1.
Place de la Bastille
–
No vestige of the prison remains. The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely the 4th, 11th and 12th, the square and its surrounding areas are normally called simply Bastille. The July Column which commemorates the events of the July Revolution stands at the center of the square, other notable features include the Bastille Opera, the Bastille subway station and a section of the Canal Saint Martin. Prior to 1984, the former Bastille railway station stood where the house now stands. The square is home to concerts and similar events, the north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at night with its many cafés, bars, night clubs, and concert halls. As a consequence of its significance, the square is often the site or point of departure of political demonstrations. At that time it housed political prisoners, but also religious prisoners, seditious writers. The prisoners were held within the 5-7 story towers, each having a room around 4.6 m across and containing various articles of furniture. The governor of the prison was given an allowance per prisoner. In terms of standards, there were many worse prisons in France, including the dreaded Bicêtre, however, in terms of popular literary accounts, the Bastille was a place of horror and oppression, a symbol of autocratic cruelty. The confrontation between the commoners and the Ancien Régime ultimately led to the people of Paris storming the Bastille on July 14,1789, following several days of disturbances. At this point, the prison was empty, with only seven inmates, four counterfeiters. The regular garrison consisted of about 80 invalides under Governor Bernard-René de Launay and they had however been reinforced by a detachment of 32 grenadiers from one of the Swiss mercenary regiments summoned to Paris by the Monarchy shortly before 14 July. A crowd of around 600 people gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the guns, two people chosen to represent those gathered were invited into the fortress and slow negotiations began. In the early afternoon, the broke into the undefended outer courtyard. A spasmodic exchange of gunfire began, in mid-afternoon the crowd was reinforced by mutinous Gardes Françaises of the Royal Army, de Launay ordered a ceasefire, despite his surrender demands being refused, he capitulated and the victors swept in to liberate the fortress at around 5,30. On 16 June 1792, the occupied by the Bastille was turned into a square celebrating liberty. The first stone was laid by Palloy, however, construction never took place, in 1808, as part of several urban improvement projects for Paris, Napoléon planned to have a monument in the shape of an elephant built here, the Elephant of the Bastille
Place de la Bastille
–
Place de la Bastille with the July Column in the center
Place de la Bastille
–
Place de la Bastille
Place de la Bastille
–
July Column
Place de la Bastille
–
"Prise de la Bastille" (1789), by
Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel
2.
Opera house
–
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
Opera house
–
Teatro di San Carlo in
Naples, the world’s oldest working theatre.
Opera house
–
Opera-Theatre of
Metz, built by
benefactor Duke de Belle-Isle during the 18th century, it is the oldest opera house working in France
Opera house
–
The
Grand Theatre, Warsaw, ca. 1890
Opera house
–
The
Vienna Court Opera, ca. 1898
3.
Paris
–
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
Paris
–
In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
–
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
–
The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
4.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
Paris Opera
–
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
Paris Opera
–
Front of the
Palais Garnier illuminated at night
Paris Opera
–
Le Grand Foyer, at the Palais Garnier
Paris Opera
–
View of the Salle du Bel-Air
Paris Opera
–
Vigarani's plan of the Salle du Palais-Royal
6.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
7.
Palais Garnier
–
The Palais Garnier is a 1, 979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet, the Palais Garnier has been called probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica. This opinion is far from unanimous however, the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as a lying art, the Palais Garnier is a building of exceptional opulence. The style is monumental and considered Second-Empire Beaux-Arts style with axial symmetry in plan and these include very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology. The principal facade is on the side of the building, overlooking the Place de lOpéra. Fourteen painters, mosaicists and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its ornamentation, the two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumerys LHarmonie and La Poésie, crown the apexes of the principal facades left and right avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype, the facade also incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière, and others. On the left and right lateral returns of the front facade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, when the Empire fell, work stopped, leaving unfinished dressed stonework. It is covered by a 13.5 metre diameter dome, two pairs of obelisks marking the entrances of the Rotunda to the north and the south. The interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells, alcoves and landings allowing the movement of large numbers of people, rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness. The building features a ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble. Its design was inspired by Victor Louiss grand staircase for the Théâtre de Bordeaux, the pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. When they were first fixed in two months before the opening of the building it was obvious to Garnier that they were too dark for the space. With the help of two of his students, Pils had to rework the canvases while they were in place overhead on the ceiling and, at the age of 61, he fell ill. His students had to finish the work, which was completed the day before the opening and this hall 18 meters high,154 meters long and 13 meters wide was designed to act as a drawing room for Paris society. Its ceiling was painted by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry and represents various moments in the history of music, the foyer opens into an outside loggia at each end of which are the Salon de la Lune and Salon du Soleil. The auditorium has a traditional Italian horseshoe shape and can seat 1,979, the stage is the largest in Europe and can accommodate as many as 450 artists. The canvas house curtain was painted to represent a draped curtain, complete with tassels, the ceiling area, which surrounds the chandelier, was originally painted by Jules Eugène Lenepveu
Palais Garnier
–
The façade of the Palais Garnier opera house
Palais Garnier
–
Plan of the Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
–
Gumery 's L'Harmonie (1869), atop the left
avant-corps of the façade, is 7.5 metres (25 ft) of gilt copper electrotype
Palais Garnier
–
Facade of the Palais Garnier with labels indicating the locations of various sculptures
8.
Opera
–
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
Opera
–
The performers from the Atlanta Opera sing the finale of
Lucia di Lammermoor. The
opera orchestra is visible in the lowered area in front of the stage.
Opera
–
The
Palais Garnier of the
Paris Opéra, one of the world's most famous
opera houses.
Opera
–
Claudio Monteverdi
Opera
–
George Frideric Handel, 1733
9.
Ballet
–
Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin
Ballet
–
Classical bell tutus in The Dance Class by
Degas, 1874
Ballet
–
Anna Pavlova in
Giselle, wearing a romantic tutu
Ballet
–
Scene from act 4 of
Swan Lake,
Vienna State Opera, 2004
Ballet
–
Harlequin and
Columbina from the mime theater at
Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
10.
Concert
–
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. A recital is a concert by a soloist or small group which follows a program, a recitalist is a musician who gives frequent recitals. The invention of the piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt. The performance may be by a musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir. Indoor concerts held in the largest venues are sometimes called arena concerts or amphitheatre concerts, informal names for a concert include show and gig. Regardless of the venue, musicians perform on a stage. Concerts often require live event support with professional audio equipment, before recorded music, concerts provided the main opportunity to hear musicians play. The nature of a concert varies by musical genre, individual performers, concerts by a small jazz combo or small bluegrass band may have the same order of program, mood, and volume—but vary in music and dress. In a similar way, a musician, band, or genre of music might attract concert attendees with similar dress, hairstyle. For example, concert goers in the 1960s often had hair, sandals. Regular attendees to a concert venue might also have a style that comprises that venues scene. Other Types of concerts, To plan or arrange by mutual agreement, some performers or groups put on very elaborate and expensive shows. To create a memorable and exciting atmosphere and increase the spectacle, some singers, especially popular music, augment concert sound with pre-recorded accompaniment, back-up dancers, and even broadcast vocal tracks of the singers own voice. Activities during these concerts can include dancing, sing-alongs, and moshing, concerts involving a greater number of artists, especially those that last for multiple days, are known as festivals. Unlike other concerts, which remain in a single genre of music or work of a particular artist, festivals often cover a broad scope of music. Due to their size, festivals are almost exclusively held outdoors, new platforms for festivals are becoming increasingly popular such as Jam Cruise, which is a festival held on a cruise ship, as well as Mayan Holidaze, which is a destination festival held in Tulum. Often concert tours are named, to differentiate different tours by the same artist, different segments of longer concert tours are known as legs. In the largest concert tours it is becoming common for different legs to employ separate touring production crews and equipment
Concert
–
A
classical music concert in the
Rod Laver Arena,
Melbourne,
Australia, 2005
Concert
–
Concert of Joler Gan Band, Bangabndhu International Conference Centre (BICC)
Concert
–
Concert, by Italian
baroque artist
Bernardo Strozzi
Concert
–
A
Girl Scout passing out printed programs at a Municipal Band concert in
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
11.
11th arrondissement of Paris
–
The 11th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. Situated on the Right Bank of the River Seine, the 11th is one of the most densely populated urban districts not just of Paris, the eleventh arrondissement is a varied and engaging area. The Place de la Bastille and the rue du Faubourg St Antoine are full of fashionable cafés, restaurants, and nightlife, the Oberkampf district to the north is another popular area for nightlife. The east is residential, with more wholesale commerce, while the areas around the Boulevard Voltaire. In recent years this district has emerged as one of the trendiest regions of Paris, on November 13th 2015, it was the site of coordinated shootings and bombings that left 132 dead. The land area of this arrondissement is 3.666 km2, the peak population of Pariss 11th arrondissement occurred in 1911, with 242,295 inhabitants. Today, the arrondissement remains the most densely populated in Paris, accompanied by a volume of business activity,149,102 inhabitants and 71,962 jobs in the last census. The population consists of a number of single adults, though its eastern portions are more family-oriented. There is a community spirit in most areas of the eleventh. Cirque dhiver Église Saint-Ambroise ESCP-EAP Musée Édith Piaf Musée du Fumeur 11th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage Mairie du 11e website
11th arrondissement of Paris
–
The
Cirque d'Hiver in the 11th arrondissement.
11th arrondissement of Paris
–
Cirque d'hiver
11th arrondissement of Paris
–
Église Saint-Ambroise
11th arrondissement of Paris
–
Arrondissement hall
12.
Pierre Boulez
–
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez CBE was a French composer, conductor, writer and organiser of institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of the classical music world. Born in Montbrison in the Loire district of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen and he began his professional career in the late 1940s as Music Director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. As a young composer in the 1950s he quickly became a figure in avant-garde music, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism. From the 1970s onwards he pioneered the transformation of instrumental music in real time. In parallel with his activities as a composer Boulez became one of the most prominent conductors of his generation and he made frequent guest appearances with many of the worlds other great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. His recorded legacy is extensive and he received 26 Grammy Awards, Pierre Boulez died at his home in Baden-Baden on 5 January 2016, aged 90. Pierre Boulez was born on 26 March 1925, in Montbrison and he was the third of four children, an older sister, Jeanne and younger brother, Roger were preceded by a first child, also called Pierre, who died in infancy. By the age of fifteen he was sceptical about religion, what struck me most was that it was so mechanical, as a child he took piano lessons, played chamber music with local amateurs and sang in the school choir. After completing the first part of his baccalaureate a year early he spent the year of 1940–41 at the Pensionnat St. Louis. The following year he took courses in advanced mathematics at the University of Lyon which his father hoped would prepare him for a career in engineering and he was in Lyon when the Vichy government fell and the Germans took over. It was not a time, and nothing to eat. It was in Lyon that he first heard an orchestra, saw his first operas and met the well-known soprano Ninon Vallin, impressed by his ability, she persuaded Léon to allow his son to apply to the Conservatoire in Lyon, but the selection board rejected him. Boulez was determined to pursue a career in music, the following year, with his sisters support in the face of opposition from his father, he studied the piano and harmony privately with Lionel de Pachmann. Our parents were strong, but finally we were stronger than they, in fact, when he moved to Paris in the autumn of 1943, Léon accompanied him, helped him to find a room and subsidised him until he could earn a living. In late 1943 he entered the preparatory class of Georges Dandelot at the Paris Conservatoire. There he was introduced to Andrée Vaurabourg, wife of the composer Arthur Honegger and he greatly enjoyed working with her and she remembered him as an exceptional student, using his exercises as models in advanced counterpoint until the end of her teaching career. He also studied the piano privately in the hope of entering Jean Doyens class, but he was unsuccessful
Pierre Boulez
–
Pierre Boulez (1968)
Pierre Boulez
–
The 1976 production of
Der Ring des Nibelungen at
Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Boulez
Pierre Boulez
–
Boulez and
Roger Wright, Director of the
BBC Proms returning to the
Royal Albert Hall
Pierre Boulez
–
The
Ensemble InterContemporain after a performance of
Sur Incises in
Barbican Hall, London, April 2015
13.
Bastille
–
The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the conflicts of France. The Bastille was built to defend the approach to the city of Paris from the English threat in the Hundred Years War. The innovative design proved influential in both France and England and was widely copied, the fortress was declared a state prison in 1417, this role was expanded first under the English occupiers of the 1420s and 1430s, and then under Louis XI in the 1460s. The defences of the Bastille were fortified in response to the English and Imperial threat during the 1550s, the Bastille played a key role in the rebellion of the Fronde and the battle of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, which was fought beneath its walls in 1652. Louis XIV used the Bastille as a prison for members of French society who had opposed or angered him including, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. From 1659 onwards, the Bastille functioned primarily as a state penitentiary, although inmates were kept in relatively good conditions, criticism of the Bastille grew during the 18th century, fueled by autobiographies written by former prisoners. Reforms were implemented and prisoner numbers were considerably reduced, in 1789 the royal governments financial crisis and the formation of the National Assembly gave rise to a swelling of republican sentiments among city-dwellers. On 14 July the Bastille was stormed by a revolutionary crowd, seven remaining prisoners were found and released and the Bastilles governor, Bernard-René de Launay, was killed by the crowd. The Bastille was demolished by order of the Committee of the Hôtel de Ville, souvenirs of the fortress were transported around France and displayed as icons of the overthrow of despotism. Almost nothing is left of the Bastille except some remains of its foundation that were relocated to the side of the Boulevard Henri IV. The Bastille was built in response to a threat to Paris during the Hundred Years War between England and France, in 1357, Marcel expanded the city walls and protected the Porte Saint-Antoine with two high stone towers and a 78-foot-wide ditch. A fortified gateway of this sort was called a bastille, and was one of two created in Paris, the other being built outside the Porte Saint-Denis, Marcel was subsequently removed from his post and executed in 1358. In 1369, Charles V became concerned about the weakness of the side of the city to English attacks. Charles instructed Hugh Aubriot, the new provost, to build a larger fortification on the same site as Marcels bastille. Work began in 1370 with another pair of towers being built behind the first bastille, the fortress was probably not finished by the time Charles died in 1380, and was completed by his son, Charles VI. Built to the height, the roofs of the towers. Each of the six towers had underground cachots, or dungeons, at its base
Bastille
–
East view of the Bastille
Bastille
–
Historical reconstruction showing the moat below the walls of Paris (left), the Bastille and the
Porte Saint-Antoine (right) in 1420
Bastille
–
The eight medieval towers of the Bastille, showing the "calottes" and infamous "cachots" in the roofs and foundations, recorded in 1750
Bastille
–
A depiction of the Bastille and neighbouring Paris in 1575, showing the new
bastions, the new Porte Saint-Antoine, the Arsenal complex and the open countryside beyond the city defences
14.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
French Revolution
–
The
August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.
French Revolution
–
The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.
French Revolution
–
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.
French Revolution
–
The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.
15.
Demonstration (people)
–
Actions such as blockades and sit-ins may also be referred to as demonstrations. Demonstrations can be nonviolent or violent, or can begin as nonviolent, sometimes riot police or other forms of law enforcement become involved. In some cases this may be in order to try to prevent the protest from taking place at all, in other cases it may be to prevent clashes between rival groups, or to prevent a demonstration from spreading and turning into a riot. Demonstrations are a form of activism, usually taking the form of a gathering of people in a rally or walking in a march. Thus, the opinion is demonstrated to be significant by gathering in a associated with that opinion. Demonstrations can be used to show a viewpoint regarding a public issue, a demonstration is usually considered more successful if more people participate. There are many types of demonstrations, including a variety of elements and these may include, Marches, in which a parade demonstrate while moving along a set route. Rallies, in which people gather to listen to speakers or musicians, picketing, in which people surround an area. Nudity, in which they protest naked - here the antagonist may give in before the demonstration happens to avoid embarrassment, Demonstrations are sometimes spontaneous gatherings, but are also utilized as a tactical choice by movements. They often form part of a campaign of nonviolent resistance. Demonstrations are usually physical gatherings, but virtual or online demonstrations are certainly possible, topics of demonstrations often deal with political, economic, and social issues. Clashes between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators may turn violent, government-organized demonstrations are demonstrations which are organized by a government. The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Peoples Republic of China, Republic of Cuba, sometimes the date or location chosen for the demonstration is of historical or cultural significance, such as the anniversary of some event that is relevant to the topic of the demonstration. Locations are also chosen because of some relevance to the issue at hand. Protest marches and demonstrations are a nonviolent tactic. They are thus one tactic available to proponents of strategic nonviolence, some demonstrations and protests can turn, at least partially, into riots or mob violence against objects such as automobiles and businesses, bystanders and the police. Police and military authorities often use force or less-lethal weapons, such as tasers, rubber bullets, pepper spray. Sometimes violent situations are caused by the preemptive or offensive use of weapons which can provoke, destabilize
Demonstration (people)
–
Monday demonstrations in East Germany helped to bring down the
Berlin Wall.
Demonstration (people)
–
Demonstration in Canada against oil tankers, 1970
Demonstration (people)
–
Greece, 2013: a
working class political
protest calling for the
boycott of a
bookshop after an employee was fired, allegedly for her
labor rights political
activism
Demonstration (people)
–
American Civil Rights March on Washington, leaders marching from the
Washington Monument to the
Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963.
16.
Architectural design competition
–
An architectural design competition is a type of competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is chosen by an independent panel of design professionals. This procedure is used to generate new ideas for building design, to stimulate public debate, generate publicity for the project. Winning first prize in a competition is not a guarantee that the project will be constructed, the commissioning body often has the right to veto the winning design, and both requirements and finances may change, thwarting the original intention. Architecture competitions have a more than 2, 500-year-old history, the Acropolis in Athens was a result of an architectural competition in 448 B. C. as were several cathedrals in the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, many initiated by the church have been decided through design competition. Examples are the Spanish Stairs in Rome or in 1419, a competition was held to design the dome of the Florence Cathedral, open competitions were held in the late 18th century in several countries including the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Sweden. In 19th century England and Ireland there have been over 2,500 competitions in five decades, the Institute of British Architects drafted a first set of rules in 1839, and a set of formal regulations in 1872. The German Regulations were introduced in 1867, in the same period in the Netherlands an association for the advancement of architecture started organising conceptual competitions with the aim of stimulating architects creativity. Project competitions or ideas competitions, depending on the intention of building the project or generating new ideas, single-stage or two-stage competitions, dependending on the scale and complexity of the competition. Anonymous or cooperative procedures, anonymity supports greater objectivity during the evaluation, in cooperative procedures, the authors are invited to make in-person presentations to the jury in order to explain their design strategies and allow individual discussion. In France and Germany design competitions are compulsory for all public buildings exceeding a certain cost, most significant among architectural competitions are the ones which are internationally open, attract a large number of design submissions, and the winning design is built. Student competition Student competitions AB Student design competition Andersson E. Bloxham Zettersten, G. und Rönn, M. Architectural Competitions - Histories, stockholm, The Royal Institute of Technology and Rio Kulturkooperativ,2013
Architectural design competition
–
Competition for the design of the
Peace Palace in
The Hague, 1905 Entries (from left to right) by
Otto Wagner,
Franz Heinrich Schwechten,
Hendrik Petrus Berlage and built design by
Louis M. Cordonnier
Architectural design competition
Architectural design competition
Architectural design competition
17.
Uruguay
–
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in the southeastern region of South America. It borders Argentina to its west and Brazil to its north and east, with the Río de la Plata to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. Uruguay is home to an estimated 3.42 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the area of its capital and largest city. With an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres, Uruguay is geographically the second-smallest nation in South America, only larger in size than Suriname. Uruguay was inhabited by the Charrúa people for approximately 4000 years before the Portuguese established Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest European settlements in the region, in 1680. Montevideo was founded as a stronghold by the Spanish in the early 18th century. Uruguay won its independence between 1811 and 1828, following a struggle between Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil. It remained subject to influence and intervention throughout the 19th century. Modern Uruguay is a constitutional republic, with a president who serves as both head of state and head of government. Uruguay is ranked first in Latin America in democracy, peace, lack of corruption, e-government, on a per-capita basis, Uruguay contributes more troops to United Nations peace-keeping missions than any other country. It ranks second in the region on economic freedom, income equality, per-capita income, Uruguay is the third-best country on the continent in terms of HDI, GDP growth, innovation and infrastructure. It is regarded as a country by the UN. Uruguay is also the third-best ranked in the world in e-Participation, Uruguay is an important global exporter of combed wool, rice, soybeans, frozen beef, malt and milk. Nearly 95% of Uruguays electricity comes from energy, mostly hydroelectric facilities. The Economist named Uruguay country of the year in 2013, acknowledging the innovative policy of legalizing the production, sale, the name of the namesake river comes from the Spanish pronunciation of the regional Guarani word for it. There are several interpretations, including bird-river, the name could also refer to a river snail called uruguá that was plentiful in the water. The only documented inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization of the area were the Charrúa, the Portuguese discovered the region of present-day Uruguay in 1512. The Spanish arrived in present-day Uruguay in 1516, the indigenous peoples fierce resistance to conquest, combined with the absence of gold and silver, limited their settlement in the region during the 16th and 17th centuries
Uruguay
–
A 5 peso coin celebrating the 150th anniversary of Uruguay's independence
Uruguay
–
Flag
Uruguay
–
The oath of the
Thirty-Three Orientals by Uruguayan painter
Juan Manuel Blanes
Uruguay
–
The
Battle of Caseros, 1852
18.
Richard Meier
–
Richard Meier is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several buildings including the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. Meier was born to a Jewish family, the oldest of three sons of Jerome Meier, wholesale wine and liquor salesman, and Carolyn Kaltenbacher in Newark and he grew up in nearby Maplewood, where he attended Columbia High School. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957, after graduation, Meier traveled to Israel, Greece, Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, and Italy, among other places, to network with architects. Meier is also the cousin of Peter Eisenman, an architect, theorist. In New York City, Meier worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill briefly in 1959, in 1972, he was identified as one of The New York Five, a group of modernist architects, Meier, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, and John Hejduk. Early in his career, Meier worked with such as painter Frank Stella and favored structures that were white. Meier first gained significant recognition for his designs of various residences in addition to The Atheneum in New Harmony, Indiana, today, Richard Meier & Partners Architects has offices in New York and Los Angeles with current projects ranging from China and Tel Aviv to Paris and Hamburg. Much of Meiers work builds on the work of architects of the early to mid-20th century, especially that of Le Corbusier and, in particular, Meier has built more using Corbusiers ideas than anyone, including Le Corbusier himself. Meier expanded many ideas evident in Le Corbusiers work, particularly the Villa Savoye and his work also reflects the influences of other designers such as Mies Van der Rohe and, in some instances, Frank Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragán. White has been used in many landmark buildings throughout history, including cathedrals. The Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno included in his campaign platform a promise to tear down the big wall of Meiers Ara Pacis. The city plans to build a pedestrian area along the river. Its an improvement, says Meier, adding that the reason that wall was there has to do with traffic, once that is eliminated, the idea of opening the piazza to the river is a good one. The mayor’s office said Alemanno hopes to complete the project before the end of his term in 2013, in 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize. The jury citation declared that Meier has created structures which are personal, vigorous, in 2008, he won the gold medal in architecture from the Academy of Arts and Letters and his work Jesolo Lido Village was awarded the Dedalo Minosse International Prize for commissioning a building. Meier is a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council and he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1997. In 2013 Richard Meier was awarded the A+ Lifetime Achievement Award In 2010, paying tribute Meier on the occasion of his firms 50th anniversary, the Fondazione Bisazza presented the exhibition Richard Meier, Architecture and Design in Vicenza, Italy
Richard Meier
–
Meier in New York City, April 2009
Richard Meier
–
Getty Center
Richard Meier
–
Richard Meier (1986)
Richard Meier
–
Getty Center.
19.
Gare de la Bastille
–
Gare de La Bastille was a railway station in Paris. The station was opened in 1859 and served as the terminus of the 55-kilometre -long line to Vincennes, the line was opened only to serve the Fort de Vincennes, and was extended to La Varenne and later to Brie-Comte-Robert. The line finally reached Verneuil-lÉtang in 1892, and connected to the line to Mulhouse, part of the line was included into the RER A on 14 December 1969. The station was demolished in 1984 so that the Opéra Bastille could be built, designed by François-Alexis Cendrier, the Gare de la Bastille was one of Pariss earliest railway termini. In 1853, the French government decided that a connection with the fort at Vincennes was desirable. The Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Paris à Strasbourg was granted a concession to build the line, and a connecting line to Mulhouse. The Mulhouse line would share the Gare de Strasbourg, but the Ligne de Vincennes would also create a new terminus close to the centre of Paris, the Gare de la Bastille. In 1853, the company, now known as the Chemins de fer de lEst, the extension to Paris opened on 22 September 1859. and the line was soon carrying 6,000,000 passengers each year. In 1871, following the end of the Franco-Prussian War, France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and this drastically reduced the territory served by the CF de lEst. As a result, the Gare de lEst was developed to become the CF de lEsts main station in Paris. Although the Gare de la Bastille was only a local terminus, by 1889 it was the second busiest in Paris, the Ligne de Vincennes was extended to Verneuil-lEtang in 1892, making it 55 kilometres long. The station served commuters during the week, and Parisians escaping to the country on weekends, by the 1920s, the Gare de la Bastille was handling 30,000,000 passengers each year. Electric traversers were installed to allow trains to be handled. Along with the Depression of the 1930s came increased competition from buses, passenger numbers decreased by half, and the CF de lEst attempted to close the line. In 1945, the Gare de la Bastille became for a few months what it had originally intended to be. This followed the destruction of a viaduct at Nogent-sur-Marne that had cut the main line from the Gare de lEst to Mulhouse so long distance trains were diverted to Bastille. In 1953, the Ligne de Vincennes closed to passengers beyond Boissy-Saint-Léger, in the mid-1960s, construction of the Réseau Express Régional began. The Ligne de Vincennes as far as Boissy-Saint-Léger was to part of a high-speed métro
Gare de la Bastille
–
La Bastille Station in Paris, early 20th century.
Gare de la Bastille
–
La Bastille Station in the 1980s.
Gare de la Bastille
–
Viaduc des Arts
Gare de la Bastille
–
Trains at
Mantes-sur-Seine, "Bidel" carriages in use
20.
Jacques Chirac
–
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician, who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 1995 to 2007. Chirac served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976, from 1986 to 1988, Chirac occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and President of the French Republic. Chiracs internal policies initially included lower tax rates, the removal of controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism. After pursuing these policies as Prime Minister, Chirac changed his method, Jacques Chirac has emerged as an improbable icon of retro taste and a figure of public affection. On 15 December 2011, the Paris court declared him guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public confidence, and gave Chirac a two-year suspended prison sentence. Chirac, born in the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire clinic, is the son of Abel François Marie Chirac, an executive for an aircraft company, and Marie-Louise Valette. His great grandparents on both sides were peasants, but his two grandfathers were teachers from Sainte-Féréole in Corrèze, according to Chirac, his name originates from the langue doc, that of the troubadours, therefore that of poetry. He was educated in Paris at the Cours Hattemer, a private school and he then attended the Lycée Carnot and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. After his baccalauréat, he served for three months as a sailor on a coal-transporter, Chirac played rugby union for Brives youth team, and also played at university level. He played no.8 and second row, in 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, with whom he had two daughters, Laurence and Claude. Chirac is the grandfather of Martin Rey-Chirac by the relationship of Claude with French judoka Thierry Rey, Jacques and Bernadette Chirac also have a foster daughter, Anh Dao Traxel. Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle, Chirac started to pursue a civil career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the French Communist Party, sold copies of LHumanité, in 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired Stockholm Appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons – which led him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States. Chirac trained as a military officer in armoured cavalry at Saumur. He then volunteered to fight in the Algerian War, using connections to be sent despite the reservations of his superiors. His superiors did not want to make him an officer because they suspected he had communist leanings, after leaving the ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant in the Court of Auditors. In April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. This appointment launched Chiracs political career, Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé, and referred to him as my bulldozer for his skill at getting things done
Jacques Chirac
–
Chirac at the
Élysée Palace in June 1999
Jacques Chirac
–
Chirac during his second term as Prime Minister
Jacques Chirac
–
Chirac with
Bill Clinton outside the
Élysée Palace in Paris, June 1999
Jacques Chirac
–
Chirac with German Federal Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder.
21.
Black
–
Black is the darkest color resulting from the absence or complete absorption of light. Like white and grey, it is a color, literally a color without hue. It is one of the four colors in the CMYK color model, along with cyan, yellow. Black is often used to represent darkness, it is the symbolic opposite of white, Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings. In the 14th century, it began to be worn by royalty and it became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, according to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance. More distant cognates include Latin flagrare, and Ancient Greek phlegein, the Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos could mean both dark blue and black, the Ancient Romans had two words for black, ater was a flat, dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the country name Nigeria the English word Negro, old High German also had two words for black, swartz for dull black and blach for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms swart for dull black, swart still survives as the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern English black. In heraldry, the used for the black color is sable, named for the black fur of the sable. Black was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began by using charcoal, and then made more vivid black pigments by burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide, for the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations, being the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead. For the ancient Greeks, black was also the color of the underworld, separated from the world of the living by the river Acheron and those who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making pottery and later red figure pottery. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures with a clay slip on a red clay pot
Black
–
Outer space seen from Mars (Image taken by
NASA 's
MER Spirit rover)
Black
–
Neolithic paintings of bulls in the
Lascaux Cave, more than 17,000 years old
Black
–
Statue of Anubis, guardian of the underworld, from the tomb of
Tutankhamun.
Black
–
Greek
Black-figure pottery.
Ajax and
Achilles playing a game, about 540-530 BC. (Vatican Museums).
22.
Concert hall
–
A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage which serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. In the 2010s, popular music such as music and traditional music such as folk music are also performed in these venues. Many concert halls exist as one of several halls or performance spaces within a performing arts center. In many towns, the hall is combined with a convention center. Concert halls typically also contain orchestral rehearsal rooms, many larger cities have both public and private concert halls. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, the list is organised alphabetically by geo-political region or continent and then by country within each region. See also Broadway Theatre for a listing of the theatres that support Broadway shows
Concert hall
–
The interior of the
Teatro Dal Verme in
Milan,
Italy, c. 1875
Concert hall
–
A modern orchestra concert hall: Philharmony in
Szczecin,
Poland
Concert hall
–
Ríos Reyna Hall, in the
Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex of
Caracas,
Venezuela
Concert hall
–
Carnegie Hall,
New York
23.
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
Experimental music
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Moodswinger,
Yuri Landman
24.
French franc
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The franc, also commonly distinguished as the French franc, was a currency of France. Between 1450 and 1999, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it was revalued in 1960, with each new franc being worth 100 old francs. The French franc was a commonly held reserve currency of reference in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360 to pay the Ransom of King John II of France and this coin secured the kings freedom and showed him on a richly decorated horse earning it the name franc à cheval. The obverse legend, like other French coins, gives the title as Francorum Rex. Its value was set as one livre tournois, john’s son, Charles V, continued this type. It was copied exactly at Brabant and Cambrai and, with the arms on the horse cloth changed, conquests led by Joan of Arc allowed Charles VII to return to sound coinage and he revived the franc à cheval. John II, however, was not able to strike enough francs to pay his ransom, John II died as a prisoner in England and his son, Charles V was left to pick up the pieces. Charles V pursued a policy of reform, including stable coinage, an edict dated 20 April 1365 established the centerpiece of this policy, a gold coin officially called the denier d’or aux fleurs de lis which had a standing figure of the king on its obverse. Its value in money of account was one livre tournois, just like the franc à cheval, in accordance with the theories of the mathematician, economist and royal advisor Nicolas Oresme, Charles struck fewer coins of better gold than his predecessors. In the accompanying deflation both prices and wages fell, but wages fell faster and debtors had to settle up in better money than they had borrowed, the Mayor of Paris, Etienne Marcel, exploited their discontent to lead a revolt which forced Charles V out of the city. The States General which met at Blois in 1577 added to the pressure to stop currency manipulation. Henry III agreed to do this and he revived the franc and this coin and its fractions circulated until 1641 when Louis XIII of France replaced it with the silver Écu. Nevertheless, the franc continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois. The decimal franc was established as the currency by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit of 4.5 g of fine silver. This was slightly less than the livre of 4.505 g, silver coins now had their denomination clearly marked as “5 FRANCS” and it was made obligatory to quote prices in francs. e. Coinage with explicit denominations in decimal fractions of the franc also began in 1795, decimalization of the franc was mandated by an act of 7 April 1795, which also dealt with of weights and measures. France’s first decimal coinage used allegorical figures symbolizing revolutionary principles, like the designs the United States had adopted in 1793
French franc
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Franc à cheval
French franc
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Franc à pied
French franc
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1795 five centimes, the first year of decimal fractions for the franc.
French franc
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1799 two-decimes
essai coin
25.
Storming of the Bastille
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The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy, in France, Le quatorze juillet is a public holiday, usually called Bastille Day in English. During the reign of Louis XVI, France faced an economic crisis, partially initiated by the cost of intervening in the American Revolution. The king initially opposed this development, but was forced to acknowledge the authority of the assembly, which subsequently renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July. The commoners had formed the National Guard, sporting tricolour cockades of blue, white and red, formed by combining the red and blue cockade of Paris and the white cockade of the king. These cockades, and soon simply their colour scheme, became the symbol of the revolution and, later, Paris, close to insurrection and, in François Mignets words, intoxicated with liberty and enthusiasm, showed wide support for the Assembly. The press published the Assemblys debates, political debate spread beyond the Assembly itself into the public squares, the Palais-Royal and its grounds became the site of an ongoing meeting. The Assembly recommended the imprisoned guardsmen to the clemency of the king, they returned to prison, the rank and file of the regiment, previously considered reliable, now leaned toward the popular cause. News of Neckers dismissal reached Paris in the afternoon of Sunday,12 July, the Parisians generally presumed that the dismissal marked the start of a coup by conservative elements. Crowds gathered throughout Paris, including more than ten thousand at the Palais-Royal and this very night all the Swiss and German battalions will leave the Champ de Mars to massacre us all, one resource is left, to take arms. By early July, approximately half of the 25,000 regular troops in Paris, the crowd clashed with the Royal German Cavalry Regiment between the Place Vendôme and the Tuileries Palace. From atop the Champs-Élysées, the Prince de Lambesc unleashed a cavalry charge that dispersed the protesters at Place Louis XV—now Place de la Concorde. The Royal commander, Baron de Besenval, fearing the results of a blood bath amongst the poorly armed crowds or defections among his own men, then withdrew the cavalry towards Sèvres. Meanwhile, unrest was growing among the people of Paris who expressed their hostility against state authorities by attacking customs posts blamed for causing increased food, the people of Paris started to plunder any place where food, guns and supplies could be hoarded. That night, rumors spread that supplies were being hoarded at Saint-Lazare, a property of the clergy. An angry mob broke in and plundered the property, seizing 52 wagons of wheat and that same day multitudes of people plundered many other places including weapon arsenals. The Royal troops did nothing to stop the spreading of chaos in Paris during those days
Storming of the Bastille
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Prise de la Bastille by
Jean-Pierre Houël
Storming of the Bastille
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Jacques Necker (1732–1804), French minister of finance
Storming of the Bastille
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The
Bastille of Paris before the Revolution.
Storming of the Bastille
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Engraving, c.1789: French soldiers or militia hoisting the heads of Flesselles and the
marquis de Launay on pikes. The caption reads "Thus we take revenge on traitors".
26.
Teresa Berganza
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Teresa Berganza Vargas is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with the roles of Rossini, Mozart and she is admired for her technical virtuosity, musical intelligence, and beguiling stage presence. Teresa Berganza was born in Madrid and she studied piano and voice at the Madrid Conservatory, where she was awarded first prize for singing in 1954. She made her debut in Madrid in 1955. Berganza made her debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte in 1957 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. That same year, she made her Teatro alla Scala debut, in 1959, Berganza made her first appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, which became one of her signature roles. In 1967, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, as a recitalist, Berganza made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1964. Her concert repertoire includes Spanish, French, German, and Russian songs, Berganza shared the 1991 Prince of Asturias Award for arts and letters with six other Spanish singers. She also won the Grand Prix Rossini, in 1992, Berganza participated in the opening ceremonies of Expo 92 in Seville and the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In 1994, she became the first woman elected to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, in 1996, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Música. She currently teaches singing at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, continues to perform music of Spanish composers and her students have included María Bayo and Jorge Chaminé. Teresa Berganza has appeared in nine motion pictures, including Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1972, as Zerlina in Joseph Loseys Don Giovanni in 1979, official web page Teresa Berganza at the Internet Movie Database Discography Teresa Berganza interview by Bruce Duffie, December 1,1984
Teresa Berganza
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Teresa Berganza in 1957
27.
Bastille Day
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Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries/lands to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called la Fête nationale and commonly and legally le 14 juillet. On 19 May 1789, Louis XVI invited Estates-General to air their grievances, the deputies of the Third Estate, representing the common people—the two others were the Catholic clergy and the nobility —decided to break away and form a National Assembly. The Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing not to separate until a constitution had been established and they were gradually joined by delegates of the other estates, Louis XVI started to recognize the validity of their concerns on 27 June. The assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, jacques Necker, the finance minister, who was sympathetic to the Third Estate, was dismissed on 11 July. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, the crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous Gardes Françaises, whose usual role was to protect public buildings. They proved a match for the forts defenders, and Governor de Launay. However, possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed, shortly after the storming of the Bastille, late in the evening of 4 August, after a very stormy session of the Assemblée Constituante, feudalism was abolished. On 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Fête de la Fédération on 14 July 1790 was a celebration of the unity of the French nation during the French Revolution. The aim of this celebration, one year after the Storming of the Bastille, was to symbolize peace, the event took place on the Champ de Mars, which was at the time far outside Paris. The place had been transformed on a basis by the population of Paris. A mass was celebrated by Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, the popular General Lafayette, as captain of the National Guard of Paris and a confidant of the king, took his oath to the constitution, followed by King Louis XVI. On 30 June 1878, a feast was arranged in Paris to honour the French Republic. On 14 July 1879, there was another feast, with a semi-official aspect, the days events included a reception in the Chamber of Deputies, organised and presided over by Léon Gambetta, a military review at Longchamp, and a Republican Feast in the Pré Catelan. All through France, Le Figaro wrote, people feasted much to honour the storming of the Bastille, on 21 May 1880, Benjamin Raspail proposed a law to have the Republic choose the 14 July as a yearly national holiday. The Assembly voted in favour of the proposal on 21 May and 8 June, the Senate approved it on 27 and 29 June, favouring 14 July against 4 August. The law was made official on 6 July 1880, and the Ministry of the Interior recommended to Prefects that the day should be celebrated with all the brilliance that the local resources allow, indeed, the celebrations of the new holiday in 1880 were particularly magnificent. This day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood and it was the consecration of the unity of France
Bastille Day
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Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel
Bastille Day
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Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878
Bastille Day
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Horseman of the
French Republican Guard during the 2007
military parade on the Champs-Élysées.
Bastille Day
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Budapest, Hungary; Bastille Day fireworks
28.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
Hector Berlioz
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Crop of a
carte de visite photo of Hector Berlioz by Franck, Paris, c. 1855
Hector Berlioz
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Drawing of
Harriet Smithson as
Ophelia in Shakespeare's
Hamlet
Hector Berlioz
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Lithograph of Berlioz by
August Prinzhofer, Vienna, 1845. Berlioz considered this to be a good likeness.
Hector Berlioz
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Painting of a young Berlioz by
Émile Signol, 1832.
29.
Les Troyens
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Les Troyens is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgils epic poem the Aeneid, Les Troyens is Berliozs most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Berlioz began the libretto on 5 May 1856 and completed it toward the end of June 1856 and he finished the full score on 12 April 1858. Berlioz had an affection for literature, and he had admired Virgil since his childhood. The Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was a motivator to Berlioz to compose this opera. At that time I had completed the dramatic work I mentioned earlier, I added that I was all too aware of the pain that such an undertaking would inevitably cause me ever to embark on it. Indeed, the replied, the conjunction of your passion for Shakespeare and your love of antiquity must result in the creation of something grand. You must write this opera, this poem, call it what you like. You must start work on it and bring it to completion and this was more than enough to decide me. Once back in Paris I started to write the lines for the poem of Les Troyens, then I set to work on the score, and after three and a half years of corrections, changes, additions etc. everything was finished. Elsewhere he wrote, The principal merit of the work is, in my view, for Berlioz, truthful representation of passion was the highest goal of a dramatic composer, and in this respect he felt he had equalled the achievements of Gluck and Mozart. In his memoirs, Berlioz described in excruciating detail the intense frustrations he experienced in seeing the work performed, for five years, the Paris Opéra – the only suitable stage in Paris – vacillated. Finally, tired of waiting, he agreed to let Léon Carvalho, director of the smaller Théâtre Lyrique and it consisted of Acts 3 to 5, redivided by Berlioz into five acts, to which he added an orchestral introduction and a prologue. As Berlioz noted bitterly, he agreed to let Carvalho do it despite the manifest impossibility of his doing it properly and he had just obtained an annual subsidy of a hundred thousand francs from the government. None the less the enterprise was beyond him and his theater was not large enough, his singers were not good enough, his chorus and orchestra were small and weak. Even with this version of the opera, many compromises and cuts were made, some during rehearsals. The new second act was the Chasse Royale et Orage, an elaborate pantomime ballet with nymphs, sylvans, and fauns and a chorus. Since the set change for this took nearly an hour, it was cut, despite the fact its staging had been greatly simplified with a painted waterfall
Les Troyens
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Hector Berlioz
Les Troyens
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Cover of the first edition vocal score of La prise de Troie, the first two acts of Les Troyens
Les Troyens
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Cover of the 1863 Choudens et Cie vocal score for Les Troyens à Carthage, the second half of the opera, and first part performed.
Les Troyens
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Cover of the Choudens et Cie score.
(help·info)) (Bastille Opera House) is a modern opera house in Paris, France. Inaugurated in 1989 as part of President François Mitterrand’s “Grands Travaux”, it became the main facility of the Paris National Opera, France's principal opera company, alongside the older Palais Garnier; most opera performances are shown at the Bastille along with some ballet performances and symphony concerts, while "Garnier" presents a mix of opera and ballet performances.
