1.
Galicians
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Galicians are a national, cultural and ethnolinguistic group whose historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are spoken and official in Galicia, the native Galician. Galician is a Romance language belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch, as such and it has official status in Galicia. Galician is also spoken in the autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León. The Galician-Portuguese language developed a literary tradition from the last years of the 12th century. Galician-Portuguese diverged into two linguistic varieties - Galician and Portuguese - from the 15th century on, Galician became a regional variety open to the influence of Castilian Spanish, while Portuguese became the international one, as language of the Portuguese Empire. The two varieties are close together, and in particular northern Portuguese dialects share an important number of similarities with Galician ones. The drift toward Spanish is ascribed to the growth of centres, the emergence of a Galician middle class, and the worldly influences of education. Galicia also boasts a rich tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings. Still flourishing today, this tradition shares much with that of Portugal, for example, surnames like Orxás, Veiga, Outeiro, became Orjales, Vega, Otero. Toponyms like Ourense, A Coruña, Fisterra became Orense, La Coruña, in many cases this linguistic assimilation created confusion, for example Niño da Aguia was translated into Spanish as Niño de la Guía and Mesón do Bento was translated as Mesón del Viento. In pre-historic times Galicia was dominated by a culture, common to other areas of Atlantic Europe. Galicians are descended from Spains second wave of Celtic invaders who came across the Pyrenees mountains, later, it was taken over by the Roman Republic and Empire. It was at time that Latin, which is the ancestor of modern Galician. The decline of the Roman Empire was followed by the rule of two Germanic tribes, the Suevic, who settled in numbers, and the Visigoths. The official Statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística, according to the IGE, Galicias total population in 2008 was 2,783,100. The most important cities in this region, which serve as the administrative centres, are Vigo, Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Ferrol, Lugo. The official languages are Galician and Spanish, knowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal
2.
Old Havana
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Old Havana is the city-center and one of the 15 municipalities forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the boundaries of Old Havana. Old Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Havana Vieja was founded by the Spanish in 1519 in the natural harbor of the Bay of Havana. It became a point for the treasure laden Spanish Galleons on the crossing between the New World and the Old World. In the 17th century it was one of the shipbuilding centers. The city was built in baroque and neoclassic style, many buildings have fallen in ruin in the later half of the 20th century, but a number are being restored. The narrow streets of Old Havana contain many buildings, accounting for perhaps as many as one-third of the approximately 3,000 buildings found in Old Havana and it is the ancient city formed from the port, the official center and the Plaza de Armas. In 1555 Old Havana was destroyed and burned by the French corsair Jacques de Sores, the pirate had taken Havana easily, plundering the city and burning much of it to the ground. After limiting the scarce defenders, De Sores left without obtaining the wealth that he was hoping to find in Havana. The city remained devastated and set on fire, since the incident, the Spanish brought soldiers and started building fortresses and walls to protect the city. Castillo de la Real Fuerza was the first fortress built, initiated in 1558, Old Havana resembles Cadiz and Tenerife. Alejo Carpentier called it de las columnas, but it could also be named for the gateways, the revoco, the deterioration and the rescue, the intimacy, the shade, the cool, the courtyards. In her there are all the big ancient monuments, the forts, the convents and churches, the palaces, the alleys, the arcade, the human density. The Cuban State has undertaken efforts to preserve and to restore Old Havana through the efforts of the Office of the Historian of the City. The Malecón is the avenue runs along the seawall at the northern shore of Havana. The Paseo del Prado, Havana is the street forms the western edge of Old Havana. Castillo del Morro, picturesque fortress guarding the entrance to Havana bay, the construction of the castle Los Tres Reyes del Morro owed to the step along in Havana of the English pirate Sir Francis Drake
3.
Havana
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Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet, the sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592, walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U. S. battleship Maine in Havanas harbor in 1898 was the cause of the Spanish–American War. Contemporary Havana can essentially be described as three cities in one, Old Havana, Vedado and the suburban districts. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses, the current mayor is Marta Hernández of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 2009, the city/province had the third highest income in the country, the city attracts over a million tourists annually, the Official Census for Havana reports that in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, the city is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. As typical of Cuba, Havana also features a tropical climate, in May 2015, Havana was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, La Paz, Durban, Beirut, and Kuala Lumpur. Most native settlements became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining their original Taíno names, an alternate theory is that Habana is derived from the Middle Dutch word havene, referring to a harbour, etymologically related to the English word haven. All attempts to found a city on Cubas south coast failed, however, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, the quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havanas harbor, warranted this change of location. Pánfilo de Narváez gave Havana – the sixth town founded by the Spanish on Cuba – its name, the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana. Shortly after the founding of Cubas first cities, the served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Havana began as a port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555, ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the bay also fueled Havanas agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water. On December 20,1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City, later on, the city would be officially designated as Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Spanish Crown
4.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
5.
Opera house
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An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
6.
Performing arts center
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This sort of space has a long history extending to the Roman Colosseum and Greek amphitheatres. The modern version of this came into being only in the 1960s, an example of this type of PAC is the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C. which contains nine distinctive performance spaces. Examples of this practice is the Celebrity Series of Boston renting venues in Bostons Boch Center, pACs became a draw for touring shows and eventually included visual art in their facilities. Today, these centers are valuable resources that provide education, access, exchange of creative discourse, opportunities for cultural expression. List of concert halls List of contemporary amphitheatres List of opera houses
7.
Flamenco
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Flamenco, in its strictest sense, is a professionalized art-form based on the various folkloric music traditions of Southern Spain. It includes cante, toque, baile, jaleo, palmas, the oldest record of flamenco dates to 1774 in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso. The genre originated in the music and dance styles of Andalusia, Flamenco has been influenced by and become associated with the Romani people in Spain, however, unlike Romani music in Eastern Europe, its origin and style is uniquely Andalusian. In recent years, flamenco has become popular all over the world and is taught in many countries, especially the United States. In Japan, there are more flamenco academies than there are in Spain, on November 16,2010, UNESCO declared flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. There are many suggestions for the origin of the word flamenco as a musical term, the word was not recorded as a musical and dance term until the late 18th century. The Spanish word flamenco could have been a derivative of fire or flame, the word flamenco may have come to be used for fiery behaviour, which could have come to be applied to the Gitano players and performers. Palos are flamenco styles, classified by criteria such as rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, stanzaic form, there are over 50 different palos, some are sung unaccompanied while others have guitar or other accompaniment. Some forms are danced while others are not, there are many ways to categories Palos but they traditionally fall into three classes, the most serious is known as cante jondo, while lighter, frivolous forms are called cante chico. Forms that do not fit either category are classed as cante intermedio, Cante jondo has clear traces of Arabic and Spanish folk melodies, as well as vestiges of Byzantine, Christian and Jewish religious music. Each song of a set of verses, which are punctuated by guitar interludes called falsetas, the guitarist also provides a short introduction which sets the tonality, compás and tempo of the cante. Flamenco uses the Flamenco mode, in addition to the major and minor scales used in modern Western music. The Phrygian mode occurs in such as soleá, most bulerías, siguiriyas. A typical chord sequence, usually called the Andalusian cadence may be viewed as in a modified Phrygian, according to Manolo Sanlúcar E is here the tonic, F has the harmonic function of dominant while Am and G assume the functions of subdominant and mediant respectively. Guitarists tend to use two basic inversions or chord shapes for the tonic chord, the open 1st inversion E. Montoya also created a new palo as a solo for guitar, later guitarists have further extended the repertoire of tonalities, chord positions and scordatura. There are also palos in major mode, most cantiñas and alegrías, guajiras, some bulerías and tonás, the minor mode is restricted to the Farruca, the milongas, and some styles of tangos, bulerías, etc. In general traditional palos in major and minor mode are limited harmonically to two-chord or three-chord progressions, however modern guitarists have introduced chord substitution, transition chords, and even modulation
8.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
9.
Cuban National Ballet
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The Cuban National Ballet is a classical ballet company based at Alicia Alonso Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba. Founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948, the official school of the company is the Cuban National Ballet School. The company was founded by Alicia Alonso, her husband Fernando, two years later, a school was established to promote the talents of young Cuban dancers. Although the school was thriving artistically, it struggled financially, when Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, he committed to leveling the social structure and to make the arts available to everyone. “The old government was out and the new hope was coming for the arts, the coming of the Revolution, marked the beginning of a new stage for the Cuban ballet, Castro gave $200,000 to Alonso, a supporter of the revolution. With state funding, suddenly the ballet became important to the country and that year, as a part of a new cultural program, the company was reorganized and it took the name of National Ballet of Cuba. The BNC has choreographed and performed new versions of classics such as Giselle. With the revolution in 1959 and its policy to make art available to everyone, government funding for the Ballet Nacional continues to this day. These funds allow the Ballet to scour the country and hand pick gifted students and they set off to search all over the country to find children with aptitude whom they might teach. They travel to over 14 provinces, with the criteria that prospective students should have musicality, good body proportions, Cuba funds a country-wide teaching organization called the National School of Ballet, directed by Ramona de Saá. The system remains the same today, boys have been encouraged to audition as much as girls, and over the years this has become an easier task now that parents realize the financially rewarding future that awaits good dancers. During their eight-year period of training, all students receive support from the government, after completing the training, a dancer earns approximately $30 a month, which compares to the salaries of doctors and skilled workers. Following the classical Soviet system, the National Ballet School turns out 40 professionals a year, the choreographic versions of the classics are known internationally, because of the many performances at major theatres. This includes theatres such as The Ballet of the Paris Opera, where Giselle was performed, and the Grand Pas de Quarte, in addition, the school has performed Giselle at other major theatres including the Vienna State Opera and the San Carlos of Naples. Furthermore, performances such as La Fille Mall Gardee occurred at the Opera Prague, besides its intense activity in Cuba, the National Ballet of Cuba develops a program of international tours. These tours take the BNC to stages of different countries within Europe, Asia, important awards, such as the Grand Prix of the Ville of Paris and the Order Félix Varela, of the Republic of Cuba, joined with frequent acclamation of specialized critics. In addition to the acclaim of the most prominent representatives of the critics and awards received by their figures, individuals have won awards in international competitions, outstanding members of the company have consistently received distinctions and awards in competitions and international festivals. The success is known as the reflection of its founder Alicia Alonso, the company has created more than 600 works and performed in more than 60 countries worldwide
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