1.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
Paris
–
In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
–
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
–
The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
2.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
3.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
Seating capacity
–
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
Seating capacity
–
The
Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the largest seating capacity of any venue in the world.
Seating capacity
–
An aerial view of the
Melbourne Cricket Ground during the 1992
Cricket World Cup final packed with 90,000 people.
5.
Gabriel Davioud
–
Jean-Antoine-Gabriel Davioud was a French architect. Davioud was born in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Vaudoyer, after winning a Second Grand Prix de Rome, he was named inspector general for architectural works in Paris, and chief architect for its parks and public spaces. His mandate was interrupted when he was appointed capitaine du génie during the Franco-Prussian War, noted for his work in Paris, he built a single villa in Houlgate, La Brise, on the Route de Caumont. Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, Collier Macmillan,1982, structurae entry Marcel Miocque, Huguette Vernochet, Alain Bertaud, Lise Dassonville-Agron
Gabriel Davioud
–
The
Fontaine Saint-Michel in
Paris, designed by Davioud, 1855-60.
Gabriel Davioud
–
Fontaine Saint-Michel in Paris
6.
Theatre
–
The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence, the specific place of the performance is also named by the word theatre as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι. Modern theatre, broadly defined, includes performances of plays and musical theatre, there are connections between theatre and the art forms of ballet, opera and various other forms. The city-state of Athens is where western theatre originated, participation in the city-states many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member in particular—was an important part of citizenship. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture, Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play, the origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle, the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10, the stage consisted of a dancing floor, dressing room and scene-building area. Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics, the actors wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, no tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institution alised in competitions held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus. As contestants in the City Dionysias competition playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays, the performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE, official records begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics, Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the surviving plays of Aristophanes. New Comedy is known primarily from the papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyrs themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal companions, often engaging in drunken revelry
Theatre
–
Sarah Bernhardt as
Hamlet, in 1899
Theatre
–
A master (right) and his slave (left) in a
Greek phlyax play, circa 350/340 BCE
Theatre
–
Mosaic depicting masked actors in a play: two women consult a "witch"
Theatre
–
Performer playing
Sugriva in the
Koodiyattam form of
Sanskrit theatre.
7.
Opera house
–
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
Opera house
–
Teatro di San Carlo in
Naples, the world’s oldest working theatre.
Opera house
–
Opera-Theatre of
Metz, built by
benefactor Duke de Belle-Isle during the 18th century, it is the oldest opera house working in France
Opera house
–
The
Grand Theatre, Warsaw, ca. 1890
Opera house
–
The
Vienna Court Opera, ca. 1898
8.
1st arrondissement of Paris
–
The 1st arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. Situated principally on the bank of the River Seine, it also includes the west end of the Île de la Cité. It is the least populated of the arrondissements and one of the smallest by area, a significant part of which is occupied by the Louvre Museum. Much of the remainder of the arrondissement is dedicated to business, the 1st arrondissement is very small, with a land area of only 1,83 km2. The area now occupied by the first arrondissement attained its peak population in the preceding the re-organization of Paris in 1860. In 1999, the population was 16,888, while the arrondissement hosted 63,056 jobs, making it one of the most active for business after the 2nd, 8th, and 9th. ¹The peak of population actually occurred before 1861, but the arrondissement was created in 1860, each of the 20 Paris arrondissements is divided into four quarters. The table below lists the four quarters of the 1st arrondissement, at one time Air Inters head office was located in the first arrondissement. When Minerve, an airline, existed, its office was in the first arrondissement. In terms of state-operated schools, the first arrondissement has two schools, two primary schools, one école polyvalente, one high school, and one sixth form college. The state-operated nursery schools are École Maternelle Auxerrois and École Maternelle Sourdiere, the state-operated primary schools are École Élémentaire Arbre Sec and École Élémentaire DArgenteuil. The arrondissement has one école polyvalente, École Polyvalente Cambon, collège Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is the sole state-operated high school in the arrondissement. Lycée Professionnel Commercial Pierre Lescot is the sole state-operated sixth form college in the first arrondissement
1st arrondissement of Paris
–
The
Louvre and
Tuileries, seen from the north
9.
Baron Haussmann
–
Critics forced his resignation for extravagance, but his vision of the city still dominates Central Paris. Haussmann was born in Paris on 27 March 1809, at 55 rue du Faubourg-du-Roule, in the neighbourhood called Beaujon, in a house which he later demolished during his renovation of the city. He was the grandson of Nicolas Haussmann, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly and of the National Convention, an administrator of the Department of Seine-et-Oise, and he began his schooling at the collège Henri-IV and at the lycée Condorcet in Paris, and then began to study law. At the same time he studied music as a student at the Paris conservatory of music and he was married on 17 October 1838 in Bordeaux to Octavie de Laharpe. They had two daughters, Henriette, who in 1860 married the banker Camille Dollfus, and Valentine, who in 1865 married Vicomte Maurice Pernéty, Valentine and Pernéty divorced in 1891, and she married Georges Renouard. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, had become the first elected President in France in 1848, at the end of December 1851 he staged a coup détat, and in 1852 declared himself Emperor of the French, under the title Napoleon III. A plebiscite in November 1852 overwhelmingly approved Napoleons taking the throne and he began searching for a new prefect of the Seine to carry out his Paris reconstruction program. The Emperors minister of the interior, Victor de Persigny, interviewed the prefects of Rouen, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, in his memoirs, he described his interview with Haussmann, It was Monsieur Haussmann who impressed me the most. It was a thing, but it was less his talents and his remarkable intelligence that appealed to me. I had in front of me one of the most extraordinary men of our time, big, strong, vigorous, energetic and this audacious man wasnt afraid to show who he was. He told me all of his accomplishments during his career, leaving out nothing, he could have talked for six hours without a break, since it was his favourite subject. Whereas a gentleman of the most elevated spirit, cleverness, with the most straight and noble character, would inevitably fail, full of audacity and skill, capable of opposing expedients with better expedients, traps with more clever traps, would certainly succeed. I told him about the Paris works and offered to put him in charge, Persigny sent him to Napoleon III with the recommendation that he was exactly the man the Emperor needed to carry out his renewal of Paris. Napoleon made him prefect of the Seine on 22 June 1853, Haussmann held this post until 1870. Napoleon III installed a huge map of Paris in his office and he and Haussmann met almost every day to discuss the projects and overcome the enormous obstacles and opposition they faced as they built the new Paris. The population of Paris had doubled since 1815, with no increase in its area, for the nearly two decades of Napoleon IIIs reign, and for a decade afterwards, most of Paris was an enormous construction site. These two works increased the supply of Paris from 87,000 to 400,000 cubic metres of water a day. He completely rebuilt the Paris sewers, and installed miles of pipes to distribute gas for thousands of new streetlights along the Paris streets
Baron Haussmann
–
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, circa 1860
Baron Haussmann
–
The
Avenue de l'Opera, one of the new boulevards created by Napoleon III and Haussmann. The new buildings on the boulevards were required to be all of the same height and same basic facade design, and all faced with cream coloured stone, giving the city center its distinctive harmony.
Baron Haussmann
–
Baron Haussmann and Napoleon III make official the annexation of eleven communes around Paris to the City. The annexation increased the size of the city from twelve to the present twenty arrondissements. Painting by
Adolphe Yvon
Baron Haussmann
–
The
Paris Opera was the centerpiece of Napoleon III's new Paris. The architect,
Charles Garnier, described the style simply as "Napoleon the Third."
10.
Seine
–
The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine,30 kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and it is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea. There are 37 bridges within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside the city, examples in Paris include the Pont Alexandre III and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. Outside the city, examples include the Pont de Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, the Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about 30 kilometres northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864, a number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, on the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the dea Sequana Seine goddess and other ex voti found at the place are now exhibited in the Dijon archeological museum. The Seine is dredged and oceangoing vessels can dock at Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea, commercial riverboats can use the river from Bar-sur-Seine,560 kilometres to its mouth. At Paris, there are 37 bridges, the river is only 24 metres above sea level 446 kilometres from its mouth, making it slow flowing and thus easily navigable. The Seine Maritime,105.7 kilometres from the English Channel at Le Havre to Rouen, is the portion of the Seine used by ocean-going craft. The tidal section of the Seine Maritime is followed by a section with four large multiple locks until the mouth of the Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Multiple locks at Bougival / Chatou and at Suresnes lift the vessels to the level of the river in Paris, upstream from Paris seven locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès, where the Loing mouth is situated. Through an eighth lock the river Yonne is reached at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, from the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue upstream to Nogent-sur-Seine. From there on, the river is only by small craft. All navigation ends abruptly at Marcilly-sur-Seine, where the ancient Canal de la Haute-Seine used to allow vessels to continue all the way to Troyes and this canal has been abandoned for many years. The average depth of the Seine today at Paris is about 9.5 metres. Until locks were installed to raise the level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower within the city most of the time, today the depth is tightly controlled and the entire width of the river between the built-up banks on either side is normally filled with water. The average flow of the river is low, only a few cubic metres per second
Seine
–
The Seine in Paris
Seine
–
Seine source
Seine
–
The
Pont de Normandie over the Seine, between
Le Havre and
Honfleur, on the
Normandy coast
Seine
–
The Seine and Eiffel Tower
11.
Sarah Bernhardt
–
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress. She was referred to as the most famous actress the world has ever known, Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, at the beginning of the Belle Epoque period, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a dramatic actress and tragedienne. In her later career she starred in some of the earliest films ever produced, Sarah Bernhardt was born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt on October 23,1844. She was the daughter of a Dutch-Jewish courtesan, or upper-class prostitute, Judith Bernard. Four different addresses in Paris are claimed as her birthplace,125 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré,5 rue de lEcole-de-Medicine,22 rue de la Michodière and 265 rue Saint-Honoré. The father, whoever he was, left a sum of one hundred francs for her future dowry when she came of age. Sarah lived for months with the nurse and her husband in the tiny apartment of the concierge. While there, the child showed the first signs of tuberculosis. Sarah was discovered on the street by her aunt Rosine, who was passing by, when Sarahs mother finally returned to Paris, Sarah was taken to her apartment at 265 rue Saint-Honoré, where she lived, attended by servants, rarely ever seeing her mother. At the age of eight, Sarah could neither read or writer and her mother sent her away to a school for young ladies in Auteuil run by a Madame Fressard, where for the first time she was with other children her own age. The other children made fun of her appearance and curly hair. During the two years she attended the school, her mother came to see her only twice and she completely forgot all of her lines and fled the stage in tears. At the age of ten, by obtaining the sponsorship of the Duc de Morny, her mother sent Sarah to Grandchamp, at the convent, she was soon on the stage again, performing the part of the Archangel Raphael in the story of Tobias and the Angel. She received her first communion as a Roman Catholic in 1856, however, she never forgot her Jewish heritage. When asked years later by a reporter if she were a Christian, she replied, No, Im a Roman Catholic, Im waiting until Christians become better. At the age of fifteen, her mother withdrew her from the school and her mother summoned a family council, which also included the Duc de Morny, one of her friends. Morny proposed that Sarah should become an actress, an idea which horrified the young girl, Morny arranged for her to attend her first theater performance at the Comedie Française in a party which included her mother, the Duc de Morny, and his friend Alexandre Dumas
Sarah Bernhardt
–
Bernhardt around 1878
Sarah Bernhardt
–
Sarah Bernhardt, in 1864
Sarah Bernhardt
–
Sarah Bernhardt by
Napoleon Sarony
Sarah Bernhardt
–
Bernhardt photographed by
Félix Nadar 1865
12.
Palladian
–
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. That which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladios original concepts, Palladios work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladios interpretation of classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century, Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century, but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and the imposition of austerity which followed. In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not only in England but also, the style continued to be popular in Europe throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was frequently employed in the design of public and municipal buildings. However, as a style it has continued to be popular and to evolve, its pediments, symmetry. Buildings entirely designed by Palladio are all in Venice and the Veneto, with an especially rich grouping of palazzi in Vicenza and they include villas, and churches such as Redentore in Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting, if on a hill, such as Villa Capra, facades were frequently designed to be of equal value so that occupants could have fine views in all directions. Also, in cases, porticos were built on all sides so that occupants could fully appreciate the countryside while being protected from the sun. Palladio sometimes used a loggia as an alternative to the portico and this can most simply be described as a recessed portico, or an internal single storey room, with pierced walls that are open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia would be placed at floor level over the top of a loggia below. Loggias were sometimes given significance in a facade by being surmounted by a pediment, Villa Godi has as its focal point a loggia rather than a portico, plus loggias terminating each end of the main building. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades, the temple influence, often in a cruciform design, later became a trademark of his work. Palladian villas are built with three floors, a rusticated basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms. The proportions of each room within the villa were calculated on simple mathematical ratios like 3,4 and 4,5, earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade, however, Palladios designs related to the whole, usually square, villa. Palladio deeply considered the purpose of his villas as both farmhouses and palatial weekend retreats for wealthy merchant owners. These symmetrical temple-like houses often have symmetrical, but low, wings sweeping away from them to accommodate horses, farm animals. The wings, sometimes detached and connected to the villa by colonnades, were designed not only to be functional but also to complement, the Palladian, Serlian, or Venetian window features largely in Palladios work and is almost a trademark of his early career
Palladian
–
A villa with a superimposed portico, from Book IV of Palladio's
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, in an English translation published in London, 1736.
Palladian
–
Plan for Palladio's
Villa Rotonda. Features of the house were to become incorporated in numerous Palladian style houses throughout Europe over the following centuries.
Palladian
–
"True Palladianism" in
Villa Godi by Palladio from the
Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. The extending wings are agricultural buildings and are not part of the villa. In the 18th century they became an important part of Palladianism—see photograph of
Woburn Abbey below.
Palladian
–
Claydon House (begun 1757), here the Palladian window in the central bay is surrounded by a unifying blind arch. This house was intended to be one of two flanking wings to a vast Palladian house; the scheme was never completed.
13.
Sphinx
–
A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion and it is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such stories, as they are killed. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus, unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a revival during the Renaissance. Sphinxes are generally associated with structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The oldest known sphinx was found near Gobekli Tepe at another site, Nevali Çori, or possibly 120 miles to the east at Kortik Tepe, Turkey, and was dated to 9,500 BCE. The largest and most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza, situated on the Giza Plateau adjacent to the Great Pyramids of Giza on the west bank of the Nile River, the sphinx is located southeast of the pyramids. Although the date of its construction is uncertain, the head of the Great Sphinx now is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra, what names their builders gave to these statues is not known. At the Great Sphinx site, a 1400 BCE inscription on a stele belonging to the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose IV lists the names of three aspects of the sun deity of that period, Khepera–Rê–Atum. The theme was expanded to form great avenues of guardian sphinxes lining the approaches to tombs, nine hundred with ram heads, representing Amon, were built in Thebes, where his cult was strongest. Perhaps the first sphinx in Egypt was one depicting Queen Hetepheres II and she was one of the longest-lived members of the royal family of that dynasty. The Great Sphinx has become an emblem of Egypt, frequently appearing on its stamps, coins, from the Bronze Age, the Hellenes had trade and cultural contacts with Egypt. Before the time that Alexander the Great occupied Egypt, the Greek name, the historians and geographers of Greece wrote extensively about Egyptian culture. Herodotus called the ram-headed sphinxes Criosphinxes and called the hawk-headed ones Hieracosphinxes, the word sphinx comes from the Greek Σφίγξ, apparently from the verb σφίγγω, meaning to squeeze, to tighten up. This name may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Orthrus and either Echidna or the Chimera, or perhaps even Ceto, according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are figures from the earliest of Greek myths
Sphinx
–
The
Great Sphinx of Giza, with the
Pyramid of Khufu in the background
Sphinx
–
Perhaps the first Egyptian sphinx, Queen
Hetepheres II from the fourth dynasty (Cairo Museum).
Sphinx
–
Views, Objects: Egypt. Gizeh [selected images]. View 01: Great Sphinx Before Clearance. Giza. 4th Dynasty., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives
Sphinx
–
Back of Sphinx, Giza Egypt
14.
Napoleon
–
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
Napoleon
–
The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by
Jacques-Louis David, 1812
Napoleon
–
Imperial coat of arms
Napoleon
–
Napoleon's father
Carlo Buonaparte was
Corsica 's representative to the court of
Louis XVI of France.
Napoleon
–
Napoleon Bonaparte, aged 23, Lieutenant-Colonel of a battalion of Corsican
Republican volunteers
15.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
16.
Jules Verne
–
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne is generally considered a literary author in France and most of Europe. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979 and he has sometimes been called the Father of Science Fiction, a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. His parents were Pierre Verne, an originally from Provins, and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe. In 1829, the Verne family moved some hundred meters away to No.2 Quai Jean-Bart, three sisters, Anna, Mathilde, and Marie, would follow. In 1834, at the age of six, Verne was sent to boarding school at 5 Place du Bouffay in Nantes, the teacher, Mme Sambin, was the widow of a naval captain who had disappeared some 30 years before. Mme Sambin often told the students that her husband was a shipwrecked castaway, the theme of the Robinsonade would stay with Verne throughout his life and appear in many of his novels, including The Mysterious Island, Second Fatherland, and The School for Robinsons. In 1836, Verne went on to École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school suiting the pious religious tastes of his father, Verne quickly distinguished himself in mémoire, geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. In the same year,1836, Pierre Verne bought a house at 29 Rue des Réformés in the village of Chantenay on the Loire River. In his brief memoir Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, Verne recalled a deep fascination with the river and with the many merchant vessels navigating it. He also took vacations at Brains, in the house of his uncle Prudent Allotte, a retired shipowner, who had gone around the world and served as mayor of Brains from 1828 to 1837. Verne took joy in playing interminable rounds of the Game of the Goose with his uncle, and both the game and his uncles name would be memorialized in two late novels. It is now known that the legend is a tale invented by Vernes first biographer, his niece Marguerite Allotte de la Füye. In 1840, the Vernes moved again to an apartment at No.6 Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau. In the same year Verne entered another school, the Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien. His unfinished novel Un prêtre en 1839, written in his teens, from 1844 to 1846, Verne and his brother were enrolled in the Lycée Royal in Nantes. After finishing classes in rhetoric and philosophy, he took the baccalauréat at Rennes, however, his father took it for granted that Verne, being the firstborn son of the family, would not attempt to make money in literature but would instead inherit the family law practice. In 1847, Vernes father sent him to Paris, primarily to begin his studies in law school, and secondarily to distance him temporarily from Nantes
Jules Verne
–
Photograph by
Nadar c. 1878
Jules Verne
–
Nantes from Île Feydeau, around the time of Verne's birth
Jules Verne
–
The Lycée Royal in Nantes (now the Lycée Georges-Clemenceau), where Jules Verne studied
Jules Verne
–
Aristide Hignard
17.
Around the World in Eighty Days
–
Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club and it is one of Vernes most acclaimed works. The story starts in London on Tuesday,1 October,1872, Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living in solitude. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision, very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 °F instead of 86 °F. He accepts a wager for £20,000 from his club members to complete such a journey within this time period. Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time, while disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective, one Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Because Fogg answers the vague description Scotland Yard was given of the robber, since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix boards the steamer conveying the travellers to Bombay. Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout without revealing his purpose, Fogg promises the steamer engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. They dock two days ahead of schedule, after reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph article was wrong--the railroad actually ends at Kholby and starts again,50 miles further on, Fogg buys an elephant, hires a guide, and starts toward Allahabad. They come across a procession in which a young Indian woman, since the young woman is drugged with opium and hemp and is obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout takes the place of Aoudas deceased husband on the pyre on which she is to be burned. During the ceremony he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, the twelve hours gained earlier are lost, but Fogg shows no regret. The travellers hasten to catch the train at the railway station. At Calcutta, they board a steamer going to Hong Kong, Fix has Fogg and Passepartout arrested. They jump bail and Fix follows them to Hong Kong and he shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to again meet his travelling companion from the earlier voyage. In Hong Kong, it out that Aoudas distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved to Holland
Around the World in Eighty Days
–
Cover of the 1873 first edition
Around the World in Eighty Days
–
The book page containing the famous dénouement (page 312 in the Philadelphia - Porter & Coates, 1873 edition)
18.
Operetta
–
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. By this time, the part of the genre name had become misleading. With this new connotation, opéra comique had dominated the French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique, most researchers acknowledge that the credit for creating the operetta form should go to Hervé, a singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter. In 1842 he wrote the little opérette, LOurs et le pacha, based on the vaudeville show by Scribe. In 1848, Hervé made his first notable appearance on the Parisian stage, with Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança, hervés most famous works are the Gounod-parody Le Petit Faust and Mamzelle Nitouche. Jacques Offenbach further developed and popularized operetta, giving it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire, Offenbachs earliest one-act pieces included Les deux aveugles, Le violoneux and Ba-ta-clan, and his first full-length operetta success was Orphée aux enfers. Offenbachs tradition was carried on by Robert Planquette, André Messager. What characterizes Offenbachs operettas is both the way they portray life, and the extremely frivolous way this is done. The character was modeled after Offenbachs female star Hortense Schneider. Considering how Zolas Nana describes an Offenbach-style operetta performance in Paris, it is not surprising that the mostly male, upper-class audiences in other cities like Vienna and Berlin longed to see these shows in their home towns as well, which inspired worldwide performance of Offenbachs works. The highly erotic way Offenbachs operettas were originally played, with stars like Hortense Schneider created a reaction from certain parts of the general public. Operetta was considered an art form. Indeed, together with its grotesque qualities, frivolity is one of the elements of authentic operetta à la Offenbach. It was only later, when audiences widened and became more middle and lower class, the most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss II. His first operetta was Indigo und die vierzig Räuber and his third operetta, Die Fledermaus, became the most performed operetta in the world, and remains his most popular stage work. Its libretto was based on a written by Offenbachs librettists. In all, Strauss wrote 16 operettas and one opera, most with great success when first premiered, many of his lesser operettas are now largely forgotten, since his later librettists were less talented and he often composed independently of the plot. Strausss operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style, the Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds when his stage works were first performed
Operetta
–
The audience at the
Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, the birthplace of Offenbach's operettas (1860)
Operetta
–
Playbill for a revival of
Orphée aux enfers
Operetta
–
Johann Strauss II
Operetta
–
Paul Lincke, father of the Berlin operetta
19.
Gabriel Astruc
–
Born in Bordeaux, Astruc was the son of Élie Aristide Astruc, a rabbi, and began his career working for publisher Paul Ollendorff, and as a columnist from 1885 through 1895. As a regular at Montmartres prototypically bohemian Le Chat Noir cabaret, he befriended a young Erik Satie and wrote articles and theater pieces under the pen name Surtac. In 1897 he founded a publishing company with his father-in-law Wilhelm Enoch, by 1900 he had introduced the luxury magazine Musica. In this period he was the agent for Mata Hari. Astruc booked Hari into the Paris Olympia in August 1905, and would manage her appearances for the ten years. He also served as booking agent for Feodor Chaliapin, Arthur Rubinstein, and Wanda Landowska, but not Isadora Duncan, in 1913 Astruc tried to parlay his success by commissioning Auguste Perret to build the innovative Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the Avenue Montaige. This building is a landmark of early reinforced concrete. After a brilliant and scandalous first season, climaxed by the riot at the May 29 premiere of The Rite of Spring. He was also the target of attacks from Léon Daudet. After World War I, he worked in the field of radio and advertising and his papers reside at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dance Collection. This page translated from its equivalent on French Wikipedia accessed 9/22/2010
Gabriel Astruc
–
Gabriel Astruc
20.
Diaghilev
–
Sergei Diaghilev was born to a wealthy and cultured family in Selishchi, Russia, his father, Pavel Pavlovich, was a cavalry colonel, but the familys money came mainly from vodka distilleries. After the death of Sergeis mother, his father married Elena Valerianovna Panaeva, the family lived in Perm but had an apartment in Saint Petersburg and a country estate in Bikbarda. In 1890, Sergeis parents went bankrupt, having for a time lived beyond their means. After graduating in 1892 he abandoned his dreams of composition, during his years at University, Diaghilevs cousin Dmitry Filosofov introduced him to a circle of art-loving friends who called themselves The Nevsky Pickwickians. They included Alexandre Benois, Walter Nouvel, Konstantin Somov, although not instantly received into the group, Diaghilev was aided by Benois in developing his knowledge of Russian and Western art. In two years, he had voraciously absorbed this new obsession and came to be respected as one of the most learned of the group, with financial backing from Savva Mamontov and Princess Maria Tenisheva, the group founded the journal Mir iskusstva. In 1899, Diaghilev became special assistant to Prince Sergei Mikhaylovich Volkonsky, in 1900–1901 Volkonsky entrusted Diaghilev with the staging of Léo Delibes ballet Sylvia, a favorite of Benois. The two collaborators concocted an elaborate plan that startled the established personnel of the Imperial Theatres. At the same time, some of Diaghilevs researchers hinted at his homosexuality as the cause for this conflict. However, his homosexuality had been known long before he was invited into the Imperial Theatres. In the following year he took a major exhibition of Russian art to the Petit Palais in Paris and it was the beginning of a long involvement with France. In 1907 he presented five concerts of Russian music in Paris and this led to an invitation to return the following year with ballet as well as opera, and thus to the launching of his famous Ballets Russes. The company included the best young Russian dancers, among them Anna Pavlova, Adolph Bolm, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina and Vera Karalli, and their first night on 19 May 1909 was a sensation. During these years Diaghilevs stagings included several compositions by the late Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, such as the operas The Maid of Pskov, May Night and his choreographer Michel Fokine often adapted the music for ballet. Diaghilev also worked with dancer and ballet master Léonide Massine, the artistic director for the Ballets Russes was Léon Bakst. Together they developed a complicated form of ballet with show-elements intended to appeal to the general public. The exotic appeal of the Ballets Russes had an effect on Fauvist painters, coco Chanel is said to have stated that Diaghilev invented Russia for foreigners. Perhaps Diaghilevs most notable composer-collaborator, however, was Igor Stravinsky, Diaghilev heard Stravinskys early orchestral works Fireworks and Scherzo fantastique, and was impressed enough to ask Stravinsky to arrange some pieces by Chopin for the Ballets Russes
Diaghilev
–
Sergei Diaghilev
Diaghilev
–
Portrait of Sergei Diaghilev by
Valentin Serov (1904)
Diaghilev
–
Portrait of Serge Diaghilev with His Nanny, by
Léon Bakst (1906).
Diaghilev
–
Diaghilev's gravestone,
Isola di San Michele,
Orthodox section,
Venice, Italy (April, 2011)
21.
Ballets Russes
–
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company based in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society, after its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there. It also introduced European and American audiences to tales, music, the influence of the Ballets Russes lasts to the present day. The French plural form of the name, “Ballets Russes, ” specifically refers to the company founded by Sergei Diaghilev and active during his lifetime. ”To add to the confusion, some publicity material spelt the name in the singular. The names “Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo” and “The Original Ballet Russe” refer to companies that formed after Diaghilevs death in 1929, Sergei Diaghilev, the companys impresario, was chiefly responsible for its success. He was uniquely prepared for the role, born into a wealthy Russian family of vodka distillers, he was accustomed to moving in the upper-class circles that provided the companys patrons and benefactors. In 1890 he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg, from childhood, Diaghilev had been passionately interested in music. His ambition to become a composer was dashed when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov told him he had no talent, in 1898, several members of The Pickwickians founded the journal Mir iskusstva under the editorship of Diaghilev. As early as 1902, Mir iskusstva included reviews of concerts, operas, the latter were chiefly written by Alexandre Benois, who exerted considerable influence on Diaghilevs thinking. Mir iskusstva also sponsored exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg and its enormous success created a Parisian fascination with all things Russian. Diaghilev organized a 1907 season of Russian music at the Paris Opéra, in 1908, Diaghilev returned to the Paris Opéra with six performances of Mussorgskys opera Boris Godunov, starring basso Fyodor Chaliapin. The performances were a sensation, though the costs of producing grand opera were crippling, in 1909, Diaghilev presented his first Paris Saison Russe devoted exclusively to ballet. Most of this company were resident performers at the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg. The first seasons featured a variety of works chiefly choreographed by Michel Fokine, including Le Pavillon dArmide, the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, Les Sylphides. The season also included Le Festin, a set by several choreographers to music by several Russian composers. The Ballets Russes was noted for the standard of its dancers, most of whom had been classically trained at the great Imperial schools in Moscow. Their high technical standards contributed a great deal to the success in Paris. The Ballets Russes was even more remarkable for raising the status of the dancer, largely ignored by choreographers
Ballets Russes
–
Ballet Russes by
August Macke, 1912
Ballets Russes
–
Tamara Grigorieva, Irina Zarova, Alberto Alonso (as the Dwarf in front), Georges Skibine and Nicolas Ivangin in Pavane, Original Ballet Russe Australian tour
Ballets Russes
–
Dimitri Rostoff as Malatesta in Francesca da Rimini, Original Ballet Russe, 1940
Ballets Russes
–
Russian stamp:
Sergei Diaghilev
22.
Igor Stravinsky
–
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, Stravinskys compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. His Russian phase which continued with such as Renard, The Soldiers Tale. The works from this tended to make use of traditional musical forms, drawing on earlier styles. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures, Stravinsky was born on 17 June 1882 in Oranienbaum, a suburb of Saint Petersburg, the Russian imperial capital, and was brought up in Saint Petersburg. It is believed that Stravinsky’s ancestry is traceable back to the 17th and 18th centuries, to the bearers of the Soulima, ivan Sulima, was a famous Ukrainian hetman 1628–1635. Stravinskys family branch most likely came from Stravinskas, polonized Lithuanian land owners and it is still unclear to when exactly the Soulima part of the surname was dropped. Stravinsky recalled his schooldays as being lonely, later saying that I never came across anyone who had any attraction for me. Stravinsky began piano lessons as a boy, studying music theory. In 1890, he saw a performance of Tchaikovskys ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre, despite his enthusiasm for music, his parents expected him to study law. Stravinsky enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg in 1901, Stravinskys father died of cancer that year, by which time his son had already begun spending more time on his musical studies than on law. Thereafter, he concentrated on studying music, in 1905, he began to take twice-weekly private lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he came to regard as a second father. These lessons continued until Rimsky-Korsakovs death in 1908, in 1905 Stravinsky was betrothed to his cousin Katherine Gavrylivna Nosenko, whom he had known since early childhood. Diaghilev was sufficiently impressed by Fireworks to commission Stravinsky to carry out some orchestrations and then to compose a ballet score. The early period of Igor Stravinsky’s work would be incomplete without a research of his life while in Ukraine. From approximately 1890 till 1914 the composer was frequently visiting Ustyluh, town in Volyn Oblast and he spent most of his summers there and that’s where he met his cousin, Katherine Nosenko who he married in 1906. In 1907 Stravinsky designed and built his own house in Ustyluh where his own family stayed often during summer times until 1914 and his new Ukrainian home he called “My heavenly place”. In this house Igor Stravinsky worked on his seventeen early compositions, among which were orchestral fantasy Fireworks, ballets Firebird, Petrushka, currently, after its renovation this house is the only composers house-museum opened to the public
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
–
Igor Stravinsky, 1903
Igor Stravinsky
–
A costume sketch by
Léon Bakst for
The Firebird
Igor Stravinsky
–
Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka in 1910–11
23.
Erik Satie
–
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie, who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a figure in the early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, Surrealism, repetitive music, an eccentric, Satie was introduced as a gymnopedist in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Satie was the son of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie, Erik was born at Honfleur in Normandy, his home there is open to the public. When Satie was four years old, his family moved to Paris, his father having been offered a job in the capital. After his mothers death in 1872, he was sent, together with his brother, Conrad. There he received his first music lessons from a local organist, in 1878, when he was 12 years old, his grandmother died, and the two brothers were reunited in Paris with their father, who remarried shortly afterwards. From the early 1880s onwards, Satie started publishing salon compositions by his step-mother and himself, in 1879, Satie entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was soon labelled untalented by his teachers. Georges Mathias, his professor of piano at the Conservatoire, described his pupils piano technique in flatly negative terms, insignificant and laborious, Émile Decombes called him the laziest student in the Conservatoire. Years later, Satie related that Mathias, with great insistence, however, Saties military career did not last very long, within a few months he was discharged after deliberately infecting himself with bronchitis. Satie moved from his fathers residence to lodgings in Montmartre in 1887, by this time he had started what was to be an enduring friendship with the romantic poet Patrice Contamine, and had his first compositions published by his father. He soon integrated with the clientele of the Le Chat Noir Café-cabaret. Publication of compositions in the same vein followed, in the same period he befriended Claude Debussy. He moved to a room, still in Montmartre, in 1890. Le Fils des étoiles, and the Sonneries de la Rose+Croix, Satie gave performances at the Salon de la Rose + Croix, organized by Péladan. While the comrades from both the Chat Noir and Miguel Utrillos Auberge du Clou sympathised, a brochure was produced for the project. In 1893, Satie met the young Maurice Ravel for the first time, one of Saties own compositions of that period, Vexations, was to remain undisclosed until after his death. By the end of the year he had founded the Église Métropolitaine dArt de Jésus Conducteur
Erik Satie
–
Erik Satie
Erik Satie
–
Satie house and museum in
Honfleur, Normandy
Erik Satie
–
A caricature of Eric Satie by
Santiago Rusiñol, 1891
Erik Satie
–
Satie, Moulin de la Galette (The bohemian),
Ramon Casas i Carbó, (1891)
24.
Jean Cocteau
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Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles, and the films Blood of a Poet, Les Parents Terribles, Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus. Cocteau was born in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, a town near Paris, to Georges Cocteau and his wife, Eugénie Lecomte and his father was a lawyer and amateur painter who committed suicide when Cocteau was nine. From 1900–1904, Cocteau attended the Lycée Condorcet where he met and he published his first volume of poems, Aladdins Lamp, at nineteen. Cocteau soon became known in Bohemian artistic circles as The Frivolous Prince, edith Wharton described him as a man to whom every great line of poetry was a sunrise, every sunset the foundation of the Heavenly City. In his early twenties, Cocteau became associated with the writers Marcel Proust, André Gide, in 1912, he collaborated with Léon Bakst on Le Dieu bleu for the Ballets Russes, the principal dancers being Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky. During World War I Cocteau served in the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and this was the period in which he met the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, artists Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani, and numerous other writers and artists with whom he later collaborated. Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev persuaded Cocteau to write a scenario for a ballet and it was produced by Diaghilev, with sets by Picasso, the libretto by Apollinaire and the music by Erik Satie. The piece was expanded into a full opera, with music by Satie, Francis Poulenc. If it had not been for Apollinaire in uniform, wrote Cocteau, with his skull shaved, the scar on his temple and he denied being a Surrealist or being in any way attached to the movement. Cocteau wrote the libretto for Igor Stravinskys opera-oratorio Oedipus rex, which had its performance in the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris on 30 May 1927. An important exponent of avant-garde art, Cocteau had great influence on the work of others, in the early twenties, he and other members of Les six frequented a wildly popular bar named Le Boeuf sur le Toit, a name that Cocteau himself had a hand in picking. The popularity was due in no small measure to the presence of Cocteau, in 1918 he met the French poet Raymond Radiguet. They collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together, Cocteau also got Radiguet exempted from military service. Some contemporaries and later commentators thought there might have been a component to their friendship. Cocteau himself was aware of this perception, and worked earnestly to dispel the notion that their relationship was sexual in nature, there is disagreement over Cocteaus reaction to Radiguets sudden death in 1923, with some claiming that it left him stunned, despondent and prey to opium addiction. Opponents of that point out that he did not attend the funeral. Cocteau himself much later characterised his reaction as one of stupor and his opium addiction at the time, Cocteau said, was only coincidental, due to a chance meeting with Louis Laloy, the administrator of the Monte Carlo Opera
Jean Cocteau
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Jean Cocteau in 1923
Jean Cocteau
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Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Cocteau, 1916,
Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection, on long-term loan to the
Princeton University Art Museum
Jean Cocteau
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Portrait of Jean Cocteau by Federico de Madrazo de Ochoa, ca. 1910-1912
Jean Cocteau
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Marie Laurencin, Portrait de Jean Cocteau, 1921
25.
Parade (ballet)
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Parade is a ballet with music by Erik Satie and a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau. The ballet was composed 1916–1917 for Sergei Diaghilevs Ballets Russes, the idea of the ballet seems to have come from Jean Cocteau. He had heard Saties Trois morceaux en forme de poire in a concert, work on the production started in the middle of the First World War, with Jean Cocteau traveling back and forth to the war front in Belgium until shortly before the premiere. The most difficult part of the process, however, seems to have been to convince Misia Edwards in supporting the idea of having this ballet performed by the Ballets Russes. She was easily offended but was trusted completely by Sergei Diaghilev for advice on his productions, a first version of the music was dedicated to Misia and performed in 1916. The set and costume design was entrusted to the then cubist painter Pablo Picasso, in addition to the costume designs Pablo Picasso also designed a curtain which illustrated a group of performers at a fair consuming dinner before a performance. The Italian futurist artist Giacomo Balla aided Picasso in his creating the curtain, in February 1917 all the collaborators, excluding Satie, met in Rome to begin working of Parade scheduled to premiere in May. The English premiere of Parade, performed by Ballet Russes, was performed at Londons Empire Theatre in November 14,1919, the plot of Parade incorporated and was inspired by popular entertainments of the period, such as Parisian music-halls and American silent-films. Much of the used in Parades plot occurred outside of the formal Parisian theater. The plot reproduces various elements of life such as the music hall. Before Parade, the use of popular entertainment materials was considered unsuitable for the world of the ballet. The plot of Parade composed by Cocteau includes the failed attempt of a troupe of performers to attract members to view their show. Some of Picassos cubist costumes were in cardboard, allowing the dancers only a minimum of movement. The score contained several noise-making instruments, which had been added by Jean Cocteau, the ragtime contained in Parade would later be adapted for piano solo, and attained considerable success as a separate piano piece. The finale is a ragtime dance in which the whole cast a last desperate attempt to lure the audience in to see their show. The premiere of the resulted in a number of scandals. One faction of the audience booed, hissed, and was very unruly, nearly causing a riot before they were drowned out by enthusiastic applause, many of their objections were focused on Picassos Cubist design, which was met with cries of sales boche. According to the painter Gabriel Fournier, one of the most memorable scandals was an altercation between Cocteau, Satie, and music critic Jean Poueigh, who gave Parade an unfavorable review
Parade (ballet)
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Parade
Parade (ballet)
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Costume design by Pablo Picasso for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes performance of Parade at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris 18 May 1917
26.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Portrait of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by
Nikolai Kuznetsov
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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The Tchaikovsky family in 1848. Left to right: Pyotr, Alexandra Andreyevna (mother), Alexandra (sister), Zinaida, Nikolai, Ippolit, Ilya Petrovich (father)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Modern view of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence
27.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper
Gustav Mahler
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Jihlava (German: Iglau) where Mahler grew up
Gustav Mahler
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Mahler was influenced by
Richard Wagner during his student days, and later became a leading interpreter of Wagner's operas.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler's home in Leipzig, where he composed his Symphony No. 1
28.
Richard Strauss
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Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
Richard Strauss
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Richard Strauss, by
Max Liebermann, 1918
Richard Strauss
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Signature of Dr. Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
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Strauss age 22
Richard Strauss
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Strauss with his wife and son, 1910
29.
Orchestre de Paris
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The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, soon after its creation, Munch died in 1968, and Herbert von Karajan was hired as an interim music advisor from 1969 to 1971. Successive music directors include Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, christoph von Dohnányi served as artistic advisor from 1998 to 2000. During his tenure, Barenboim saw a need for a permanent chorus for the orchestra, Oldham remained with the Chorus till his retirement in 2002. From 2002 to 2011, Didier Bouture and Geoffroy Jourdain shared direction of the Chorus, christoph Eschenbach was music director from 2000 to 2010. He conducted recordings of music of Luciano Berio, Marc-André Dalbavie, in May 2007, Paavo Järvi was named the orchestras sixth music director, effective from the 2010–11 season. Järvi is scheduled to conclude his tenure with the Orchestre de Paris at the conclusion of his current contract, in June 2015, the orchestra announced the appointments of Daniel Harding as its 9th principal conductor, and of Thomas Hengelbrock as principal guest conductor, effective September 2016. In 1998, Crédit Lyonnais, which had control of the Salle Pleyel, the Salle Pleyel was closed in 2002, which left the orchestra without a resident hall. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Théâtre du Châtelet both presented the orchestra during the 2001–02 season, by the fall of 2002, the orchestra had secured the Théâtre Mogador, where it played its next four seasons. After renovations, the Salle Pleyel reopened in September 2006 and became more the Orchestre de Pariss home base. The orchestra took up residence at the new Philharmonie de Paris, near the Cité de la Musique in the Parc de la Villette, with its playing time of 17 minutes, the Orchestre de Paris single remains the longest recording ever in the Dutch Top 40
Orchestre de Paris
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Official logo
30.
Philharmonia Orchestra
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The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a music record producer for EMI. Since 1995, the orchestra has been based in the Royal Festival Hall, the Philharmonia also has residencies at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, the Corn Exchange, Bedford, and The Anvil, Basingstoke. Esa-Pekka Salonen has been the principal conductor and artistic advisor since 2008. Helen Sprott is the current managing director, The Philharmonia Orchestra performs more than 160 concerts a year and tours widely. The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, as Legge was a recording producer for EMI, it was believed that the orchestra was primarily formed for recording purposes, but that was not Legges intention. After the war, opera resumed at Covent Garden under a different management and his contacts in the musical world during the war enabled him to secure the services of a large number of talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces in 1945. At the Philharmonias first concert on 25 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert, but as he refused to be Legges employee and Legge refused to control of the orchestra. Herbert von Karajan was closely associated with the Philharmonia in its early years, at first, Legge was against appointing an official principal conductor, feeling that no one conductor should have more importance to the orchestra than Legge himself. But Karajan was principal conductor in all but name and he built the orchestra into one of the finest in the world and made numerous recordings, including all the Beethoven symphonies. In 1954, Karajan was elected director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Needing to find a new conductor for the orchestra, Legge turned to Otto Klemperer, klemperers name became closely linked with the orchestra during an Indian summer of celebrated recordings. In 1959, Klemperer was named director for life. On 10 March 1964, Legge announced that he was going to disband the Philharmonia Orchestra, at a recording session with Klemperer, a meeting was convened where those present unanimously agreed that they would not allow the orchestra to be disbanded. On 17 March 1964, the members of the orchestra elected their own governing body, the inaugural concert of the New Philharmonia under its own auspices took place on 27 October 1964. It was a performance of Beethovens Symphony No,9, conducted by Klemperer, who was now honorary president of the orchestra. From 1966 until 1972, the chairman of the orchestra was the principal flautist, the orchestra gave many more live performances after it became self-governing than it had under Legges management
Philharmonia Orchestra
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Official Philharmonia Orchestra logo
