1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
3.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
4.
Mononymous person
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A mononymous person is an individual who is known and addressed by a mononym, or single name. In some cases, that name has been selected by the individual, in other cases, it has been determined by the custom of the country or by some interested segment. In the case of historical figures, it may be the one of the individuals names that has survived and is still known today. The structure of persons names has varied across time and geography, in some societies, individuals have been mononymous, receiving only a single name. Alulim, first king of Sumer, is one of the earliest names known, Narmer, later, Biblical names were typically mononymous, as were names in the surrounding cultures of the Fertile Crescent. Mononyms in other ancient cultures include the Celtic queen Boudica and the Numidian king Jugurtha, however the historical record of eg Boudicca is scanty, and there is no evidence that she did not also have other names. Between Columbus arrival in the New World and the late 19th century, examples include Moctezuma, Anacaona, Agüeybaná, Diriangen, Urracá, Guamá, Atahualpa, Lempira, Lautaro, Tamanaco, Pocahontas, Auoindaon, Cangapol, and Tecumseh. Uniquely, the Dutch-Seneca diplomat Cornplanter received both a Seneca-language mononym from his mother and a name and surname from his father. His later descendants, such as Jesse Cornplanter, used Cornplanter as the name instead of Abeel. In the 19th century, most chiefs involved in the Apache Wars had mononym birth names, and some replaced those with mononymous nicknames, Geronimo, Victorio, Cochise, and so on. Since the medieval period, mononyms in the west have almost exclusively used to identify people who already had surnames. These nicknames were either adopted by the persons themselves or conferred by contemporaries, some French authors have shown a preference for mononyms. In the 17th century, the dramatist and actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin took the stage name Molière. In the 18th century, François-Marie Arouet adopted the mononym Voltaire, the new name combined several features. Arouet would not have served the purpose, given that names associations with roué, in the 20th century, a fourth French writer, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, used her actual surname as her mononym pen name, Colette. Some French actors and singers have used their name or surname as a stage mononym. In the 17th and 18th centuries, most Italian castrato singers used mononyms as stage names, the German writer, mining engineer and philosopher, Georg Friedrich Philipp Freiherr von Hardenberg, became famous as Novalis. In 2002 Multatuli was proclaimed by the Society for Dutch Literature to have been the most important Dutch writer of all time, the Dutch writer Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh wrote under the pseudonym Nescio
5.
Jacques Offenbach
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Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and he was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were revived during the 20th century. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling, from 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, there he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers, during the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbachs operettas. Napoleon III personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion dHonneur, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however and he re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U. S. tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera, Offenbach was born Jacob or Jakob Offenbach to a Jewish family, in the German city of Cologne, which was then a part of Prussia. His birthplace in the Großen Griechenmarkt was a distance from the square that is now named after him. He was the son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst and his wife Marianne. Isaac, who came from a family, had abandoned his original trade as a bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues. He was generally known as der Offenbacher, after his native town, Offenbach am Main, in 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob was six years old, his father taught him to play the violin, within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello
6.
The Tales of Hoffmann
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The Tales of Hoffmann is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbachs final work, as he died a year before the premiere, Barbier and Michel Carré had previously written a play, Les contes fantastiques dHoffmann, which was produced at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1851, and which Offenbach had seen. After returning from America in 1876 he learned that Barbier had adapted the play, Salomon handed the project to Offenbach. Work proceeded slowly interrupted by the composition of more profitable lighter works, Offenbach himself had a premonition that like Antonia he would die prior to its completion. He continued working on the opera throughout 1880, attending some rehearsals, shortly before he died he had written to Léon Carvalho, Hâtez-vous de monter mon opéra. Il ne me reste plus longtemps à vivre et mon seul désir est dassister à la première, the stories used in the opera were, Der Sandmann,1816. Das verlorene Spiegelbild from Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht,1814, the opera was first performed in a public venue, at the Opéra-Comique on 10 February 1881, without the third act. Besides Léon Carvalho, director of the Opéra-Comique, the director of the Ringtheater in Vienna, both men requested the rights, but Offenbach granted them to Carvalho. The opera reached its hundredth performance at the Salle Favart on the 15 December 1881, a new production by Albert Carré was mounted at the Opéra-Comique in 1911, with Léon Beyle in the title role and Albert Wolff conducting. This production remained in the repertoire until World War II, receiving 700 performances, following a recording by Opéra-Comique forces in March 1948, Louis Musy created the first post-war production in Paris, conducted by André Cluytens. The Paris Opera first staged the work in October 1974, directed by Patrice Chéreau with Nicolai Gedda in the title role. Outside France, the piece was mounted in Geneva, Budapest, Hamburg, New York, and Mexico in 1882, Vienna, Prague, and Antwerp in 1883, and Lvov and Berlin in 1884. Later local premieres included Buenos Aires in 1894, St Petersburg in 1899, Barcelona in 1905, and London in 1910. The Muse appears and reveals to the audience that her purpose is to draw Hoffmanns attention to herself and she takes the appearance of Hoffmanns closest friend, Nicklausse. The prima donna Stella, currently performing Mozarts Don Giovanni, sends a letter to Hoffmann, the letter and the key to the room are intercepted by Councillor Lindorf, who is the first of the operas incarnations of evil, Hoffmanns nemesis. Lindorf intends to replace Hoffmann at the rendezvous, in the tavern students wait for Hoffmann. He finally arrives and entertains them with the legend of Zaches the dwarf, Lindorf coaxes Hoffmann into telling the audience about his lifes three great loves
7.
The Longest Day (film)
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The Longest Day is a 1962 epic war film based on Cornelius Ryans book The Longest Day, about the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6,1944, during World War II. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, who paid author Ryan $175,000 for the film rights, the screenplay was by Ryan, with additional material written by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall and Jack Seddon. It was directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki, many of these actors played roles that were essentially cameo appearances. The film employed several Axis and Allied military consultants who had been actual participants on D-Day, many had their roles re-enacted in the film. These included, Günther Blumentritt, James M. Gavin, Frederick Morgan, John Howard, Lord Lovat, Philippe Kieffer, Pierre Koenig, Max Pemsel, Werner Pluskat, Josef Pips Priller and Lucie Rommel. A colorized version of film was released on VHS in 1994. The movie is filmed in the style of a docudrama, the film pays particular attention to the decision by Gen. Numerous scenes document the early hours of 6 June when Allied airborne troops were sent in to take key locations inland from the beaches. The French resistance is also shown reacting to the news that an invasion has started, the film concludes with a montage showing various Allied units consolidating their beachheads before they advance inland to reach Germany by crossing France. French producer Raoul Lévy signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to purchase the rights to Cornelius Ryans novel The Longest Day,6 June 1944 D-Day on March 23,1960. After finishing The Truth, Lévy set up a deal with the Associated British Picture Corporation, Ryan would receive $100,000, plus $35,000 to write the adaptations screenplay. Lévy intended to start production in March 1961, filming at Elstree Studios, but the project went into a halt once ABPC could not get the $6 million budget Lévy expected. Eventually former 20th Century Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck learned about the book while producing The Big Gamble, Ryan was brought in to write the script, but had conflicts with Zanuck as soon as the two met. Williams was forced to act as a mediator, he would deliver Ryans script pages to Zanuck, while Ryan developed the script, Zanuck also brought in other writers for cleanups, including James Jones and Romain Gary. Zanuck also realized that with eight scenes, shooting would be accomplished more expediently if multiple directors. He contracted with German directors Gerd Oswald and Bernhard Wicki, the British Ken Annakin, zanucks son Richard D. Zanuck was reluctant about the project, particularly the high budget. During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the extras appearing as American soldiers did not want to jump off the craft into the water because they thought it would be too cold. Robert Mitchum, who played Gen. Norman Cota, became disgusted with their trepidation and he jumped in first, at which point the extras followed his example. The Rupert paradummies used in the film were far more elaborate and lifelike than those used in the decoy parachute drop
8.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
9.
The Sucker
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The Sucker is a French, Italian and Spanish comedy film by Gérard Oury starring Louis de Funès and Bourvil. As of 2013, it is one of the 20 highest-grossing films in France along with La Grande Vadrouille. The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival where the actor Bourvil won a Special Diploma, while leaving his flat in Paris for vacation, Antoine Maréchal has a car accident. His 2CV is totally wrecked by the Bentley of Léopold Saroyan, as a compensation for the accident, Saroyan offers Maréchal to drive his best friends 1964 Cadillac DeVille from Naples to Bordeaux, all expenses paid. Unknown to Maréchal, Saroyan is the leader of an organization and the Cadillac is filled with drugs, stolen gold and diamonds, including the largest diamond in the World. Maréchal departs for his destination, oblivious of both his cargo and Saroyan who is following him to watch over the delivery. Unfortunately, a gang of Italian criminals has become aware of Saroyans plan and follows the car closely, along the way, most of the illegal goods hidden in the Cadillac are lost or stolen by other parties. When Antoine Marechal pieces together Saroyans plan while crossing the border and this all comes to fruition in the French town of Carcassonne
