1.
Libretto
–
A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
2.
Manchuria
–
Manchuria is a modern name, first created by the Japanese, given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the Peoples Republic of China, the definition of Manchuria can be any one of several regions of various size. These are, from smallest to largest, Northeast China, consisting of Heilongjiang, Jilin and this is the area referred to as Manchuria in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. Inner Manchuria, the above, plus parts of modern Inner Mongolia, The above, plus Outer Manchuria, the area from the Amur and Ussuri rivers to the Stanovoy Mountains, in Russian administrative terms, Ussuri krai, southern Harbin oblast, Primorskiy kray. The above, plus Sakhalin Island, which is included on Qing dynasty maps as part of Outer Manchuria even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The island was included in Manchuria on maps made by the Japanese Shogunate. Despite of lines on maps and empiress political claims, the island was inhabited by Ainu people until the Soviet Union enforced a policy after 1945. Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon the act of the Manchu drama. During the ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busily occupied in other directions and it may be noted here that Manchuria is unknown to the Chinese or to the Manchus themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensive home of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces, namely, Shêngking, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, Kirin, and Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar. — Herbert A. Giles, China and the Manchus,1912 Manchuria is a translation of the Japanese word Manshū, the Manchu and Chinese languages had no such word as Manchuria and the word has imperialist connotations. According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using the name Manchuria to refer to the location, the historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria, the historian Norman Smith wrote that The term Manchuria is controversial. Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she should use the term in quotation marks when referring to Manchuria, in his 2012 dissertation on the Jurchen people to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Washington, Professor Chad D. In the 18th-century Europe, the later known as Manchuria was most commonly referred to as Tartary. However, the term Manchuria started appearing by the end of the century, in current Chinese parlance, an inhabitant of the Northeast, or Northeast China, is a Northeasterner. In China, the term Manchuria is rarely used today, and this usage is seen in the expression Chuǎng Guāndōng referring to the mass migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The name Guandong later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the Kwantung Leased Territory on the Liaodong Peninsula and it is not to be confused with the southern province of Guangdong
3.
Niuzhuang
–
Yingkou is a prefecture-level city of Liaoning province, Peoples Republic of China. It is a city of the Bohai Sea, and is the location of the mouth of the Liao River. Yingkou was historically known as Newchwang in postal romanization, it was one of the Treaty Ports opened under the Treaties of Tianjin of 1858, in fact, the actual town of Newchwang was about thirty miles upstream of Liao He, within todays county-level city of Haicheng. After the treaty had been signed, the British found that the river near Newchwang was too shallow for their ships, instead, the treaty port was moved to the area nearer to the river mouth where todays Yingkou is located. To avoid confusion between the two locations, careful English writers of the early 20th century would sometimes use Newchwang for Yingkou, meanwhile, Newchwangcheng was adopted by the government as the inland towns name to distinguish it from the coastal city. To the west is the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Gulf, bordering prefecture cities are, Anshan, Dalian, and Panjin. The citys metro area is located 166 km from the capital of Shenyang,204 km from Dalian,84 kilometres from Anshan. The city is located at latitude 39° 55−40°56 N and longitude 121° 56−123°02 E, at its greatest width, the city spans 111.8 km from north to south and 50.7 km from east to west. The total area of the city is 5,365 km2, the city has a total coastline of 96 km. Yingkou has a humid continental climate with strong monsoonal influences. Though the climate is tempered by the citys location on the Bohai Gulf, winters are long, windy, cold but dry. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −8.5 °C in January to 25.0 °C in July, precipitation is somewhat enhanced by the coastal location, with a majority of the annual rainfall occurring in July and August alone. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 51% in July to 68% in three months, the city receives 2,774 hours of sunshine annually. China Minmetals Industrial Park Yingkou Economic & Technological Development Zone, so far, five key industries have been formed, which are steel, chemical industry, mineral processing, logistics, textile and garment industry. The city is home to the basketball club Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association, the club brought forth several players of Chinas national basketball team. It plays its games at the Benxi Gymnasium. As a result, Yingkou city is undergoing substantial expansion. From its current urban area of 54 km2, Phase One of the Coastal Base project is under way and is adding a further 44 km2 of industrial, Phase Two will add a further massive 157 km2
4.
Chinese language
–
Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
5.
Julian calendar
–
The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by edict, the Julian calendar gains against the mean tropical year at the rate of one day in 128 years. For the Gregorian the figure is one day in 3,030 years, the difference in the average length of the year between Julian and Gregorian is 0. 002%. The Julian calendar has a year of 365 days divided into 12 months. A leap day is added to February every four years, the Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. It was intended to approximate the tropical year, as a result, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was corrected by the Gregorian reform of 1582, consequently, the Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Egypt converted on 20 December 1874/1 January 1875, turkey switched on 16 February/1 March 1917. Russia changed on 1/14 February 1918, Greece made the change for civil purposes on 16 February/1 March 1923 - the national day, which was a religious holiday, was to remain on the old calendar. Most Christian denominations in the west and areas evangelised by western churches have replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian as the basis for their liturgical calendars. However, most branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar for calculating the date of Easter, some Orthodox churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while other Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes. The Julian calendar is used by the Berbers of the Maghreb in the form of the Berber calendar. In the form of the Alexandrian calendar, it is the basis for the Ethiopian calendar, during the changeover between calendars and for some time afterwards, dual dating was used in documents and gave the date according to both systems. In contemporary as well as texts that describe events during the period of change. The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, in addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, some say the mensis intercalaris always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia. According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long. In this system, the average Roman year would have had 366 1⁄4 days over four years, Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days
6.
Harbin
–
Harbin is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang province in the northeastern region of the Peoples Republic of China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, Harbin is the eighth most populous Chinese city and the most populous city in Northeast China. According to the 2010 census, the area made of seven out of nine urban districts had 5,282,093 inhabitants. Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural, Harbin, which was originally a Manchu word meaning a place for drying fishing nets, grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded in 1898 with the coming of the Chinese Eastern Railway, having the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities, Harbin is heralded as the Ice City for its well-known winter tourism and recreations. Harbin is notable for its ice sculpture festival in the winter. Besides being well known for its historical Russian legacy, the city serves as an important gateway in Sino-Russian trade today, in the 1920s, the city was considered Chinas fashion capital since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached here first before arriving in Shanghai. The city has been voted China Top Tourist City by China National Tourism Administration in 2004, on 22 June 2010, Harbin was appointed a City of Music by the UN. Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC during the late Stone Age, Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor of the Jin dynasty, was born in the Jurchen Wanyan tribes who resided near the Ashi River in this region. In AD1115 Aguda established Jins capital Shangjing Huining Prefecture in todays Acheng District of Harbin, after Agudas death, the new emperor Wanyan Sheng ordered the construction of a new city on a uniform plan. The planning and construction emulated major Chinese cities, in particular Bianjing, Huining Prefecture served as the first superior capital of the Jin empire until Wanyan Liang moved the capital to Yanjing in 1153. Liang even went so far as to destroy all palaces in his capital in 1157. Wanyan Liangs successor Wanyan Yong restored the city and established it as a capital in 1173. Ruins of the Shangjing Huining Prefecture were discovered and excavated about 2 km from present-day Achengs central urban area, the site of the old Jin capital ruins is a national historic reserve, and includes the Jin Dynasty History Museum. The museum, open to the public, was renovated in late 2005, mounted statues of Aguda and of his chief commander Wanyan Zonghan stand in the grounds of the museum. Many of the artifacts there are on display in nearby Harbin. After the Mongol conquest of the Jin Empire, Huining Prefecture was abandoned, in the 17th century, the Manchus used building materials from Huining Prefecture to construct their new stronghold in Alchuka. The region of Harbin remained largely rural until the 1800s, with ten villages
7.
Nazism
–
National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
8.
Degenerate music
–
Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi governments concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger, in both cases, the government attempted to isolate, discredit, discourage, or ban the works. Their ideas drew on decades of writing on music and on a debate on the relationship between music and mental illness. Jewish composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler were disparaged and condemned by the Nazis, in Leipzig, a bronze statue of Mendelssohn was removed. The regime commissioned music to replace his incidental music to A Midsummer Nights Dream, from the Nazi seizure of power onward, these composers found it increasingly difficult, and often impossible, to get work or have their music performed. Many went into exile, or retreated into internal exile, or ended up in the concentration camps, like degenerate art, examples of degenerate music were displayed in public exhibits in Germany beginning in 1938. Reichsmusikkammer Negermusik Reich Music Examination Office Cultural Bolshevism Low culture Swing Kids Anon, musiques interdites sous le IIIe Reich. Degenerate Music in Nazi Germany Degenerate Music at Guide to the Holocaust Database of Degenerate Music
9.
Academy of Arts, Berlin
–
The Academy of Arts is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to art, as well as to advise. The current Academy was founded on 1 October 1993 as the re-unification of formerly separate East and West German academies, the Academy is an incorporated body of the public right under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. New members are nominated by secret ballot of the general assembly, founded by the Hohenzollern elector Frederick III, it was the third-oldest such academy in Europe. The institution was housed on No.8 Unter den Linden, until from 1902 the site was cleared, the Academy also served as a training school since its founding, and created a number of affiliated schools. The first was the Bauakademie for architectural training, founded in 1799, the academic arm was fully separated in 1931 and developed into the present-day Berlin University of the Arts. In postwar divided Germany, two parallel organizations took its place, the western successor organization was called the Akademie der Künste, founded in 1954 under President Hans Scharoun, which resided in the rebuilt Hansaviertel quarter of West Berlin. Its presidents included Arnold Zweig, Ludwig Renn, Johannes R. Becher, Otto Nagel, Willi Bredel, Konrad Wolf, Manfred Wekwerth and Heiner Müller. These two were merged on 1 October 1993 into the academy, which took its seat in a new building at the former location on Pariser Platz
10.
Aribert Reimann
–
Aribert Reimann is a German composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeares King Lear, the opera Lear, was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, after studying composition, counterpoint and piano at the Berlin University of the Arts, Reimann took a job as a repetiteur at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His first appearances as a pianist and accompanist were towards the end of the 1960s, in the early 1970s, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and held a professorship in contemporary song at Berlins Hochschule der Künste from 1983 to 1998. Reimanns reputation as a composer has increased greatly with several great literary operas, including Lear, besides these, he has written chamber music, orchestral works and songs. He has been honoured repeatedly, including the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and his opera Medea, after Franz Grillparzer, was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, conducted by Michael Boder, with Marlis Petersen in the title role. In 2011 he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for his lifes work, ISBN 978-3-938095-21-8 Media related to Aribert Reimann at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Isang Yun
–
Isang Yun, also spelled Yun I-sang, was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in Germany. Yun was born in Sancheong, Korea in 1917, the son of poet Yun Ki-hyon and he began writing music at the age of 14 and studying music formally two years later, in 1933. In the mid-1930s, he studied briefly at the Osaka College of Music, after Japan entered World War II, he moved back to Korea and participated in the Korean independence movement. He was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese in 1943, after the war, he did welfare work, establishing an orphanage for war orphans, and teaching music in Tongyeong and Busan. After the armistice ceasing hostilities in the Korean War in 1953 and he received the Seoul City Culture Award in 1955, and traveled to Europe the following year to finish his musical studies. The premiere of his oratorio Om mani padme hum in Hanover 1965, with Réak he introduced the sound idea of Chinese-Korean ceremonial music as well as imitations of the East Asian mouth organ saenghwang, sheng or shō into Western avant-garde music. From October 1959, Yun had been living in Krefeld, Freiburg im Breisgau, with a grant from the Ford Foundation, he and his family settled in West Berlin in 1964. However, due to a visit to North Korea in 1963, via Bonn he was taken to Seoul. In prison he was tortured, attempted suicide, forced to confess to espionage, Isang Yun was released on 23 February 1969, returning to West Berlin at the end of March. In 1971, he obtained German citizenship and he never returned to South Korea. From 1973 he began participating in the call for the democratization of South Korea, Yun taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and at the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin. Among his students are Kazuhisa Akita, Jolyon Brettingham Smith, In-Chan Choe, Conrado del Rosario, Raymond Deane, after 1979 Yun returned several times to North Korea to introduce new Western composition techniques as well as his own music. In 1982, the first Isang Yun Festival took place in Pyongyang, in 1984, the Isang Yun Music Institute opened in Pyongyang, North Korea. An ensemble had been founded there under his name, Yun promoted the idea of a joint concert featuring musicians from both Koreas in Panmumjom, which failed in 1988, but South Korean artists could be invited to Pyongyang in 1990. Two concerts with works of Isang Yun had been performed in Seoul by Heinz Holliger, Ursula Holliger, Yun was invited to attend a festival of his music in South Korea in 1994, but the trip was broken off after internal and external conflicts. Yun was told by South Korean officials that to return, he would have to submit a confession of “repentance. On 3 November 1995, Yun died of pneumonia in Berlin, the International Isang Yun Society was founded in Berlin in February 1996. Yun has often criticized for his pro-North Korean activities, i. e. musical activities in North Korea
12.
Giselher Klebe
–
Giselher Wolfgang Klebe was a German composer. He composed more than 140 works, among them 14 operas,8 symphonies,15 solo concerts, chamber music, piano works, giselher Klebe was born in Mannheim, Germany. He received musical tuition early in his life from his mother, the family relocated in 1932 to Munich, where his mothers sister, Melanie Michaelis, continued the training. His fathers profession required a further relocation in 1936 to Rostock, following the separation of his parents, Klebe moved with his mother and sister to Berlin. During 1938, the 13-year-old sketched his first compositions, in 1940, he began studies in violin, viola, and composition, supported by a grant from the city of Berlin. After serving his Reichsarbeitsdienst, Klebe was conscripted to service as signalman. After the German surrender, he was prisoner of war by the Russian forces. Due to ill health, he was soon released, having convalesced, Klebe continued his music studies in Berlin, first under Joseph Rufer, then in master classes by Boris Blacher. He worked for the radio station Berliner Rundfunk until 1948, when he began to work full-time as a composer, Klebe was inspired and influenced by works of authors and artists, especially his contemporaries. In 1951 he composed Die Zwitschermaschine Op.7, based on the painting by Paul Klee. His first opera, based on Friedrich Schillers play Die Räuber, was produced in 1957 and he composed two operas based on plays by Ödön von Horváth. In 1957, Klebe succeeded Wolfgang Fortner as docent for the subjects of Composition, in 1964 Klebe was appointed member of the West Berlin Akademie der Künste. In 1965 he received the Westfälischer Musikpreis, in 2002, the city of Detmold, where he lived, made him an honorary citizen. On 10 September 1946 Klebe married the violinist Lore Schiller and they had two daughters, Sonja Katharina and Annette Marianne. Lore Klebe wrote the librettos for some of his operas, including Der Jüngste Tag, klebel died on 5 October 2009 in Detmold at the age of 84 after a long illness from liver cancer
13.
Klaus Huber
–
Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer. Klaus Huber studied violin at the Zurich University of the Arts with Stefi Geyer and he continued his studies with Boris Blacher in Berlin. One of the figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists. Huber is a socially and politically conscious composer and his music often conveys a humanistic message, Klaus Huber taught composition at the City of Basel Music Academy and at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He was also appointed director of the seminars at the Gaudeamus Foundation in Bilthoven, Netherlands. Additionally, he held visiting professorships and composition classes in Paris, London, Geneva, Milan, Lyon, Montreal, Sarajevo. Several students of Klaus Huber such as Brian Ferneyhough, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Text, Michael Schindhelm in cooperation with Klaus Huber, based on poems and prose texts by Ossip Mandelstam Quod est pax. - Vers la raison du coeur. for orchestra with five voices and one Arabic percussion. for soloist, choir. Text, Ernesto Cardenal, Florian Knobloch, George Jackson, Carolina Maria de Jesús, Prophet Jesaja Erniedrigt – Geknechtet – Verlassen – Verachtet. for soloist, choir, Text, Ernesto Cardenal, Florian Knobloch, George Jackson, Carolina Maria de Jesús, Prophet Jesaja Miserere hominibus. Cantata for seven voices and seven instrumentalists. Text, Altes Testament, Octavio Paz, Mahmoud Darwish, Carl Améry, Jacques Derrida Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen. for violoncello solo, baritone solo, Text, Mahmoud Darwish Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi for six singers and two instrumentalists. Text, Ossip Mandelstam Lombre de notre âge for chamber ensemble La terre des hommes for mezzo-soprano, counter tenor/speaker, Text, Simone Weil, Ossip Mandelstam Kleines Requiem for Heinrich Böll for choir a cappella und Bassbaritone. Text, Hildegard von Bingen Ecce homines string quintet Agnus Dei cum recordatione Text, Gösta Neuwirth, Latin Mess Des Dichters Pflug for violin, viola, publishers website, Klaus Huber at Ricordi Berlin
14.
Ehrengrab
–
An ehrengrab is a distinction granted by certain German, Swiss and Austrian cities to some of their citizens for extraordinary services or achievements in their lifetimes. If there are no descendants or institutions to care for the gravesites, many ehrengrabs also serve to document cultural history, for example, when a cemetery containing artistically notable graves is closed and the graves are moved at public expense. The basic details of the awarding, financing and care of graves are similarly handled in all German-speaking countries. Berlin and Vienna maintain the largest number of such sites, in Berlin about 200 cemeteries contain approximately 740 tombs of honor with about 800 Ehrengräber. The difference between the number of tombs and graves of honor is explained by the fact that some family tombs honor several individuals, Berlin public memorial graves are under the legislation of the Berlin Senate dating to 1952, labeled as General Instructions for the recognition, transfer and maintenance. The current basis is §12, Paragraph 6 of the Law on the state-owned and non-state-owned cemeteries in Berlin of 1 November 1995, the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery contains a socialist monument with graves of honor, among them are the socialists Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. Graves of honor are called Gewidmete Gräber der Stadt Wien, the name Ehrengräber is reserved for tombs in the Central Cemetery of Vienna. To make the more attractive, famous citizens such as Ludwig van Beethoven. Funerary monuments were built for others, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, hundreds of graves of honor are found in cemeteries in Vienna. The city of Zurich maintains a tomb of honor near the Nordheim crematorium. It is a tomb for people who have donated their bodies to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Zurich for the needs of science. Category of National cemeteries Memorial List of Ehrengräber at Berlin Persons honored in Berlin Ehrengräber at the Central Cemetery of Vienna
15.
Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf
–
Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf is a cemetery located in Berlins Nikolassee district. The cemetery occupies an area of 376,975 m², an additional Italian war cemetery was created there in 1953. A number of people of Berlin are buried at the cemetery. In particular, all of Berlins deceased post-war mayors are buried here, the northern part of the cemetery was built between 1945 and 1947 by Herta Hammerbacher, and expanded from 1948 to 1954 by Max Dietrich. About a third of the area was forest, which was already 50 years old and was intentionally kept, the trees are mostly firs, with a few oaks, mountain-ashes and birches. Two straight paths in north-south direction structure the cemetery, connected by curved paths, the funeral halls are situated on a natural hill. Between the entrance and the halls is a large U-shaped meadow which was designed as heath. The graves are arranged in rows, both in the part as in the forest part. A war cemetery was created in 1953 for 1,183 Italian POWs, many of them unidentified and it is lined by trees and bushes and thus separated from the rest of the cemetery. The grave plates are arranged in a regular pattern, two halls, called Feierhallen or Kapelle, on a hill were built from 1956 to 1958 by Sergius Ruegenberg and Wolf von Möllendorff. A larger and a hall are connected by smaller administrative buildings. In front of the halls, two high walls covered with travertine symbolize the transition from life to death, the halls are reinforced concrete structures, with fronts of glass open to nature. Architect Ruegenberg, a student of Hans Scharoun, built simple rectangular elements on the walls and ceiling, based on a square module, and achieved zurückhaltende Feierlichkeit. An entrance gate at the Potsdamer Chaussee was built in 1950 by Friedrich Dückerstieg, a bell tower on the meadow was created in 1973 by Ruegenberg and Möllendorff. Hans Beirer, Kammersänger Gerhard Bienert, actor Günther Birkenfeld, writer Boris Blacher*, composer Peter Bloch, stattbuch, Berlin 1994 Klaus Konrad Weber, Peter Güttler, Ditta Ahmadi, Berlin und seine Bauten. Teil X Band A, Anlagen und Bauten für die Versorgung Bestattungswesen, wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-433-00890-6 Hans-Jürgen Mende, Lexikon Berliner Grabstätten
16.
Chamber opera
–
Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th century operas of this type include Paul Hindemiths Cardillac, earlier small-scale operas such as Pergolesis La serva padrona are sometimes known as chamber operas. Other 20th century examples include Gustav Holsts Savitri, Benjamin Britten wrote works in this category in the 1940s when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small performance spaces. The Rape of Lucretia was his first example in the genre, other composers, including Hans Werner Henze, Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, William Walton, and Philip Glass have written in this genre. Instrumentation for chamber operas vary, Britten scored The Rape of Lucretia for eight singers with single strings and wind with piano, harp, Humphrey Searles The Diary of a Madman is scored for four voices and an orchestra of single strings, woodwind and brass, with two percussionists. An electronic tape is also specified to produce sound effects. Judith Weirs King Haralds Saga is for a soprano voice. Chamber Made Opera, Australian production house Notes Sources Searle, Humphrey, london and Mainz, Schott and Co
17.
Salzburg Festival
–
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, one highlight is the annual performance of the play Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Since 1967, an annual Salzburg Easter Festival has also been held, Music festivals had been held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 held by the International Mozarteum Foundation, but were discontinued in 1910. Although a festival was planned for 1914, it was cancelled at the outbreak of World War I, the Salzburg Festival was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1920 with Reinhardts performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, starring Alexander Moissi. The practice has become a tradition, and the play is now performed at Cathedral Square, since 1921 it has been accompanied by several performances of chamber music. The first operatic production came in 1922, with Mozarts Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Strauss, the singers were mainly drawn from the Wiener Staatsoper, including Richard Tauber in the part of Don Ottavio. At that time the festival had developed a large-scale program including live broadcasts by the Austrian RAVAG radio network. During the years from 1934 to 1937 famed conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, in 1936, the festival featured a performance by the Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later dramatized as the musical and film The Sound of Music. In 1937, Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the Festival, the Festivals popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and Georg Solti had to emigrate, nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the 20 July plot. At the end of World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the Allied victory in Europe. The post-war festival slowly regained its prominence as an opera festival, especially for works by Mozart. In 1960 the Great Festival Hall opera house opened its doors, upon Karajans death in 1989, the festival was drastically modernized and expanded by director Gerard Mortier, who was succeeded by Peter Ruzicka in 2001. In 2006, the festival was led by intendant Jürgen Flimm and that year, Salzburg celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozarts birth by staging all 22 of his operatic works, to great acclaim. All 22 were filmed and released on DVD in November 2006, the 2006 festival also saw the opening of the Haus für Mozart. Alexander Pereira succeeded Flimm, who departed in 2011 to become director of the Berlin State Opera, Pereiras objective for the festival was to present only new productions. The 2015 festival marked the first one for which Bechtolf was responsible for the artistic programming, budget cuts led to a retreat from Pereiras new productions only objective. The remaining four opera productions—Norma, Il trovatore, Iphigénie en Tauride, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival was established at the behest of Herbert von Karajan in 1973 as a brief concert series with the name Pfingstkonzerte
18.
Caprice No. 24 (Paganini)
–
Caprice No.24 in A minor is the final caprice of Niccolò Paganinis 24 Caprices, and a famous work for solo violin. The work, in the key of A minor, consists of a theme,11 variations, and his 24 Caprices were probably composed in 1817, while he was in the service of the Baciocchi court. It is widely considered one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the solo violin, the caprice has provided a rich seam of material for works by subsequent composers. Compositions based on it, and transcriptions of it, include, nine Variants on Paganini for Double Bass and Orchestra, also for Double Bass and Piano. Paganini in Metropolis for Clarinet and Wind Symphony, also for Clarinet and Orchestra,24,12 Variations on Paganinis Caprice No. 24, both for violin and piano, Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op
19.
Tatjana Gsovsky
–
Tatjana Gsovsky was an internationally known ballet dancer and choreographer who was ballet mistress of the Berlin State Opera, Teatro Colón, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Oper Frankfurt. An influential teacher, she is remembered for first choreographies of works by composers including Boris Blacher, Werner Egk, Hans Werner Henze, Giselher Klebe, Luigi Nono. Tatjana Issatschenko was born in Moscow and studied there, first art history and she studied ballet in the studio of Isadora Duncan in St. Petersburg. After the October Revolution, she worked as a trainer in Krasnodar. They got married and emigrated to Berlin in 1924, from 1928 they ran a private ballet school. After World War II, she was from 1945 to 1951 the ballet mistress at the Deutsche Staatsoper, where she created a new company. From 1952 to 1953 she served in that function at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, from 1953 to 1966 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in 1955, Gsovsky founded the Berliner Ballett, a troupe touring in Europe with modern Tanztheater on a classical base. She died in Berlin and received an Ehrengrab on the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf, Gsovsky created choreographies that dominated the dance scene in Germany for 20 years, in a synthesis of classical ballett with elements of Ausdruckstanz, including findings of psychology. She staged the German premieres of Prokofievs Romeo and Juliet and Weills The Seven Deadly Sins, Gsovsky wrote the book Ballett in Deutschland. One of Gsovskys most successful students was Natascha Trofimowa who attended her Berlin school, busch, Akademie der Künste, ed. Tatjana Gsovsky – Choreographin und Tanzpädagogin, Berlin, Verlag Alexander, ISBN 389581105X Michael Heuermann. Tatjana Gsovsky und das Dramatische Ballett, Der Berliner Stil zwischen Der Idiot und Tristan, Dissertation
20.
Aristophanes
–
Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete and these, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy and his second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. In my opinion, he says through the Chorus in that play, less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the source of information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of the author during a called the parabasis. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist, Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience, yet he also declared that other times would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays. He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts, in politics, such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions. It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience, an elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10000 at the Theatre of Dionysus, the conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays, throughout most of Aristophanes career, the Chorus was essential to a plays success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, when Aristophanes first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation yet they are not jingoistic, the plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. However it is whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations. Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters and he won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians. Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis, Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes, the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death
21.
Experimental music
–
The practice became prominent in the mid-20th century, particularly in North America. John Cage was one of the earliest composers to use the term and one of experimental musics primary innovators, utilizing indeterminacy techniques and seeking unknown outcomes. Also, in America, a distinct sense of the term was used in the late 1950s to describe computer-controlled composition associated with composers such as Lejaren Hiller. Harry Partch as well as Ivor Darreg worked with other tuning scales based on the laws for harmonic music. For this music they developed a group of experimental musical instruments. Musique concrète, is a form of music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. Elements of experimental music include indeterminate music, in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. The Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète, under the leadership of Pierre Schaeffer, publication of Schaeffers manifesto was delayed by four years, by which time Schaeffer was favoring the term recherche musicale, though he never wholly abandoned musique expérimentale. John Cage was also using the term as early as 1955, according to Cages definition, an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen, and he was specifically interested in completed works that performed an unpredictable action. Rebners lecture extended the concept back in time to include Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, nyman opposes experimental music to the European avant-garde of the time, for whom The identity of a composition is of paramount importance. David Cope also distinguishes between experimental and avant garde, describing music as that which represents a refusal to accept the status quo. That is, for the most part, experimental music studies describes a category without really explaining it and this was an attempt to marginalize, and thereby dismiss various kinds of music that did not conform to established conventions. In 1955, Pierre Boulez identified it as a new definition makes it possible to restrict to a laboratory. He concludes, There is no such thing as experimental music … and it is therefore not a genre, but an open category, because any attempt to classify a phenomenon as unclassifiable and elusive as experimental music must be partial. Furthermore, the indeterminacy in performance guarantees that two versions of the same piece will have virtually no perceptible musical facts in common. The term experimental music was used contemporaneously for electronic music, particularly in the early musique concrète work of Schaeffer, a number of early 20th-century American composers, seen as precedents to and influences on John Cage, are sometimes referred to as the American Experimental School. These include Charles Ives, Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles, for this music they both developed custom-built musical instruments often characterized as experimental instruments. La Monte Young is known for using this technique when he began working on his minimal drone pieces which consisted of layers of sounds in different pitches
22.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
–
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
23.
Anacaona
–
Anacaona was a Taíno cacica, born into a family of chiefs, and sister of Bohechío, chief of Jaragua. Her husband was Caonabo, chief of the territory of Maguana. Her brother and her husband were two of the five highest caciques who ruled the island of Kiskeya when the Spaniards settled there in 1492 and she was celebrated as a composer of ballads and narrative poems, called areítos. Anacaona was born in Maguana, where her Brother was Chieftain in 1474, during Christopher Columbuss visit in late 1496, Anacaona and her brother Bohechío appeared as equal negotiators. The visit is described as having taken place in a friendly atmosphere, several months later, Columbus arrived with a caravel to collect a part of the tribute. Anacaona and Bohechío had sailed aboard the caravel, near todays Léogâne in the Gulf of Gonâve as his guests. At first relations between natives and Conquistadors were cordial, the natives realizing too late their lands were actually being stolen, anacaonas high status was probably strengthened by elements of matrilineal descent in the Taíno society, as described by Peter Martyr dAnghiera. Taíno caciques usually passed inheritance to the eldest children of their sisters, if their sisters had no children, then they chose among the children of their brothers, and when there were none, they fell back upon one of their own. Anacaona had one child, named Higuemota, whose dates of birth and death are lost to history, Anacaona became chief of Jaragua after her brothers death. The Taínos, being ill-treated by the conquerors, revolted and made a war against them. Cacica Anacaona and her Taíno noblemen were arrested — all accused of conspiracy for resisting occupation, prior to her execution, Anacaona was offered clemency if she would give herself as concubine to one of the Spaniards which was common in the era. Standing with her fellow Taínos in solidarity, the Caribbean indigenous female leader chose execution over colluding with her Spanish enemy, Anacaona remained rebellious and independent until her violent public death. Because Anacaona refused the offer of the Spanish intruders while others were shot. She was only 29 years old and her immortalization in the intertwining histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic has resulted in the use of her name for various places in both countries. Many in Haiti claim her as a significant icon in early Haitian history and she is immortalized in music by Haitian folk singers Ansy and Yole Dérose in Anacaona, as well as by Puerto Rican salsa composer Tite Curet Alonso in his song Anacaona and Irka Mateo Anacaona. Cheo Felicianos first track of his first solo album, Cheo is Anacaona, Chiefdoms of Hispaniola Enriquillo Anti-Colonialism Female Native American leaders Bartolomé de las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Peter Martyr dAnghiera, De Orbe Novo, samuel M. Wilson, Hispaniola - Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus. The University of Alabama Press,1990, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John, eds. article name needed
24.
Sholem Aleichem
–
Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem, was a leading Yiddish author and playwright. The musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on his stories about Tevye the Dairyman, was the first commercially successful English-language stage production about Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The Hebrew phrase Shalom aleichem literally means Peace be upon you, Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich was born in 1859 in Pereyaslav and grew up in the nearby shtetl of Voronko, in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Menachem-Nukhem Rabinovich, was a merchant at that time. However, a business affair plunged the family into poverty. When he was 13 years old, the family moved back to Pereyaslav, Sholem Aleichems first venture into writing was an alphabetic glossary of the epithets used by his stepmother. At the age of fifteen, inspired by Robinson Crusoe, he composed a Jewish version of the novel and he adopted the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, a Yiddish variant of the Hebrew expression shalom aleichem, meaning peace be with you and typically used as a greeting. In 1876, after graduating school in Pereyaslav, he spent three years tutoring a wealthy landowners daughter, Olga Loev. From 1880 to 1883 he served as rabbi in Lubny. On May 12,1883, he and Olga married, against the wishes of her father, a few years later, they inherited the estate of Olgas father. In 1890, Sholem Aleichem lost their fortune in a stock speculation. Solomon and Olga had their first child, a daughter named Ernestina, daughter Lyalya was born in 1887. As Lyalya Kaufman, she became a Hebrew writer, a third daughter, Emma, was born in 1888. In 1889, Olga finally gave birth to a son and they named him Elimelech, after Olga’s father, but at home they called him Misha. Daughter Marusi was born in 1892, a final child, a son named Nochum after Solomon’s father was born in 1901. After witnessing the pogroms that swept through southern Russia in 1905, Sholem Aleichem left Kiev and resettled to New York City, where he arrived in 1906. His family set up house in Geneva, Switzerland, but when he saw he could not afford to maintain two households, he joined them in Geneva in 1908, despite his great popularity, he was forced to take up an exhausting schedule of lecturing to make ends meet. In July 1908, during a tour in Russia, Sholem Aleichem collapsed on a train going through Baranowicze
25.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
–
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is the second largest opera house and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004 the Deutsche Oper Berlin, like the Berlin State Opera, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin, has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation. The companys history goes back to the Deutsches Opernhaus built by the independent city of Charlottenburg—the richest town of Prussia—according to plans designed by Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on November 7,1912 with a performance of Beethovens Fidelio, in 1925, after the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to Städtische Oper. With the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933, the opera was under control of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment, minister Joseph Goebbels had the name changed back to Deutsches Opernhaus, competing with the Berlin State Opera in Mitte controlled by his rival, the Prussian minister-president Hermann Göring. In 1935, the building was remodeled by Paul Baumgarten and the seating reduced from 2300 to 2098. Carl Ebert, the pre-World War II general manager, chose to emigrate from Germany rather than endorse the Nazi view of music and he was replaced by Max von Schillings, who acceded to enact works of unalloyed German character. Several artists, like the conductor Fritz Stiedry or the singer Alexander Kipnis followed Ebert into emigration, the opera house was destroyed by a RAF air raid on 23 November 1943. Performances continued at the Admiralspalast in Mitte until 1945, Ebert returned as general manager after the war. After the war, in what was now West Berlin, the company, again called Städtische Oper, used the nearby Theater des Westens, its production was Fidelio. Its home was rebuilt in 1961 but to a much-changed. The opening production of the newly named Deutsche Oper, on 24 September, was Mozarts Don Giovanni, past Generalmusikdirectoren have included Bruno Walter, Kurt Adler, Ferenc Fricsay, Lorin Maazel, Gerd Albrecht, Jesús López-Cobos, Christian Thielemann. In October 2005, the Italian conductor Renato Palumbo was appointed Generalmusikdirector as of the 2006/2007 season, in October 2007, the Deutsche Oper announced the appointment of Donald Runnicles as their next Generalmusikdirector, effective August 2009, for an initial contract of five years. Simultaneously, Palumbo and the Deutsche Oper mutually agreed to terminate his contract, on the evening of 2 June 1967, Benno Ohnesorg, a student taking part in the German student movement, was shot in the streets around the opera house. He had been protesting against the visit to Germany by the Shah of Iran, in 1986 the American Berlin Opera Foundation was founded. In April 2001, the Italian conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli died at the podium while conducting Verdis Aida, critics of the decision include German Ministers and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. We should not make art dependent on religion — then we are back in the Middle Ages, at the end of October 2006, the opera house announced that performances of Mozarts opera Idomeneo would then proceed
26.
Yvonne, Prinzessin von Burgund
–
Composed in 1972, it was Blachers last opera. It premiered on 15 September 1973 at the Opernhaus Wuppertal, directed by Kurt Horres, the story is set in the royal court of an imaginary country and combines elements of tragic farce, fantasy, and moral criticism. The title role is portrayed by a mute dancer, pina Bausch danced the title role at the Wuppertal premiere, one of her last performances before establishing her dance company Tanztheater Wuppertal. Gombrowiczs Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda was published in 1935 but did not receive its first performance until 1957 when it premiered in Warsaw and it has since served as the basis for four operas, of which Blachers was the first. The action is set at a court at no defined time. Prince Philipp, bored by the court and its endless ceremonies, chooses Yvonne and his parents, Queen Margarete and King Ignatz, are appalled at the engagement and the princes choice is mocked by the courtiers. Yvonnes refusal to speak, despite repeated attempts to make her break her silence, as tension at the court mounts, King Ignatz and the Chamberlain reveal themselves to be murderers, and the courtly ceremonies become a farce. In the end, Yvonne, still silent, is killed during a banquet in her honour
27.
Dantons Tod (opera)
–
Dantons Tod is an opera by Gottfried von Einem to a libretto by Boris Blacher and Gottfried von Einem after Georg Büchners 1835 play of the same name. Its first performance took place in Salzburg on 6 August 1947, the successful premiere of Gottfried von Einems opera Dantons Tod at the 1947 Salzburg Festival and its quick staging by European houses were due to more than the strong drama of Einems score. This was a first step toward the rehabilitation of German musicians after World War II, Dantons Tod dramatizes legalized governmental terror, a plague which the world at the time realized had not been eradicated with the end of the war. Dantons Tod was adapted from Georg Büchners play by von Einem, the protagonist is Georges Danton, a leader in the French government during the Revolution. When he turned against Robespierres tactics—including terror—he was guillotined in April 1794, the operas first act establishes Dantons confrontation with Robespierre. In the first scene Danton and Camille Desmoulins express their desire for an end of the executions to a group of their friends playing cards. Scene two introduces the volatile crowd, Robespierre enters and in an aria sways the crowd and promises more executions. After Danton leaves, Robespierre and his colleague Saint-Just decide that he, in the last scene of the act Danton announces to Camille and his wife Lucile that he is to be arrested, but he refuses to flee. Act 2 depicts Dantons trial and death, two scenes before the Revolutionary Tribunal are separated by one with Danton and Camille in prison. Lucile comes to see Camille, she has lost her reason, in the trial scenes the crowd swings between demanding Dantons death and falling under the spell of his eloquent oratory. At the end, in the Place de la Révolution, the prisoners sing La Marseillaise in counterpoint to the crowd dancing the Carmagnole. After the crowd disperses, Lucile enters and sits on the steps of the guillotine and she cries Es lebe der Konig and is arrested as the curtain falls. These changes make for a dramatic beginning and ending and add to a score that deserves more frequent revivals than it has seen to date. Paul Schöffler as Danton, Julius Patzak as Desmoulins and Maria Cebotari as Lucile and this is a live recording taken from the premiere in Salzburg on August 6,1947 with the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus conducted by Ferenc Fricsay. A recording is available on Allegro Corporations Opera DOro label, theo Adam, Werner Hollweg, Horst Hiestermann, Krisztina Laki, ORF Chor & Orchester, Lothar Zagrosek Orfeo 1983
28.
Die Zeit
–
Die Zeit is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in north west Germany. The first edition of Die Zeit was first published in Hamburg on 21 February 1946, the founding publishers were Gerd Bucerius, Lovis H. Lorenz, Richard Tüngel and Ewald Schmidt di Simoni. Another important founder was Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, who joined as an editor in 1946, the publishing house, Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius in Hamburg, is owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Media. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays, the paper is considered to be highbrow. Its political direction is centrist and liberal, but has oscillated a number of times between slightly left-leaning and slightly right-leaning and it is known for its very large physical paper format and its long and detailed articles. The 1993 circulation of Die Zeit was 500,000 copies, with a circulation of 504,072 for the second half of 2012 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper. It reached 520,000 copies in the first quarter of 2013, Zeit has published Zeitmagazin International twice a year since 2013. It contains articles from the magazine which accompanies the newspaper. A selection of stories are published in English at http, //www. zeit. de/english/index Official website
29.
Boosey & Hawkes
–
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a manufacturer of brass, string. It also publishes many prominent contemporary composers, including John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Harrison Birtwistle, Anna Clyne, Osvaldo Golijov, James MacMillan, with subsidiaries in Berlin and New York, the company also sells sheet music. Boosey & Hawkes was founded in 1930 through the merger of two respected music companies, Boosey & Company and Hawkes & Son, the Boosey family was of Franco–Flemish origin. Boosey & Company traces its roots back to John Boosey, a bookseller in London in the 1760s–1770s and his son Thomas continued the business at 4 Old Bond Street, and from 1819 the bookshop was called Boosey & Sons or T. & T. Boosey. Thomas Booseys son, also named Thomas, set up a separate branch of the company known as T. Boosey & Co. and, in the latter part of the 19th century. Elgar and Vaughan Williams were among its later signings, the company also produced books, among its first publications was an English translation of Johann Nikolaus Forkels book Life of J. S. The company was affected by the House of Lords decision in Boosey v. Jeffreys which deprived English publishers of many of their foreign copyrights. Boosey & Company diversified into manufacturing woodwind instruments in 1851, collaborating in 1856 with flautist R. S, pratten to develop new designs for flutes. The firm bought over the business of Henry Distin in 1868, among its achievements was the widely acclaimed design for compensating valves developed by David James Blaikley in 1874. The company also commenced production of string instruments, the company capitalised on the increasing popularity of the ballad by focusing its publishing activities on them. To promote sales, John Boosey, son of Thomas Jr. established the London Ballad Concerts in 1867 at St. Jamess Hall and later at Queens Hall when it opened in 1893. Clara Butt, John Sims Reeves and Charles W. Clark performed at these concerts, the company began emphasising educational music from about the end of the 19th century. In 1874 Boosey & Company moved into offices at 295 Regent Street, in 1892, Boosey & Company opened an office in New York which still exists today. The business eventually owned half of Regent Street, and at the time of the merger was managed by Leslie Boosey, Hawkes & Son, a rival to Boosey & Company, was founded in 1865 by William Henry Hawkes selling orchestral sheet music. The company also made musical instruments and spare parts such as clarinet reeds, the business, which was particularly known for brass and military band music, was eventually inherited by Ralph Hawkes. Leslie Boosey and Ralph Hawkes met in the 1920s when they were on the Board of the Performing Right Society and they formed Boosey & Hawkes in October 1930 through a merger of their respective businesses. Hawkes & Son moved from its office in Denman Street to join the Boosey staff at 295 Regent Street, the 1938 Anschluss—the annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime—led to the Nazification of Viennese publishing house Universal Edition
30.
Virtual International Authority File
–
The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
31.
Integrated Authority File
–
The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
