Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as prolific a number of works as either. Mercadante was born illegitimate near Bari in Apulia. Mercadante studied flute and composition at the conservatory in Naples, organized concerts among his compatriots; the opera composer Gioachino Rossini said to the conservatory Director, Niccolo Zingarelli, "My compliments, Maestro – your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish". In 1817 he was made conductor of the college orchestra, composing a number of symphonies, concertos for various instruments – including six for flute about 1818–1819, whose autograph scores are in the Naples conservatory, where they were first performed with him as soloist; the encouragement of Rossini led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with his second such work, in 1820.
His next three operas are more or less forgotten, but an abridged recording of Maria Stuarda, Regina di Scozia was issued by Opera Rara in 2006. His next opera Elisa e Claudio was a huge success, had occasional revivals in the 20th century, most by Wexford Festival Opera in 1988, he worked for a time in Vienna, in Madrid, in Cádiz, in Lisbon, but re-established himself in Italy in 1831. He was invited by Rossini to Paris in 1836, where he composed I Briganti for four of the best-known singers of the time, Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache, all of whom worked with Bellini. While there, he had the opportunity to hear operas by Meyerbeer and Halévy, which imparted a strong influence on him the latter's La Juive; this influence took the form of greater stress on the dramatic side. When Mercadante returned to Italy after living in Spain and Portugal, Donizetti's music reigned supreme in Naples, an ascendancy which did not end until censorship problems with the latter's Poliuto caused a final break.
But Mercadante's style began to shift with the presentation of I Normanni a Parigi at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1832: "It was with this score that Mercadante entered on the process of development in his musical dramaturgy which, in some aspects presaged the arrival of Verdi, when he launched, from 1837 on, into master works of his artistic maturity: the so-called "reform operas". The beginnings of the so-called "reform movement", of which Mercadante was part, arose from the publication of a manifesto by Giuseppe Mazzini which he wrote in 1836, the Filosofia della musica. In the period after 1831 he composed some of his most important works; these included Il giuramento, premiered at La Scala in November 1837. One striking and innovative characteristic of this opera has been noted:..it marks the first successful attempt in an Italian opera premiered in Italy of depriving the prima donna, or some other star singer, of her until-then inalienable right of having the stage to herself at the end.
By doing this, Mercadante sounded. Early in following year, while composing Elena da Feltre, Mercadante wrote to Francesco Florimo, laying out his ideas about how opera should be structured, following the "revolution" begun in his previous opera: I have continued the revolution I began in Il giuramento: varied forms, cabalettas banished, crescendos out, vocal lines simplified, fewer repeats, more originality in the cadences, proper regard paid to the drama, orchestration rich but not so as to swamp the voices, no long solos in the ensembles, not much bass drum, a lot less brass band. Elena da Feltre followed, it has the overall coherence one looks for and finds in middle and late Verdi – a surprising anticipation, for Elena da Feltre dates from 1838, the year before Verdi's first opera These temporarily put him in the forefront of composers active in Italy, although he was soon passed by Giovanni Pacini with Saffo and Giuseppe Verdi with several operas Ernani. Some of Mercadante's works Orazi e Curiazi, were quite successful.
Many performances of his operas were given throughout the 19th century and it has been noted that some of them received far more than those of Verdi's early operas over the same period of time. Throughout his life he generated more instrumental works than most of his contemporary composers of operas due to his lifelong preoccupation with orchestration, from 1840, his position as the Director of the Naples conservatory for the last thirty years of his life. From 1863 he was totally blind and dictated all his compositions. In the decades after his death in Naples in 1870, his output was forgotten, but it has been revived and recorded since World War II, although it has yet to achieve anything like the present-day popularity of the most famous compositions by his younger contemporaries: see Donizetti's compositions and Bellini's compositions; the French soloist Jean-Pierre Rampal notably recorded several Mercadante concertos for flute and string orchestra*, including the grand and rom
Battista Dossi known as Battista de Luteri, was an Italian painter who belonged to the Ferrara School of Painting. He spent nearly his entire career in service of the Court of Ferrara, where he worked with his older brother Dosso Dossi, it is believed that Battista worked in the Rome studio of Raphael from 1517 to 1520. Battista’s students include Camillo Filippi. Bénézit, Emmanuel, ed. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Originally published 1911-1923. Paris, Librairie Gründ, 1976. Dizionario enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli incisori italiani dall'XI al XX secolo, Giulio Bolaffi, 1972-1976. Gibbons, Felton and Battista Dossi, Court Painters at Ferrara, Princeton, N. J. Princeton University Press, 1968. Groschner, Thomas Habersatter and Erika Mayr-Oehring, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Salzburg 2002, 64. Battista Dossi in ArtCyclopedia Works by Battista Dossi at Census of Ferrarese Paintings and Drawings Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills Ltd. known as BSRM, is a Bangladeshi steel manufacturing company based in Chittagong. It is the largest construction steel manufacturer company in Bangladesh. In 1952, five Indian businessman named Akberali Africawala, Alibhai Africawala, Taherali Africawala, Abdul Hussain Africawala, Rajabali Africawala, set up the first BSRM steel re-rolling mill of the East Bengal in Nasirabad, Chittagong, it started its journey with four manual rolling mills. In 1970 the manual rolling mills were replaced with the state-of-the-art Italian built rolling mill. In 1996, the company installed and commissioned their billet casting plant under the name "Meghna Engineering Works Limited". In 2008, the company built another rolling unit at Chittagong. On 18 January 2009, BSRM was listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd. and Chittagong Stock Exchange Ltd. In May 2019, Bangladesh National Board of Revenue alleged that the company has drawn over USD 13 million from the government falsely claiming locally sold steel products as export goods which violates the duty drawbacks facilities, only meant for material export.
Official website
Hadash, an acronym for HaHazit HaDemokratit LeShalom uLeShivion. The party was formed on 15 March 1977 when the Rakah and Non-Partisans parliamentary group changed its name to Hadash in preparation for the 1977 elections; the non-partisans included some members of the Black Panthers and other left-wing non-communist groups. Within the Hadash movement, Rakah has retained its independent status. In its first electoral test, Hadash won an increase of one on Rakah's previous four. However, in the next elections in 1981 the party was reduced to four seats, it maintained its four seats in the 1984 elections, gaining another MK when Mohammed Wattad defected from Mapam in 1988. The 1988 election resulted in another four-seat haul, though the party lost a seat when Charlie Biton broke away to establish Black Panthers as an independent faction on 25 December 1990; the 1992 elections saw. In the 1996 elections the party ran a joint list with Balad. Together they split during the Knesset term, with Hadash reduced to three seats.
The 1999 elections saw them maintain three seats, with Barakeh and Issam Makhoul replacing Ahmad Sa'd and Saleh Saleem. In the 2003 elections Hadash ran on this time with Ahmed Tibi's Ta'al; the list won three seats, but again split during the parliamentary session, leaving Hadash with two MKs, Barakeh and Makhoul. In the 2006 elections Hadash won three seats, with Hana Sweid and Dov Khenin entering the Knesset alongside Barakeh; the party won an additional seat in the 2009 elections, taken by Afu Agbaria. In January 2015, former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg joined Hadash. Hadash is a left party that supports workers' rights, it emphasizes Jewish–Arab cooperation, its leaders were among the first to support a two-state solution. Its voters are principally middle class and secular Arabs, many from the north and Christian communities, it draws 6,000–10,000 far-left Jewish voters during national elections. The party supports evacuation of all Israeli settlements, a complete withdrawal by Israel from all territories occupied as a result of the Six-Day War, the establishment of a Palestinian state in those territories.
It supports the right of return or compensation for Palestinian refugees. In addition to issues of peace and security, Hadash is known for being active on social and environmental issues. In keeping with socialist ideals, Hadash's environmental platform, led by Maki official Dov Khenin, calls for the nationalization of Israel's gas and oil reserves. Hadash defines itself as a non-Zionist party in keeping with Marxist opposition to nationalism, it calls for recognition of Palestinian Arabs as a national minority within Israel. Despite its Marxist–Leninist roots, Hadash has in recent times included elements of Arab nationalism in its platform. Hadash shifted to a more Arab nationalist appeal after running on a joint list with Ta'al in 2003. Avirama Golan of Haaretz wrote in 2007 that Hadash had "succumbed to the separatist-nationalist and populist stream... and chosen to turn its back on a social and civil agenda in favor of questions related to Palestinian nationalism...."In 2015, Hadash declared its support for international campaigns against companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The party's platform for the 2009 elections consisted of: Achieving a just and stable peace: Israeli/Palestinian and Israeli/Arab Protecting workers' rights and issues Developing social services: health, housing, welfare and sports Equality for the Arab population in Israel Eradicating ethnic discrimination in all fields. The charges related to his role in a protest against Israeli government policy, was considered controversial by those who were opposed to such protests. In December 2015, the Hadash party published a Facebook post condemning the assassination of Hezbollah militant Samir Kuntar and comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Meir Vilner chairman Tawfiq Ziad chairman Saleh Saleem chairman Tawfik Toubi, secretary-general Mohammad Barakeh, secretary-general, chairman Ayman Odeh, secretary-general, chairman Official website Hadash Knesset website Sharon Roffe-Ofir. "Hadash leader: Elections are between enlightened, conservative".
Rancho Los Medanos was a 8,859-acre Mexican land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose Antonio Mesa and Jose Miguel Garcia. The name "los medanos" is derived from the sand hills located along the San Joaquin River on its northern boundary. Rancho Los Medanos was located at the junction of the San Joaquin River and the Sacramento River, extending eastward along the south shore of Suisun Bay to Antioch; the rancho lands included present-day Pittsburg. The two league Rancho Los Medanos was granted in 1835 to Jose Miquel Garcia. Jose Antonio Mesa was the son of Corporal José Valerio Mesa who came to California with the Anza Expedition. Jose Antonio Mesa's son, Juan Prado Mesa, was the grantee of Rancho San Antonio. Mesa and Garcia sold the southern half of their rancho to Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson in 1849, the northern half to James Walsh, Michael Murray, Ellen Fallon in 1850. There was confusion about the orientation of the grant, in 1851 Stevenson arranged an exchange of deeds, whereby he got the west half of the rancho, Walsh and Fallon got the east half.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. A claim was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853, the grant was patented to Jonathan D. Stevenson et al. in 1872. A claim for Rancho Los Medanos filed in 1853 by James Enright, Michael Murphy, Ellen Fallon, was rejected. Colonel Jonathan Drake Stevenson was the commanding officer of the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, part of the American occupation army force that landed in California in 1847. Stevenson and others laid out a site for a town they called "New York of the Pacific", Rancho Los Medanos is sometimes known as the "New York Ranch"; the name of the settlement was changed to Pittsburg in 1911. Stevenson sold the rancho to the San Francisco banking firm of Louis Pioche, who in turn sold it in 1872 to L. L. Robinson. Lester Ludyah Robinson was a California pioneer railroad builder, mining operator and land speculator.
Robinson never married and at the urging of his sister Sophia Robinson Cutter, wrote a new will in 1891 in which he left the rancho to her. In 1900 the Bank of California, which held the mortgage on the ranch, foreclosed on the property. Charles Appleton Hooper purchased the ranch property in 1900. Ranchos of Contra Costa County, California
"The Croppy Boy" is an Irish ballad set in 1798 rising relating to the despair of a doomed young "croppy" or rebel. Versions of the ballad first appeared shortly after the rising sung by street pedlars and there are several broadside songs printed; these include the phrase "500 Guineas" or "one thousand pounds", are sung to the tune of the old Irish air Cailín Óg a Stór. They may be the basis for the ballad, Lady Franklin's Lament. A version by Carroll Malone first appeared in the Irish newspaper The Nation in 1845 and tells of a young man who stops in a church on his way to fight, he sees kneels for the penitential rite. The figure is a British soldier who sought refuge from rebels by hiding in the confessional. After the youth completes his confession, the soldier reveals himself and proceeds to arrest the youth and take him to prison and execution; the legend is the subject of Canadian artist Charlotte Schreiber's painting The Croppy Boy, now in the National Gallery of Canada. Irish History - the Nation Music in James Joyce's works