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767, she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. There is no record of the date of his birth, however. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Beethovens first music teacher was his father and he later had other local teachers, the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and Franz Rovantini. Beethovens musical talent was obvious at a young age, some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Courts Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition, Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid, and then as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named Kurfürst for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783, Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethovens talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young mans musical studies. Maximilian Fredericks successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Francis, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts
31.
Ivan Rerberg
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Ivan Ivanovich Rerberg was a Russian civil engineer, architect and educator active in Moscow in 1897–1932. Rerbergs input to present-day Moscow include Kiyevsky Rail Terminal, Central Telegraph building, Rerberg, a fourth member in a dynasty of engineers, was credited with innovative approach to structural frames and despised the title of an architect, always signing his drafts Engineer Rerberg. Rerbergs father, Ivan Fyodorovich Rerberg, was an engineer who became executive director of Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod railroad. Founder of Rerberg dynasty came to Russia from Denmark in Petrine period, ivans elder brother, Fyodor, became a painter. Ivan was educated in a Cadet Corps, was commissioned into military engineers, by this time he had solid practical experience in building dams and roads. In the same year he dropped out of service and joined the construction team of Kharkov locomotive works. In 1887, Rerberg was hired by Roman Klein as Kleins deputy for engineering on the site of Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Rerberg worked on the site for 12 years and was awarded an honorary title of its lifetime architect. Simultaneously Rerberg managed other projects of Kleins firm — Muir & Mirrielees department store, Moscow State University expansion, Devichye Pole clinics, in 1906—1909 Rerberg, still an associate of Klein, was gradually switching to independent work. In 1906 he won a contest for the first stage of an apartment building in Meshchansky District funded by the estate of the late G. G. Solodovnikov. The second stage was designed by Marian Peretyatkovich, construction was managed by Traugott Bardt who completed the project in 1909 and this building was styled in a mix of Victorian architecture and Art Nouveau, all subsequent work by Rerberg belonged to the school of Russian neoclassical revival. In March 1909 Peretyatkovich and Rerberg teamed together to design the Northern Insurance buildings in Kitai-Gorod, Peretyatkovich soon left Moscow, and final, as-build, exterior of the building was shaped by Rerberg alone. This modernized neoclassicism project, completed in 1911, also employed Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky, Rerbergs career peaked in the five years that preceded World War I. He designed private residences, hospitals, colleges, a high school and his last work conceived before World War I, Kievsky Rail Terminal, was substantially completed in 1917, interiors were completed in 1920—1921. In the period of economic collapse that accompanied the Civil War in Russia, in 1921—1923 he supervised emergency works on reinforcement of Bolshoi Theater foundations that were flooded by a wash from underground Neglinnaya River. Rerberg published proposals for a renovation of Bolshoy, and these were slowly implemented under his supervision until Rerbergs death. Rerbergs draft was authorized in March 1926, and the building was completed in 1927, Rerberg used reinforced concrete frame and moved all staircases outside of main building shell, this resulted in unusually spacious and well-lit open space offices, new to Moscow construction. Later, the space taken by equipment was reduced in favor of offices
32.
Architectural styles
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An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, styles therefore emerge from the history of a society. They are documented in the subject of architectural history, at any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. Styles often spread to places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. A style may also spread through colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, one example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style. After a style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur, for instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life as neoclassicism. Each time it is revived, it is different, the Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival. Vernacular architecture works slightly differently and is listed separately and it is the native method of construction used by local people, usually using labour-intensive methods and local materials, and usually for small structures such as rural cottages. It varies from region to region even within a country, as western society has developed, vernacular styles have mostly become outmoded due to new technology and to national building standards. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and this type of art history is also known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is possible by. While many architectural styles explore harmonious ideals, Mannerism wants to take style a step further and explores the aesthetics of hyperbole, Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. Mannerism favours compositional tension and instability rather than balance and clarity, the definition of Mannerism, and the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians. An example of mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola. in the country side outside of Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles, a center of Mannerist design was Antwerp during its 16th-century boom. Through Antwerp, Renaissance and Mannerist styles were introduced in England, Germany. During the Mannerist Renaissance period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid, the Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms
33.
The Moscow Times
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The Moscow Times is an English-language weekly newspaper published in Moscow, with a circulation of 55,000 copies. It is distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates such as hotels, cafés, embassies, the newspaper is popular among foreign citizens residing in Moscow and English-speaking Russians. In November 2015 the newspaper changed its design and type from daily to weekly, the newspaper regularly publishes articles by prominent Russian journalists such as Yulia Latynina and Ivan Nechepurenko. It has served as a ground for foreign correspondents, including Ellen Barry. Derk Sauer, a Dutch publisher who came to Moscow in 1989, made plans to turn his small, Sauer brought in Meg Bortin as its first editor in May 1992, and the team used a Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel as its headquarters. The first edition of The Moscow Times was published in March 1992 and it was the first Western daily to be published in Russia, and quickly became a primary source of news and opinion quoted in both Russia and the West. It played an important role by giving space to Russian commentators, for example, in the fall of 1993, it was able to play a role in defeating the censors, when anti-Yeltsin forces occupied the Russian Parliament and censorship was revived. Russian newspapers came out with large blank spaces on their front pages where articles critical of the authorities had been suppressed, the writers of those articles came to see us. Published the next day in English in The Moscow Times, their articles were quickly picked up and beamed back in Russian by the BBC and other foreign radios, from the mid 1990s until 2000, it was based in the old headquarters of Pravda. In 1997, the website moscowtimes. ru was registered, in 2003–04, the newspaper added Jobs & Careers and Real Estate appendices, and in 2005 the Moscow Guide appendix, featuring high culture. The annual Moscow Dining Guide was also launched in 2005 and that year, Independent Media was acquired by the Finnish publishing group Sanoma. In 2006, the paper began its alliance with the International Herald Tribune, the first color issue was published in 2010. In 2009, it published Russia for Beginners, A Foreigners Guide to Russia, the paper celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2012 with a gala dinner at the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski in Moscow. In 2014, sister publication The St. Petersburg Times ceased publication, in 2015, Sanoma sold MoscowTimes LLC to Demyan Kudryavtsev, a former director of Kommersant. Shortly after his appointment, Abdullaev argued in The Guardian that the biased journalism. robs the west of its moral authority. In October 2014 The Moscow Times made the decision to suspend online comments after an increase in offensive comments, in January 2014, malicious ads on the newspapers website redirected visitors to an exploit kit landing page. In December 2014, The Moscow Times was forced offline for two days by a denial of service attack. It was forced offline a second time in February 2015 for unknown reasons, online, it has PDF issues that go back to 2001, and its archive contains nearly 130,000 articles dating back to 1994
34.
Der Spiegel
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Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europes largest publications of its kind, with a circulation of 840,000. Spiegel Online, the sibling of Der Spiegel, was launched in 1994 with an independent editorial staff. Typically, the magazine has a content to advertising ratio of 2,1, Der Spiegel is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the Spiegel scandal in 1962, according to The Economist, Der Spiegel is one of continental Europes most influential magazines. The first edition of Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on Saturday,4 January 1947 and its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled Diese Woche, which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, from the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002. After 1950, the magazine was owned by Rudolf Augstein and John Jahr, in 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr for DM42 million and became the sole owner of Der Spiegel. In 1971, Gruner + Jahr bought back a 25% share in the magazine, in 1974, Augstein restructured the company to make the employees shareholders. All employees with more than three years seniority were offered the opportunity to become an associate and participate in the management of the company, since 1952, Der Spiegel has been headquartered in its own building in the old town part of Hamburg. From 15,000 copies in 1947, it grew to 65,000 in 1948 and 437,000 in 1961 and it was nearly 500,000 copies in 1962. By the 1970s, it had reached a plateau at about 900,000 copies, when the German re-unification in 1990 made it available to a new readership in former East Germany, the circulation exceeded one million. Since 1988, it has produced the TV programme Spiegel TV, during the second quarter of 1992 the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1.1 million copies. In 1994, Spiegel Online was launched and it has separate and independent editorial staff from Der Spiegel. In 1999 the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1,061,000 copies, Der Spiegel had an average circulation of 1,076,000 copies in 2003. In 2007 the magazine started a new regional supplement in Switzerland and it was the first regional supplement of the magazine which covers 50-page review of Switzerland. In 2010 Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, the same year it was the third best-selling general interest magazine in Europe with a circulation of 1,016,373 copies. When Stefan Aust took over in 1994, the magazines readers realised that his personality was different from his predecessor, in 2005, a documentary by Stephan Lamby quoted him as follows, We stand at a very big cannon
35.
Grand Kremlin Palace
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Designed by a team of architects under the management of Konstantin Thon, it was intended to emphasise the greatness of Russian autocracy. Konstantin Thon was also the architect of the Kremlin Armoury and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Grand Kremlin Palace was formerly the tsars Moscow residence. Thons palace is 125 metres long,47 metres high, and has an area of about 25,000 square metres. It includes the earlier Terem Palace, nine churches from the 14th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Holy Vestibule, the buildings of the Palace form a rectangle with an inner courtyard. The building appears to be three stories, but is actually two, the upper floor has two sets of windows. The west building of the Palace held state reception halls and the familys private chambers. Its five reception halls are named for orders of the Russian Empire, the Orders of St. George, Vladimir, Alexander, Andrew, georgievsky Hall is used today for state and diplomatic receptions and official ceremonies. International treaties are signed at the Vladimirsky Hall, such as the instance on June 1,1988, U. S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty ratification. It also leads to the Palace of Facets, the Tsarinas Golden Chamber, Terem Palace, the Winter Palace, currently it is the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation though it is rarely used for this purpose. Russian site on the Kremlin palaces Official Kremlin Museums Site Большой Кремлевский дворец
36.
Double-headed eagle
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In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the Roman/Byzantine Empire, whose use of it represented the Empires dominion over the Near East and the West. But the symbol itself is, in fact, much older, the eagle by itself has long been a symbol of power and dominion. The double-headed eagle motif appears to have its origin in the Ancient Near East. It re-appears in the High Middle Ages, from ca, in a few places, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, the motif was further augmented to create the less prominent triple-headed eagle. Polycephalous mythological beasts are very frequent in the Bronze Age to Iron Age pictorial legacy of the Ancient Near East, especially in the Assyrian sphere, use of the double-headed eagle in Hittite imagery has been interpreted as royal insignia. A monumental Hittite relief of an eagle grasping two hares is found at the eastern pier of the Sphinx Gate at Alaca Hüyük. After the Bronze Age collapse, there is a gap of more than two millennia before the re-appearance of the double-headed eagle motif, the early Byzantine Empire continued to use the imperial eagle motif. A modern theory, forwarded by Zapheiriou, connected the introduction of the motif to Emperor Isaac I Komnenos, Zapheiriou supposed that the Hittite motif of the double-headed bird, associated with the Paphlagonian city of Gangra might have been brought to Byzantium by the Komnenoi. The double-headed eagle motif was adopted in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, a royal association of the motif is suggested by its appearance on the keystone of an arch of the citadel built at Ikonion under Kayqubad I. The motif also appears on Turkomen coins of this era, notably on coins minted under Artuqid ruler Nasir al-Din Mahmud of Hasankeyf. The oldest preserved depiction of an eagle in Serbia is the one found in the donor portrait of Miroslav of Hum in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Bijelo Polje. The double-headed eagle in the Serbian royal coat of arms is attested in the 13th and 14th centuries. An exceptional medieval depiction of a double headed eagle in the west, in Serbia, the Nemanjić dynasty adopted a double-headed eagle by the 14th century. The double-headed eagle was used in coats of arms found in the Illyrian Armorials. The white double-headed eagle on a red shield was used for the Nemanjić dynasty, a Nemanjić eagle was used at the crest of the Hrebeljanović, while a half-white half-red eagle was used at the crest of the Mrnjavčević. Use of the eagle was continued by the modern Karađorđević, Obrenović. The double-headed eagle remained an important motif in the heraldry of the families of Russia
37.
Coat of arms of Russia
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The general tincture corresponds to the early fifteenth-century standard. The shape of the eagle can be traced back to the reign of Peter the Great, the two main elements of Russian state symbols predate Peter the Great. Today, however, the description does not refer to the rider on the central shield as representing Saint George. The current coat of arms was designed by artist Yevgeny Ukhnalyov, today, the imperial crowns on each head stand for the unity and sovereignty of Russia, both as a whole and in its constituent republics and regions. The orb and scepter grasped in the talons are traditional heraldic symbols of sovereign power. Andrew have been removed from the current coat of arms, the modern arms of Russia were instated by a presidential decree in 1993, and then by a federal law signed by President Vladimir Putin on December 20,2000. They date back to 1472, when Ivan III began using the eagle in his seal. The coat of arms were changed in 1918 with the creation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the current coat of arms, in use since 1993, once again uses the double-headed eagle with the image of St. George. The Russian Empire had a coat of arms, displayed in either its greater, middle and lesser version. Its escutcheon was golden with a black two-headed eagle crowned with two crowns, over which the same third crown, enlarged, with two flying ends of the ribbon of the Order of Saint Andrew. The State Eagle held a scepter and golden globus cruciger. On the chest of the eagle there was an escutcheon with the arms of Moscow, depicting Saint George, mounted, after approval by Alexander III on 24 July 1882, the greater coat of arms was adopted on November 3, replacing the previous 1857 version. Its central element is the coat of arms, crowned with the helmet of Alexander Nevsky, with black and golden mantling, the collar of the Order of Saint Andrew is suspended from the coat of arms. The whole lies within an ermine mantle, crowned by the Imperial Crown of Russia. The inscription on the canopy reads, Съ Нами Богъ, above the canopy stands the state khorugv, of gold cloth, on which is depicted the Medium State Seal. The banner is topped by the State Eagle, around the central composition are placed fifteen coats of arms of the various territories of the Russian Empire. Nine of these are crowned and placed on a laurel and oak wreath, the six upper escutcheons are joint depictions of various smaller principalities and oblasts. The Middle Coat of Arms is similar to the Great Coat of Arms, excluding the khorugv, the Abbreviated Imperial Title is inscribed over the perimeter of the Seal
38.
State Emblem of the Soviet Union
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The State Emblem of the Soviet Union was adopted in 1923 and was used until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although it technically is a rather than a coat of arms, since it does not follow traditional heraldic rules, in Russian it is called герб. It was the first state created in the style known as socialist heraldry. The project of the first version of the emblem was accepted on 6 July 1923 by the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee. In six languages - Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian, at the top of the Emblem is a five-pointed star. Ivan Dubasov was an important contributor when creating the emblem, according to the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the USSR consisted of eleven republics. Hence the major new versions difference from the one was eleven ribbons bearing USSR State Motto inscriptions in eleven languages. The number of republics in the USSR became 16 after September 1939, before the Great Patriotic War began in June 1941, by a Decision of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 26,1946, all 16 constituent republics were represented on the emblem. The USSR State Motto was inscribed on 16 ribbons in 16 languages, inscriptions in Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh, Kyrgyz languages were updated due to the transfer from Latin to Cyrillic script of the respective languages within the USSR. In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was transformed into the Karelo-Finnish ASSR, by a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 12,1956, the ribbon bearing the USSR State Motto in Finnish was removed. A minor change in the Belarusian inscription was a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 1,1958, each Soviet Republic and Autonomous Soviet Republic had its own coat of arms, largely inspired by the state emblem of the Union. State Quality Mark of the USSR Coat of arms of Russia
39.
Ruslan and Ludmila
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Ruslan and Ludmila is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1820. It is written as a fairy tale consisting of a dedication, six cantos. It tells the story of the abduction of Ludmila, the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, by an evil wizard, Pushkin began writing the poem in 1817, while attending the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo. He based it on Russian folktales he had heard as a child, before it was published in 1820, Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia for political ideas he had expressed in other works such as his ode to Freedom”. A slightly revised edition was published in 1828, the poem was the basis of an opera of the same name composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. A feature film based on the poem was produced in the Soviet Union in 1972, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko and starring Valeri Kozinets, lines from the prologue of this poem are repetitively recited by the character Masha in the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. Pushkin dedicates the poem to unnamed young beauties, the “queens of my soul”, walking on a golden chain that is bound to an oak is a wise story-telling cat. The narrator remembers one of the stories in particular, namely the one that follows. This prologue was not part of the original 1820 edition, it first appeared in the 1828 edition, the story opens with a feast given by Prince Vladimir to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, Ludmila, to the bold warrior Ruslan. Among the guests are Ruslan’s jealous rivals, the bold warrior Rogday, the boastful Farlaf, on their wedding night, as Ruslan prepares to consummate the marriage, a strange presence fills the bedroom, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Ruslan finds that his bride has mysteriously vanished, on hearing of Ludmilas disappearance, the angered Vladimir annuls the marriage and promises his daughter’s hand to whoever is able to return her safely. Ruslan and his three rivals set off on horseback, the old man himself is a Finn who tells the story of how he had fallen in love with a beautiful young maiden, Naina, who spurned his attention. In order to win her love he tried to become a glorious warrior and he finally cast a spell to win Nainas love, only to find that she herself was actually an old crone. After he rejected her, she became bent on revenge, now that Finn had helped Ruslan, Naina will hate him as well. Rogday decides to abandon the quest for Ludmila and to find, seeing a rider, he attacks, only to find it is Farlaf and not Ruslan, and leaves him shaken but alive. An old woman appears and points Rogday to the direction in which to find Ruslan and she then advises Farlaf to return to Kiev to await his trophy. Ruslan is challenged by another rider and the story turns briefly to Ludmila’s fate and she finds herself in a lavish chamber where three maidens are ready to fulfill her every desire. Opening the chamber door, she discovers a marvelous garden to rival Solomon’s, however, she feels empty without Ruslan
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes
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The Voyevoda (opera)
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The Voyevoda, Op.3, is an opera in 3 acts and 4 scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with a libretto written by Alexander Ostrovsky and based on his play The Voyevoda. The opera was composed between March 1867 and July 1868, and it received its first performance on 11 February 1869 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and it was a benefit for Alexandra Menshikova. In the 1870s Tchaikovsky destroyed the full score of the opera. The subject of The Voyevoda was thus available to his former pupil Anton Arensky to compose as the opera Dream on the Volga in 1888. Under the pseudonym Cramer, Tchaikovsky composed a Potpourri on themes from the opera The Voyevoda, in 1886, Tchaikovsky wrote incidental music for the Domovoi scene from Alexander Ostrovskys A Dream on the Volga. This is the play that formed the basis of the opera. Rimsky-Korsakovs opera Pan Voyevoda, set in Poland, likewise is not related to Ostrovskys play, the lively, sometimes dramatic, overture has occasionally been performed and recorded. It is one of the few works of Tchaikovsky to be performed by Arturo Toscanini, Воевода, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Tchaikovsky Research
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Mazeppa (opera)
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Mazeppa, properly Mazepa, is an opera in three acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Victor Burenin and is based on Pushkins poem Poltava, Mazeppa is a blood-thirsty tale of crazy love, abduction, political persecution, execution, and vengeful murder. The action takes place in Ukraine at the beginning of the 18th century, the protagonists are the historical figures Ivan Stepanovych Mazeppa, the Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and Vasyl Leontiyovych Kochubey, a very prosperous Ukrainian nobleman and statesman. The opera was composed between June 1881 and April 1883, Mazeppas libretto was based on Poltava, a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin based his story on historical events at Poltava, the battle where Tsar Peter the Great defeated Swedish King Charles XII, Pushkin took some creative freedom in order to create powerful characters and grand passions. For example, Kochubey actually managed to successfully keep Mariya from him and he turned Mazeppa in to the Tsar four years after Mazeppa asked for her hand. Tchaikovsky first mentioned the idea of an opera based on Poltava to his publisher in the summer of 1881. Soon, he became obsessed with Poltavas story of love and political betrayal and quickly produced four numbers plus sketching a duet based on material from his symphonic poem Romeo. Vasily Kandaurov contributed the text for Mazeppas aria in Act 2, the libretto was revised over and over again, even after the operas premieres. Mazeppa shares many characteristics with Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin, they both center on a woman whose powerful love draws her into a catastrophic downward spiral. Four days later, on 19 February, the St. Petersburg premiere followed at the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Eduard Nápravník, at both performances, the work was brilliantly staged but marred by the uneven vocal and acting abilities of the cast. But audiences responded warmly and the notices, in Moscow at least, were kind. Mariya arrives, and they all plead with her to them, but there is company at her house, The Hetman Mazeppa. After they leave, she reveals that games have no temptation for her anymore and her childhood friend, Andrei, overhears her, and tries to comfort her, but when she thanks him for his kind friendship, he reveals he always loved her. She wishes it could be different, that she could love him too –, Mariyas father and mother, Vasily and Lyubov Kochubey arrive with the guests, and dance and song are provided for Mazeppas entertainment, including the famous Hopak. Then Mazeppa draws Kochubey aside, and asks for his daughters hand, Kochubey thinks hes joking at first – he is, after all, very old. Mazeppa claims that the passions of an old heart, once lit, are not like those of a heart that burn brightly. Kochubey points out, however, that Mazeppa is Mariyas godfather, Mazeppa replies that he can easily apply to the church for an exemption
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Modest Mussorgsky
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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as The Five. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period and he strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. For many years Mussorgskys works were known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, the spelling and pronunciation of the composers name has occasioned some confusion. The family name derives from a 15th- or 16th-century ancestor, Roman Vasilyevich Monastyryov, who appears in the Velvet Book, Roman Vasilyevich bore the nickname Musorga, and was the grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The composer could trace his lineage to Rurik, the legendary 9th-century founder of the Russian state, in Mussorgsky family documents the spelling of the name varies, Musarskiy, Muserskiy, Muserskoy, Musirskoy, Musorskiy, and Musurskiy. The baptismal record gives the name as Muserskiy. In early letters to Mily Balakirev, the composer signed his name Musorskiy, the g made its first appearance in a letter to Balakirev in 1863. Mussorgsky used this new spelling to the end of his life, the addition of the g to the name was likely initiated by the composers elder brother Filaret to obscure the resemblance of the names root to an unsavory Russian word, мусoр — n. m. The first syllable of the originally received the stress, and does so to this day in Russia. The mutability of the vowel in the versions of the name mentioned above gives evidence that this syllable did not receive the stress. Doubling the consonant thus reinforces its voiceless sibilant /s/ sound, Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Toropets Uyezd, Pskov Governorate, Russian Empire,400 km south of Saint Petersburg. His wealthy and land-owning family, the family of Mussorgsky, is reputedly descended from the first Ruthenian ruler, Rurik. At age six Mussorgsky began receiving lessons from his mother. His progress was sufficiently rapid that three years later he was able to perform a John Field concerto and works by Franz Liszt for family, at 10, he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to study at the elite German language Petrischule. While there, Modest studied the piano with the noted Anton Gerke, in 1852, the 12-year-old Mussorgsky published a piano piece titled Porte-enseigne Polka at his fathers expense. Mussorgskys parents planned the move to Saint Petersburg so that both their sons would renew the tradition of military service
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Boris Godunov (opera)
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Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia and it is Mussorgskys only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles, and his nemesis, the False Dmitriy. Among major operas, Boris Godunov shares with Giuseppe Verdis Don Carlos the distinction of having an extremely complex creative history, Boris Godunov comes closer to the status of a repertory piece than any other Russian opera, even Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin, and is the most recorded Russian opera. Note, Dates provided in this article for events taking place in Russia before 1918 are Old Style, Mussorgskys next project would be a very original and successful synthesis of the opposing styles of these two experiments—the romantic-lyrical style of Salammbô, and the realistic style of Marriage. Production was permitted on condition that certain scenes were cut, although enthusiasm for the work was high, Mussorgsky faced a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to his plans in that an Imperial ukaz of 1837 forbade the portrayal in opera of Russian Tsars. Pushkins drama consists of 25 scenes, written predominantly in blank verse, Mussorgsky adapted the most theatrically effective scenes, mainly those featuring the title character, along with a few other key scenes, often preserving Pushkins verses. Mussorgsky worked rapidly, composing first the vocal score in nine months. In 1870, he submitted the libretto to the censor for examination. However, the opera was rejected by a vote of 6 to 1, how can there be an opera without the feminine element. Mussorgsky has great talent beyond doubt, let him add one more scene. The freshness and originality of the music nonplussed the honorable members of the committee, for a long time he stood up for his creation, the fruit of his inspiration and meditations. He yielded only after Boris had been rejected, the management finding that it contained too many choruses and ensembles and this rejection proved very beneficial to Boris. He added three scenes, cut one, and recomposed another, the modifications resulted in the addition of an important prima donna role, the expansion of existing female roles, and the expansion of the first tenor role. Mussorgsky augmented his adaptation of Pushkins drama with his own lyrics, assisted by a study of the monumental History of the Russian State by Karamzin, the Revised Version was finished in 1872, and submitted to the Imperial Theatres in the autumn. Most Mussorgsky biographers claim that the directorate of the Imperial Theatres also rejected the version of Boris Godunov, even providing a date,6 May 1872. César Cuis review noted the enthusiasm, The success was enormous and complete, never. The success of this performance led V. Bessel and Co. to announce the publication of the vocal score of Mussorgskys opera
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire. Born into a family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano, in 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, in 1942, Rachmaninoff moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninoff acquired American citizenship, the piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoffs compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Rachmaninoff was born at an estate in the Novgorod province in north-western Russia. It is unclear if he was born in the estate of Oneg, near Veliky Novgorod, or Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa, the Rachmaninoffs had strong musical and military leanings. The composers grandfather on the line, Arkady Alexandrovich, was a musician. His father, Vasily Arkadyevich Rachmaninoff, was an army officer and he married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova, the daughter of a wealthy army general who gave her five estates as part of her dowry. The couple had three sons and three daughters, Rachmaninoff being their fourth child, Rachmaninoff began piano and music lessons organised by his mother at the age of four. She became impressed with her sons musical ability to recite passages from memory without playing a wrong note. Rachmaninoff later dedicated Spring Waters, Song No.32 to Ornatskaya, in 1882, Rachmaninoffs father had to auction off their Oneg estate due to his financial incompetence—the familys five estates had been reduced to one. Rachmaninoff described his father as a wastrel, a gambler, a pathological liar. The family moved to a flat in Saint Petersburg. When Rachmaninoffs course of lessons with Ornatskaya neared its end, she arranged for him to music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. That year, his sister Sofia died of diphtheria and his left the family, with their approval. In 1885, Rachmaninoffs sister Yelena died of pernicious anemia at eighteen and she was an important musical influence to Rachmaninoff who introduced him to the works of Tchaikovsky
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Aleko (Rachmaninoff)
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Aleko is the first of three completed operas by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Russian libretto was written by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and is an adaptation of the poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin, the opera was written in 1892 as a graduation work at the Moscow Conservatory, and it won the highest prizes from the conservatory judges that year. It was first performed in Moscow 19 May 1892, the Bolshoi Theatres premiere took place on 9 May 1893 in Moscow. The composer conducted another performance in Kiev on 18/30 October 1893, the opera had its first performance in England on 15 July 1915 at the London Opera House under the direction of Vladimir Rosing. The New York City Operas 2016/17 season opened in Jazz at Lincoln Centers Rose Hall with a bill of Aleko and Pagliacci. James Meena conducted and Stefan Szkafarowsky sang the title role, a band of gypsies has pitched its tents for the night on the bank of a river. Beneath a pale moon, they light campfires, prepare a meal, an old gypsy tells a story. Long ago, he loved Mariula who deserted him for another man, leaving behind Zemfira, Zemfira is now grown up, has her own child, and lives with Aleko, a Russian who has abandoned civilisation for the gypsy life. Hearing this story, Aleko is outraged that Zemfiras father took no revenge on Mariula, for her, as for her mother, love is free, and she herself has already tired of Alekos possessiveness and now loves a younger gypsy, one of her own people. After dances for the women and the men, the settle down to sleep. Zemfira appears with her lover, whom she kisses passionately before disappearing into her own tent to look after her child. Aleko enters and Zemfira taunts him, singing about her wild lover, alone, Aleko broods on the catastrophe of his relationship with Zemfira and the failure of his attempt to flee the ordinary world. As dawn comes, he surprises Zemfira and her lover together, in a torment of jealousy he kills them both. All the gypsies gather, disturbed by the noise, led by Zemfiras father, they spare Alekos life but cast him out from them forever. Geoffrey Norris has noted criticism of the opera as lacking in dramatic momentum, petrov, N. Pokrovskaya, A. Orfenov, A. Ognivtzev, V. Zlatogorova, Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, Nikolai Golovanov, conductor. Sergey Murzaev, Evgeny Akimov, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Svetla Vassileva, BBC Philharmonic, chandos, DDD Notable excerpts 1929 Feodor Chaliapin, Alekos Cavatina. A1924 acoustical recording also exists
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Francesca da Rimini
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Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. She was a contemporary of Dante Alighieri, who portrayed her as a character in the Divine Comedy. Daughter of Guido I da Polenta of Ravenna, Francesca was wedded in or around 1275 to the brave, yet crippled Giovanni Malatesta, son of Malatesta da Verucchio, while in Rimini, she fell in love with Giovanni’s younger brother, Paolo. Though Paolo too was married, they managed to carry on an affair for some ten years, in the first volume of The Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil meet Francesca and her lover Paolo in the second circle of hell, reserved for the lustful. Here, the couple is trapped in a whirlwind, doomed to be forever swept through the air just as they allowed themselves to be swept away by their passions. Dante calls out to the lovers, who are compelled to briefly pause before him and she obliquely states a few of the details of her life and her death, and Dante, apparently familiar with her story, correctly identifies her by name. He asks her what led to her and Paolos damnation, in the years following Dantes portrayal of Francesca, legends about Francesca began to crop up. Guido, fearing that Francesca would never agree to marry the crippled Giovanni, had sent for the much more handsome Paolo in Giovannis stead. It wasnt until the morning after the wedding that Francesca discovered the deception and this version of events, however, is very likely a fabrication. Also, Boccaccio was born in 1313, some 27 years after Francescas death, in the 19th century, the story of Paolo and Francesca inspired numerous theatrical, operatic and symphonic adaptations. Sir George Alexander & The St. James Theatre, reissued 1969, New York, Benjamin Blom
