1.
The Royal Opera
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The Royal Opera is a company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968 and it brought a long annual season and consistent management to a house that had previously hosted short seasons under a series of impresarios. Since its inception, it has shared the Royal Opera House with the company now known as The Royal Ballet. When the company was formed, its policy was to all works in English. Among the many guest performers have been Maria Callas, Plácido Domingo, Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Hotter, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Among those who have risen to prominence from the ranks of the company are Geraint Evans, Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa. The companys growth under the management of David Webster from modest beginnings to parity with the worlds greatest opera houses was recognised by the grant of the title The Royal Opera in 1968, the 21st century has seen a stable managerial regime once more in place. The company has had six directors since its inception, Karl Rankl, Rafael Kubelík, Georg Solti, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink. From the mid-19th century, opera had been presented on the site of Covent Gardens Royal Opera House, after a fire, the new building opened in 1858 with The Royal English Opera company, which moved there from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Pre-war opera was described by the historian Montague Haltrecht as international, dressy, during the war, the Royal Opera House was leased by its owners, Covent Garden Properties Ltd, to Mecca Ballrooms who used it profitably as a dance hall. Towards the end of the war, the owners approached the music publishers Boosey, Boosey and Hawkes took a lease, and granted a sub-lease at generous terms to a not-for-profit charitable trust established to run the operation. The chairman of the trust was Lord Keynes, there was some pressure for a return to the pre-war regime of starry international seasons. Sir Thomas Beecham, who had presented many Covent Garden seasons between 1910 and 1939 confidently expected to do so again after the war and it was widely assumed that this aim would be met by inviting the existing Sadlers Wells Opera Company to become resident at the Royal Opera House. Webster successfully extended just such an invitation to the Sadlers Wells Ballet Company and he was determined to set up a new opera company of his own. The British government had begun to give funds to subsidise the arts, and Webster negotiated an ad hoc grant of £60,000. Websters first priority was to appoint a director to build the company from scratch. He negotiated with Bruno Walter and Eugene Goossens, but neither of those conductors was willing to consider a company with no leading international stars
2.
Enzo Plazzotta
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Enzo Plazzotta was an Italian-born British sculptor. Plazzotta was born in Mestre, near Venice, and spent his life in London. He is best remembered for a fascination with and study of movement in bronze - the human form, horses, ballerinas and he died in London, aged 60. Public works include, Camargue Horses stands on the Waterside Terrace at the Barbican Centre, homage to Leonardo stands in Belgrave Square, London. Jeté,1975, on the corner of 46-57 Millbank, Westminster, the Helmet, in the grounds of Lewes Priory, commissioned by Sir Tufton Beamish Two Brothers - Boys Town, Nebraska. Young Dancer sits opposite the Royal Opera House in Broad Street, off Bow Street, London
3.
Bow Street
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Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster, London. It connects Long Acre, Russell Street and Wellington Street, and is part of a route from St Giles to Waterloo Bridge, the street was developed in 1633 by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford for residential purposes. A number of people lived here in the 17th and 18th centuries, including Oliver Cromwell and Robert Harley. Bow Street is around 0.1 miles long and runs between Russell Street and Long Acre, to the east of Covent Garden, south of Russell Street, the road continues as Wellington Street towards The Strand. As with several streets in the local area, signs featuring its name are marked with the Theatreland logo. The street has historically been part of a route from St Giles to Waterloo Bridge. The nearest tube station is Covent Garden, No bus services run along Bow Street, though the route of London Buses route RV1 is close by. Bow Street was formerly part of a B road, numbered B401, along with Wellington Street, the area around Bow Street was first developed by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford in 1633. Buildings were first erected on the west side of the street that year and it was eventually built on around 1673-7, with eleven properties constructed. The street was named Bow Street in 1638 after its basic shape and it was always the Earls intention to extend it as far as Long Acre, but this was delayed. Bow Street had a number of residents in the 17th and 18th centuries. Oliver Cromwell moved to the street in 1645, Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford was born there in 1661. Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset lived here around 1685, the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons had premises on Bow Street between 1678 and 1721, while the physician John Radcliffe stayed on the street in the 1680s. Author and scribe John Ayres stayed at Bow street during the late 17th century, the actor-manager David Garrick lived at No.6 between 1742–4 while Charles Macklin stayed in the street between 1743–8. Wills Coffee House was founded at No.71 Bow Street in 1671 by William Urvin and it became popular during the 1690s, extending to No.20 Russell Street, and survived until 1751. Many residents moved away from Bow Street after the theatre was established in the early 18th century, life in the street declined and became known for pornography and prostitution. The publisher Edmund Curll lived at No.2 during this time, in the following legal dispute, Robinsons legal team accused the Commissioners surveyor of being prejudiced against prostitution. The building was demolished, but made little difference to the areas reputation, in 1844, a resident suggested the street should be renamed as a continuation of Wellington Street to distance itself from the reputation Bow Street had acquired
4.
WC postcode area
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The WC postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes parts of the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, London Borough of Islington, the area covered is of very high density development. The current postcode districts are relatively recent, divisions WC1 and WC2 districts established only in 1917. Where the districts are used for other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs. Both the WC1 and WC2 postcode districts are part of the London post town, there are no dependent localities used in the postcode districts. The numbered districts were created in 1917, before then they had been included in the WC postal district. There has been no significant recoding of the area from 1990 to 2007. There are Post Office branches in the WC1 postcode district at Grays Inn, High Holborn, Marchmont Street and Russell Square, the Western Central District Office was located on New Oxford Street, which was a stop on the London Post Office Railway. Deliveries for WC1 and WC2 now come from Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in Farringdon Road
5.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
6.
Covent Garden tube station
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Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly line between Leicester Square and Holborn stations and is in Travelcard Zone 1, the station is at the corner of Long Acre and James Street and is a Grade II listed building. The station was planned by the Great Northern and Strand Railway, to connect the two companies planned routes, the UERL obtained permission for new tunnels between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn. The companies were merged as the Great Northern, Piccadilly. The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907, like the rest of the original GNP&BR stations, the street level station building and platform tiling was designed by Leslie Green. The station building is a classic red Oxblood building which has two elevations fronting onto the end of James Street and Long Acre, the platform wall was tiled with two shades of yellow and white tiling which formed geometric shapes along with three blank spaces to incorporate the station name. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours, there are four lifts that give access to street level, although a final flight of stairs from the lifts to the platforms means that the station is wheelchair-inaccessible. Alternatively, there is a spiral staircase of 193 steps. The stations are so close that a pedestrian standing halfway between them on Long Acre can see both tube stations by turning around 180°, posters at the station give details of the alternative methods of getting to and from Covent Garden using surrounding stations. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3-7 minutes between 06,03 and 00,31 in both directions, no buses directly serve the station, however London Buses route RV1 stops around a 5 minute walk away. Transport for London has made a commitment to ease the congestion at the station, which may involve the creation of a new further north along Long Acre. It is said that the ghost of actor William Terriss haunts the station, the last reported sighting of William Terriss was in 1972
7.
Listed building
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A listed building or listed structure, in the United Kingdom, is one that has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The statutory bodies maintaining the list are Historic England in England, Cadw in Wales, Historic Scotland in Scotland, however, the preferred term in Ireland is protected structure. In England and Wales, an amenity society must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition. Owners of listed buildings are, in circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them. When alterations are permitted, or when listed buildings are repaired or maintained, slightly different systems operate in each area of the United Kingdom, though the basic principles of the listing remain the same. It was the damage to caused by German bombing during World War II that prompted the first listing of buildings that were deemed to be of particular architectural merit. The listings were used as a means of determining whether a building should be rebuilt if it was damaged by bombing. Listing was first introduced into Northern Ireland under the Planning Order 1972, the listing process has since developed slightly differently in each part of the UK. In the UK, the process of protecting the historic environment is called ‘designation’. A heritage asset is a part of the environment that is valued because of its historic. Only some of these are judged to be important enough to have legal protection through designation. However, buildings that are not formally listed but still judged as being of heritage interest are still regarded as being a consideration in the planning process. Almost anything can be listed – it does not have to be a building, Buildings and structures of special historic interest come in a wide variety of forms and types, ranging from telephone boxes and road signs, to castles. Historic England has created twenty broad categories of structures, and published selection guides for each one to aid with assessing buildings and these include historical overviews and describe the special considerations for listing each category. Both Historic Scotland and Cadw produce guidance for owners, in England, to have a building considered for listing or delisting, the process is to apply to the secretary of state, this can be done by submitting an application form online to Historic England. The applicant does not need to be the owner of the building to apply for it to be listed, full information including application form guidance notes are on the Historic England website. Historic England assesses buildings put forward for listing or delisting and provides advice to the Secretary of State on the architectural, the Secretary of State, who may seek additional advice from others, then decides whether or not to list or delist the building. In England and Wales the authority for listing is granted to the Secretary of State by the Planning Act 1990, Listed buildings in danger of decay are listed on the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register
8.
Opera house
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An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
9.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
10.
Covent Garden
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Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martins Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House. The area was settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. By 1200 part of it had been walled off by Westminster Abbey for use as arable land, referred to as the garden of the Abbey and Convent, and later the Covent Garden, it was seized by Henry VIII and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Pauls, the design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for new estates as London grew. By 1654 a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the side of the fashionable square. Gradually, both the market and the area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, an Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowlers neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The market grew and further buildings were added, the Floral Hall, Charter Market, by the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles south-west at Nine Elms. With the postcode WC2, Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, the area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907, the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London. What would become the Strand on the boundary of the future Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a late Roman grave and these revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, a document from 1200 AD mentions a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land and this is how it was recorded from then on. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took the land belonging to Westminster Abbey for himself and his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1552. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land until 1918
11.
Central London
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Central London is the innermost part of London, UK. Over time a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. From 2004 to 2008, the London Plan included a sub-region called Central London comprising Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and it had a 2001 population of 1,525,000. The sub-region was replaced in 2008 with a new structure which amalgamated inner and outer boroughs together and this was altered in 2011 when a new Central London sub region was created, now including the City of London and excluding Wandsworth. However, districts at the edge of this subregion such as Streatham, Dulwich. During the Herbert Commission and the subsequent passage of the London Government Bill, the first two were detailed in the 1959 Memorandum of Evidence of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics. It had an population of 350,000 and occupied 7,000 acres. The area had an population of 400,000 and occupied 8,000 acres. During the passage of the London Government Bill an amendment was put forward to create a central borough corresponding to the used at the 1961 census. The population was estimated to be 270,000
12.
The Royal Ballet
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The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, UK. The company employs approximately 100 dancers and has built facilities within the Royal Opera House. The official associate school of the company is the Royal Ballet School, and it also has a company, the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The Prima ballerina assoluta of the Royal Ballet is the late Dame Margot Fonteyn, in 1926, the Irish-born dancer Ninette de Valois founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, a dance school for girls. Her intention was to form a repertory company and school, leading her to collaborate with the English theatrical producer. Baylis owned the Old Vic and Sadlers Wells theatres and in 1925 she engaged de Valois to stage performances at both venues. Sadlers Wells reopened in 1931 and the Vic-Wells Ballet and Vic-Wells Ballet School were established in premises at the theatre and these would become the predecessors of todays Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School. Prior to her return to Britain, Ninette de Valois had been a member of the Ballets Russes, one of the most renowned, the company disbanded in 1929 following the death of its founder Serge Diaghilev. The Founder Musical Director was the conductor and composer Constant Lambert who had considerable artistic as well as influence over the early years of the company. After losing the link with the Old Vic theatre, in 1939 the company was renamed Sadlers Wells Ballet, the company relocated to the opera house the same year in 1946, with their first production at the venue being The Sleeping Beauty. Following the relocation of the company, the moved to its own premises in 1947. A sister company was established to continue performances at Sadlers Wells, called the Sadlers Wells Theatre Ballet, in 1955, the sister company temporarily lost its link with Sadlers Wells and returned to the Royal Opera House as a touring unit of the main company. In 1956, a Royal Charter was granted for companies and the school, they were subsequently renamed the Royal Ballet, Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet. The Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet returned to Sadlers Wells Theatre in 1970, in 1987, however, the company was invited to become the resident ballet company at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Birmingham Royal Ballet retains close relationships with both the Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School, although it now has its own ballet school. In 1964 the Royal Ballet established Ballet for All under the direction of Peter Brinson, between 1964 and 1979 Ballet for All toured throughout the country, presenting around 150 performances per annum and reaching around 70,000 people each year. In 1976 the Royal Opera House established its schools matinee programme, to stage these ballets with her newly formed company, de Valois employed Nicholas Sergeyev, a former régisseur of the Imperial. He staged productions of Petipas The Sleeping Beauty, Petipa and Ivanovs Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Petipa and Cecchettis production of Coppélia, and Petipas Giselle
13.
George Frideric Handel
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George Frideric Handel was a German, later British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712 and he was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that Handel was not only a great composer, he was a dramatic genius of the first order. As Alexanders Feast was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works, after his success with Messiah he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759 and his funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Handel was born in 1685 in Halle-on-Saal, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and his father,63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Georg Händel was the son of a coppersmith, Valentin Händel who had emigrated from Eisleben in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching and they were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over Silesia, a Hapsburg possession as religious tensions mounted in the years before the Thirty Years War. Halle was a prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry. Even the smaller churches all had able organists and fair choirs, and humanities, the Thirty Years War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. But since the middle of the war the city was under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, the arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, which did not describe Handels family. Handel was the child of this marriage, the first son died still born. Two younger sisters were born after the birth of George Frideric, Dorthea Sophia, born 6 October 1687 and Johanna Christiana, born 10 January 1690. Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the gymnasium in Halle, Mainwaring is the source for almost all information of Handels childhood, and much of that information came from J. C. Smith, Jr. Handels confidant and copyist. Whether they came from Smith or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation and it is from Mainwaring that the portrait of Handels father as implacably opposed to any musical education comes. This did nothing to dampen young Handels inclination, in fact, Mainwaring tells the story of Handels secret attic spinnet, Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately conveyd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep, but Handel had to have had some experience with the keyboard to have made the impression in Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training. Somehow Handel made his way to the organ, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer caused the Duke to recommend to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction, Handels father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel
14.
Lobby (room)
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A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or a hall, it often is a large. It is an area for spectators and place of venues, especially used before performance and during intermissions. Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression. This is known as a power lobby, since the mid-1980s, there has been a growing trend to think of lobbies as more than just ways to get from the door to the elevator but instead as social spaces and places of commerce. Some research has even been done to develop scales to measure lobby atmosphere to improve hotel lobby design, many places that offer public services, such as a doctors office, use their lobbies as more of a waiting room for the people waiting for a certain service. In these lobbies it is common for there to be comfortable furniture, such as couches and lounge chairs, also, there may be television sets, books, and/or magazines to help the customer pass time as they wait to be served. Usually a foyer is a large, specially designed hall, but sometimes and it is furnished and big enough to enable spectators to stroll, get together and relax. Foyers are commonly adorned with art works, permanent or temporary exhibitions related to the activity of the institution, moreover, the foyer can be the main place of some events such as vernissage, meetings with the artists, actors benefit, etc. A foyer in a house is usually a small area or room by the front door. Other public rooms such as the room, dining room. It was initially intended as an airlock, separating the rooms from the front entrance. It is commonly used for outer garment and umbrella storage for both residents and guests, the word foyer comes from the French language and means the place where the fire is kept. Given its French etymology, it should always be pronounced Foy eh as the r is silent
15.
Auditorium
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An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theatres, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens, auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and theaters, and may be used for rehearsal, presentation, performing arts productions, or as a learning space. The audience in a theatre are usually separated from the performers by the proscenium arch. The price charged for seats in each part of the auditorium usually varies according to the quality of the view of the stage. The seating areas can include some or all of the following, Stalls, orchestra or arena, balconies or galleries, one or more raised seating platforms towards the rear of the auditorium. In larger theatres, multiple levels are stacked vertically above or behind the stalls, the first level is usually called the dress circle or grand circle. The highest platform, or upper circle is known as the gods, especially in large opera houses, where the seats can be very high. Boxes, generally placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage and they are often separate rooms with an open viewing area which generally seat only a handful of people. These seats are considered the most prestigious of the house. A state box or royal box is provided for dignitaries. Seating arrangement, Seating arrangements in a seating layout will either be identified as “multiple-aisle” or “continental. ”These terms are commonly found in design standards manuals, building codes. Each size is unique, with specific guidelines governing row size, row spacing, basically, a multiple-aisle arrangement will have a maximum of 14-16 chairs per row with access to an aisle-way at both ends. In a continental arrangement, all seats are located in a central section, here the maximum quantity of chairs per row can greatly exceed the limits established in a multiple-aisle arrangement. In order to compensate for the length of rows allowed, building codes will require wider row spacing, wider aisles. Although it would seem like more space is called for, a seating plan is often not any less efficient than a multiple-aisle arrangement. In fact, if it’s carefully planned, an arrangement can frequently accommodate more seating within the same space. In other countries, sports venues have luxury boxes, where access is open to anyone who can afford tickets, auditorium Building List of concert halls Music venue Noise mitigation Smoking ban Concert hall acoustics on-line exhibition
16.
Box (theatre)
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In theater, a box is a small, separated seating area in the auditorium for a limited number of people. Boxes are typically placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage and they are often separate rooms with an open viewing area which typically seat five people or fewer. Usually all the seats in a box are taken by members of a group of people. A state box or royal box is provided for dignitaries. In theaters without box seating the loge can refer to a section at the front of the balcony. In other countries, sports venues have luxury boxes, where access is open to anyone who can afford tickets
17.
Balcony
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A balcony is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. The traditional Maltese balcony is a closed balcony projecting from a wall. By contrast, a Juliet balcony does not protrude out of the building and it is usually part of an upper floor, with a balustrade only at the front, like a small Loggia. Modern Juliet balconies often involve a metal barrier placed in front of a window which can be opened. Sometimes balconies are adapted for ceremonial purposes, e. g. that of St. Peters Basilica at Rome, inside churches, balconies are sometimes provided for the singers, and in banqueting halls and the like for the musicians. A unit with a regular balcony will have doors that open up onto a patio with railings. A French balcony is actually a false balcony, with doors that open to a railing with a view of the courtyard or the surrounding scenery below. In theatres, the balcony was formerly a stage-box, but the name is now confined to the part of the auditorium above the dress circle. One of the most famous uses of a balcony is in traditional stagings of the scene that has come to be known as the scene in William Shakespeares tragedy, Romeo. Manufacturers names for their balcony designs often refer to the origin of the design, italian balcony, Spanish balcony, Mexican balcony, Ecuadorian balcony
18.
Amphitheatre
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An amphitheatre or amphitheater /ˈæmfᵻˌθiːətər/ is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area. In modern usage, amphitheatre is used to describe theatre-style stages with spectator seating on only one side, theatres in the round. Natural formations of similar shape are known as natural amphitheatres. Ancient Roman amphitheatres were major public venues, circular or oval in plan and they were used for events such as gladiator combats, chariot races, venationes and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire, the earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the 1st century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period onwards. Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman empire, the largest could accommodate 40, the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary. After the end of games in the 5th century and of staged animal hunts in the 6th. Their materials were mined or recycled, some were razed, and others were converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places, in some of these, in modern usage, an amphitheatre is a circular, semicircular or curved, acoustically vibrant performance space, particularly one located outdoors. Small-scale amphitheatres can serve to host outdoor local community performances, notable modern amphitheatres include the Shoreline Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl. The term amphitheatre is used for some indoor venues such as the Gibson Amphitheatre. The term amphitheatre can also be used to naturally occurring formations which would be ideal for this purpose. Arena Stadium Thingplatz List of Roman amphitheatres List of contemporary amphitheatres List of indoor arenas List of ancient Greek theatres Roman theatre Bomgardner, the Story of the Roman Amphitheatre
19.
Proscenium
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The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same. It can be considered as a construct which divides the actors. But since the curtain comes down just behind the proscenium arch, it has a physical reality when the curtain is down. A proscenium stage is different from a thrust stage or an arena stage. Skene is the Greek word for the tent, and later building, at the back of the stage from which actors entered, in the Hellenistic period it became an increasingly large and elaborate stone structure, often with three storeys. In Greek theatre, which unlike Roman included painted scenery, the proskenion might also carry scenery, in the Greek and Roman theatre, no proscenium arch existed, in the modern sense, and the acting space was always fully in the view of the audience. Modern halls designed mainly for orchestral music often adopt similar arrangements, the oldest surviving indoor theatre of the modern era, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the first example of a proscenium theatre. The Teatro Olimpico was a reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It has a plain proscaenium at the front of the stage, dropping to the level, now usually containing stalls seating. However, the Teatro Olimpicos exact replication of the open and accessible Roman stage was the rather than the rule in sixteenth-century theatre design. Engravings suggest that the arch was already in use as early as 1560 at a production in Siena. The earliest true proscenium arch to survive in a permanent theatre is the Teatro Farnese in Parma, Parma has a clearly defined arco scenico—more like a picture frame than an arch, but serving the same purpose—outlining the stage and separating the audience from the action on-stage. While the proscenium arch became an important feature of the traditional European theatre, often becoming very large and elaborate, what the Romans would have called the proscaenium is, in modern theatres with orchestra pits, normally painted black in order that it does not draw attention. In this early modern recreation of a Roman theatre confusion seems to have introduced to the use of the revived term in Italian. There is no evidence at all for this assumption, the Italian word for a scaenae frons is proscenio, a major change from Latin. It would also be possible to retain the classical frons scaenae. The Italian arco scenico has been translated as proscenium arch, the result is that in this theatre the architectural spaces for the audience and the action. Are distinct in treatment yet united by their juxtaposition, no proscenium arch separates them, a proscenium arch creates a window around the scenery and performers. A proscenium theatre layout also simplifies the hiding and obscuring of objects from the audiences view, anything that is not meant to be seen is simply placed outside the window created by the proscenium arch, either in the wings or in the flyspace above the stage
20.
William Hogarth
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William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are referred to as Hogarthian. William Hogarth was born at Bartholomew Close in London to Richard Hogarth, a poor Latin school teacher and textbook writer, in his youth he was apprenticed to the engraver Ellis Gamble in Leicester Fields, where he learned to engrave trade cards and similar products. Young Hogarth also took a lively interest in the life of the metropolis and the London fairs. Around the same time, his father, who had opened an unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house at St Johns Gate, was imprisoned for debt in Fleet Prison for five years, Hogarth never spoke of his fathers imprisonment. Hogarth became a member of the Rose and Crown Club, with Peter Tillemans, George Vertue, Michael Dahl, by April 1720, Hogarth was an engraver in his own right, at first engraving coats of arms, shop bills, and designing plates for booksellers. In 1727, he was hired by Joshua Morris, a tapestry worker, Morris heard that he was an engraver, and no painter, and consequently declined the work when completed. Hogarth accordingly sued him for the money in the Westminster Court, in 1757 he was appointed Serjeant Painter to the King. In the bottom corner, he shows Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round. At the top is a goat, written below which is Whol Ride, Other early works include The Lottery, The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormogons, A Just View of the British Stage, some book illustrations, and the small print Masquerades and Operas. He continued that theme in 1727, with the Large Masquerade Ticket, in 1726 Hogarth prepared twelve large engravings for Samuel Butlers Hudibras. These he himself valued highly, and they are among his best book illustrations, in the following years he turned his attention to the production of small conversation pieces. One of his real low-life and real-life subjects was Sarah Malcolm who he sketched two days before her execution and he might also have printed Burlington Gate, evoked by Alexander Popes Epistle to Lord Burlington, and defending Lord Chandos, who is therein satirized. This print gave great offence, and was suppressed, however, modern authorities such as Ronald Paulson no longer attribute it to Hogarth. In 1731 Hogarth completed the earliest of his series of moral works, the collection of six scenes was entitled A Harlots Progress and appeared first as paintings before being published as engravings. The inaugural series was a success and was followed in 1735 by the sequel A Rakes Progress. The original paintings of A Harlots Progress were destroyed in the fire at Fonthill House in 1755, while A Rakes Progress is displayed in the room at Sir John Soanes Museum, London
21.
Letters patent
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Letters patent can be used for the creation of corporations or government offices, or for the granting of city status or a coat of arms. Letters patent are issued for the appointment of representatives of the Crown, such as governors and governors-general of Commonwealth realms, in the United Kingdom they are also issued for the creation of peers of the realm. A particular form of letters patent has evolved into the modern patent granting exclusive rights in an invention. e, the opposite of letters patent are letters close, which are personal in nature and sealed so that only the recipient can read their contents. Letters patent are thus comparable to other kinds of open letter in that their audience is wide, letters patent are so named from the Latin verb pateo, to lie open, exposed, accessible. The originators seal was attached pendent from the document, so that it did not have to be broken in order for the document to be read. Thus letters patent do not equate to a letter but rather to any form of document, deed, contract, letter, despatch, edict, decree. Letters patent are a form of open or public proclamation and an exercise of extra-parliamentary power by a monarch or president. Prior to the establishment of Parliament, the monarch ruled absolutely by the issuing of his written orders. They can thus be contrasted with the Act of Parliament, which is in effect an order by Parliament. No explicit government approval is contained within letters patent, only the seal or signature of the monarch, in their original form they were simply written instructions or orders from the sovereign, whose order was law, which were made public to reinforce their effect. According to the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice, there are 92 different types of letters patent. The Patent Rolls are made up of copies of English royal letters patent. In 1634, during the Thirty Years War, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II became convinced that his general Albrecht von Wallenstein was plotting treason, on 24 January 1634 the Emperor signed a secret patent removing him from his command. Finally an open patent, charging Wallenstein with high treason, was signed on 18 February, in the patent, Ferdinand II ordered to have Wallenstein brought under arrest to Vienna, dead or alive. On the basis of patent, several of Wallensteins officers assassinated him and were rewarded by the Emperor. The form of patent for creating peerages has been fixed by the Crown Office Order 1992. Part III of the schedule lays down nine pro forma texts for creating various ranks of the peerage, lords of appeal in ordinary, gender-specific differences are highlighted in italics. In Commonwealth realms, letters patent are issued under the powers of the head of state
22.
Charles II of England
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Charles II was king of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, Charles IIs father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim, after 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charless English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the treaty of Dover. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oatess revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charless brother, the crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed, Charless wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James, Charles II was born in St Jamess Palace on 29 May 1630. His parents were Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles was their second son and child. Their first son was born about a year before Charles but died within a day, England, Scotland and Ireland were respectively predominantly Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, at or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary, by spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646, at The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married
23.
William Davenant
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Sir William Davenant, also spelled DAvenant, was an English poet and playwright. Davenant is believed to have born in late February,1606 in Oxford. It was even rumoured that he was the Bards biological son as well and he would tell them the story as above, in which way his mother had a very light report, whereby she was called a Whore. It has been suggested that Davenant simply meant that he saw himself as a son of Shakespeare. In 1618, after Shakespeares death, the 12-year-old Davenant wrote an ode In Remembrance of Master Shakespeare and he attended Lincoln College, Oxford, for a while in about 1620, but left before gaining any degree, becoming a page to the Duchess of Richmond. In London in 1630, he contracted a disease, and was given a syphilis treatment by Thomas Cademan. As a convalescent, he left for the country in 1632 for a time, the syphilis severely disfigured his nose, resulting in damage that is discreetly depicted in John Greenhills portrait. His ruined nose was the subject of ribald comment by his enemies. Following the death of Ben Jonson in 1637, Davenant was named Poet Laureate in 1638 and he was a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War. Returning to join the army when the war started, he was knighted two years later by king Charles following the siege of Gloucester. In 1645, after the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Naseby, he retired to Paris and that same year he was appointed Emissary to France, and in 1649 was given the symbolic post of treasurer of the colony of Virginia by the exiled Charles II. The following year, he was lieutenant governor of Maryland, but was captured at sea, imprisoned. He is said to have saved by the intervention of John Milton. He spent all of 1651 in the Tower of London, where he continued writing Gondibert, on his release in 1652, he immediately published Gondibert, but he was only pardoned in 1654. Davenant once again found himself in trouble in 1659, when he was imprisoned for his part in Sir George Booths uprising in Cheshire after the death of Cromwell. He was, however, released the year, and left once more for France. When Charles II was restored to the throne, Davenant returned to England, the Restoration also led to the re-opening of theatres, which had been closed due to the influence of the puritans under Cromwell. In 1660, he is recorded as being one of the two theatrical patentees, along with Thomas Killigrew, who obtained a monopoly of public theatre performances
24.
Duke's Company
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The Dukes Company was a theatre company chartered by King Charles II at the start of the Restoration era,1660. Sir William Davenant was manager of the company under Prince James, during this period, theatres began to flourish again after being closed due to restrictions throughout the Interregnum and English Civil War. The Dukes Company had the patronage of the Kings younger brother Prince James, Duke of York and it was managed by Sir William Davenant. The company started at the old Salisbury Court Theatre, and occasionally used the Cockpit in Drury Lane, after a year, the actors moved to a new theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields, a building on Portugal Street that had previously been Lisles Tennis Court. There they were joined by Thomas Betterton, who became their star. In 1661, their first year at Lincolns Inn Fields, the company revived Hamlet, Samuel Pepys saw their production on 24 August, he described it as done with scenes very well, but above all, Betterton did the Princes part beyond imagination. Davenant tried to make the most of the limited Shakespearean materials available to him, in 1662 he staged The Law Against Lovers, a heavily adapted version of Measure for Measure that blended in characters from Much Ado About Nothing. It was the earliest of the many Shakespearean adaptations produced during the Restoration era, the company also acted some of the plays in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. Yet the rival Kings Company under Thomas Killigrew controlled more of the Old Stock Plays, the Dukes Company was driven to seek out new work by a new generation of writers, and to experiment with new forms and styles. The company performed the plays of Davenant, John Dryden, Thomas Otway, George Etheredge, Thomas Shadwell and others, like the Kings Company, the Dukes pioneered the use of the first English actresses in the early 1660s. Their standout performer was Mary Saunderson, later Mrs. Betterton, anne Gibbs and Mary Lee also had noteworthy careers. Samuel Pepys saw many of their productions, and recorded them in his Diary, King Charles witnessed many of their productions too, in a break with past practice, the King sometimes came to the theatre to see the plays, which in previous reigns had never happened. In its busiest seasons, the company staged fifty different plays in a year, after Davenants death in April 1668, Betterton took command of the company, in collaboration with Davenants widow Lady Mary Davenant. Their management team expanded its strategies to ensure success, the company engaged in three summer seasons in Oxford starting in 1669. On 9 November 1671 the company moved into a new theatre in Dorset Garden, sometimes called the Queens Theatre, the most successful of the companys semi-operas was the Dryden/ Davenant adaptation of The Tempest, which premiered on 7 November 1667. From 1675 on, Elizabeth Barry acted with the Dukes Company, both the Dukes and Kings Companies suffered poor attendance during the turmoil of the Popish Plot period, 1678–81. When the Kings Company fell into difficulties due to mismanagement, the Dukes Company joined with them to form the United Company in 1682, the United Company began performances in November of that year. The Kings Company theatre, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, was used mainly for plays, while the Dukes Dorset Garden theatre was devoted to operas, John Downes was the prompter of the Dukes Company from 1662 to 1706
25.
John Rich (producer)
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John Rich was an important director and theatre manager in 18th-century London. He opened the New Theatre at Lincolns Inn Fields, which he managed until he opened the Theatre Royal and he managed Covent Garden until 1761, putting on ever more lavish productions. He introduced pantomime to the English stage and played a dancing, the British idea of the Harlequin character was heavily inspired by Rich’s idea of a silent character. Rich’s choice of being a silent character was influenced by his unappealing voice, Richs theatre specialized in what contemporaries called spectacle. Today we might call them special effects and his stagings would endeavour to present actual cannon shots, animals, and multiple illusions of battle. Rich began his work as “Lun” the Harlequin character in 1717, wearing a leotard with diamond shaped patches, by 1728, Rich was synonymous with lavish productions. Rich performed multiple roles as the character type while the Company Manager at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Rich was praised for his movement style, allowing each limb to tell a story in shows, lewis Theobald was working for Rich on writing pantomimes. When Alexander Pope wrote the first version of The Dunciad, and even more in the second and third editions, Rich appears as a symptom of the disease of the age. In his Dunciad Variorum of 1732, he makes John Rich the angel of the goddess Dulness, Immortal Rich. How calm he sits at ease Mid snows of paper, and fierce hail of pease, And proud his mistress orders to perform, Rides in the whirlwind, yet, at the same time,1728 was the year that Rich produced John Gays Beggars Opera. The play ran so successfully, with 62 performances, that it was said the play made Gay rich and Rich gay. John Gay was a friend of Popes and a frequent collaborator of his. Richs success with Beggars Opera allowed him to open his own theatre and this was the first of three theatres on the site, now known as the Royal Opera House. Rich commissioned some of the landscape artists of his day to paint the scenery for Covent Garden. Rich received a 75% share in the Lincolns Inn Fields theatre from his father, Christopher Rich, at that time, the theatre was, by no means, ready for use, as it was still under construction. By that point, Rich had already begun acting in plays and his father had set the reputation and direction of the Lincolns Inn Theatre during the War of the Theatres in the 1690s, and John Rich continued it. In particular, John Rich exaggerated the theatricality of the Restoration spectacular by creating a new form of hireling drama designed strictly to generate opulent stagecraft, after becoming majority owner of Lincolns Inn Fields, his control grew as he sought to get the rest of the shares
26.
Lincoln's Inn Fields
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Lincolns Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. The grounds, which had remained private property, were acquired by London County Council in 1895 and it is today managed by the London Borough of Camden and forms part of the southern boundary of that borough with the City of Westminster. Lincolns Inn Fields takes its name from the adjacent Lincolns Inn, of which the gardens are separated from the Fields by a perimeter wall. The grassed area in the centre of the Fields contains a court for tennis and netball and it was previously used for corporate events, which are no longer permitted. Cricket and other sports are thought to have played here in the 18th century. When originally laid out, Lincolns Inn Fields was part of fashionable London, the oldest building from this early period is Lindsey House, 59–60 Lincolns Inn Fields, which was built in 1640 and has been attributed to Inigo Jones. The builder may have been David Cunningham, 1st Baronet of Auchinhervie, a friend of the mason-sculptor Nicholas Stone and it derives its name from a period of ownership in the 18th century by the earls of Lindsey. Another seventeenth century survival is now 66 Lincolns Inn Fields, which was built for Lord Powis, the charter of the Bank of England was sealed there on 27 July 1694. It was in 1705 acquired by the Duke of Newcastle who had it remodelled by Sir John Vanbrugh and it remains substantially in its circa 1700 form, although a remodelling in 1930 by Sir Edwin Lutyens gives it a curiously pastiche appearance. Up to the 17th century, cattle were grazed upon the fields, turnstiles were placed around the square to enable pedestrians to enter without the animals escaping. Shops and other businesses developed along these footpaths and some of these still exist – the Great. As London fashion moved west, Lincolns Inn Fields was left to lawyers who were attracted by its proximity to the Inns of Court. Thus, the former Newcastle House became in 1790 the premises of the solicitors Farrer & Co who are there, their clients include much of the landed gentry. The Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre was located in the Fields from 1661 to 1848 when it was demolished, originally called the Dukes Theatre, it was created by converting Lisles Tennis Court, to become the Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre in 1695. The theatre presented the first paid public performances of Purcells Dido and Aeneas in 1700, John Gays The Beggars Opera in January 1728, and Handels final two operas in 1740 and 1741. Sometime after 1735 the Fields were enclosed within an iron railing, on account of the then Master of the Rolls, an alternative version of the story claims that Jekyll was attacked for his support of an Act of Parliament raising the price of gin. Essex Court Chambers now occupy five buildings, nos. 24–28 Lincolns Inn Fields, other barristers chambers have since then also set up in Lincolns Inn Fields, but solicitors firms still outnumber them there. In Charles Dickens novel Bleak House, the solicitor to the aristocracy, Mr Tulkinghorn, has his offices in Lincolns Inn Fields
27.
The Beggar's Opera
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The Beggars Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that some of the conventions of opera. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular ballads, opera arias, church hymns. The Beggars Opera premiered at the Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre on 29 January 1728 and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the work became Gays greatest success and has been played ever since, it has been called the most popular play of the eighteenth century. The piece satirised Italian opera, which had become popular in London, instead of the grand music and themes of opera, the work uses familiar tunes and characters that were ordinary people. Some of the songs were by composers like Handel. The audience could hum along with the music and identify with the characters, the story satirised politics, poverty and injustice, focusing on the theme of corruption at all levels of society. Lavinia Fenton, the first Polly Peachum, became an overnight success and her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her. After appearing in comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of The Beggars Opera, she ran away with her married lover, Charles Powlett. Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill adapted the opera into Die Dreigroschenoper in 1928, sticking closely to the plot and characters but with a new libretto. The original idea of the came from Jonathan Swift, who wrote to Alexander Pope on 30 August 1716 asking. what think you. Their friend, Gay, decided that it would be a rather than a pastoral opera. For his original production in 1728, Gay intended all the songs to be sung without any accompaniment, adding to the shocking and gritty atmosphere of his conception. Although there is no evidence of who the arranger was, inspection of the original 1729 score, formally published by Dover Books. It also deals with social inequity on a scale, primarily through the comparison of low-class thieves and whores with their aristocratic. Gay used Scottish folk melodies mostly taken from the poet Allan Ramsays hugely popular collection The Gentle Shepherd plus two French tunes, to serve his hilariously pointed and irreverent texts. Pepusch composed an overture and arranged all the tunes shortly before the night at Lincolns Inn Fields on 28 January 1728
28.
John Gay
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John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggars Opera, a ballad opera, the characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names. Gay was born in Barnstaple, England, and was educated at the grammar school. John Hanmer, the Nonconformist minister of the town, the dedication of his Rural Sports to Alexander Pope was the beginning of a lasting friendship. In 1714, Gay wrote The Shepherds Week, a series of six pastorals drawn from English rustic life, Gays pastorals achieved this goal and his ludicrous pictures of the English country lads and their loves were found to be entertaining on their own account. In 1715, probably with help from Pope, he produced What dye call it. A dramatic skit on contemporary tragedy, with reference to Thomas Otways Venice Preservd. It left the public so ignorant of its meaning that Lewis Theobald. In 1716 appeared his Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London and it contains graphic and humorous descriptions of the London of that period. In taking a form, Gays poem was able to poke fun at the notion of complete reformation of street civility. In January 1717 he produced the comedy, Three Hours After Marriage, which was thought to be grossly indecent and he had assistance from Pope and John Arbuthnot, but they allowed it to be assumed that Gay was the sole author. Gay had numerous patrons, and in 1720 he published Poems on Several Occasions by subscription, in that year James Craggs, the secretary of state, presented him with some South Sea stock. Gay, disregarding the advice of Pope and others of his friends, invested all his money in South Sea stock, the shock is said to have made him dangerously ill. His friends did not fail him at this juncture and he had patrons in William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, in the third Earl of Burlington, who constantly entertained him at Chiswick or at Burlington House, and in the third Duke of Queensberry. He was a frequent visitor with Pope, and received unvarying kindness from William Congreve and he was offered the situation of gentleman-usher to the Princess Louisa, who was also still a child. He refused this offer, which all his friends seem to have regarded as an indignity and he had never rendered any special services to the court. This famous piece, which was said to have made Rich gay and Gay rich, was an innovation in many respects, the satire of the play has a double allegory. Gays decision to launch the work was also influenced by the huge interest that the Jack Sheppard
29.
Edward Shepherd
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Edward Shepherd was a prominent London-based English architect and developer in the Georgian period. Shepherd worked on the projects, among others, Cannons. Houses in St Jamess Square, London, including No,4, the Naval & Military Club and a former home of Nancy Astor from 1912 to 1942. Palace-fronted buildings for the 1st Duke of Chandos in Grosvenor Square, goodmans Fields Theatre, Ayliffe Street, Whitechapel, London. Theatre Royal, now the location of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Development of Shepherd Market and adjoining streets in Mayfair, London. Houses in South Audley Street, Mayfair, London, work on De Grey Mausoleum, Church of St John the Baptist, Flitton, Bedfordshire. Unfortunately, much of Shepherds architectural work has been demolished, but perhaps his greatest legacy of the eponymous Shepherd Market, Shepherd Market, developed by Edward Shephard in 1735-46 Edward Shepherd from Answers. com. The Development of the Estate 1720–1785, Architects and Builders, in F. H. W. Sheppard, Survey of London, volume 39, The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 1, pages 20–24,1977
30.
Inigo Jones
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Inigo Jones was the first significant English architect in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable architect in England, Jones was the first person who introduced the classical architecture of Rome and he made major contributions to stage design by his work as theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson. Beyond the fact that he was born in Smithfield, London, the son of Inigo Jones, a Welsh cloth worker, at some point before 1603 a rich patron sent him to Italy to study drawing after being impressed by the quality of his sketches. From Italy he travelled to Denmark where he worked for King Christian on the design of the palaces of Rosenborg and Frederiksborg, Jones first became famous as a designer of costumes and stage settings, especially after he brought masques to the stage. Under Queen Annes patronage he is credited with introducing movable scenery and this development suggests a second visit to Italy, circa 1606, influenced by the ambassador Henry Wotton. Jones learned to speak Italian fluently and there is evidence that he owned an Italian copy of Andrea Palladios I quattro libri dellarchitettura with marginalia that refer to Wotton and his architectural work was particularly influenced by Palladio. To a lesser extent, he held to the architectural principles of the ancient Roman writer Vitruvius. Joness first recorded architectural design is for a monument to Lady Cotton, circa 1608 and he devised a masque for the Prince and was possibly involved in some alterations to St Jamess Palace. On this trip, Jones was exposed to the architecture of Rome, Padua, Florence, Vicenza, Genoa and his surviving sketchbook shows his preoccupation with such artists as Parmigianino and Schiavone. He is also known to have met Vincenzo Scamozzi at this time and he was probably the first Englishman to study these Roman remains first hand and this was key to the new architecture Jones introduced in England. In September 1615, Jones was appointed Surveyor-General of the Kings Works, fortunately, both James I and Charles I spent lavishly on their buildings, contrasting hugely with the economical court of Elizabeth I. As the Kings Surveyor, Jones built some of his key buildings in London, in 1616, work began on the Queens House, Greenwich, for James Is wife, Anne. With the foundations laid and the first storey built, work stopped suddenly when Anne died in 1619, work resumed in 1629, but this time for Charles Is Queen, Henrietta Maria. It was finished in 1635 as the first strictly classical building in England, employing ideas found in the architecture of Palladio and this is Joness earliest surviving work. The Banqueting House was one of several projects where Jones worked with his personal assistant, the Queens Chapel, St. Jamess Palace, was built between 1623 and 1627, for Charles Is Roman Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria. Parts of the design originate in the Pantheon of ancient Rome and these buildings show the realisation of a mature architect with a confident grasp of classical principles and an intellectual understanding of how to implement them. The other project in which Jones was involved is the design of Covent Garden square and he was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to build a residential square, which he did along the lines of the Italian piazza of Livorno. It is the first regularly planned square in London, the Earl felt obliged to provide a church and he warned Jones that he wanted to economise
31.
William Congreve
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William Congreve was an English playwright and poet. William Congreve was born in Bardsey, Yorkshire, England and his parents were William Congreve and Mary. The family moved to London in 1672 and they relocated again in 1674 to the Irish port town of Youghal where his father served as a lieutenant in the British army. Congreve spent his childhood in Ireland, where his father, a Cavalier, had settled during the reign of Charles II. Congreve was educated at Kilkenny College where he met Jonathan Swift, who would be his friend for the remainder of his life, and at Trinity College in Dublin. Upon graduation, he matriculated in the Middle Temple in London to study law, but felt himself pulled toward literature, drama, and the fashionable life. Congreve assumed the pseudonym Cleophil and went on to publish a work he had written at the age of 17 called Incognita, or, Love. This early work gained him recognition among the men of letters, artistically, he became a disciple of John Dryden whom he met through the gatherings of literary circles held at Wills Coffeehouse in the Covent Garden District of London. John Dryden would continue to be a supporter of the works of Congreve throughout his life. This support would take the form of panegyrical introductions for some of Congreves later works, William Congreve is seen as the man who shaped the English comedy of manners through his use of satire and well-written dialogue. Congreve achieved fame in 1693 when he wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period and this period in time was unique because female roles were beginning to be played predominately by women. This shift in allowing women to perform could be seen in the works of Congreve, one of the favorites of the playwright was a woman by the name of Mrs Anne Bracegirdle. She was the actress went on to hold many of the female lead roles in the works of Congreve. His first play, The Old Bachelor, written, by his own account, to himself during convalescence, was produced at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1693. This first play was hailed as a success, and it ran for an entire two-week period when it first opened. Congreves mentor John Dryden gave the production rave reviews and proclaimed it to be a brilliant first piece, the second play to be produced was called The Double-Dealer which was not nearly as successful as the first production. This play was a failure at the time of production but it is seen as one of his masterpieces today. He also went on to create one tragedy, The Mourning Bride which was popular at the time of creation but is now one of his least regarded dramas
32.
The Way of the World
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The Way of the World is a play written by the English playwright William Congreve. It premiered in early March 1700 in the theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields in London and it is widely regarded as one of the best Restoration comedies and is still occasionally performed. At the time, however, the play struck many audience members as continuing the immorality of the previous decades, the play is centred on the two lovers Mirabell and Millamant. In order for them to marry and receive Millamants full dowry, Mirabell must receive the blessing of Millamants aunt, unfortunately, Lady Wishfort is a very bitter lady who despises Mirabell and wants her own nephew, Sir Wilfull, to wed Millamant. Another character, Fainall, is having an affair with Mrs. Marwood, a friend of Mrs. Fainalls. In the meantime, Mirabells servant is married to Foible, Lady Wishforts servant, Waitwell pretends to be Sir Rowland and, on Mirabells command, tries to trick Lady Wishfort into a false engagement. Act 1 is set in a house where Mirabell and Fainall have just finished playing cards. A footman comes and tells Mirabell that Waitwell and Foible were married that morning, Mirabell tells Fainall about his love of Millamant and is encouraged to marry her. Act 2 is set in St. James’ Park, Mrs. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood are discussing their hatred of men. Fainall appears and accuses Mrs. Marwood of loving Mirabell, meanwhile, Mrs. Fainall tells Mirabell that she hates her husband, and they begin to plot to deceive Lady Wishfort into giving her consent to the marriage. Millamant appears in the park and, angry about the night, she tells Mirabell of her displeasure in his plan. After she leaves, the newly wed servants appear and Mirabell reminds them of their roles in the plan, acts 3,4 and 5 are all set in the home of Lady Wishfort. We are introduced to Lady Wishfort who is encouraged by Foible to marry the supposed Sir Rowland – Mirabells supposed uncle – so that Mirabell will lose his inheritance. Sir Rowland is, however, Waitwell in disguise, and the plan is to entangle Lady Wishfort in a marriage which cannot go ahead, because it would be bigamy, Mirabell will offer to help her out of the embarrassing situation if she consents to his marriage. Later, Mrs. Fainall discusses this plan with Foible, and she later tells the plan to Fainall, who decides that he will take his wifes money and go away with Mrs. Marwood. Mirabell and Millamant, equally strong-willed, discuss in detail the conditions under which they would accept each other in marriage, Mirabell finally proposes to Millamant and, with Mrs. Fainalls encouragement, Millamant accepts. Mirabell leaves as Lady Wishfort arrives, and she lets it be known that she wants Millamant to marry her nephew, Sir Wilfull Witwoud, Lady Wishfort later gets a letter telling her about the Sir Rowland plot. Sir Rowland takes the letter and accuses Mirabell of trying to sabotage their wedding, Lady Wishfort agrees to let Sir Rowland bring a marriage contract that night
33.
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
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The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, a West End theatre, is a Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane, the building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could reasonably have claimed to be Londons leading theatre. For most of time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres. The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, the proprietors hired a number of prominent actors who performed at the theatre on a regular basis, including Nell Gwyn. In 1672 the theatre caught fire and Killigrew built a theatre on the same plot, renamed the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under the leaderships of Colley Cibber, David Garrick and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in 1791, under Sheridans management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794. This new Drury Lane survived for 15 years before burning down in 1809, the building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been the residency of a number of known actors including, Edmund Kean, comedian Dan Leno. From the Second World War, the theatre has primarily hosted long runs of musicals and my Fair Lady, 42nd Street and Miss Saigon, the theatres longest-running show. The theatre is owned by the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, soon after, Charles issued Letters Patent to two parties licensing the formation of new acting companies. One of these went to Thomas Killigrew, whose company became known as the Kings Company, the new playhouse, architect unknown, opened on 7 May 1663 and was known from the placement of the entrance as the Theatre Royal in Bridges Street. It went by names as well, including the Kings Playhouse. The building was a wooden structure,112 feet long and 59 feet wide. Set well back from the streets, the theatre was accessed by narrow passages between surrounding buildings. The King himself frequently attended the productions, as did Samuel Pepys. The day after the Theatre Royal opened, Pepys attended a performance of Francis Beaumont, performances usually began at 3 pm to take advantage of the daylight, the main floor for the audience, the pit, had no roof in order to let in the light
34.
Pantomime
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Pantomime, is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, generally during the Christmas and New Year season and, to a lesser extent. It is a form of theatre, in which the audience is expected to sing along with certain parts of the music. Pantomime has a theatrical history in Western culture dating back to classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century commedia dellarte tradition of Italy, as well as other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century masques, an important part of the pantomime, until the late 19th century, was the harlequinade. Outside Britain the word pantomime is used to mean miming. The Roman pantomime drew upon the Greek tragedy and other Greek genres from its inception, although the art was instituted in Rome, the English word came to be applied to the performance itself. Music was supplied by flute and the pulse of an iron-shod shoe, performances might be in a private household, with minimal personnel, or else lavish theatrical productions involving a large orchestra and chorus and sometimes an ancillary actor. The dancer danced all the roles, relying on masks, stock poses and gestures, Pantomime differed from mime by its more artistic nature and relative lack of farce and coarse humour, though these were not absent from some productions. Precursors of pantomime also included the masque, which grew in pomp, the development of English pantomime was also strongly influenced by the continental commedia dellarte, a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy in the Early Modern Period. Each scenario used some of the stock characters. These included the innamorati, the vecchi such as Pantalone, and zanni such as Arlecchino, Colombina, Scaramouche, Italian masque performances in the 17th century sometimes included the Harlequin character. In the 17th century, adaptations of the characters became familiar in English entertainments. From these, the standard English harlequinade developed, depicting the eloping lovers Harlequin and Columbine, pursued by the girls father Pantaloon and his comic servants Clown, in English versions, by the 18th century, Harlequin became the central figure and romantic lead. The basic plot of the harlequinade remained essentially the same for more than 150 years, tavern Bilkers, by John Weaver, the dancing master at Drury Lane, is cited as the first pantomime produced on the English stage. The same year he produced a pantomime on the subject of Perseus, after this, pantomime was regular feature at Drury Lane. In 1717 at Lincolns Inn, actor and manager John Rich introduced Harlequin into the theatres pantomimes under the name of Lun and he gained great popularity for his pantomimes, especially beginning with his 1724 production of The Necromancer, or, History of Dr. Faustus. These early pantomimes were silent, or dumb show, performances consisting of only dancing, spoken drama was only allowed in London only in the two patent theatres until Parliament changed this restriction in 1843
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Harlequin
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Harlequin is the best-known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dellarte. The Harlequin is characterized by his chequered costume and he later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. As the Harlequinade portion of English dramatic genre pantomime developed, Harlequin was routinely paired with the character Clown, as developed by Joseph Grimaldi around 1800, Clown became the mischievous and brutish foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who became more of a romantic character. The most influential such pair in Victorian England were the Payne Brothers, although the origins of the Harlequin are obscure there are several theories for how the character came to be. These demons were led by a masked, club-wielding giant and they were known as familia herlequin and this medieval French version of the Germanic Wild Hunt, Mesnée dHellequin, has been connected to the English figure of Herla cyning. Hellequin was depicted as an emissary of the devil, roaming the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell. The physical appearance of Hellequin offers an explanation for the colours of Harlequins red-and-black mask. The names origin could also be traced to a knight from the 9th century, Hellequin of Boulogne, cantos XXI and XXII from Dantes Inferno there is a devil by the name of Alichino. The re-interpretation of the stock character as a zanni character of the commedia dellarte took place in the 16th century in France. Zan Ganassa, whose troupe is first mentioned in Mantua in the late 1560s, is one of the earliest known actors suggested to have performed the part, although there is little hard evidence to support. Ganassa performed in France in 1571, and if he did play the part there, he left the open for another actor to take up the role. The motley costume is sometimes attributed to Martinelli, who wore a costume of colourful patches. Martinellis Harlequin also had a black leather half-mask, a moustache and he was very successful, even playing at court and becoming a favourite of Henry IV of France, to whom he addressed insolent monologues. 1630 in Bologna as well as Turin and Mantua, the Italians were expelled from France in 1697 for satirizing King Louis XIVs second wife, Madame de Maintenon, but returned in 1716, when Tommaso Antonio Vicentini became famous in the part. The rhombus shape of the patches arose by adaptation to the Paris fashion of the 17th century by Biancolelli, the primary aspect of Arlecchino was his physical agility. He was very nimble and performed the sort of acrobatics the audience expected to see, the character would never perform a simple action when the addition of a cartwheel, somersault, or flip would spice up the movement. By contrast with the first zanni Harlequin takes little or no part in the development of the plot and he has the more arduous task of maintaining the even rhythm of the comedy as a whole. Arlecchino is sometimes referred to as putting on a show of stupidity in a attempt to create chaos within the play
36.
Ariodante
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Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, each act contains opportunities for dance, originally composed for dancer Marie Sallé and her company. The opera was first performed in the Covent Garden Theatre, London, on 8 January 1735, Ariodante opened Handels first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, the opera received 11 performances during its premiere season at Covent Garden. Like Handels other works in the opera genre, Ariodante, despite its initial success. An edition of the score was published in the early 1960s, in the 1970s, the work began to be revived, and has come to be considered one of Handels finest operas. On March 29,1971 the Handel Society of New York performed the American premiere of the work in a version with mezzo-soprano Sophia Steffan in the title role. Charles Cudworth has discussed the influence of French dance music in the opera, winton Dean has noted that act 2 of the opera, in its original version, is the only act in a Handel opera which ends with accompanied recitative. The German-born Handel had brought Italian opera to London stages for the first time in 1711 with his opera Rinaldo, an enormous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success, Handel moved to another theatre, Covent Garden, and engaged different singers. Scene, Medieval Scotland Precis, Ginevra, the daughter of the King of Scotland is in love with and she rejects the amorous advances of Duke Polinesso, who cruelly tricks Ariodante and Ginevras father into believing that Ginevra has been unfaithful. Ariodante attempts suicide and Ginevra is condemned to death, but after a challenge to a duel by Ariodantes brother, the dying Polinesso admits his plot and the lovers are reunited. A room in the palace Princess Ginevra, in front of her mirror, is adorning herself to make herself beautiful for her beloved. Polinesso, Duke of Albany, bursts into the room and, thinking that having the kings daughter as his sweetheart would advance his prospects, Ginevra indignantly rejects him and leaves. The royal gardens Ariodante sings of how all nature speaks to him of love, Ginevra joins him and they pledge their love. The King joins the lovers, gives them his blessing, alone, Ariodante swears to be faithful to Ginevra. Polinesso hatches his plot - he tells Dalinda that if she will dress as Ginevra that evening and invite him into her apartments, Lurcanio, Ariodantes brother, then appears to Dalinda and declares his love for her but she has totally lost her heart to Polinesso. A delightful valley Ariodante and Ginevra enjoy the beauties of nature and they are joined by shepherds and shepherdesses who dance to entertain them
37.
Alcina
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Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of Lisola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariostos Orlando furioso, an epic poem. The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance, these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé, Alcina was composed for Handels first season at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. It premiered on 16 April 1735, like the composers other works in the opera seria genre, Alcina fell into obscurity, after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928. The Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang the role in a production by Franco Zeffirelli in which she made her debut at La Fenice in February 1960 and she performed in the same production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1962. It was given as part of the Ledlanet Nights festival in Scotland in 1969, a major production was the one directed by Robert Carsen and originally staged for the Opéra de Paris in 1999 and repeated at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Both stagings featured Renée Fleming in the title role, the opera was given a concert performance on 10 October 2014 at the Barbican Centre in London. Joyce DiDonato sang the role under Harry Bicket with The English Concert. Alice Coote, Christine Rice and Anna Christy sang other significant roles, the group toured to the European continent with performances in Pamplona, Madrid, Vienna, and Paris and then to Carnegie Hall in New York on 26 October. The background of the opera comes from the poem Orlando Furioso, the heroic knight Ruggiero is destined to a short but glorious life, and a benevolent magician is always whisking him away from the arms of his fiancée, Bradamante. Bradamante is not the type to put up with the constant disappearance of her lover, just before the opera begins she has rescued him from an enchanted castle, only to have her flying horse take a fancy to Ruggiero and fly off with him. Ruggiero and the land on an island in the middle of the ocean. As the hippogriff begins to eat the leaves of a myrtle bush, the bush reveals that it was once a living soul named Sir Astolfo, and the island belongs to the sister sorceresses Alcina and Morgana. The beautiful Alcina seduces every knight that lands on her isle, despite Astolfos warning, Ruggiero strides off to meet this sorceress – and falls under her spell. Bradamante, again searching for her lover, arrives on Alcinas island with Ruggieros former tutor, dressed in armor, Bradamante looks like a young man and goes by the name of her own brother, Ricciardo. She and Melisso possess a magic ring which enables the wearer to see through illusion, the first person they meet is the sorceress Morgana. Barely human and with no understanding of love, she immediately abandons her own lover Oronte for the handsome Ricciardo. Morgana conveys the visitors to Alcinas court, where Bradamante is dismayed to discover that Ruggiero is besotted with Alcina, also at Alcinas court is a boy, Oberto, who is looking for his father, Astolfo, who was last seen heading toward this island
38.
Atalanta (opera)
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Atalanta is a pastoral opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel composed in 1736. It is based upon the female athlete, Atalanta, the libretto being derived from the book La Caccia in Etolia by Belisario Valeriani. The identity of the librettist is not known, Handel composed it for the London celebrations of the marriage in 1736 of Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King George II, to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. The first performance took place on 12 May 1736 in the Covent Garden Theatre, an arioso from the opera, Care selve, is often heard in recital and on recordings. The German-born Handel had brought Italian opera to London stages for the first time in 1711 with his opera Rinaldo, an enormous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success, Handels spring season of 1736 was shorter than usual, probably because of these difficulties, but when the wedding of the Prince of Wales was announced he prepared an opera in celebration. Atalanta was a more light-hearted and celebratory work than many of his opera seria. Atalanta was not ready for performance by the day of the wedding,27 April 1736. The Prince of Wales, a sponsor of the rival Opera of the Nobility company, and his new bride did not attend the first performance. The celebrations for the marriage at the end of the piece with an onstage fireworks display created a sensation. Poet Thomas Gray wrote to Horace Walpole, loosely based on the mythological story of Atalanta, the opera is set in legendary times of ancient Greece. King Meleagro of Aetolia has disguised himself as a shepherd, taking the pseudonym Tirsi and he is very much in love with the huntress Amarilli, whom he does not realise is the Princess Atalanta. He meets up with Aminta, a shepherd, who is desperately in love with the shepherdess Irene. He declares he is ready to die for his love but will always be faithful to her, nicandro, Irenes father and Meleagros friend, tells Meleagro that Irene really loves Aminta too but she wants to be sure that he will be true to her. Princess Atalanta of Arcadia now comes on to the scene and she too has taken another name, Amarilli, and has retreated to the country disguised as a huntress. Everyone prepares to go hunting, but Atalanta will not permit Meleagro to remain by her side during the hunt, although she is really in love with him. When a wild boar comes running out of the woods, Aminta tries to throw himself into its path, so distraught is he by Irenes seeming rejection, Atalanta kills the boar and rejoices in her triumph. Everyone is celebrating Atalantas triumph in killing the boar
39.
Messiah (Handel)
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It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known, Handels reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste, although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form, there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennenss text is a reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, in Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends with the Hallelujah chorus. In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christs glorification in heaven, Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a larger scale, with giant orchestras. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by Mozart, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handels original intentions, although big Messiah productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928, the composer George Frideric Handel, born in Halle, Germany in 1685, took up permanent residence in London in 1712, and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. Within a large and varied output, Handel was a vigorous champion of Italian opera. He subsequently wrote and presented more than 40 such operas in Londons theatres, by the early 1730s public taste for Italian opera was beginning to fade. The popular success of John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepuschs The Beggars Opera had heralded a spate of English-language ballad-operas that mocked the pretensions of Italian opera, with box-office receipts falling, Handels productions were increasingly reliant on private subsidies from the nobility. Such funding became harder to obtain after the launch in 1730 of the Opera of the Nobility, Handel overcame this challenge, but he spent large sums of his own money in doing so. Although prospects for Italian opera were declining, Handel remained committed to the genre, in Rome in 1707–08 he had written two Italian oratorios at a time when opera performances in the city were temporarily forbidden under papal decree. His first venture into English oratorio had been Esther, which was written, in 1732 Handel brought a revised and expanded version of Esther to the Kings Theatre, Haymarket, where members of the royal family attended a glittering premiere on 6 May. Its success encouraged Handel to write two more oratorios, All three oratorios were performed to large and appreciative audiences at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in mid-1733. Undergraduates reportedly sold their furniture to raise the money for the five-shilling tickets, in 1735 Handel received the text for a new oratorio named Saul from its librettist Charles Jennens, a wealthy landowner with musical and literary interests. Because Handels main creative concern was still with opera, he did not write the music for Saul until 1738, the work, after opening at the Kings Theatre in January 1739 to a warm reception, was quickly followed by the less successful oratorio Israel in Egypt
40.
Lent
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Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving and this event is observed in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic Churches. Some Anabaptist and evangelical churches also observe the Lenten season, in Lent, many Christians commit to fasting, as well as giving up certain luxuries in order to replicate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s journey into the desert for 40 days. Many Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional or praying through a Lenten calendar, the Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christs carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Throughout Christendom, some adherents mark the season with the abstention from the consumption of meat. The English word Lent is a form of the Old English word lenten, meaning spring season. A dated term in German, lenz, is also related, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the shorter form seems to be a derivative of *laŋgo- long. And may possibly have reference to the lengthening of the days as characterizing the season of spring. The origin of the -en element is clear, it may simply be a suffix, or lencten may originally have been a compound of *laŋgo- long. In languages spoken where Christianity was earlier established, such as Greek and Latin, in modern, Greek the term is Σαρακοστή, derived from the earlier Τεσσαρακοστή, meaning fortieth. In other languages, the name used refers to the activity associated with the season, thus it is called fasting period in Czech, German, and Norwegian, and it is called great fast in Polish and Russian. The terms used in Filipino are kuwaresma and Mahál na Araw, various Christian denominations calculate the 40 days of Lent differently. The way they observe Lent also differs, in the Roman Rite, the definition of Lent varies according to different documents. Lent ends on either Holy Thursday or Good Friday, though some sources try to reconcile this with the phrase forty days by excluding Sundays and extending Lent through Holy Saturday no official documents support this interpretation. The day for beginning the Lenten fast is the following Monday, the special Ash Wednesday fast is transferred to the first Friday of the Ambrosian Lent. The period of Lent observed in the Eastern Catholic Churches corresponds to that in churches of Eastern Christianity that have similar traditions. In the Byzantine Rite, i. e. the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent is the most important fasting season in the church year, Great Lent is broken only after the Paschal Divine Liturgy. The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains the traditional Churchs teaching on fasting, the rules for lenten fasting are the monastic rules
41.
Henry Holland (architect)
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Henry Holland was an architect to the English nobility. He was born in Fulham, London, where his father, also Henry and his younger brother was Richard Holland, who later changed his surname to Bateman-Robson and became an MP. Although Henry would learn a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction, Brown and Holland formed a partnership in 1771 and Henry Holland married Browns daughter Bridget on 11 February 1773 at St Georges, Hanover Square. In 1772 Sir John Soane joined Hollands practice in order to further his education, Holland paid a visit to Paris in 1787 which is thought to have been in connection with his design of the interiors at Carlton House. From this moment on his interior work owed less to the Adam style, Holland was a founder member in 1791 of the Architects Club, which included Thomas Hardwick as a signtory. In the 1790s he translated into English A. M, cointereauxs Traite sur la construction des Manufactures, et des Maisons de Champagne. He had got out of bed shortly before and inquired what the hour was, being told he said is was too early to rise and got into bed again. He immediately fell into a fit, I was sent for, and a minute after I came to his bedside he breathed his last. He was buried at All Saints Church, Fulham, in a simple tomb, Bridget Holland his wife lived for another 17 years and was the main beneficiary of her husbands will. Of his sons, the elder Henry Jr remained a bachelor, the younger son, Colonel Lancelot, married Charlotte Mary Peters and they had fifteen children. Of Hollands five daughters, two married two brothers, Bridget to Daniel Craufurd and Mary Frances Holland to Major-General Robert Craufurd, commander of the Light Division during the Peninsular War, Bridget later remarried to Sir Robert Wilmot of Chaddesden. The remaining daughters, Harriet, Charlotte and Caroline never married, Holland began his practice by designing Claremont House for Robert Clive, with his future father-in-law in 1771 and their partnership lasted until Browns death twelve years later. Claremont is of nine by five bays, of brick with stone dressings. The main feature on the front is the tetrastyle Corinthian pedimented portico. This leads to the hall with red scagliola columns, these are arranged in an oval with the rectangular room. The drawing room has a plaster ceiling and marble fireplace with two caryatids. In 1771 he took a lease from Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan on his Chelsea estate and began the Hans Town development on 89 acres of open field and marsh. There he laid out parts of Knightsbridge and Chelsea, including Sloane Street and Sloane Square and these developments quickly became some of the most fashionable areas in greater London
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Joseph Grimaldi
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Joseph Grimaldi was an English actor, comedian and dancer, who became the most popular English entertainer of the Regency era. Grimaldi originated catchphrases such as Here we are again, which continue to feature in modern pantomimes. Born in London to a father, Grimaldi began to perform as a child. After a brief schooling, he appeared in various low-budget productions and he took leading parts in Valentine and Orson and The Talisman, or, Harlequin Made Happy, the latter of which brought him wider recognition. Towards the end of the 1790s, Grimaldi starred in a version of Robinson Crusoe. Many productions followed, but his career at Drury Lane was becoming turbulent, in his new association with the Covent Garden theatre, he appeared at the end of the same year in Harlequin or Mother Goose, which included perhaps his best known portrayal of Clown. Grimaldis residencies at Covent Garden and Sadlers Wells ran simultaneously, and he became known as Londons leading Clown and comic entertainer and his popularity in London led to a demand for him to appear in provincial theatres throughout England, where he commanded large fees. Grimaldis association with Sadlers Wells came to an end in 1820, after numerous injuries over the years from his energetic clowning, his health was also declining rapidly, and he retired in 1823. He appeared occasionally on stage for a few years thereafter, in his last years, Grimaldi lived in relative obscurity and became a depressed, impoverished alcoholic. He outlived both his wife and his son, Joseph Samuel, dying at home in Islington in 1837. Grimaldi was born in Clare Market, London, into a family of dancers and his great-grandfather, John Baptist Grimaldi, was a dentist by trade and an amateur performer, who in the 1730s moved from Italy to England. There he performed the role of Pantaloon opposite John Richs Harlequin, John Baptists son, Grimaldis paternal grandfather, Giovanni Battista Grimaldi, began performing at an early age and spent much of his career in Italy and France. According to Grimaldis biographer Andrew McConnell Stott, Giovanni was held in the Paris Bastille as the result of a scandalous performance. After his release, Giovanni moved to London in 1742, where John Baptist introduced him to John Rich, Giovanni then defrauded Rich and fled to the continent, Grimaldis father, Joseph Giuseppe Grimaldi, an actor and dancer, also made his way to London in around 1760. His first London appearance was at the Kings Theatre and he was later engaged by David Garrick to play Pantaloon in pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, earning high praise, and eventually became the ballet master there. Grimaldis mother, Rebecca Brooker, was born in Holborn in 1764 and she was apprenticed to Giuseppe Grimaldi in 1773 as a dancer and public speaker, and she became his mistress shortly afterwards, even though she was under 14 and he was about 60. Grimaldis father was a philanderer who had at least ten children with three different women. In 1778, he divided his time between two London addresses occupied by his mistresses, Brooker and Anne Perry, both women gave birth that year, Perry to a daughter named Henrietta and Brooker to Joseph
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Harlequinade
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Harlequinade is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts. It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th centuries and it was originally a slapstick adaptation or variant of the Commedia dellarte, which originated in Italy and reached its apogee there in the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally a mime act with music and stylised dance, the harlequinade later employed some dialogue, early in its development, it achieved great popularity as the comic closing part of a longer evening of entertainment, following a more serious presentation with operatic and balletic elements. An often elaborate magical transformation scene, presided over by a fairy, connected the unrelated stories, changing the first part of the pantomime, and its characters, into the harlequinade. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the became the larger part of the entertainment. During the 16th century, Commedia dellarte spread from Italy throughout Europe, in English versions, harlequinades differed in two important respects from the Commedia original. First, instead of being a rogue, Harlequin became the central figure, secondly, the characters did not speak, this was because of the large number of French performers who played in London, following the suppression of unlicensed theatres in Paris. Although this constraint was only temporary, English harlequinades remained primarily visual, by the early years of the 18th century, Italian night scenes presented versions of Commedia traditions in familiar London settings. From these, the standard English harlequinade developed, depicting the eloping lovers Harlequin and Columbine, pursued by the girls father, Pantaloon. The basic plot remained essentially the same for more than 150 years, in 1716 John Weaver, the dancing master at Drury Lane, presented The Loves of Mars and Venus – a new Entertainment in Dancing after the manner of the Antient Pantomimes. At Lincolns Inn, John Rich presented and performed as Harlequin in similar productions, armed with a magic sword or bat, Richs Harlequin treated his weapon as a wand, striking the scenery to sustain the illusion of changing the setting from one locale to another. Objects, too, were transformed by Harlequins magic bat, Richs productions were a hit, and other producers, like David Garrick began producing their own pantomimes. For the rest of the century this pattern persisted in London theatres, when producers ran short of plots from Greek or Roman mythology they turned to British folk stories, popular literature, and, by 1800, nursery tales. But whatever the story shown in the first part of the entertainment, at the end of the first part, stage illusions were employed in a spectacular transformation scene, initiated by a fairy, turning the pantomime characters into Harlequin, Columbine and their fellows. In the early 19th century, the comic performer Joseph Grimaldi turned the role of Clown from a rustic booby into the star of metropolitan pantomime. Two developments in 1800, both involving Grimaldi, greatly changed the characters, For the pantomime Peter Wilkins, or Harlequin in the Flying World. Clown traded in his tatty servants costume for a flamboyant, colourful one, in Harlequin Amulet, or, The Magick of Mona, later the same year, Harlequin was modified, becoming an increasingly stylised romantic character leaving the mischief and chaos to Grimaldis Clown. Clown now appeared in a range of roles, from the rival suitor to household cook or nurse, in the 19th century, theatrical presentations typically ran for four hours or more, with the pantomime and harlequinade concluding the evening after a long drama
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Robert Smirke (architect)
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Sir Robert Smirke RA was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works he designed major public buildings including the main block. He was a pioneer of the use of concrete foundations, Smirke was born in London on 1 October 1780, the second son of the portrait painter Robert Smirke, he was one of twelve children. He attended Aspley School, Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire, where he studied Latin, Greek, French and drawing, and was made head boy at the age of 15. In May 1796 he began his study of architecture as a pupil of John Soane and he wrote to his father, He was on Monday morning in one of his amiable Tempers. Everything was slovenly that I was doing, after leaving Soane he depended on George Dance the Younger and a surveyor called Thomas Bush for his architectural training. In 1801, accompanied by his elder brother Richard he embarked on a Grand Tour which would last until 1805 and his itinerary can be followed by the series of letters he wrote, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Potsdam, Prague, Dresden, Vienna. He visited Italy, including, Florence, Venice, Padua, Genoa, Vicenza, Rome, Naples, and Sicily, then went on to Greece, seeing Corinth, Athens, Delphi, Thebes and Olympia. From Athens Smirke wrote to his father, How can I by description give you any idea of the great pleasure I enjoyed in the sight of these ancient buildings of Athens, how strongly were exemplified in them the grandeur and effect of simplicity in architecture. The Temple of Thesus. cannot but arrest the attention of everyone from its appropriate, strikes one in the same way with its grandeur and majesty. The impression made upon my mind, all that I could do in Athens was to make some views of them. hoping that they will serve as a memorandum to me of what I think should always be a model. He drew most of the ancient buildings in Morea, in 1805 Smirke became a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Architects Club. His first official appointment came in 1807 when he was architect to the Royal Mint. He only ever exhibited five works at the Academy, the last in 1810, and these drawings of a more recent work point out the glaring impropriety of this defect in a manner if possible still more forcible and more subversive of true taste. In 1819 he was surveyor of the Inner Temple. In 1819 he married Laura Freston, daughter of The Reverend Anthony Freston, the only child of the marriage was a daughter Laura. In 1820 he was surveyor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was knighted in 1832, and received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1853, Smirke lived at 81 Charlotte Street, London
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Macbeth
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Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I and it was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is his shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland, consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness, the events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, the play opens amidst thunder and lightning, and the Three Witches decide that their next meeting shall be with Macbeth. Macbeth, the Kings kinsman, is praised for his bravery, in the following scene, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the weather and their victory. As they wander onto a heath, the Three Witches enter, though Banquo challenges them first, they address Macbeth, hailing him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and that he shall be King hereafter. Macbeth appears to be stunned to silence, when Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches respond paradoxically, saying that he will be less than Macbeth, yet happier, less successful, yet more. He will father a line of kings though he himself will not be one, while the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title, Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is fulfilled, and Macbeth, previously skeptical. King Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth and Banquo, and declares that he spend the night at Macbeths castle at Inverness. Macbeth sends a message ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husbands uncertainty and wishes him to murder Duncan in order to obtain kingship. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husbands objections by challenging his manhood and he and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncans two chamberlains drunk so that they will black out, the next morning they will blame the chamberlains for the murder. They will be defenseless as they remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and he is so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to take charge
Covent Garden
