1.
Robert Lepage
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Robert Lepage, CC OQ is a French Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director, one of Canadas most honoured theatre artists. Lepage was raised in Quebec City, at age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair loss over his whole body. He also struggled with depression in his teens as he came to terms with being gay. Between 1975 and 1978, he studied theatre at Quebec Citys Conservatoire dArt Dramatique and he subsequently participated in workshops at Alain Knapps theatre school in Paris, France. After coming back to Quebec City, he wrote, directed and played in a few independent productions, with that company, he created Circulations, which was presented across Canada and won an award as best Canadian production during La Quinzaine Internationale de Théâtre de Québec. The following year, he created The Dragons Trilogy and immediately received international recognition, vinci, Polygraphe and Tectonic Plates followed and were also toured around the world. He was the director of the National Arts Centres Théâtre français in Ottawa from 1989 to 1993. His productions of Needles and Opium, Coriolanus, Macbeth, The Tempest, in 1994, Lepage founded Ex Machina, a multidisciplinary production company, for which he is artistic director. Lepage and Ex Machina have toured numerous productions internationally to critical and popular acclaim, most notably The Seven Streams of the River Ota, Lepage was invited in 1994 to direct August Strindbergs A Dream Play at Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. It premiered in the fall of 1994 and guest played in the spring of 1995 in Glasgow Scotland and it went to win numerous awards, including four trophies at le Gala des Masques, a Time Out Award and the prestigious Evening Standard Award. The Far Side of the Moon was adapted by Lepage—who plays both brothers—into a critically acclaimed 2003 film of the same name. He has also involved in music productions, being the stage director for the Secret World Tour by Peter Gabriel in 1993/1994. Finally, Cirque du Soleil asked him to create the permanent Las Vegas show named Kà at the MGM Grand in 2005. Lipsynch, his large-canvas work, premiered in its first version in Newcastle upon Tynes Northern Stage in February 2007 in its 5-hour version, it is now 9 hours long. He also staged Igor Stravinskys The Rakes Progress, which was presented in Brussels Opéra de la Monnaie in April 2007, recent projects include The Image Mill, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. For forty nights, residents and visitors could see the biggest outdoor architectural projection ever made in the world, more than an historic tableau, The Image Mill is a light-hearted and lively illustration in three dimensions of the citys past, present and future. The first presentation of this portrait of Quebec City took place at sundown on June 20,2008, in November 2008, Lepage directed a staged version of Hector Berlioz The Damnation of Faust at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On February 25,2009, Lepage premiered a new work entitled Eonnagata at Sadlers Wells Theatre, London and he has worked on this alongside the dancers Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant, fashion designer Alexander McQueen, lighting designer Michael Hulls and sound designer Jean-Sébastien Côté
2.
Documentary film
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A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. Documentary has been described as a practice, a cinematic tradition. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who identified the mode of documentary film and he wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema Une nouvelle source de lhistoire and La photographie animée. Both were published in 1898 in French and among the written works to consider the historical. Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect, the American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as a factual film which is dramatic. Others further state that a documentary stands out from the types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion. Documentary practice is the process of creating documentary projects. Documentary filmmaking can be used as a form of journalism, advocacy, early film was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. They were single-shot moments captured on film, a train entering a station and these short films were called actuality films, the term documentary was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length. Films showing many people were made for commercial reasons, the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States, in May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film few surigical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Bolesław Matuszewski and Clément Maurice and they started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations, Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. These and five other of Doyens films survive, all these short films have been preserved. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me, unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way. Travelogue films were popular in the early part of the 20th century
3.
Tribeca Film Festival
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The mission of the festival is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a filmmaking center. In 2006 and 2007, the Festival received over 8600 film submissions, the Festivals program line-up includes a variety of independent films including documentaries, narrative features and shorts, as well as a program of family-friendly films. The Festival also features panel discussions with personalities in the entertainment world, past artists of the Artists Awards program have included Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and Julian Schnabel. The festival now draws an estimated three million people—including often-elusive celebrities from the worlds of art, film, and music—and generates $600 million annually, the inaugural festival launched after 120 days of planning with the help of more than 1,300 volunteers. It was attended by more than 150,000 people and featured several up-and-coming filmmakers, the 2003 festival brought more than 300,000 people. It became one of the venues of the festival, in an effort to serve its mission of bringing independent film to the widest possible audience, in 2006, the Festival expanded its reach in New York City and internationally. In New York City, Tribeca hosted screenings throughout Manhattan as the Festivals 1, internationally, the Festival brought films to the Rome Film Fest. As part of the celebrations in Rome, Tribeca was awarded the first ever Steps and Stars award, presented on the Spanish Steps. A total of 169 feature films and 99 shorts were selected from 4,100 film submissions, the festival featured 90 world premieres, nine international premieres,31 North American premieres,6 U. S. premieres, and 28 New York City premieres. In 2009, Rosenthal, Hatkoff and De Niro were named number 14 on Barrons list of the worlds top 25 philanthropists for their role in regenerating TriBeCas economy after September 11, as of 2010, the festival is run as a business by Tribeca Enterprises. Andrew Essex has been the CEO of Tribeca Enterprises since January,2016, in 2011, L. A. Noire became the first video game to be recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival. com,02.23.2013
4.
High-definition video
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High-definition video is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for high-definition, generally any video image with more than 480 horizontal lines or 576 horizontal lines is considered high-definition. 480 scan lines is generally the even though the majority of systems greatly exceed that. Images of standard resolution captured at rates faster than normal, by a camera may be considered high-definition in some contexts. Some television series shot on video are made to look as if they have been shot on film. The first electronic scanning format,405 lines, was the first high definition television system, from 1939, Europe and the US tried 605 and 441 lines until, in 1941, the FCC mandated 525 for the US. In wartime France, René Barthélemy tested higher resolutions, up to 1,042, in late 1949, official French transmissions finally began with 819. In 1984, however, this standard was abandoned for 625-line color on the TF1 network, modern HD specifications date to the early 1980s, when Japanese engineers developed the HighVision 1, 125-line interlaced TV standard that ran at 60 frames per second. The Sony HDVS system was presented at a meeting of television engineers in Algiers, April 1981. HighVision video is still usable for HDTV video interchange, but there is almost no modern equipment available to perform this function, attempts at implementing HighVision as a 6 MHz broadcast channel were mostly unsuccessful. All attempts at using this format for terrestrial TV transmission were abandoned by the mid-1990s, Europe developed HD-MAC, a member of the MAC family of hybrid analogue/digital video standards, however, it never took off as a terrestrial video transmission format. HD-MAC was never designated for video interchange except by the European Broadcasting Union, in essence, the end of the 1980s was a death knell for most analog high definition technologies that had developed up to that time. In the end, however, the DVB standard of resolutions, the FCC officially adopted the ATSC transmission standard in 1996, with the first broadcasts on October 28,1998. In the early 2000s, it looked as if DVB would be the video standard far into the future, high definition video is defined threefold, by, The number of lines in the vertical display resolution. High-definition television resolution is 1,080 or 720 lines, in contrast, regular digital television is 480 lines or 576 lines. However, since HD is broadcast digitally, its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of DTV, additionally, current DVD quality is not high-definition, although the high-definition disc systems Blu-ray Disc and the HD DVD are. The scanning system, progressive scanning or interlaced scanning, progressive scanning redraws an image frame when refreshing each image, for example 720p/1080p. Interlaced scanning yields greater image resolution if subject is not moving, the number of frames or fields per second
5.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
6.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
7.
Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
8.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
9.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
10.
Das Rheingold
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Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, or in English, The Ring of the Nibelung. Das Rheingold premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, with August Kindermann in the role of Wotan, Heinrich Vogl as Loge, and Karl Fischer as Alberich. Wagner wanted this work to premiere as part of the entire cycle, the work was first performed as part of the complete cycle on 13 August 1876, in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Although Das Rheingold comes first in the sequence of Ring operas, so in August 1851, Wagner wrote in Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde, I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas. However, by October, he had decided that this required a prelude. To the sentence quoted above he added the words, which will be preceded by a great prelude, a letter Wagner wrote to Theodor Uhlig confirms that at this time the opera was intended to have three acts. Wagner continued to develop the text and storyline of the prelude in parallel with those of Die Walküre, the prose draft of Das Rheingold was completed between 21 March and 23 March 1852 and its verse draft between 15 September and 3 November. A fair copy of the text was finished by 15 December, during the early years of the 1850s Wagner produced some musical sketches for parts of the Ring and noted down various motifs that were to be used in the work. There also exist three sets of isolated musical sketches for Das Rheingold which were composed between 15 September 1852 and November 1853. The first of these was entered into the draft of the text, the second into Wagners copy of the 1853 printing of the text. All three were used by Wagner. Proper sequential development of the score started on 1 November 1853, by 14 January, Wagner had completed the first draft of the opera on between two and three staves. The next stage involved the development of a detailed draft that indicated most of the vocal and instrumental details. This was completed by 28 May, in parallel with this, Wagner started work on a fair copy of the score on 15 February, a task he completed on 26 September 1854, by which time he had also started work on the sketches of Die Walküre. Das Rheingold was first performed at Munich on 22 September 1869 and its first performance as part of the complete Ring cycle took place at Bayreuth on 13 August 1876. It continues to be performed on a regular basis both in Bayreuth and elsewhere, Das Rheingold, considerably shorter than its three successors, consists of four scenes performed without a break. It has been noted as one of the best-known drone examples in the concert repertory, the curtain rises to show, at the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhine maidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, playing together. The key shifts to A flat as Woglinde begins an innocent song whose melody is used to characterise the Rhine maidens later in the cycle
11.
Conducting
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Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
12.
Siegfried (opera)
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Siegfried, WWV 86C, is the third of the four music dramas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle, the musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871. Having grappled with his text for Siegfrieds Tod, and indeed having undertaken some musical sketches for it during 1851, at this point he conceived that the prefatory opera, Der junge Siegfried, could act as a comic foil to the tragedy of Siegfrieds Tod. Its all growing out of the ground as if it were wild, shortly afterwards he wrote to Uhlig that he was now planning to tell the Siegfried story in the form of three dramas, plus a prologue in three acts—a clear prefiguring of the Ring cycle. The composition of Acts 1 and 2 was completed by August 1857, Wagner then left off work on Siegfried to write the operas Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He did not resume work on Siegfried until 1869, when he composed the third act, the final revision of the score was undertaken in February 1871. Performance was withheld until the first complete production of the Ring cycle, elements of the plot of Siegfried come from a variety of sources. In a letter to Uhlig, Wagner recounted The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was and it concerns a boy so stupid he had never learned to be afraid. Wagner wrote that the boy and Siegfried are the same character, the boy is taught to fear by his wife, and Siegfried learns it when he discovers the sleeping Brünnhilde. Siegfrieds ability in Act Two to see through Mimes deceitful words seems to have derived from a 19th-century street theatre version of the story of Faust. Some elements of the story are derived from legends of Sigurd, notably the Völsunga saga, scene 1 of Act 3 has a parallel in the Eddic poem Baldrs draumar, in which Odin questions a völva about the future of the gods. A cave in rocks in the forest, as the curtain rises, Alberichs brother, the dwarf Mime, is forging a sword. Mime is plotting to obtain the ring of power created by his brother Alberich. Mime needs a sword for Siegfried to use, but the youth has contemptuously broken every sword Mime has made, Siegfried returns from his wanderings in the forest with a wild bear in tow, and immediately breaks the new sword. Mime is forced to explain how he took in Siegfrieds mother, Sieglinde and he shows Siegfried the broken pieces of the sword Nothung, which Mime had obtained from her. Siegfried orders him to reforge the sword, Mime, however, is unable to accomplish this, Siegfried departs, leaving Mime in despair. An old man arrives at the door and introduces himself as the Wanderer, in return for the hospitality due a guest, he wagers his head on answering any three questions of Mime. The dwarf asks the Wanderer to name the races that live beneath the ground, on the earth and these are the Nibelung, the Giants, and the Gods, as the Wanderer answers correctly
13.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
14.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States. Owned by Philadelphia Media Network, The Inquirer has the eighteenth largest average weekday U. S. newspaper circulation and has won nineteen Pulitzer Prizes and it is the newspaper of record in the Delaware Valley. The paper has risen and fallen in prominence throughout its history, the Inquirer first became a major newspaper during the American Civil War when its war coverage was popular on both sides. The papers circulation dropped after the war, then rose by the end of the 19th century, by the end of the 1960s, The Inquirer trailed its chief competitor, the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and lacked modern facilities and experienced staff. In the 1970s, new owners and editors turned the newspaper one of the countrys most prominent. Stan Wischnowski is Vice President of News Operations, the Philadelphia Inquirer was founded as The Pennsylvania Inquirer by printer John R. Walker and John Norvell, former editor of Philadelphias largest newspaper, the Aurora & Gazette. Founded on June 1,1829, The Philadelphia Inquirer is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States, however, in 1962, an Inquirer-commissioned historian traced The Inquirer to John Dunlaps The Pennsylvania Packet, which was founded on October 28,1771. In 1850, The Packet was merged with another newspaper, The North American, after Harding acquired The Pennsylvania Inquirer, it was briefly published as an afternoon paper before returning to its original morning format in January 1830. Under Harding, in 1829, The Inquirer moved from its location between Front and Second Streets to between Second and Third Streets. When Harding bought and merged the Morning Journal in January 1830, Ten years later The Inquirer again was moved, this time to its own building at the corner of Third Street and Carters Alley. Harding expanded The Inquirers content and the paper grew into a major Philadelphian newspaper. The expanded content included the addition of fiction, and in 1840, at the time the common practice was to pay little or nothing for the rights of foreign authors works. Harding retired in 1859 and was succeeded by his son William White Harding, William Harding changed the name of the newspaper to its current name, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Harding, in an attempt to increase circulation, cut the price of the paper, in 1859, circulation had been around 7,000, by 1863 it had increased to 70,000. Part of the increase was due to the interest in news during the American Civil War, the Philadelphia Inquirer supported the Union, but Harding wanted their coverage to remain neutral. Confederate generals often sought copies of the paper, believing that the war coverage was accurate. Inquirer journalist Uriah Hunt Painter was at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, initial reports from the government claimed a Union victory, but The Inquirer went with Painters firsthand account
15.
Variety (magazine)
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Variety is a weekly American entertainment trade magazine and website owned by Penske Media Corporation. The last daily printed edition was put out on March 19,2013, Variety originally reported on theater and vaudeville. Variety has been published since December 16,1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City, on January 19,1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history. In 1933, Sime Silverman launched Daily Variety, based in Hollywood, Sime Silverman had passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1931, he remained as publisher until his death in 1933 soon after launching the Daily. His son Sidne Silverman, known as Skigie, succeeded him as publisher of both publications, both Sidne and his wife, stage actress Marie Saxon, died of tuberculosis. Their only son Syd Silverman, born 1932, was the heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syds legal guardian Harold Erichs oversaw Variety Inc. until 1956, after that date Syd Silverman was publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood, until the sale of both papers in 1987 to the Cahners Corp. In L. A. the Daily was edited by Tom Pryor from 1959 until 1988, for twenty years its editor-in-chief was Peter Bart, originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman running the Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times, in April 2009, Bart moved to the position of vice president and editorial director, characterized online as Boffo No More, Bart Up and Out at Variety. From mid 2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray oversaw the publication as Editor-in-Chief, after over 30 years of various reporter, in October 2014, Eller and Wallenstein were upped to Co-Editors in Chief, with Littleton continuing to oversee the trades television coverage. This dissemination comes in the form of columns, news stories, images, video, Cahners Publishing purchased Variety from the Silverman family in 1987. On December 7,1988, Barts predecessor, Roger Watkins, proposed, upon its launch, the new-look Variety measured one inch shorter with a washed-out color on the front. In October 2012, Reed Business Information, the periodicals owner, PMC is the owner of Deadline. com, which since the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Varietys largest competitor in online showbiz news. In October,2012, Jay Penske announced that the paywall would come down, the print publication would stay. A significant portion of the advertising revenue comes during the film-award season leading up to the Academy Awards. During this Awards Season, large numbers of colorful, full-page For Your Consideration advertisements inflate the size of Variety to double or triple its usual page count, paid circulation for the weekly Variety magazine in 2013 was 40,000. Each copy of each Variety issue is read by an average of three people, with a total readership of 120,000. Variety. com has 17 million unique monthly visitors, Variety is a weekly entertainment publication with a broad coverage of movies, television, theater, music and technology, written for entertainment executives
16.
NPR
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NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs that are produced and its content is also available on-demand via the web, mobile, and podcasts. The organizations legal name is National Public Radio and its brand is NPR. Is NPR has been used by its hosts for many years. However, National Public Radio remains the name of the group. National Public Radio replaced the National Educational Radio Network on February 26,1970 and this act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which created the Public Broadcasting Service in addition to NPR. A CPB organizing committee under John Witherspoon first created a Board of Directors chaired by Bernard Mayes, the board then hired Donald Quayle to be the first president of NPR with 30 employees and 90 charter member stations, and studios in Washington, D. C. NPR aired its first broadcast in April 1971, covering United States Senate hearings on the Vietnam War, a month later, the afternoon drive-time newscast All Things Considered began, on May 3,1971, first hosted by Robert Conley. NPR was primarily a production and distribution organization until 1977, when it merged with the Association of Public Radio Stations, NPR suffered an almost fatal setback in 1983 when efforts to expand services created a deficit of nearly US$7 million. After a congressional investigation and the resignation of NPRs president, Frank Mankiewicz, NPR also agreed to turn its satellite service into a cooperative venture, making it possible for non-NPR shows to get national distribution. It took NPR approximately three years to pay off the debt, delano Lewis, the president of C&P Telephone, left that position to become NPRs CEO and president in January 1994. In November 1998, NPRs board of directors hired Kevin Klose, NPR spent nearly $13 million to acquire and equip a West Coast 25, 000-square-foot production facility, NPR West, which opened in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, in November 2002. C. In November 2003, NPR received US$235 million from the estate of the late Joan B, Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds Corporation. This was the largest monetary gift ever to a cultural institution, in 2004 NPRs budget increased by over 50% to US$153 million due to the Kroc gift. US$34 million of the money was deposited in its endowment, the endowment fund before the gift totaled $35 million. NPR will use the interest from the bequest to expand its news staff, the 2005 budget was about US$120 million. In August 2005, NPR entered podcasting with a directory of over 170 programs created by NPR, by November of that year, users downloaded NPR and other public radio podcasts 5 million times
17.
James Levine
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James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera and he has made numerous recordings, as well as television and radio broadcasts, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Levine has also held positions with the Ravinia Festival, the Munich Philharmonic. In 1980, he started the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and often works to train promising singers, conductors, after suffering severe health problems, Levine took a hiatus from conducting for almost two years. He returned to conducting in 2013 and he stepped down as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera at the end of the 2015-2016 season to assume the new position of Music Director Emeritus. James Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a family, his maternal grandfather was a cantor in a synagogue, his father was a violinist who led a dance band. He began to play the piano as a small child, at the age of 10, he made his concert debut as soloist in Felix Mendelssohns Piano Concerto No.2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Levine subsequently studied music with Walter Levin, first violinist in the LaSalle Quartet, in 1956 he took piano lessons with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music School, Vermont. In the following year he began studies with Rosina Lhévinne at the Aspen Music School and he graduated from the Juilliard School in 1964 and joined the American Conductors project connected with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. From 1964 to 1965, Levine served as an apprentice to George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra and that year, he also made debuts as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra at its summer home at Robin Hood Dell, the Welsh National Opera, and the San Francisco Opera. This concert began an association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1990, at the request of Roy E. Disney, he arranged the music and conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the soundtrack of Fantasia 2000, from 1974 to 1978, Levine served as music director of the Cincinnati May Festival. Levine made his Metropolitan Opera debut in June 1971, leading a June Festival performance of Tosca, following further appearances with the company, he was named principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in February 1972. He became the Mets music director in 1976, in 1983, he served as conductor and musical director for the Franco Zeffirelli screen adaptation of La Traviata, which featured the Met orchestra and chorus members. He became the companys first artistic director in 1986, and relinquished the title in 2004, Levine has led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. For the 25th anniversary of his Met debut, Levine conducted the premiere of John Harbisons The Great Gatsby. On his appointment as General Manager of the Met, Peter Gelb emphasized that James Levine was welcome to remain as long as he wanted to direct music there. Following a series of injuries that began with a fall in Boston, following a May 2011 performance of Die Walküre, Levine formally withdrew from all conducting engagements at the Metropolitan Opera
18.
Fabio Luisi
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Fabio Luisi is a Grammy Award-winning Italian conductor. He is principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and General Music Director of the Zurich Opera and he attended the Conservatorio Nicolò Paganini and was a student of Memi Schiavina. After receiving his degree in studies, he continued piano instruction with Aldo Ciccolini. Luisi developed an interest in conducting while working as a piano accompanist and he worked at the Graz Opera as an accompanist and conductor. His first conducting appearance was in Italy in 1984, from 1990 to 1995, he was principal conductor of the Graz Symphony Orchestra. From 1995 to 2000, he served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tonkünstlerorchester in Vienna, from 1996 to 1999, he was one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, along with Marcello Viotti and Manfred Honeck. From 1999 to 2007, he was principal conductor of the MDR orchestra. He was the conductor of lOrchestre de la Suisse Romande from 1997 to 2002. In January 2004, Luisi was named conductor of both the Staatskapelle Dresden and of the Semperoper, Dresden. He assumed both posts in September 2007, with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Luisi conducted commercial recordings of music by Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner. Luisi was originally scheduled to step down as conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden in 2012. Luisi served as Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony from 2005 through the 2012-13 season and he became Generalmusikdirektor of the Zurich Opera in 2012, which also includes orchestral concert work with the opera orchestra under the name of the Philharmonia Zurich. Luisi first conducted the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in 2010, in August 2014, the orchestra announced the appointment of Luisi as its next principal conductor, effective in 2017, with an initial contract through 2020. In the United States, Luisi made his Metropolitan Opera conducting debut in March 2005, in April 2010, Luisi was named the Mets principal guest conductor, for an initial contract of three years, effective with the 2010-2011 season. Luisi is the conductor to be named to this post at the Metropolitan Opera. He was elevated to the post of Principal Conductor in September 2011, Luisi is scheduled to stand down from this post at the close of the 2016-2017 season. Luisi has also conducted several recordings, including Giuseppe Verdis Aroldo, Jérusalem and Alzira. He won a Grammy Award for his leadership of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD release of Richard Wagner’s operatic cycle and this was recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera and named Best Opera Recording of 2012
19.
Lisette Oropesa
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Lisette Oropesa is a first generation Cuban American operatic soprano. She has a repertoire that includes works from Gluck, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Massenet. With her lyric soprano voice, she has performed roles in her native Spanish and English, as well as German, French. She is particularly noted in the roles of Susanna, Gilda, Konstanze, Lisette is a vegan, and avid runner/marathoner who has been featured in Runners World Magazine. In 2014 she co-contributed to Running, Eating, Thinking, A Vegan Anthology by Martin Rowe, Lisette was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her audition went so well that she joined the program with Robert Grayson as her mentor. She also sang the role of the Rhinemaiden, Woglinde, in the Mets 2009 Der Ring des Nibelungen, and additionally sang the off-stage role of the Woodbird in Siegfried. On September 27,2010, she reprised her Rhinemaiden in the Mets season-opening production of Das Rheingold, in May 2011, she sang the part of the god Amor in Mark Morriss production of Orfeo ed Euridice. The end of 2013 saw a successful opening of a new production of Falstaff at the Met. According to The New York Times, the winning soprano Lisette Oropesa, sings with effortless grace, in 2014 she starred alongside Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch in the new production of Werther directed by Richard Eyre. The New York Times noted that The bright-voiced, impressive soprano Lisette Oropesa is a sunny, at the beginning of 2016, Lisette gave her first NYC solo recital with the Park Avenue Armory. According to Anthony Tommasini of the The New York Times, she gave a rewarding performance and brought uncommon freshness to this music. In April and May,2012, Oropesa appeared with the Pittsburgh Opera as Konstanze in a production of The Abduction from the Seraglio set on the Orient Express in the Pashas private train car. In October 2012 she again performed the role of Lucia with the Arizona Opera to resounding success, in November, she continued her success by performing the role of Cleopatra in Michigan Opera Theatres Giulio Cesare to great acclaim. Her aria Ach, ich fühl’s, sung as she believes Tamino no longer loves her, was genuinely moving. Later in 2013, she sang the role of Amalia at the Washington Concert Opera for Verdis I Masnadieri in which she achieved total triumph as Amalia and she was also called in as a last minute replacement for Nannetta in San Francisco Operas Falstaff. After her performances at the Met in early 2014, Lisettes summer schedule included many concerts, Opera engagements included Nannetta at the Dutch National Opera, Gilda at Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Konstanze at the Bavarian State Opera. Her last performance of 2014 was her debut at the Los Angeles Opera as Rosalba in Daniel Catáns Florencia en el Amazonas
20.
WNYC
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WNYC is the trademark, and a set of call letters shared by a pair of non-profit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. New York Public Radio formerly did business as WNYC RADIO until March 2013, WNYC broadcasts on 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM broadcasts on 93.9 MHz. Both stations are owned by New York Public Radio and are members of NPR, some hours the programming is simulcast, some hours different shows air on each station. WNYC reaches more than one million listeners each week and has the largest public radio audience in the United States, WNYCs AM transmitter is located in Kearny, New Jersey, WNYC-FMs transmitter is located on the Empire State Building in New York City. WNYC is one of the oldest radio stations in New York, funds for the establishment of the station were approved on June 2,1922 by the New York City Board of Estimate and Apportionment. WNYC made its first official broadcast two years later on July 8,1924, at 570 AM with a second-hand transmitter shipped from Brazil, with the commencement of WNYCs operations, the City of New York became one of the first American municipalities to be directly involved in broadcasting. Studios and transmitter were at The Municipal Building,1 Centre Street, in 1928 WNYC was forced into a time-sharing arrangement on 570 AM with WMCA, another pioneering New York radio outlet. This situation lasted until 1931, when the Federal Radio Commission moved WNYC to 810 AM, WNYCs transmitter was moved in 1937 from the top of the Municipal Building to City-owned land at 10 Kent Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as part of a Works Progress Administration project. The site was designated as WNYC Transmitter Park. In 1938 the Municipal Broadcasting System was established by the City of New York to run the station, for its first 14 years, WNYC had been run by the New York City Commissioner for Bridges, Plant and Structures. Now, under an agency devoted singularly to its function and with the leadership of new director Morris S. Novik, appointed by Mayor LaGuardia, among its many landmark programs was the annual American Music Festival. In 1941 the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement shifted WNYCs dial position a second time, WCCO was moved to 830 as well, and was given clear-channel authority. WNYC would remain a 1, 000-watt outlet for the next 48 years, later that year, on December 7, WNYC was the first radio station in the United States to announce the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, the FCC allowed WNYC to stay on the air a few hours in the evening due to the public service it was providing. WNYC began regularly scheduled broadcasts on the FM band on March 13,1943 at 43.9 MHz, known originally as W39NY, the FM outlet adopted its present WNYC-FM identity and its present frequency of 93.9 MHz within a few years. In 1961 the pair were joined by an operation, as WUHF took to the air in an experimental format. The following year the station was renamed WNYC-TV, the Brooklyn transmitter site was decommissioned, and the AM transmitter was moved to Belleville Turnpike in Kearny, New Jersey, sharing three towers with WMCA, its former shared-time partner. The stations ownership by the City meant that it was subject to the whims of various mayors
21.
Time Out (magazine)
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Time Out is a magazine published by Time Out Digital Ltd. In 2012, the became a free publication with a weekly readership of over 307,000. In addition to print, the Time Out London website has seven million unique users, Time Outs global market presence includes partnerships with Nokia and mobile apps for iOS and Android operating systems. It was the recipient of the International Consumer Magazine of the Year award in both 2010 and 2011 and the renamed International Consumer Media Brand of the Year in 2013 and 2014. Time Out started as a magazine created in 1968 by Tony Elliott, the first product was titled Where Its At, before being inspired by Dave Brubecks album Time Out. The magazine was initially a counter-culture publication which took a non-conformist stance on such as gay rights, racial equality. As one example of its editorial stance, in 1976 Londons Time Out published the names of 60 purported CIA agents stationed in England. Early issues had a print run of around 5,000, Elliott launched Time Out New York, his North American magazine debut, in 1995. The magazine procured young and upcoming talent to provide cultural reviews for young New Yorkers at the time, the success of TONY led to the introduction of Time Out New York Kids, a quarterly magazine aimed at families. The expansion continued with Elliott licensing the Time Out brand worldwide spreading the magazine to 39 cities including Istanbul, Dubai, Beijing, Hong Kong, additional Time Out products included travel magazines, city guides, and books. In 2010, Time Out became the publisher of travel guides. The group, founded by Peter Dubens, was owned by Tony Elliott and Oakley Capital until 2016, Time Out has subsequently launched websites for an additional 33 cities including Delhi, Washington D. C. Boston, Manchester and Bristol. when it was listed on Londons AIM stock exchange, in June 2016, Time Out Group underwent an IPO and is listed on Londons AIM stock exchange. The London edition of Time Out became a magazine in September 2012. This strategy increased revenue by 80 percent with continued upsurge, Time Out has also invited a number of guest columnists to write for the magazine. The columnist as of 2014 was Giles Coren, in April 2015, Time Out switched its New York magazine to the free distribution model to increase the reader base and grow brand awareness. This transition doubled circulation by increasing its Web audience, estimated around 3.5 million unique visitors a month, Time Out increased its weekly magazine circulation to over 305,000 copies complementing millions of digital users of Time Out New York. Free magazines are distributed at bars, restaurants, gyms, subway stations, and theaters, in addition, a subscription service is offered to those that prefer the magazine to be physically delivered and paid subscribers have access to a digital edition of the magazine
22.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
23.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
24.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
25.
Die Feen
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Die Feen is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. The German libretto was written by the composer after Carlo Gozzis La donna serpente, Die Feen was Wagners first completed opera, but remained unperformed in his lifetime. It has never established itself firmly in the operatic repertory although it receives occasional performances, on stage or in concert, the opera is available on CD and in a DVD. The overture has been separately recorded, although the music of Die Feen shows the influences of Carl Maria von Weber and other composers of the time, commentators have recognised embryonic features of the mature Wagnerian opera. The fantasy plot also anticipates themes such as redemption that were to reappear in his later works, Die Feen was Wagners first completed opera, composed in 1833, when he was 20 years old and working as a part-time chorus master in Würzburg. He gave it the description of Grosse romantische Oper, the year before he started composition, Wagner had abandoned his first attempt at writing an opera, Die Hochzeit. There were a number of facing new German-language opera in the 1830s. First there was deemed to be a lack of good quality libretti to set and this may have influenced Wagners decision to write the libretto for Die Feen himself. Second, there was a fear among the authorities in Germany and Austria that the performance of operas in German would attract nationalist and this would have added to the difficulties faced by a novice composer seeking an opportunity for his new opera to be performed. Although Gozzis La donna serpente was the source for Wagners plot, the libretto also introduced a fantastic theme that was not in the original play. The libretto displays themes and patterns that were to recur in Wagners more mature works and these include redemption, a mysterious stranger demanding that their lover not ask their name, and long expository narratives. Wagner revised the score of Die Feen in 1834, when he hoped for a production, among the changes in the 1834 version was the rewriting from scratch of Adas grand scene Weh mir, so nah die fürchterliche Stunde. However, it remained unperformed during his lifetime, Wagner personally gave the original manuscript of Die Feen to King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The manuscript was given as a gift to Adolf Hitler. A draft, in Wagners hand, of dialogue he wrote to substitute for some of the recitatives, is in the Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library. Die Feen was premiered in Munich on 29 June 1888 with a cast including several singers who had created roles in Wagners later operas and it is the only Wagner opera that has not been recorded for broadcast television or video. There are some recordings, the one with the best known performers being a live performance conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the composers death. The English premiere was in Birmingham on 17 May 1969 and the American concert premiere was at the New York City Opera on 24 February 1982, in 1981 Friedrich Meyer-Oertel staged Die Feen at the Opernhaus Wuppertal
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Das Liebesverbot
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Das Liebesverbot, is an early opera in two acts by Richard Wagner, with the libretto written by the composer after Shakespeares Measure for Measure. Described as a Große komische Oper, it was composed in 1834 and it was never performed again in Wagners lifetime. Restrained sexuality versus eroticism plays an important role in Das Liebesverbot, themes recur throughout much of Wagners output, most notably in Tannhäuser, Die Walküre. In each opera, the self-abandonment to love brings the lovers into mortal combat with the social order. In Das Liebesverbot, because it is a comedy, the outcome is a happy one, Wagners second opera, and his first to be performed, has many signs of an early work, the style is modelled closely on contemporary French and Italian comic opera. It is also referred to as the comedy, in that only two of Wagners works are comedies, the other being Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The opera was performed in the following hundred years. In the United Kingdom, the first performance was given on 16 February 1965 at the Collegiate Theatre of the University of London, the cast was led by Mark Schnaible as Friedrich and Claudia Waite as Isabella, Corrado Rovaris conducted. In 1994 Das Liebesverbot was performed at the Wexford Opera Festival, the first fully staged performance in the United States was at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY, in the summer of 2008. In 2009, a production was presented at the International Festival of Young Singers at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg plus a staged production at the Staatstheater Braunschweig in October. In 2013,200 years after the birth, it was performed in Bayreuth for the first time. A production of the Oper Leipzig was shown in the Oberfrankenhalle and it was staged by Aron Stiehl with elements of operetta and revue, Constantin Trinks conducted the Gewandhausorchester. Since 2011 a production of work has formed part of the repertoire of Helikon Opera Moscow. In Romania it was staged at the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Opera, in 2016 it was staged by the Teatro Real, Madrid. The synopsis is Wagners own description of his scenario, in a translation by William Ashton Ellis published in 1898, Luzio promises to go at once to Isabella in the cloister of the Elisabethans, where she has lately entered her novitiate. A convent Within the quiet cloister walls we make the acquaintance of this sister, in confidential converse with her friend Marianne, Marianne discloses to her friend, from whom she has long been parted, the sad fate that has brought her hither. Isabellas horror finds vent in a tempest of wrath, only to be allayed by the resolve to leave a world where such monstrosities can go unpunished. Her violence unwittingly exhibits her to Luzio in the most seductive light, fired by sudden love, he implores her to leave the nunnery for ever and take his hand
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Rienzi
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Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lyttons novel of the same name. The title is shortened to Rienzi. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Hofoper, Dresden, on 20 October 1842, in the end the populace burns the Capitol, in which Rienzi and a few adherents have made a last stand. Each act ends with an extended finale ensemble and is replete with solos, duets, trios, there is also an extended ballet in act 2 according to the accepted Grand Opera format. Hans von Bülow was later to joke that Rienzi is Meyerbeers best opera, Wagner began to draft the opera in Riga in 1837, after reading Lyttons novel. In 1839, meeting Meyerbeer by chance in Boulogne, he was able to read the latter the first three acts of the libretto, and to gain his interest. Meyerbeer also introduced Wagner to Ignaz Moscheles, who was staying at Boulogne, as Ernest Newman comments. When the opera was completed in 1840, Wagner had hoped for it to be premiered at the Paris Opéra, several circumstances, including his lack of influence, prevented this. The full score of Rienzi was completed on 19 November 1840 and this, with the proposed staging of The Flying Dutchman in Berlin, also supported by Meyerbeer, persuaded Wagner to return to Germany in April 1842. No one suspected that what was a joke for them was the means of buying an extra morsel of sorely-needed food. The premiere of Rienzi took place on 20 October in the new Dresden Opera House, designed by the architect Gottfried Semper and opened on 14 April 1841. Semper and Wagner were later to friends in Dresden, a connection which eventually led to Semper providing designs which became a basis of Wagners Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The first performance of Rienzi was well received in Dresden despite running over six hours, one legend is that, fearful of the audience departing, Wagner stopped the clock above the stage. In his later memoirs, Mein Leben, Wagner recalled, No subsequent experience has given me feelings even remotely similar to those I had on this day of the first performance of Rienzi, the initial success of Rienzi was no doubt assured beforehand. But the uproarious way in which the public declared its partiality for me was extraordinary, the public had been forcibly predisposed to accept it, because everyone connected with the theatre had been spreading such favourable reports. That the entire population was looking forward to what was heralded as a miracle, in trying to recall my condition that evening, I can remember it only as possessing all the features of a dream. Subsequently, Wagner experimented with giving the opera over two evenings, and making cuts to enable a more reasonable performance in a single evening, despite Wagners reservations, Rienzi remained one of his most successful operas until the early 20th century. The Paris premiere of Rienzi finally took place on 6 April 1869 at the Théâtre Lyrique under the baton of Jules Pasdeloup
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The Flying Dutchman (opera)
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The Flying Dutchman, WWV63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write the following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July. In his 1843 Autobiographic Sketch, Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heines retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski, the central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Semper Oper in Dresden in 1843 and this work shows early attempts at operatic styles that would characterise his later music dramas. In Der fliegende Holländer Wagner uses a number of associated with the characters. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with an ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman. By the beginning of 1839, the now 26-year-old Richard Wagner was employed as a conductor at the Court Theatre in Riga. His extravagant lifestyle plus the retirement from the stage of his actress wife, Minna, Wagner was writing Rienzi and hatched a plan to flee his creditors in Riga, escape to Paris via London and make his fortune by putting Rienzi on to the stage of the Paris Opéra. Boarding the ship Thetis, whose captain had agreed to them without passports, their sea journey was hindered by storms. The ship at one point took refuge in the Norwegian fjords at Tvedestrand, Wagners experience of Paris was also disastrous. He was unable to get work as a conductor, and the Opéra did not want to produce Rienzi, the Wagners were reduced to poverty, relying on handouts from friends and from the little income that Wagner could make writing articles on music and copying scores. Wagner hit on the idea of an opera on the theme of the Flying Dutchman. Wagner wrote the first prose draft of the story in Paris early in May 1840, in Heines tale, the narrator watches a performance of a fictitious stage play on the theme of the sea captain cursed to sail forever for blasphemy. In Heines version, this is presented as a means for ironic humour, however, Wagner took this literally and in his draft. By the end of May 1841 Wagner had completed the libretto or poem as he preferred to call it and these were composed for an audition at the Paris Opéra, along with the sketch of the plot. Wagner actually sold the sketch to the Director of the Opéra, Léon Pillet, for 500 francs, but was unable to convince him that the music was worth anything. Wagner composed the rest of the Der Fliegende Holländer during the summer of 1841, with the Overture being written last, while this score was designed to be played continuously in a single act, Wagner later divided the piece into a three-act work. In doing so, however, he did not alter the music significantly, in his original draft Wagner set the action in Scotland, but he changed the location to Norway shortly before the first production staged in Dresden and conducted by himself in January 1843
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Lohengrin (opera)
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Lohengrin, WWV75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition, the opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his fairy-tale castle New Swan Castle, or Neuschwanstein and it was King Ludwigs patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. The most popular and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as Here Comes the Bride, the literary figure of Lohengrin first appeared as a supporting character in the final chapter of the middle-age epic poem Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Grail Knight Lohengrin, son of the Grail King Parzival, is sent to the duchess of Brabant to defend her and his protection comes under the condition that she must never ask his name. If she violates this requirement, he will be forced to leave her, Wagner attempted at the same time to weave elements of Greek tragedy into the plot. He wrote the following in Mitteilungen an meine Freunde about his Lohengrin plans, Who doesnt know Zeus, the god is in love with a human woman and approaches her in human form. The lover finds that she cannot recognize the god in this form, Zeus knows that she would be destroyed by the sight of his real self. He suffers in this awareness, suffers knowing that he must fulfill this demand and he will seal his own doom when the gleam of his godly form destroys his lover. Is the man who craves for God not destroyed, in composing Lohengrin Wagner created a new form of opera, the through-composed music drama. The composition is not divided into numbers, but is played from act to act without any interruption. This style of composition contrasts with that of the conventional number opera, which is divided into arias, recitatives, Lohengrin still contains lengthy performances—for example, Elsas Alone in dark days and Lohengrins Grail aria—which harken back to the classical solo aria form. Wagner made extensive use of leitmotives in his composition and these motives allowed Wagner to precisely narrate the inner thoughts of the characters on stage, even without speech. The first production of Lohengrin was in Weimar, Germany, on 28 August 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt, Liszt chose the date in honour of Weimars most famous citizen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749. Despite the inadequacies of the lead tenor Karl Beck, it was a popular success. Wagner himself was unable to attend the first performance, having been exiled because of his part in the 1849 May Uprising in Dresden. Although he conducted various extracts in concert in Zurich, London, Paris and Brussels, the operas first performance outside German-speaking lands was in Riga on 5 February 1855. The Austrian premiere took place in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 19 August 1858, the work was produced in Munich for the first time at the National Theatre on 16 June 1867, with Heinrich Vogl in the title role and Mathilde Mallinger as Elsa
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Tristan und Isolde
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Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the not as an opera, but called it eine Handlung. Wagners composition of Tristan und Isolde was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, widely acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, Tristan was notable for Wagners unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonality, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension. Other composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky formulated their styles in contrast to Wagners musical legacy. Many see Tristan as the beginning of the move away from common practice harmony and tonality, both Wagners libretto style and music were also profoundly influential on the Symbolist poets of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Wagner was forced to abandon his position as conductor of the Dresden Opera in 1849 and he left his wife, Minna, in Dresden, and fled to Zürich. There, in 1852, he met the wealthy silk trader Otto Wesendonck, Wesendonck became a supporter of Wagner and bankrolled the composer for several years. Wesendoncks wife, Mathilde, became enamoured of the composer, though Wagner was working on his epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, he found himself intrigued by the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The story of Tristan and Isolde is a romance of the Middle Ages. Several versions of the story exist, the earliest dating to the middle of the 12th century, gottfrieds version, part of the courtly branch of the legend, had a huge influence on later German literature. It was some such mood that inspired the conception of a Tristan und Isolde. I have devised in my mind a Tristan und Isolde, the simplest, yet most full-blooded musical conception imaginable, by the end of 1854, Wagner had sketched out all three acts of an opera on the Tristan theme, based on Gottfried von Strassburgs telling of the story. On 20 August he began the prose sketch for the opera, Wagner, at this time, had moved into a cottage built in the grounds of Wesendoncks villa, where, during his work on Tristan und Isolde, he became passionately involved with Mathilde Wesendonck. Whether or not this relationship was platonic remains uncertain, one evening in September of that year, Wagner read the finished poem of Tristan to an audience including his wife, Minna, his current muse, Mathilde, and his future mistress, Cosima von Bülow. By October 1857, Wagner had begun the composition sketch of the first Act, during November, however, he set five of Mathildes poems to music known today as the Wesendonck Lieder. This was a move by Wagner, who almost never set to music poetic texts other than his own. But Wagner resolved to write Tristan only after he had secured a deal with the Leipzig-based firm Breitkopf & Härtel
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Parsifal
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Parsifal is an opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival, Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was Wagners last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, the Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel, at Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there be no applause after the first act of the opera. Wagner first read von Eschenbachs poem Parzival while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845, after encountering Arthur Schopenhauers writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in oriental philosophies, especially Buddhism. Out of this interest came Die Sieger a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of Buddha, the themes which were later explored in Parsifal of self-renouncing, reincarnation, compassion, and even exclusive social groups were first introduced in Die Sieger. The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April, full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolframs Parzival. The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendoncks cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich. If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in Mein Leben was accurately dated, it could settle the issue once and for all, Wagner did not resume work on Parsifal for eight years, during which time he completed Tristan und Isolde and began Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven, during this time most of Wagners creative energy was devoted to the Ring cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on Parsifal. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, in September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these was made in pencil on three staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments, the second complete draft was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration. The Gesamtentwurf of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879, the full score was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a copy of the entire opera, with all the voices. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878, the rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882
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Die Laune des Verliebten
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Die Laune des Verliebten was Richard Wagners first attempt at an opera project. Written in about 1830, when Wagner was 17, the libretto was based on a play of the name by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Wagner wrote a scene for three voices and a tenor aria before abandoning the project. There is no performance history for these fragments, and neither words nor music have survived
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Die Hochzeit
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Die Hochzeit is an unfinished opera by Richard Wagner which predates his completed works in the genre. Wagner completed the libretto, then started composing the music in the half of 1832 when he was just nineteen. He abandoned the project after his sister Rosalie, who was the main supporter, today, only three pieces survive from the opera. What is still known of the story is that it concerns the events surrounding the marriage of a young woman, Ada. This is a marriage, not one of love. On the eve of the wedding, Adas lover, Cadolt and she rejects his advances, preferring to defend her honour but, in the process, pushes him over the balcony to his death. Ada still loves Cadolt and collapses and dies at the next to his body. The only printed version of the musical score is the edition by Michael Balling. Very little musicological study has been carried out relating to Die Hochzeit, Ada and Arindal were later used as the names of the two principal characters in Die Feen, Wagners first completed opera. As there appear to be some textual commonalities with Die Feen, Die Hochzeit Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel
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Ride of the Valkyries
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The Ride of the Valkyries is the popular term for the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen. As a separate piece, the Ride is often heard in an instrumental version. Together with the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagners best-known pieces, the main theme of the Ride, the leitmotif labelled Walkürenritt, was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851. The preliminary draft for the Ride was composed in 1854 as part of the composition of the entire opera, which was fully orchestrated by the end of the first quarter of 1856. As they are joined by the four, the familiar tune is carried by the orchestra, while, above it. Apart from the song of the Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, it is the ensemble piece in the first three operas of Wagners Ring cycle. The complete opera Die Walküre was first performed on 26 June 1870 in the National Theatre Munich against the composers intent, however, the piece was still printed and sold in Leipzig, and Wagner subsequently wrote a complaint to the publisher Schott. Once the Ring had been given in Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner lifted the embargo and he himself conducted it in London on 12 May 1877, repeating it as an encore. Uses in film include the score for The Birth of a Nation. The Ride is the quick march of the British Parachute Regiment. Within the concert repertoire, the Ride of the Valkyries remains a popular encore, apart from where the Ride is included in the recordings of the Walküre opera, it is a very popular piece, included in various popular classics anthologies. Edited and annotated by Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack, translated by Geoffrey Skelton, Ride of the Valkyries, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Ride of the Valkyries at Project Gutenberg Fantasie from Die Walkure, WWV 86B on Musopen
