Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti was an Italian-French 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851, gave her last performance before an audience in 1914. Along with her near contemporaries Jenny Lind and Thérèse Tietjens, Patti remains one of the most famous sopranos in history, owing to the purity and beauty of her lyrical voice and the unmatched quality of her bel canto technique; the composer Giuseppe Verdi, writing in 1877, described her as being the finest singer who had lived and a "stupendous artist". Verdi's admiration for Patti's talent was shared by numerous music critics and social commentators of her era, she was born Adelina Juana Maria Patti, in Madrid, the last child of tenor Salvatore Patti and soprano Caterina Barilli. Her Italian parents were working in Spain, at the time of her birth; because her father came from Sicily, Patti was born a subject of the King of the Two Sicilies.
She carried a French passport, as her first two husbands were French. Her sisters Amalia and Carlotta Patti were singers, her brother Carlo Patti was a violinist. In her childhood, the family moved to New York City. Patti grew up in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. Patti sang professionally from childhood, developed into a coloratura soprano with equalized vocal registers and a warm, satiny tone. Patti learned how to sing and gained understanding of voice technique from her brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch, a musician and impresario. Adelina Patti made her operatic debut at age 16 on 24 November 1859 in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music, New York. On 24 August 1860, she and Emma Albani were soloists in the world premiere of Charles Wugk Sabatier's Cantata in Montreal, performed in honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales. In 1861, at the age of 18, she was invited to Covent Garden, to execute the role of Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula, she had such remarkable success at Covent Garden that season, she bought a house in Clapham and, using London as a base, went on to conquer the European continent, performing Amina in Paris and Vienna in subsequent years with equal success.
During an 1862 American tour, she sang John Howard Payne's Home, Sweet Home at the White House for the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, his wife, Mary Lincoln. The Lincolns were mourning their son Willie. Moved to tears, the Lincolns requested an encore of the song. Henceforth, it would become associated with Adelina Patti, she performed it many times as a bonus item at the end of recitals and concerts. Patti's career was one of success after success, she sang not only in England and the United States, but as far afield in mainland Europe as Russia, in South America as well, inspiring audience frenzy and critical superlatives wherever she went. Her girlish good looks gave her an appealing stage presence. In 1869-1870 she engaged in tours through the Russia. Concerts in Moscow and Saint-Petersbourg were successful and Patti repeats her Russian trips during the all'70s. In Russia she made some prolific frienships with the first persons of Russian aristocracy and first range musicians & artsmen such P. Tchaikovsky, A. Rubinstein, A. Serov and V. Stasov.
In Petersbourg, during seasons 1874-75s, Patti meet Ernesto Nicolini at first time. At that time she gets acquainted with prominent Russian historian Dmitry Ilovayski and with his family; this friendship was long for decades and Ilovaisky's with cousin - Stepan, the stalmeister of the Tzar of Russias, - travel to Wales for meet the Adelina during the first half of 1880s. Patti was a teacher for Ilovayski daughter Varvara. During the 1860s, Patti possessed a sweet, high-lying voice of birdlike purity and remarkable flexibility, ideal for such parts as Zerlina and Amina. Patti, turned into a conservative singer in the final phase of her operatic and concert career, she knew what suited her aging voice to perfection and she stuck to it. Her recital programs during the 1890s featured an array of familiar sentimental, not-too-demanding popular tunes of the day, which were sure to appeal to her adoring fans, but during her mature prime in the 1870s and'80s, Patti had been a more enterprising singer, proving to be an effective actress in those lyric roles that required the summoning forth of deep emotions, such as Gilda in Rigoletto, Leonora in Il trovatore, the title part in Semiramide, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Violetta in La traviata.
She had been prepared to tackle quite dramatic parts in operas like L'Africaine, Les Huguenots and Aida. She never attempted to sing any verismo parts, because these became popular only in the twilight of her career, during the final decade of the 19th century. Many years earlier, Patti had experienced an amusing encounter in Paris with the bel canto-opera composer Gioachino Rossini, a staunch upholder of traditional Italian singing values, it is related that when Patti's mentor, presented her to Rossini at one of his fashionable receptions during the 1860s, she was prevailed upon to sing "Una voce poco fa", from Rossini's The Barber of Seville—with embellishments added by Strakosch to show off the soprano's voice. "What composition was that?", asked the prickly Rossini. "Why, your own" rep
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager; as of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the established Academy of Music opera house, debuted in 1883 in a new building on 39th and Broadway, it moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America, it presents about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday. Several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are shared with other opera companies.
The rest of the year's operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015–16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas; the operas in the Met's repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs; the Met's performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, children's choir, many supporting and leading solo singers. The company employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors and other performers throughout the season; the Met's roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Met's young artists programs. While many singers appear periodically as guests with the company, such as Renée Fleming and Plácido Domingo, long maintained a close association with the Met, appearing many times each season until they retired.
The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New York's old established Academy of Music opera house. The subscribers to the Academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these "old money" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of 22 men assembled at Delmonico's restaurant on April 28, 1880, they established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The new theater, built at 39th and Broadway, would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence; the first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan and Vanderbilt families, all of whom had been excluded from the Academy.
The new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, was an immediate success and artistically. The Academy of Music's opera season folded. In its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the inaugural season, 1883–84, which opened with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust starring the brilliant Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson. Abbey's company that first season featured an ensemble of artists led by sopranos Nilsson and Marcella Sembrich, they gave 150 performances of 20 different operas by Gounod, Bellini, Verdi, Mozart, Bizet and Ponchielli. All performances were sung in Italian and were conducted either by music director Auguste Vianesi or Cleofonte Campanini; the company performed not only in the new Manhattan opera house, but started a long tradition of touring throughout the country. In the winter and spring of 1884 the Met presented opera in theaters in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington D.
C. and Baltimore. Back in New York, the last night of the season featured a long gala performance to benefit Mr. Abbey; the special program consisted not only of various scenes from opera, but offered Mme. Sembrich playing the violin and the piano, as well as the famed stage actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in a scene from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice; the Metropolitan Opera began a long history of performing in Philadelphia during its first season, presenting its entire repertoire in the city during January and April 1884. The company's first Philadelphia performance was of Faust on January 14, 1884, at the Chestnut Street Opera House; the Met continued to perform annually in Philadelphia for nearly eighty years, taking the entire company to the city on selected Tuesday nights throughout the opera season. Performances were held at Philadelphia's Academy of Music, with the company presenting close to 900 performances in the city by 1961 when the Met's regular visits ceased. On April 26, 1910, the Met purchased the Philadelphia Opera House from Oscar Hammerstein I.
The company renamed the house the Metropolitan Opera House and performed all of their Philadelphia performances there unti
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor. Donizetti wrote Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835, a time when several factors led to the height of his reputation as a composer of opera. Gioachino Rossini had retired and Vincenzo Bellini had died shortly before the premiere of Lucia leaving Donizetti as "the sole reigning genius of Italian opera". Not only were conditions ripe for Donizetti's success as a composer, but there was a European interest in the history and culture of Scotland; the perceived romance of its violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology, intrigued 19th century readers and audiences. Sir Walter Scott dramatized these elements in his novel The Bride of Lammermoor, which inspired several musical works including Lucia; the story concerns the fragile Lucy Ashton, caught in a feud between her own family and that of the Ravenswoods.
The setting is the Lammermuir Hills of Scotland in the 17th century. The opera premiered on 26 September 1835 at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. However, John Black notes that "the surprising feature of its subsequent performance history is that it established so in the Neapolitan repertoire", noting that while there were 18 performances in the rest of 1835, there were only four in 1836, 16 in 1837, two in 1838, continuing in this manner with only two in each of 1847 and 1848. London saw the opera on 5 April 1838 and, for Paris, Donizetti revised the score for a French version which debuted on 6 August 1839 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris, it reached the United States with a production in New Orleans on 28 December 1841. The opera was never absent from the repertory of the Metropolitan Opera for more than one season at a time from 1903 until 1972. After World War II, a number of sopranos were instrumental in giving new life to the opera, including Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland.
It has remained a staple of the operatic repertoire. The instrumentation is: Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and 2 bassoons Brass: 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 3 trombones Percussion: timpani, bass drum and campana Strings: harp, first violins, second violins, violas and double basses. Additionally an off-stage wind band is used; the glass harmonica is substituted for solo flute in Lucia’s mad scene, per Donizetti’s original score. Time: Early 18th century Place: Scotland Scene 1: The gardens of Ravenswood Castle Normanno, captain of the castle guard, other retainers are searching for an intruder, he tells Enrico that he believes that the man is Edgardo of Ravenswood, that he comes to the castle to meet Enrico's sister, Lucia. It is confirmed. Enrico reaffirms his determination to end the relationship. Scene 2: By a fountain at the entrance to the park, beside the castle Lucia waits for Edgardo. In her famous aria "Regnava nel silenzio", Lucia tells her maid Alisa that she has seen the ghost of a girl killed on the same spot by a jealous Ravenswood ancestor.
Alisa tells Lucia that she must give up her love for Edgardo. Edgardo enters, he hopes to marry Lucia. Lucia tells him this is impossible, instead they take a sworn vow of marriage and exchange rings. Edgardo leaves. Scene 1: Lord Ashton's apartments Preparations have been made for the imminent wedding of Lucia to Arturo. Enrico worries about whether Lucia will submit to the wedding, he shows his sister a forged letter proving that Edgardo has forgotten her and taken a new lover. Enrico leaves Lucia to further persuasion, this time by Raimondo, Lucia's chaplain and tutor, that she should renounce her vow to Edgardo, for the good of the family, marry Arturo. Scene 2: A hall in the castle Arturo arrives for the marriage. Lucia acts strangely. Arturo signs the marriage contract, followed reluctantly by Lucia. At that point Edgardo appears in the hall. Raimondo prevents a fight. Edgardo curses her, he tramples his ring before being forced out of the castle. Scene 1: Wolfcrag Enrico visits Edgardo to challenge him to a duel.
He tells him that Lucia is enjoying her bridal bed. Edgardo agrees to fight him, they will meet by the graveyard of the Ravenswoods, near the Wolf's Crag. Scene 2: A Hall Raimondo interrupts the marriage celebrations to tell the guests that Lucia has gone mad and killed her bridegroom Arturo. Lucia enters. In the aria "Il dolce suono" she imagines being with Edgardo, soon to be married. Enrico enters and at first threatens Lucia but softens when he realizes her condition. Lucia collapses. Raimondo blames Normanno for precipitating the whole tragedy. Scene 3: The graveyard of the Ravenswood family Edgardo is resolved to kill himself on Enrico's sword, he learns that Lucia is dying and Raimondo comes to tell him that she has died. Edgardo stabs himself with a dagger; the aria "Spargi d'amaro pianto" following the more recitative "Il dolce suono" from the "mad scene", has been a vehicle for severa
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. Today, with a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, one of the largest in the world. In 1817, it was established by the Society for the Friends of Music, it has had several names: Vienna Conservatory, Vienna Academy and in 1909 it was nationalized as the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. In 1998, the university assumed its current name to reflect its university status, attained in a wide 1970 reform for Austrian Arts Academies. With a student body of more than 3000, the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien is one of the largest arts universities in the world; the university consists of 24 departments including the Max Reinhardt Seminar, Vienna Film Academy and the Wiener Klangstil. MDW facilities include the Schönbrunn Palace Theater, Antonio Vivaldi Room, Salesian Convent, St. Ursula Church, Lothringerstrasse and the Anton Von Webern Platz.
Modern film studios were completed on the university campus in 2004, offering the Vienna Film Academy modern equipment. The University organizes around 10 competitions, including the International Beethoven Piano Competition, it presents an acclaimed students’ film festival every two years. The MDW may be considered a "feeder" institution to all major orchestras in Austria, with a particular association with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Calls for a music conservatory in Vienna started in 1808. In 1811 an "outline for a music education institution" for Vienna was published. A year the Society for the Friends of Music was formed, with the foremost aim of establishing a conservatory; the Vienna Conservatory was founded in 1817. It was meant to be modeled on the Paris Conservatory, due to a lack of funds, it began as a singing school. Antonio Salieri was the Conservatory's first director. In 1819, it hired violinist Joseph Böhm, by 1827 offered courses in most orchestral instruments; the conservatory's finances were unstable.
Tuition fees were introduced in 1829. The state funded the conservatory from 1841 to 1844 and from 1846 to 1848. In 1848 political unrest caused the state to discontinue funding, the Conservatory did not offer courses again until 1851. With support from the state and the city, finances again stabilized after 1851. Despite growing state subsidy, The Society for the Friends of Music, which founded the Conservatory, remained in control of the institution. However, by a January 1, 1909 imperial resolution the school was nationalized and became the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts; until 1844, when Gottfried Preyer, professor of harmony and composition became director, the director of the conservatory was not a member of faculty, but a member of the Society for the Friends of Music. Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. was director from 1851 to 1893. From 1907 Wilhelm Bopp had been the director of Conservatory; the Conservatory was still dominated by the aging Robert Fuchs and Hermann Grädener, both of whom, but Fuchs, Bopp considered to be anachronistic and out of touch.
In 1912, attempting to rejuvenate the conservatory Bopp offered teaching positions to Franz Schreker and Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg declined the offer, his teaching duties were carried through with great success and by January 1913 he was awarded a full professorship. Bopp was instrumental in the 1909 nationalization of the Conservatory; the administration of the Academy was now assigned to a state-appointed president, an artistic director and a board of trustees. After the end of World War I, the State Academy was again reorganized. President Karl Ritter von Wiener resigned and conductor Ferdinand Löwe was elected director by the teachers. In 1922, Joseph Marx took over, he wanted the Academy to be granted University status. After the Anschluss, many teachers and students were dismissed on racial grounds. In 1941, the Academy became a Reich University. After World War II, the institution became a State Academy again. In the process of Denazification, fifty-nine teachers were dismissed. Only five of the teachers dismissed in 1938 were reinstated.
By laws introduced in 1948 and 1949 the institution was granted the status of "Art Academy." In 1970, the "Law on the Organization of Art Colleges" gave all Art Academies University status, in 1998 the title of "Art Academy" was changed to "Art University." Institut für Komposition, Elektroakustik und TonmeisterInnen-Ausbildung aka ELAK is part of MDW and focuses on electroacoustic music, composing of contemporary music, sound art. Department of Composition and Electroacoustics Department of Conducting Department of Music Analysis and History Department of Keyboard Instruments Department of String Instruments Leonard Bernstein Department of Wind and Percussion Instruments Joseph Haydn Department for Chamber Music and Special Ensembles Department of Organ, Organ Research and Church Music Department of Voice and Music Theatre Max Reinhardt Seminar Department of Drama Film Academy Vienna Department of Film and Television Department of Music Education Department of Music and Movement Education Department of Music Therapy Department of Stylistic Research in Music Department of Popular Music Ludwig van Beethoven Department of Keyboards in Music Education He
Ukraine
Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic; the dominant religions in the country are Greek Catholicism. Ukraine is in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world; the territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was split between Poland and the Russian Empire, merged into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in the late 1940s as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1991 Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. Before its independence, Ukraine was referred to in English as "The Ukraine", but most sources have since moved to drop "the" from the name of Ukraine in all uses. Following its independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. In 2013, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovych had decided to suspend the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement and seek closer economic ties with Russia, a several-months-long wave of demonstrations and protests known as the Euromaidan began, which escalated into the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government; these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic component of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the European Union.
Ukraine is ranks 88th on the Human Development Index. As of 2018, Ukraine has the second lowest GDP per capita in Europe. At US$40, it has the lowest median wealth per adult in the world, it suffers from a high poverty rate and severe corruption. However, because of its extensive fertile farmlands, Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain exporters. Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia; the country is home to a multi-ethnic population, 77.8 percent of whom are Ukrainians, followed by a large Russian minority, as well as Georgians, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Jews and Hungarians. Ukraine is a unitary republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers: legislative and judicial branches; the country is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the GUAM organization, one of the founding states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. There are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older widespread hypothesis, it means "borderland", while some more recent linguistic studies claim a different meaning: "homeland" or "region, country"."The Ukraine" used to be the usual form in English, but since the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, "the Ukraine" has become less common in the English-speaking world, style-guides recommend not using the definite article.
"The Ukraine" now implies disregard for the country's sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. The Ukrainian position is that the usage of "'The Ukraine' is incorrect both grammatically and politically." Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites which include a mammoth bone dwelling. The territory is considered to be the location for the human domestication of the horse. Modern human settlement in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of the Gravettian culture in the Crimean Mountains. By 4,500 BC, the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture flourished in wide areas of modern Ukraine including Trypillia and the entire Dnieper-Dniester region. During the Iron Age, the land was inhabited by Cimmerians and Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was Scythia. Beginning in the sixth century BC, colonies of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire, such as Tyras and Chersonesus, were founded on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.
These colonies thrived well into the 6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the area but came under the sway of the Huns from the 370s AD. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was the centre of Old Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, the Khazars took over much of the land. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Antes were located in the territory of; the Antes were the ancestors of Ukrainians: White Croats, Polans, Dulebes and Tiverians. Migrations from Ukraine throughout the Balkans established many Southern Slavic nations. Northern migrations, reaching to the Ilmen l
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria known as Galicia or Austrian Poland, was established in 1772 as a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy as a result of the First Partition of Poland. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, it became a Kingdom under Habsburg rule. In 1804 it became a crownland of the Austrian Empire. From 1867 it was an ethnic Pole-administered autonomous crownland under Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary, until its dissolution in 1918; the country was carved from the entire south-western part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the many ceremonial titles of the princes of Hungary was "ruler of Galicia and Lodomeria". Following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian Empire ceded portions of Galicia to the Russian Empire, West Galicia and Tarnopol District; the name "Galicia" is the Latinized form of a principality of the medieval Ruthenia. "Lodomeria", is a Latinized form of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, founded in the 10th century by Vladimir the Great and until the partitions of Poland was known as Volodymyr.
King of Galicia and Lodomeria was a medieval title which the King of Hungary adopted during his conquest of the region in the 12th century. This historical region in Eastern Europe is divided today between Ukraine; the nucleus of historic Galicia consists of the modern Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of western Ukraine. The name of the Kingdom in its ceremonial form, in English: Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the Grand Duchy of Kraków with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator, existed in all languages spoken there including German: Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien mit dem Großherzogtum Krakau und den Herzogtümern Auschwitz und Zator. Galician Ruthenia, Ciscarpathian Ruthenia and propaganda names known in the Russian Empire and among Russophiles of Galicia In 1772, Galicia was the largest part of the area annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy in the First Partition of Poland; as such, the Austrian region of Poland and what was to become Ukraine was known as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria to underline the Hungarian claims to the country.
However, after the Third Partition of Poland, a large portion of the ethnically Polish lands to the west was added to the province, which changed the geographical reference of the term Galicia. Lviv served as capital of Austrian Galicia, dominated by the Polish aristocracy, despite the fact that the population of the eastern half of the province was Ukrainian, or "Ruthenian", as they were known at the time. In addition to the Polish aristocracy and gentry who inhabited all parts of Galicia, the Ruthenians in the east, there existed a large Jewish population more concentrated in the eastern parts of the province. During the first decades of Austrian rule, Galicia was governed from Vienna, many significant reforms were carried out by a bureaucracy staffed by Germans and Czechs; the aristocracy was guaranteed its rights, but these rights were circumscribed. The former serfs were no longer mere chattel, but became subjects of law and were granted certain personal freedoms, such as the right to marry without the lord's permission.
Their labour obligations were defined and limited, they could bypass the lords and appeal to the imperial courts for justice. The Eastern Rite "Uniate" Church, which served the Ruthenians, was renamed the Greek Catholic Church to bring it onto a par with the Roman Catholic Church. Although unpopular with the aristocracy, among the common folk and Ukrainian/Ruthenian alike, these reforms created a reservoir of good will toward the emperor which lasted to the end of Austrian rule. At the same time, the Austrian Empire extracted from Galicia considerable wealth and conscripted large numbers of the peasant population into its armed services. In 1815, as a result of decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Lublin area and surrounding regions were ceded by the Austrian Empire to Congress Poland, ruled by the Tsar, the Ternopil Region, including the historical region of Southern Podolia, was returned to the Austrian Empire by Russia, which had held it since 1809; the large city of Kraków and surrounding territory also part of New or West Galicia, became the semi-autonomous Free City of Kraków unter supervision of the three powers sharing rule over Poland.
The 1820s and 1830s were a period of bureaucratic rule overseen from Vienna. Most administrative positions were filled by German-speakers, including German-speaking Czechs, although some of their children were becoming Polonized. After the failure of the November insurrection in Russian Poland in 1830–31, in which a few thousand Galician volunteers participated, many Polish refugees arrived in Galicia; the latter 1830s were rife with Polish conspiratorial organizations whose work culminated in the unsuccessful Galician insurrection of 1846, put down by the Austrians with the help of a Galician peasantry that remained loyal to the emperor. The insurrection occur
Gilda
Gilda is a 1946 American film noir directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale and Glenn Ford as a young thug. The film is known for cinematographer Rudolph Maté's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis's wardrobe for Hayworth, choreographer Jack Cole's staging of "Put the Blame on Mame" and "Amado Mio", sung by Anita Ellis. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally or aesthetically significant". Johnny Farrell, a small-time American gambler newly arrived in Buenos Aires, narrates; when he wins a lot of money cheating at craps, he has to be rescued from a robbery attempt by a complete stranger, Ballin Mundson. Mundson tells him about an illegal high-class casino, but warns him not to practice his skills there. Farrell ignores his advice, cheats at blackjack, is taken by two men to see the casino's owner, who turns out to be Mundson.
Farrell talks Mundson into hiring him and gains his confidence. However, the unimpressed washroom attendant, Uncle Pio, keeps calling him "Mr. Peasant". One day, Mundson returns from a trip with Gilda, it is apparent that Johnny and Gilda have a history together, though both deny it when Mundson questions them. Johnny visits Gilda alone in the bedroom she shares with her husband, the two have an explosive confrontation that elucidates both their past romantic relationship, which ended badly, their love–hate dynamic. While it is unclear just how much Mundson knows of Gilda and Johnny's past relationship, he appears to be in ignorance when he assigns Farrell to keep an eye on Gilda. Johnny and Gilda are both consumed with their hatred of each other, as Gilda cavorts with men at all hours in more blatant efforts to enrage Johnny, he grows more abusive and spiteful in his treatment of her. Mundson is visited by two German businessmen, their secret organization had financed a tungsten cartel, with everything put in Mundson's name in order to hide their connection to it.
However, when they decide that it is safe to take over the cartel after the end of World War II, Mundson refuses to transfer his ownership of it to his backers. The Argentine police are interested in the Germans; when the Germans return Mundson kills one of them. Farrell and Gilda have another hostile confrontation, which begins with them angrily declaring their hatred for each other ends with them passionately kissing. After seeing or overhearing them, Mundson flees to a waiting retractable gear airplane. Farrell and Obregon witness its short flight. A suicide, Farrell concludes, but Mundson has parachuted to safety, faking his death. Gilda inherits his estate. Johnny and she marry, but while Gilda married him for love, Johnny is avenging their mutual betrayal of Mundson, he has her guarded day and night out of contempt for her and loyalty to Mundson. Gilda tries to escape the tortured marriage a number of times, but Johnny, now rich and powerful, thwarts every attempt, trapping her in the relationship that has become a prison for them both.
Obregon confiscates the casino and informs Farrell that Gilda was never unfaithful to Mundson or to him, prompting Farrell to try to reconcile with her. At that moment, Mundson reappears, armed with a gun, to kill them both, but Uncle Pio manages to fatally stab him in the back. Obregon turns up, Johnny tries to take the blame for the murder. Uncle Pio credits Johnny for being a true gentleman, while insisting that he had killed Mundson. Obregon, however, is uninterested in arresting anyone since Mundson is legally dead. Farrell gives Obregon the incriminating documents from Mundson's safe. Farrell and Gilda reconcile and confess their mutual love, apologizing for the many emotional wounds they have inflicted on each other. Rita Hayworth as Gilda Mundson Farrell Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell / Narrator George Macready as Ballin Mundson Joseph Calleia as Det. Maurice Obregon Steven Geray as Uncle Pio Joe Sawyer as Casey Gerald Mohr as Capt. Delgado Mark Roberts as Gabe Evans Ludwig Donath as German Don Douglas as Thomas Langford Lionel Royce as German George J. Lewis as HuertaCast notes Anita Ellis provided the singing voice of Rita Hayworth in all but the acoustic guitar version of "Put the Blame on Mame", which Hayworth sang herself.
Gilda was filmed from September 4 to December 10, 1945. Hayworth's introductory scene was shot twice. While the action of her popping her head into the frame and the subsequent dialogue remains the same, she is dressed in different costumes—in a striped blouse and dark skirt in one film print, the more famous off-the-shoulder dressing gown in the other; when first released, the staff at Variety magazine liked the film and wrote, "Hayworth is photographed most beguilingly. The producers have created nothing subtle in the projection of her s.a. and that's been wise. Glenn Ford is the vis-a-vis, in his first picture part in several years... Gilda is an expensive production—and shows it; the direction is static, but that's more the fault of the writers."Gilda screened in competition at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, the first time the festival was held. More Emanuel Levy wrote a positive review: "Featuring Rita Hayworth in her best-known performance, released just after the end of W
