The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is referred to as "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732, it is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Called the Theatre Royal, it served as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there; the current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856. The façade and auditorium date from 1858, but every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s; the main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery.

The proscenium is 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building; the foundation of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden lies in the letters patent awarded by Charles II to Sir William Davenant in 1662, allowing Davenant to operate one of only two patent theatre companies in London. The letters patent remained in the possession of the patentees' heirs until the 19th century. In 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Duke's Company at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay; the success of this venture provided him with the capital to build the Theatre Royal at the site of an ancient convent garden, part of, developed by Inigo Jones in the 1630s with a piazza and church. In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, a market which survived in that location until 1974. At its opening on 7 December 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreve's The Way of the World.

During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense presenting the same plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, until 1939. In 1734, Covent Garden presented Pygmalion. Marie Sallé danced in diaphanous robes. George Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1719, but his first season of opera, at Covent Garden, was not presented until 1734, his first opera was Il pastor fido followed by Ariodante, the première of Alcina, Atalanta the following year. There was a royal performance of Messiah in 1743, a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances.

From 1735 until his death in 1759 he gave regular seasons there, many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden or had their first London performances there. He bequeathed his organ to John Rich, it was placed in a prominent position on the stage, but was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre on 20 September 1808. In 1792 the architect Henry Holland rebuilt the auditorium, within the existing shell of the building but deeper and wider than the old auditorium, thus increasing capacity. Rebuilding began in December 1808, the second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden opened on 18 September 1809 with a performance of Macbeth followed by a musical entertainment called The Quaker; the actor-manager John Philip Kemble, raised seat prices to help recoup the cost of rebuilding and the cost of an increased ground rent introduced by the landowner, the Duke of Bedford, but the move was so unpopular that audiences disrupted performances by beating sticks, hissing and dancing.

The Old Price Riots lasted over two months, the management was forced to accede to the audience's demands. During this time, entertainments were varied. Kemble engaged a variety of acts, including the child performer Master Betty. Many famous actors of the day appeared at the theatre, including the tragediennes Sarah Siddons and Eliza O'Neill, the Shakespearean actors William Charles Macready, Edmund Kean and his son Charles. On 25 March 1833 Edmund Kean collapsed on stage while playing Othello, died two months later. In 1806, the pantomime clown Joseph Grimaldi had performed his greatest success in Harlequin and Mother Goose. Grimaldi was an innovator: his performance as Joey introduced the clown to the world, building on the existing role of Harlequin derived from the Commedia dell'arte, his father had been ballet-master at Drury Lane, his physical comedy, his ability to invent visual tricks and buffoonery, his ability to poke fun at the audience were extraordinary. Early pantomimes were performed as mimes accompanied by music, but as Music hall became popular, Grimaldi introduced the pantomime dame to the theatre and was responsible for the tradition of

Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists was a political party in the Russian Empire, a radical wing expelled from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1906. The Union united agrarian terrorists, the'Moscow Opposition' and other radical dissidents from the PSR in an independent party; the Maximalists split off from the PSR at its Second Congress in Imatra in 1906. Maximalists played a role in both the Revolution of 1905 and the Revolution of 1917. Many former SR Maximalists joined the Russian Communist Party. Maximalists were so called because they demanded the full implementation of the'maximum programme' in the expected revolution: full socialisation of the land and all other means of production; the orthodox Socialist-Revolutionaries wanted to start with land reform but defer socialisation of other means of production. The Maximalists rejected the PSR's version of a'two-stage' revolution, a theory associated with V. M. Chernov. According to Chernov, the coming revolution in Russia would not be purely'bourgeois-democratic' as the Social-Democrats claimed, but would include social and economic as well as political reforms.

It would be a'popular-democratic' revolution, would transition into a full-blown'labour-socialist' revolution on. The Maximalists rejected this as Social-Democratic'attentism' and argued that the coming Russian revolution would not be able to stop half-way; the SR Maximalists had a much more favourable view of terror and expropriation. Before the Azef scandal of 1908, the PSR had endorsed'political terror', i.e. attacks on state officials and members of the ruling royal family. Many future Maximalists had been involved in such attacks, as well as in'expropriations'; such methods had always been controversial in the PSR and were discontinued after Yevno Azef, head of the PSR's'Combat Organization', was unmasked as a secret police agent. The Maximalists, argued for a continuation of'political terror' and endorsed'economic terror', meaning attacks on factory bosses, bankers, etc. or their property. Such actions against'private' individuals were unacceptable to the orthodox SRs, who denounced them as'lynch justice'.

Meanwhile, on the right, the Popular Socialists who defected from the PSR at the same time as the Maximalists, rejected any terrorism. The Maximalists were compared to anarchists, with whom they shared a fondness for'propaganda by the deed' and'direct action', but they themselves rejected this comparison, they were not opposed to the concept of the state as such and envisaged a popular revolutionary dictatorship. They rejected parliamentary democracy as a mere'lightning rod of popular discontent'; the Maximalists claimed that what was needed was a population imbued with a general'toilers' consciousness' and a small, energetic minority, forming a disciplined secret organisation that would seize power and establish a'Toilers' Republic'. In these respects, the Maximalists were heirs of Blanqui and Tkachev rather than Bakunin or Kropotkin; the Maximalists boycotted elections to the tsarist State Duma. Prominent Maximalists included E. Iu. Lozinsky (pseudonym'Ustinov', a former contributor to the PSR's journal Revolutionary Russia, M.

I. Sokolov, D. V. Vinogradov, V. Mazurin, M. M. Engelgard and others. Lozinsky was one of the Maximalists' leading theorists and editor of Volniy Disskussioniy Listok, the group's journal. Sokolov, a charismatic peasant organiser and experienced bank robber and extortionist, was the principal leader of the group and was accepted as a'born dictator' by his followers; the Maximalists received some support from established Socialist-Revolutionary leaders like Ekaterina Breshkovskaya and N. I. Rakitnikov, but the differences between Maximalism and orthodox Socialist-Revolutionary ideology were too great. In 1906–07, the'Union of Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists' was founded as an independent political party. In theory it was devoted to revolutionary agitation among workers and peasants for an immediate socialist revolution. In the aftermath of the failed Revolution of 1905–07, the Maximalists were decimated by arrests, but with difficulty they remained in existence as a distinct revolutionary current until 1917, when they participated in the soviets.

Always more given to'action' than to'theory', the Maximalists soon splintered. Some Maximalists, opposed the Bolsheviks and engaged in anti-Bolshevik actions during the Civil War. Hildermeier, M; the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party Before the First World War. New York, 2000. Ch. 4:'The Maximalist Heresy' is informative. Avrich, P. H. and K. Kebanova,'The Last Maximalist: An Interview with Klara Klebanova'. Russian Review Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 413–420. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1979

The Walls are an Irish rock band. They were formed in 1998 by two ex-members of The Stunning -- brothers Joe Wall, their debut album Hi-Lo was released in 2000 and included the singles "Bone Deep", "Something's Wrong" and "Some Kind of a Girl". U2 invited The Walls to support them at their second show in Slane Castle in 2002 after the band sent them copies of their debut. A number of songs from Hi-Lo featured in movies: Goldfish Memory, On the Edge, Dead Bodies. In 2002 they released the single "To the Bright and Shining Sun", it became a hit in Ireland. The subsequent album New Dawn Breaking included "To the Bright and Shining Sun" and three other singles: "Drowning Pool", "Passing Through" and "Black and Blue"; the 2013 movie Begin Again starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo features "Drowning Pool" over the opening credits. The first track on the album "Open Road" proved a favourite with Nic Harcourt on his KCRW show Morning Becomes Eclectic and he invited the band to play a session on the show in 2006.

They played SXSW in Texas, a few days beforehand. The following year the band travelled to Australia and played their first shows there, opening up for Crowded House on the latter's first reunion gigs; the Walls opened the shows in Sydney and Melbourne and performed their own gigs in both of those cities. The band's third album Stop the Lights was released in 2012; the first single "Bird in a Cage" became a firm favourite with Irish radio, in particular with Irish DJ Tony Fenton who championed them. The second single was the title track "Stop the Lights", an autobiographical story of a motorbike crash. A video was shot for the song in the brother's hometown, in the Dublin mountains. In March 2013 the band played their first shows in Russia and performed live on the Evening Urgant show, they returned the following year. In 2014 the band decided to take a break to concentrate on other projects, but they have not broken up. Drummer Rory Doyle recorded and toured with Irish band Bell X1 and Hozier with whom he appeared on the 2015 Grammy Awards.

Steve developed a new career as an actor, appearing in the History channel series Vikings and in Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy, amongst others, including Silent Witness and Crossing Lines. Steve Wall Joe Wall Carl Harms Rory Doyle Jon O'Connell Brothers Steve and Joe Wall returned to Ireland after a two-year failed label stint in London, their Camden housemate Carl Harms joined the band on keyboard duties. Drummer Rory Doyle joined soon afterwards, they recorded and released a string of singles. A remix of one of the album tracks, "Bone Deep", became a nationwide hit. Many of the songs have featured on a number of TV series and feature films such as Bachelors Walk, Dead Bodies, Goldfish Memory and On the Edge, their debut album Hi-Lo was released in May 2000. The Walls heard rumour of a second Slane Castle date for U2 in 2001, they sent four copies of their album to the band. Bono offered The Walls a support slot; that day the band played to their biggest crowd to date, around 80,000 people. "To the Bright and Shining Sun" was their next single.

That June they supported Red Hot Chili Peppers. They spent the next year gigging while building their own studio in Dublin. In February 2004, original member Carl Harms decided to leave the band to make his own record, they recruited bassist Jon O'Connell, who had two weeks to learn all the songs before a two-week tour of the new European Union accession states: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. "To the Bright and Shining Sun" featured on the EA Sports soundtrack for the UEFA Euro 2004 official licensed game. For the next album, the band went to Studio Black Box in France to record with producer and ex-The Frames guitarist David Odlum. Scheduled for a release date in September 2004, The Walls decided to hold their album until the new year. In October 2004, they released "Drowning Pool", a blues song, it took people by surprise and divided opinion. They supported Bob Dylan to a capacity crowd in Galway that summer and played a storming set that showed there were changes afoot in The Walls sound.

They christened the album New Dawn Breaking after the final track on the record. It went straight into the Irish charts at no. 5 in its first week of release in June 2005 and produced four hit singles: "To the Bright and Shining Sun", "Passing Through", "Drowning Pool" and "Black and Blue". The band kicked off 2007 with a gig in Dubai, they supported Crowded House on their Australian comeback tour before retreating into their studio to work on their third album. In 2010, the double A-side "Carrying The Fire"/"Phantom Power" was released. Following this, in March 2011, the "Bird In A Cage" EP was released, of which the title track was revealed to be on the band's forthcoming album Stop The Lights, to be released in 2012. Following this announcement, the band's new single "Stop The Lights" was released in January 2012. Stop the Lights, The Walls' third album, was released on 9 March 2012, going top 20 in Ireland; the singles "Bird in a Cage" and "Stop the Lights" received strong airplay. Part-funded by the band's fans, people involved in the making of it include Rob Kirwan.

For the artwork a five-meter high installation was designed and constructed by'Conor & David'. As well as playing some shows in Ireland, the band made their first trip to Russia in March 2013 playing Moscow and Kaluga, they played live on Moscow FM radio. They returned in