1.
Robert Lepage
–
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
Robert Lepage
–
Lepage at the European première of
Cirque du Soleil 's
Totem in Amsterdam, October 2010
2.
Documentary film
–
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
Documentary film
–
This
16 mm spring-wound
Bolex "H16" Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in
film schools.
Documentary film
–
Frame from one of
Marinescu's science films (1899).
Documentary film
–
Nanook of the North poster.
Documentary film
–
In this shot from
Man with the Movie Camera,
Mikhail Kaufman acts as a cameraman risking his life in search of the best shot
3.
Tribeca Film Festival
–
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
Tribeca Film Festival
–
New York Governor
David Paterson opens the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
–
Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
–
Festival founders
Jane Rosenthal and
Robert De Niro.
Tribeca Film Festival
–
The marquee of Tribeca Cinemas
4.
High-definition video
–
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
High-definition video
–
This chart shows the most
common display resolutions, with the color of each resolution type indicating the display ratio (e.g., red indicates a 4:3 ratio).
5.
Richard Wagner
–
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
Richard Wagner
–
Richard Wagner in 1871
Richard Wagner
–
Wagner's birthplace, at 3,
the Brühl, Leipzig
Richard Wagner
–
Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von Otterstedt
Richard Wagner
–
Wagner c. 1840, by Ernest Benedikt Kietz
6.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
–
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
Der Ring des Nibelungen
–
Scene 1 of
Das Rheingold from the first
Bayreuth Festival production of the Bühnenfestspiel in 1876
Der Ring des Nibelungen
–
Illustration of Brünnhilde, 1885
Der Ring des Nibelungen
–
Amalie Materna, the first Bayreuth Brünnhilde, with Cocotte, the horse donated by King Ludwig to play her horse Grane
Der Ring des Nibelungen
–
Gwyneth Jones performing at the 1976 Bayreuth production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, conducted by
Pierre Boulez and directed by
Patrice Chéreau
7.
Metropolitan Opera
–
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
Metropolitan Opera
–
The
Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
–
A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at a concert by pianist
Josef Hofmann, November 28, 1937
Metropolitan Opera
–
Auditorium of the Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Metropolitan Opera
–
The gold curtain in the auditorium
8.
Quebec
–
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
Quebec
–
The arrival of
Samuel de Champlain, the father of
New France, on the site of
Quebec City.
Quebec
–
Flag
Quebec
–
Michel's falls on
Ashuapmushuan River in
Saint-Félicien,
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.
Quebec
–
View of
Jacques-Cartier River from Andante mountain.
9.
New York City
–
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
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
10.
Das Rheingold
–
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
Das Rheingold
–
Emil Fischer in the role of Wotan at the 1889 New York premiere of Das Rheingold.
Das Rheingold
–
First performance in Bayreuth, 1876
Das Rheingold
–
Scene 1 of Das Rheingold from the
Bayreuth Festival production in 1876
Das Rheingold
–
The giants seize
Freia
11.
Conducting
–
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
Conducting
–
Steven Sametz conducting the Lehigh University Choir, sans baton
Conducting
Conducting
–
Andrew Lee Neer conducting with a baton in Detroit in 2011
Conducting
–
Giuseppe Verdi conducting his opera
Aida in 1881
12.
Siegfried (opera)
–
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
Siegfried (opera)
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Jean de Reszke as Siegfried (c. 1896)
Siegfried (opera)
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Leitmotif for the Nibelungs
Siegfried (opera)
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Horncall from Act II of 'Siegfried' (Siegfried's leitmotif)
Siegfried (opera)
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Siegfried tastes the dragon's blood (
Rackham)
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
The New York Times
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Cover of The New York Times (November 15, 2012), with the headline story reporting on
Operation Pillar of Defense.
The New York Times
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First published issue of New-York Daily Times, on September 18, 1851.
The New York Times
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The Times Square Building, The New York Times ' publishing headquarters, 1913–2007
The New York Times
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The New York Times newsroom, 1942
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 twenty 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
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The paper's May 2, 2011 front page
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The Inquirer Building, formerly the Elverson Building, the home of the newspaper from 1924-2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The sign above the entrance to The Inquirer Building
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The former
Strawbridge & Clothier Building at 801 Market Street, where the Inquirer and Daily News offices are now located.
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
Variety (magazine)
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The Variety Building in December 2008.
16.
NPR
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These differ from combinations, which are selections of some members of a set where order is disregarded. For example, written as tuples, there are six permutations of the set, namely and these are all the possible orderings of this three element set. As another example, an anagram of a word, all of whose letters are different, is a permutation of its letters, in this example, the letters are already ordered in the original word and the anagram is a reordering of the letters. The study of permutations of finite sets is a topic in the field of combinatorics, Permutations occur, in more or less prominent ways, in almost every area of mathematics. For similar reasons permutations arise in the study of sorting algorithms in computer science, the number of permutations of n distinct objects is n factorial, usually written as n. which means the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n. In algebra and particularly in group theory, a permutation of a set S is defined as a bijection from S to itself and that is, it is a function from S to S for which every element occurs exactly once as an image value. This is related to the rearrangement of the elements of S in which each element s is replaced by the corresponding f, the collection of such permutations form a group called the symmetric group of S. The key to this structure is the fact that the composition of two permutations results in another rearrangement. Permutations may act on structured objects by rearranging their components, or by certain replacements of symbols, in elementary combinatorics, the k-permutations, or partial permutations, are the ordered arrangements of k distinct elements selected from a set. When k is equal to the size of the set, these are the permutations of the set, fabian Stedman in 1677 described factorials when explaining the number of permutations of bells in change ringing. Starting from two bells, first, two must be admitted to be varied in two ways which he illustrates by showing 12 and 21 and he then explains that with three bells there are three times two figures to be produced out of three which again is illustrated. His explanation involves cast away 3, and 1.2 will remain, cast away 2, and 1.3 will remain, cast away 1, and 2.3 will remain. He then moves on to four bells and repeats the casting away argument showing that there will be four different sets of three, effectively this is an recursive process. He continues with five bells using the casting method and tabulates the resulting 120 combinations. At this point he gives up and remarks, Now the nature of these methods is such, in modern mathematics there are many similar situations in which understanding a problem requires studying certain permutations related to it. There are two equivalent common ways of regarding permutations, sometimes called the active and passive forms, or in older terminology substitutions and permutations, which form is preferable depends on the type of questions being asked in a given discipline. The active way to regard permutations of a set S is to them as the bijections from S to itself. Thus, the permutations are thought of as functions which can be composed with each other, forming groups of permutations
NPR
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In the
15 puzzle the goal is to get the squares in ascending order. Initial positions which have an odd number of inversions are impossible to solve.
NPR
NPR
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Biologist and statistician Ronald Fisher
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
James Levine
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Levine in the orchestra pit of the
Metropolitan Opera House in 2013
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
Fabio Luisi
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Fabio Luisi (2009)
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
Lisette Oropesa
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Lisette Oropesa poses before heading to the
Metropolitan Opera opening night 2012.
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
WNYC
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Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia on his Talk to the People program on WNYC.
WNYC
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The
Manhattan Municipal Building, WNYC's home from 1922 to 2008.
WNYC
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WNYC reporter
21.
Time Out New York
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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
Time Out New York
–
Time Out Magazine
Time Out New York
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Time Out Hong Kong Magazine Launch Cover
Time Out New York
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Time Out London Magazine1
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
IMDb
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Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
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
Rotten Tomatoes
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60–100%
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
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≤0-59%
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
Metacritic
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Metacritic
25.
List of works for the stage by Wagner
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Richard Wagners works for the stage, representing more than 50 years of creative life, comprise his 13 completed operas and a similar number of failed or abandoned projects. His first effort, begun when he was 13, was a drama, Leubald. Wagners musical education began in 1828, and a later he was producing his earliest compositions, writing words and music, since lost, for his first opera attempt. During the subsequent decade he began several opera projects, none of which was successful although two were completed and one was staged professionally. After accepting the post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony in February 1843, Wagner continued to compose operas and his political activities forced him to flee the city in 1849, beginning a long period of exile. In Zurich, his first refuge, he wrote the essay Die Kunst und die Revolution, in which he introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk and this idea was developed in the extended discourse Oper und Drama, 1850–51. According to Wagner historian Robert Gutman, The orchestra with its many tongues would take over the traditional operatic tasks of the chorus, from his first attempt in the opera genre, Die Laune des Verliebten, Wagner became his own librettist and remained so throughout his creative career. His practice was to music and text simultaneously, in biographer Robert Gutmans words. Unlike the works of composers, those of Richard Wagner were not identified by opus numbers. In 1983 the Wagner scholar John Deathbridge, in an article in The Musical Times, each of Wagners known works, whether finished or unfinished, is listed in a number sequence running from 1 to 113. The list includes all compositions and all prose drafts where the music is either lost or unwritten, translation, Bayreuth canon List of compositions by Richard Wagner Bassett, Peter, The Nibelungs Ring, Wakefield Press, Adelaide. ISBN 1-86254-624-X Retrieved on 25 March 2009 Borchmeyer, Dieter, Drama, ISBN 0-691-11497-8 Retrieved on 25 March 2009 Elschek, Oskár, A History of Slovak Music, Veda, Bratislava. ISBN 80-224-0724-0 Gutman, Robert W. Laura Macy, Retrieved on 26 March 2009 Richard Wagner in Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Retrieved on 24 March 2009 Saffle, Michael, Richard Wagner, A Guide to Research, Taylor and Francis, ISBN 0-8240-5695-7 Retrieved on 25 March 2009 Wagner Rarities, MusicalCriticism. com. Retrieved 25 March 2009 Die Feen, Piano and vocal score K Ferd, Retrieved on 5 April 2009 Das Liebesverbot, Piano and vocal score ed. Otto Singer. Retrieved on 5 April 2009 Rienzi, Piano and vocal score ed. Gustav Kogel, Retrieved on 6 April 2009 Die fliegende Holländer, Piano and vocal score eds John Troutbeck and Theodore Baker. Retrieved on 6 April 2009 Tannhauser, Piano and vocal score arr, Retrieved on 6 April 2009 Lohengrin, Piano and vocal score G. Schirmer, New York 1897. Retrieved on 6 April 2007 Das Rheingold, Piano and vocal score arr, Retrieved on 6 April 2009 Die Walküre, Piano and vocal score arr
List of works for the stage by Wagner
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Front page of the Dresden score of Wagner's 1845 opera
Tannhäuser
List of works for the stage by Wagner
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Richard Wagner in Paris, 1860
26.
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
Die Feen
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Richard Wagner, c. 1830
Die Feen
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Opening page of Die Feen
27.
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
Das Liebesverbot
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1922 vocal score with illustration by Franz Stassen
Das Liebesverbot
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Richard Wagner c. 1840
28.
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
Rienzi
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Last scene of Act 3 of Rienzi at the
Théâtre Lyrique, 1869
Rienzi
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Interior of the first
Dresden Opera House, where Rienzi was premiered in 1842 (contemporary sketch by J. C. A. Richter)
Rienzi
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Baron Wolf Adolf August von Lüttichau (1786–1863), General Director of the Dresden Opera House since 1824
Rienzi
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Carl Reissiger, conductor of the first performance of Rienzi
29.
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
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
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First page of the autograph of the overture
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
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The last scene of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (1843)
30.
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
Lohengrin (opera)
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Oslo Opera 2015
Lohengrin (opera)
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Ludwig II of Bavaria portrayed as
Lohengrin below a moon with Wagner's face. Brochure in Der Floh, 1885.
Lohengrin (opera)
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Johanna Jachmann-Wagner as Ortrud, ca. 1860
Lohengrin (opera)
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Joseph O'Mara in the title role, 1894–1895
31.
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
Tristan und Isolde
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Ludwig and
Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan and Isolde in the first performance, conducted by
Hans von Bülow
Tristan und Isolde
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Tristan and Isolde with the Potion (1916) by
John William Waterhouse, oil on canvas
Tristan und Isolde
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Tristan und Isolde by Ferdinand Leeke
32.
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
Parsifal
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Poster for the premiere production of Parsifal - 1882
Parsifal
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Amalie Materna,
Emil Scaria and
Hermann Winkelmann in the first production of the Bühnenweihfestspiel at the
Bayreuth Festival
Parsifal
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Parsifal postcard around 1900 - unknown artist
Parsifal
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End of Act III in the original 1882 production, design by Paul von Joukowsky
33.
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
Die Hochzeit
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The composer, c. 1830
34.
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
Die Laune des Verliebten
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The composer, c. 1830
35.
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
Ride of the Valkyries
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Arthur Rackham 's illustration to The Ride of the Valkyries.
36.
Parsifal (1982 film)
–
Parsifal is a 1982 West German-French opera film directed by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, based on the opera of the same name by Richard Wagner. It was shown out of competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, the soundtrack is a complete performance of the opera, however the imagery used is a melange including medieval costume, puppetry, Nazi relics and a giant death mask of Richard Wagner. The Confessions of Winifred Wagner had upset the descendants of Wagner, a production was instead arranged specifically for the film, with Armin Jordan as conductor. The film was entirely in studio in 35 days, in Bavaria Atelier in Munich. The budget was just above three million Deutsche Mark, Mr. Syberbergs work represents not only the summation of his career thus far, but is as gripping, strange and, in the end, devotionally faithful a staging as any Wagner opera has received in our time. Rockwell continued, Just why Mr. Syberbergs scenic innovations dont seem as disturbing as other modern directorial innovations - Patrice Chéreaus Bayreuth Ring, nstead of their shocking us away from the romantic spell of the music, they reinforce that spell. Its as if Wagners hypnotic allure and Brechts intellectualized alienation have been somehow mystically united, hans Jürgen Syberberg and His Film of Wagners Parsifal, by Solveig Olsen, University Press of America,2006. ISBN 0-7618-3376-5 Parsifal at the Internet Movie Database About the Film
Parsifal (1982 film)
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Film poster
37.
Polonia (Wagner)
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Polonia is a concert overture written by Richard Wagner. Wagner completed Polonia in 1836, although it may have been drafted as early as 1832 and it was premiered in Magdeburg, with the composer conducting, on March 29,1836. Wagners biographer Ernest Newman wrote that the overture was shapeless and frothy. the oddest mixture of a pseudo-Polish idiom, the critic Adrian Courleonis has commented that Polonia s coarse-grained excitement, which may at first seem audacious, looms as merely clumsy. According to her, Wagner wrote Polonia after hearing Polish patriotic songs for a May 3 Constitution Day celebration, the composers manuscript of his piano arrangement of the score is in the Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library. Zweig acquired the manuscript from a dealer in Vienna in 1937
Polonia (Wagner)
–
Polonia Overture: holograph first page of Wagner's arrangement for piano
38.
Wesendonck Lieder
–
Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme. He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, with titles translating as The Angel, in the Greenhouse, Sorrows and Dreams, while he was working on his opera Tristan und Isolde. The songs, together with the Siegfried Idyll, are the two works by Wagner most regularly performed. The songs are settings of poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of one of Richard Wagners patrons, Wagner had become acquainted with Otto Wesendonck in Zurich, where he had fled on his escape from Saxony after the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. For a time Wagner and his wife Minna lived together in the Asyl and it is sometimes claimed that Wagner and Mathilde had a love affair, in any case, the situation and mutual infatuation certainly contributed to the intensity in the conception of Tristan und Isolde. Wagner sold the settings to the publisher Schott in 1860 for 1000 francs, no name was given for the author of the texts at the first publication, it was not publicly revealed until after Mathildes death. Der Engel, composed November 1857 Stehe still, in Träume can be heard the roots of the love duet in Act 2, while Im Treibhaus uses music later developed extensively for the prelude to Act 3. A few have attempted the whole cycle in performance, the orchestration of all five songs was completed for large orchestra by Felix Mottl, the Wagner conductor. In 1972 the Italian composer Vieri Tosatti entirely re-orchestrated the songs, in 1976 the German composer Hans Werner Henze produced a chamber version for the songs. Each of the players has a part, with some very unusual wind registration. French composer Christophe Looten wrote a transcription for voice and string quartet, in 2013 the French composer Alain Bonardi released a new version for voice, piano, clarinet and cello, including instrumental interludes with oriental resonant percussions. In the same year, the Chinese-British composer Jeffrey Ching premiered his Wesendonck Sonata, based on the music of the songs, for voice, cello or viola, and piano. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. websiteportal. de The whole cycle re-orchestrated by the Italian composer Vieri Tosatti Video on YouTube of Wesendonck Sonata of Jeffrey Ching
Wesendonck Lieder
–
Portrait of Mathilde Wesendonck (1850) by
Karl Ferdinand Sohn
Wesendonck Lieder
–
Villa Wesendonck, Zurich
39.
Art and Revolution
–
Art and Revolution is a long essay by the composer Richard Wagner, originally published in 1849. It sets out some of his ideas about the role of art in society. Art and Revolution was one of a group of articles he published in his exile. His enthusiasm for writing at this stage of his career is in part explained by his inability, in exile. This was quite different from the music of popular operas of the period. Wagner wrote the essay over two weeks in Paris and sent it to a French political journal, the National, they refused it, the following summary is based on the standard translation of Wagners prose works by William Ashton Ellis, first published in 1895. Quotations are taken from this translation, Wagner notes that artists complain that economic uncertainty following the 1848 revolutions has damaged their prospects. But such materialistic complaints are selfish and unjustified and those who practised art for arts sake suffered also in the former times when others were rejoicing. He therefore undertakes an examination of the role of art in society and he extols the Apollonian spirit, embodied in the tragedies of Aeschylus, as the highest conceivable form of Art – the DRAMA. But the fall of the Athenian state meant that philosophy, rather than art, Wagner portrays the Romans as brutal and sensuous, and the Church as having hypocritically betrayed Jesuss gospel of Universal Love. The worldly power of Christendom indeed had its share in the revival of art by patronage of artists celebrating its own supremacy, moreover, the security of riches awoke in the ruling classes the desire for more refined enjoyment of their wealth. Modern changes in society have resulted in the catastrophe that art has sold her soul, moreover, opera is enjoyed specifically because of its superficial sensationalism. This argument is so convincing, that we can only reply by saying, it would be more decorous to employ for this purpose any other thing in the wide world, but not the body and soul of Art. We shall then be told, however, that if we do not employ Art in this manner, it must perish from out our public life, only the great Revolution of Mankind, whose beginnings erstwhile shattered Grecian Tragedy, can win for us this Art-work. This revolution consists for Wagner of a not very clearly defined return to Nature, Wagners goal is the strong fair Man, to whom Revolution shall give his Strength, and Art his Beauty. Wagner then berates those who dismiss these ideas as utopian. Wagners idealism of ancient Greece was common among his intellectual circle. However, the concept of music drama as Wagner eventually forged it is rooted in the ideas he expressed at this time
Art and Revolution
–
Plaque commemorating the 1849 revolution in
Dresden, for his part in which Wagner was forced to live in exile
40.
The Artwork of the Future
–
The essay is one of a series which Wagner produced in a period of intensive writing following his exile after the Dresden May uprising of 1849. It follows Art and Revolution and precedes Jewishness in Music, developing the ideas of the one, Wagner wrote the whole essay over about two months in Zürich. He wrote to his friend Uhlig on November 1849, This will be the last of my literary works, on this, as on many other matters in his life, Wagner was to change his mind. The essay is dedicated to the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, whose works, in September and October 1849, Wagner had read both Feuerbachs Reflections on Death and Immortality and his The Essence of Christianity. The title of the essay was to haunt Wagner, thereafter his opponents were to taunt him as a prophet of the music of the future. However he abandoned this plan, and the draft became the basis for the first Slovak opera, Kovac Wiland. Wagner begins, As Man stands to Nature, so stands Art to Man, Man, or more particularly the Volk creates Art to fill that want. Those who feel no want are outsiders to the Volk and crave only pointless luxury – true Art thus comes only from the needs of the Volk. When luxury has been abolished by the Volk they will be able to join to create the Artwork of the Future. Wagner goes on to talk of the three elements of art, which he lists as Dance, Tone and Poetry which were originally united in ancient Greek drama. This artwork will command all the arts – Architecture can set before herself no higher task than to frame it, the Artwork of the Future will of course bring forth the Artist of the Future who will be without a doubt the Poet. Wagner points out that it is a matter of whether this be a word-poet or a tone-poet. However the Darsteller of the Artwork will be a communal matter, in this communal aspect of the Artwork of the Future, Newman sees an anticipation of the Bayreuth Festival concept. The essay closes with a précis of Wieland the Smith, the essay is not to be confused with Wagners 1861 essay, Music of the Future. M. and ed. W. Ashton Ellis, The Art-Work of the Future, emma Warner, The Artwork of the Future, London,2013 ISSN 1755-0173, ISSN 1755-0181 For complete text in English see The Art-Work of the Future
The Artwork of the Future
–
Titlepage of the first edition
The Artwork of the Future
–
Wagner in 1853
41.
Das Judenthum in der Musik
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Das Judenthum in der Musik, is an essay by Richard Wagner which attacks Jews in general and the composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn in particular. It was published under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of Leipzig in September 1850 and was reissued in an expanded version under Wagner’s name in 1869. It is regarded by some as an important landmark in the history of German anti-semitism, the first version of the article appeared in the NZM under the pseudonym of K. Freigedank. In an April 1851 letter to Franz Liszt, Wagner gave the excuse that he used a pseudonym to prevent the question being dragged down by the Jews to a personal level. At the time Wagner was living in exile in Zurich, on the run after his role in the 1849 revolution in Dresden and his article followed a series of essays in the NZM by his disciple Theodor Uhlig, attacking the music of Meyerbeer’s opera Le prophète. Wagner was also emboldened by the death of Mendelssohn in 1847 and this, he says, debars them from any possibility of creating song or music. There is little novelty in these ideas, which are lifted from the theories of language. They also follow on from ideas expressed in Wagners earlier essay The Artwork of the Future, the music produced by composers such as Mendelssohn, whom Wagner damns with faint praise, is sweet and tinkling without depth. Meyerbeer, who was alive at the time of publication, is attacked savagely for his music. The essay is riddled with the typical of many Judeophobic publications of the previous few centuries. Only when a body’s inner death is manifest, do outside elements win the power of lodgement in it—yet merely to destroy it. Then, indeed, that body’s flesh dissolves into a colony of insect life. Wagner gives some convoluted near-endorsements of the Jewish-born writers Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Börne and it could thus be represented by a Jew, who understood from his very nature its cultural inauthenticity, but who also excoriated its corruption. In this, he was the conscience of Judaism, just as Judaism is the conscience of our modern civilisation. Wagner then goes on to refer to Börne, a Jewish writer and he tells Jews to follow his example, recommending that they follow Börne by helping to redeem German culture by abandoning Judaism. Without once looking back, take ye your part in this work of deliverance through self-annulment, then are we one. But bethink ye, that one thing can redeem you from your curse. NZM had a very small circulation—no more, in JM Fischer’s estimate, apart from Moscheles letter, Fischer has found virtually no other substantial response
Das Judenthum in der Musik
–
Title page of the second edition of Das Judenthum in der Musik, published in 1869
42.
Mein Leben (Wagner)
–
Mein Leben is the title given by the composer Richard Wagner to his autobiography, covering the years from his birth in 1813 to 1864. Wagner began dictating Mein Leben to his wife Cosima on 17 July 1865 in Munich, Wagner was indebted to the King, who had rescued him from a life of exile and financial harassment in the previous year. At around the time in 1864, Wagner had been given the news of the death of his hate-figure. The book therefore ends on a triumphant note with the exaltation of Wagner at the death of his supposed enemy, the book is amongst the most readable of Wagners prose writings, generally free of the complex syntax that is typical of his theoretical works. His complex and frequently tempestuous career, friendships and controversies make for a racy, nonetheless the book is a major source for Wagners life and indeed for musical and cultural life of Europe in the period which it covers. The final section of the book, covering 1861 to 1864, was not completed until 1880, however, Wagner and Cosima had already determined to print a few copies for private circulation. The first volume was printed in 1870 in an edition of fifteen, volumes 2 and 3 were printed in 1872 and 1875, in editions of eighteen copies. Wagner recruited the young Friedrich Nietzsche to act as proof-reader and to see the book though a press in Basel, volume 4 was printed in 1880 in Bayreuth. There was no intention to distribute the book beyond a circle of trusted friends, for this reason. I was bold enough to assert that you too would have asked him to do it and this is despite the fact that Wagner, in dictating to Cosima, had watered down some of his past, particularly his love life and his involvement in the 1849 Revolution in Dresden. Following a suggestion by Nietzsche, Wagner included a symbolic crest as a frontispiece to the first volume and this showed a vulture holding a shield with the constellation of The Plough, thus referring both to Wagners natural father Carl and to his beloved stepfather, Ludwig Geyer. This was later the source for Nietzsches taunt, that Wagner might have been Jewish, both Geyer and Adler were common Jewish surnames, although Ludwig Geyer was not in fact Jewish. Over the years, and particularly after Wagners death, Cosima attempted to recall all the copies that had been distributed, many of these were apparently burnt by Cosima. The first complete edition appeared in 1963. The edition translated by Andrew Gray is based on this and is the first complete English translation
Mein Leben (Wagner)
–
Wagner family
crest devised for Mein Leben (see text, The frontispiece)
43.
Holztrompete
–
A Holztrompete, an instrument somewhat resembling the Alpenhorn in tone-quality, designed by Richard Wagner for representing the natural pipe of the peasant in Tristan und Isolde. The Holztrompete is in the key of C, the scale is produced by overblowing, a single piston placed at a third of the distance from the mouthpiece to the bell gives the notes D and F. The Holztrompete was used at Munich for the first performance of Tristan and Isolde, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Schlesinger, Kathleen
Holztrompete
–
Harmonic Series.
44.
Wagner tuba
–
The Wagner tuba is an infrequently-used brass instrument that combines tonal elements of both the French horn and the trombone. Wagner tubas are also referred to as Wagner horns or Bayreuth tubas in English, the term Wagner tuba has been used in English since the 19th century and is standard today. Wagners published scores usually refer to instruments in the plural, Tuben. The Wagner tuba was originally created for Richard Wagners operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner was inspired to invent the Wagner tuba after a brief visit to Paris in 1853. He visited the shop of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone and they showed him a saxhorn, which is similar to the instrument that Wagner ultimately wanted, and later had constructed by the C. W. Moritz firm in Berlin. Wagner wanted an instrument that could produce the noble and sombre Valhalla motif in Das Rheingold like a trombone and that Wagner tuba aural effect is obtained by a conical bore and the use of the horn mouthpiece. The saxhorn had a cylindrical and larger bore, used the parabolic cupped mouthpiece. The Wagner tuba is built with rotary valves, which are played with the left hand, horn players traditionally double on Wagner tubas because the mouthpiece and fingering are identical. The Wagner tuba nominally exists in two sizes, tenor in B♭ and bass in F, with ranges comparable to those of horns in the same pitches while being less adept at the highest notes. Several 20th-century and later manufacturers have, however, combined the two instruments into a double Wagner tuba that can easily be configured in either B♭ or F, the name Wagner tuba is considered problematic, possibly incorrect, by many theorists. Kent Kennan says they are poorly named since they are really modified horns rather than tubas, the sound of the Wagner tuba is as mellow as that of the horn and sounds more distant, yet also more focused. Anton Bruckner generally uses them for pensive melodic passages at piano to pianissimo dynamics and they can hold their own in a forte tutti, but Bruckner generally gives them sustained tones rather than melodic motifs in such passages. In Bruckners Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, the four Wagner tubas are played by players who alternate between horn and Wagner tuba, which is the same procedure Wagner used in the Ring. This change is simplified by the fact that the horn and Wagner tuba use the same mouthpiece, where on the orchestral score the Wagner tubas are placed depend on who plays them. The euphonium is often used as a substitute in modern orchestras, Wagner tubas are typically played by players who are also playing a horn. The staves for the Wagner tubas logically go below those of the horns, if they are played by players who are not also playing a horn, they are placed below the trombones, above the regular tuba, which is then called a contrabass tuba
Wagner tuba
–
Model 110 Double tuba in F/Bb built by Gebr. Alexander Mainz. Rhein. Musikinstrumentenfabrik GmbH (Mainz, Germany).
45.
Bayreuth canon
–
The Bayreuth canon consists of those operas by the German composer Richard Wagner that have been performed at the Bayreuth Festival. The festival, which is dedicated to the staging of these works, was founded by Wagner in 1876 in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, although it was not originally held annually, it has taken place in July and August every year since the 75th anniversary season in 1951. Its venue is the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which was built for the first festival, attendance at the festival is often thought of as a pilgrimage made by Wagner aficionados. The operas in the Bayreuth canon are the last ten of the thirteen that Wagner completed and he rejected the first three – Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot and Rienzi – as apprentice works. The term Bayreuth canon is therefore taken to mean the composers mature operas. Georg Solti was the first conductor to complete studio recordings of all the works in the canon, starting in 1958 with Das Rheingold and finishing in 1986 with Lohengrin. The components of the canon are as follows, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, the Bayreuth Festival was created for the first complete staging of the Ring in 1876. The Ring was next staged in Bayreuth in 1896, the other season when the cycle has been performed there unaccompanied by other operas. Since then, it has appeared during most seasons, Parsifal This work was first performed at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The degree to which Parsifal is associated with one venue, the Festspielhaus, Wagner dubbed the opera a Bühnenweihfestspiel, which opera director Mike Ashman translates as a festival work to consecrate a stage. Ashman explains this as meaning that it was intended to secure the future of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was staged nowhere else until 1903 when the Metropolitan Opera in New York broke the embargo placed on theatrical performances outside Bayreuth by Wagner, Parsifal far exceeds the other members of the canon in the number of performances it has received at Bayreuth. Most of these performances were of the production, which received 205 performances before a new staging was introduced in 1934. Another production – the influential one by the composers grandson Wieland – was staged every year from 1951, in introducing these, she fulfilled her dead husbands wishes but over an extended timescale. Meistersinger is the work in the canon, apart from Parsifal and the Ring cycle, to have had whole festival seasons. As of the completion of the 2015 festival,2622 performances have been given at the Bayreuth Festival of the operas in the canon, list of works for the stage by Wagner Ashman, Mike A Very Human Epic in John pp. 7–14. Ashman, Mike Tannhäuser – an obsession in John pp. 7–15, Bayreuther Festspiele Die Aufführungen sortiert nach Festspielleitung. Statistics of performances at Bayreuth Festival sorted by festival director at official festival site, in German, accessed 24 May 2012
Bayreuth canon
–
Richard Wagner and his second wife
Cosima, who established the Bayreuth canon
Bayreuth canon
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Paul von Joukowsky 's design for the
Grail scene for the original 1882 production of Parsifal
46.
Bayreuth Festival
–
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagner enthusiasts, who often must wait years to obtain tickets. The origins of the Festival itself lie rooted in Richard Wagners interest in establishing his financial independence, a souring of the relationship with his patron, Ludwig II of Bavaria, led to his expulsion from Munich, where he had originally intended to launch the festival. Wagner next considered Nuremberg, which would have reinforced the significance of works such as Die Meistersinger. On the advice of Hans Richter, however, the focus fell upon Bayreuth which enjoyed three distinct advantages, first, the town boasted a splendid venue, the Markgräfliches Opernhaus built for Margrave Frederick and his wife, Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine in 1747. With its ample capacity and strong acoustics, the house was a good match for Wagners vision. Finally, the town had no cultural life that could offer competition to Wagners own artistic dominance, the Festival, once launched, would be the dominant feature of Bayreuths cultural landscape. In April 1870, Wagner and his wife Cosima visited Bayreuth, on inspection, the Opera House proved to be inadequate. It was built to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the 18th century and was unsuited for the complex stagings. Nonetheless, the Burgermeisters proved open to assisting Wagner with the construction of a new theatre. After a fruitless meeting in the spring of 1871 with the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to obtain funds, Wagner embarked on a tour across Germany, including Leipzig. Societies were established, among other places, in Leipzig, Berlin, despite making direct appeals based on Wagners role as a composer of the new German Reich, the Societies and other fundraising channels were well short of the needed sum by the end of 1872. Wagner made another appeal to Bismarck in August 1873 and was again denied, desperate, Wagner turned to his former patron, Ludwig II who reluctantly agreed to help. In January 1874, Ludwig granted 100,000 Thaler and construction on the theatre, designed by architect Gottfried Semper, a planned 1875 debut was postponed for a year due to construction and other delays. Since its opening in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has been a socio-cultural phenomenon, the inauguration took place on 13 August 1876, with a performance of Das Rheingold. Artistically, the festival was a success, financially, however, the festival was a disaster and did not begin to make money until several years later. Wagner abandoned his plan to hold a second festival the following year
Bayreuth Festival
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Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as seen in 2006
Bayreuth Festival
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Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as seen in 1882
Bayreuth Festival
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Felix Mottl conducted Tristan und Isolde at Bayreuth in 1886
Bayreuth Festival
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Memorial to Jewish singers in the Bayreuth Festival Park
47.
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
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The Bayreuth Festspielhaus or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival, for which it was specifically conceived, Wagner adapted the design of the Festspielhaus from an unrealised project by Gottfried Semper for an opera house in Munich, without the architects permission, and supervised its construction. Ludwig II of Bavaria provided the funding for the construction. The foundation stone was laid on 22 May 1872, Wagners 59th birthday, the building was first opened for the premiere of the complete four-opera cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen, from 13 to 17 August 1876. Only the entry façade exhibits the typical late-19th-century ornamentation, while the remainder of the exterior is modest, the interior is mainly wood and has a reverberation time of 1.55 seconds. The Festspielhaus is a building, in fact, it is the largest free standing timber structure ever erected. This is also known as continental seating, many contemporary movie theaters have adopted this style of seating, which gives every seat an equal and uninterrupted view of the stage. The capacity of the Festspielhaus is 1,925 and has a volume of 10,000 cubic metres, the Festspielhaus features a double proscenium, which gives the audience the illusion that the stage is further away than it actually is. The double proscenium and the orchestra pit create – in Wagners term – a mystic gulf between the audience and the stage. This gives a character to performances, and provides a physical reinforcement of the mythic content of most of Wagners operas. The architecture of Festpielhaus accomplished many of Wagners goals and ideals for the performances of his operas including an improvement on the sound, feel, and overall look of the production. The Festpielhaus was originally planned to open in 1873, but by that time Wagner had barely raised enough money to put up the walls of his theatre and he began to raise money by traveling and putting on concerts in various cities and countries throughout Europe. There are, however, some documents concerning the donation and aid to Wagner for that matter by the Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire, even after Ludwig began funding the project, Wagner had to continue putting on concerts to keep the building project financially afloat. The tours were very taxing on Wagners health and would eventually be a key element to his death later on in 1883, a significant feature of the Festspielhaus is its unusual orchestra pit. It is recessed under the stage and covered by a hood and this feature was a central preoccupation for Wagner, since it made the audience concentrate on the drama onstage, rather than the distracting motion of the conductor and musicians. The design also corrected the balance of volume between singers and orchestra, creating ideal acoustics for Wagners operas, which are the operas performed at the Festspielhaus. However, this arrangement has made it the most challenging to conduct in. Not only is the crowded pit enveloped in darkness, but the acoustic reverberation makes it difficult to synchronise the orchestra with the singers, conductors must therefore retrain themselves to ignore cues from singers
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
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Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
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Building in 1882
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
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Part of the orchestra pit
48.
Jahrhundertring
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The cycle was shown first in 1976, then in the following years until 1980. It was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980, while the first performance caused a near-riot for its brash modernity, the staging, termed the beginning of Regietheater, established a standard for later productions. The conductors first choice for a director was Ingmar Bergman. When he refused, Boulez recommended as stage director Patrice Chéreau, the French team revolutionised the understanding of Wagner in Germany, as music critic Eleonore Büning wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Unprecedentedly, the scene was set in Industrial Revolution, dressing the gods as capitalists at war with the Nibelung proletariat, set at the time of the composition, it took a critical view of the times capitalism, industrialism and spiritual background. The Rhinemaidens appeared as 19th-century cancan dancers and Wotan as a banker in a frock coat, Siegfried enters the hall of the Gibichungs dressed in the ragged clothes of a mythical hero and meets Gunther wearing a dinner jacket, visualising how alien the hero is to the world. The directors approach was described as a mix of a sense of 19th-century melodrama with Shaws messianic socialism. The singers for the production had to act as much as to sing, the following table shows singers of the first year 1976 and of the last year, when it was filmed. The parts of Wagners work are abbreviated R for Das Rheingold, W for Die Walküre, S for Siegfried, alternate singers were in 1976 Hans Sotin as Wotan and Karl Ridderbusch as Hunding, Roberta Knie as Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung and Bengt Rundgren as Hagen. In 1977, Patrice Chéreau acted the part of Siegfried in one performance of Siegfried, in 1978, Astrid Schirmer performed Sieglinde in Walküre, Jean Cox sang the part of Siegfried in one performance of Siegfried. Later it was understood as an allegory of mans exploitation of natural resources. Winifred Wagner, the elderly matriarch of the Wagner dynasty, disliked the production. After its final performance in 1980 the production was celebrated in a 45-minute standing ovation and it set a standard for productions of the Ring Cycle to follow. Called the beginning of Regietheater, the production influenced directors and designers, the production was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980. Die Walküre was shown in the ARD on 28 August 1980, the cycle was shown completely in 1983, in commemoration of the composers death, and also presented in the cinema internationally. While a DVD review of the BBC criticized Boulezs ruthless tempi and pervasive lack of expressiveness, more controversial than Chéreaus dramatic conception was Boulezs musical execution. With startlingly clear textures, spectacularly bright colors, and stunningly light tempos, and for those with ears to hear, it works. Edward Rothstein wrote for the New York Times, Aspects of the score emerge with unexpected clarity, in the opening of Die Walküre, he deliberately understates the bass line, giving the musics aggressive restlessness an eerie disembodied character
Jahrhundertring
–
A scene from
Götterdämmerung, part four of the
Ring Cycle, in the centenary production at the
Bayreuth Festival, conducted by
Pierre Boulez and staged by
Patrice Chéreau, with
Gwyneth Jones as Brünnhilde
Jahrhundertring
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Patrice Chéreau stage director
Jahrhundertring
–
Jacques Schmidt costume designer
49.
Wagner family tree
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The family of the composer Richard Wagner, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner, a police actuary, ∞1798 Johanna Rosine Pätz, daughter of a baker. 1836 Minna Planer, *1809 †1866, actress ∞2, eleonore Gräfin Lehndorff Joy Olivia Wagner Nike Wagner, *1945, dramaturg and publicist, ∞1. Jürg Stenzl, *1942, musicologist Louise Launay Daphne Wagner, *1946, udo Proksch, *1934 †2001 businessman and industrialist ∞2. Carr, Jonathan, The Wagner Clan, The Saga of Germanys Most Illustrious and Infamous Family, ISBN 0-87113-975-8 Wagner Family Tree Wagner Family Tree
Wagner family tree
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Richard Wagner and family in 1881. Left to right, top row: Blandine von Bülow, Heinrich von Stein (Siegfried's tutor), Cosima Wagner, Richard Wagner, Paul von Joukowsky (family friend); bottom row: Isolde, Daniela von Bülow, Eva, Siegfried
50.
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
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He was also the son-in-law of German composer Richard Wagner, as, in December 1908, twenty-five years after Wagners death, Chamberlain married the composers daughter, Eva von Bülow. Houston Stewart Chamberlain was born in Southsea, Hampshire, England and his mother, Eliza Jane, daughter of Captain Basil Hall, RN, died before he was a year old, his grandmother brought him up in France. Chamberlains poor health led him to being sent to the warmer climates of Spain. This constant moving made it hard for Chamberlain to form lasting friendships and left him with a feeling of rootlessness. Chamberlains education, begun in a lycée at Versailles, took place mostly on the Continent, at the age of eleven he was sent to Cheltenham College, an English boarding school which produced many army and navy officers. Chamberlain deeply disliked Cheltenham, and felt lonely and out of place there, the young Chamberlain was a compulsive dreamer, more interested in the arts than in the military, and he developed a fondness for nature and a near-mystical sense of self. Chamberlains major interests in his studies at Cheltenham were the natural sciences, Chamberlain later recalled, The starlight exerted an indescribable influence on me. The stars seemed closer to me, more gentle, more worthy of trust, for the stars, I experienced true friendship. During his youth, Chamberlain - while not entirely rejecting at this point his liberalism - become influenced by the romantic conservative critique of the Industrial Revolution, the prospect of serving as an officer in India or elsewhere in the British Empire held no attraction for him. In addition, he was a child with poor health. At the age of fourteen he had to be withdrawn from school, Chamberlain then travelled to various spas around Europe, accompanied by a Prussian tutor, Herr Otto Kuntze, who taught him German and interested him in German culture and history. Fascinated by Renaissance art and architecture, Chamberlain learned Italian and planned to settle in Florence for a time, Chamberlain then went to Geneva, where he studied under Carl Vogt, Graebe, Müller Argoviensis, Thury, Plantamour, and other professors. He studied systematic botany, geology, astronomy, and later the anatomy, under the tutelage of Professor Julius von Wiesner of the University of Vienna, Chamberlain studied botany in Geneva, earning a Bacheliers en sciences physiques et naturelles in 1881. His thesis, Recherches sur la sève ascendante, was not finished until 1897, physical arguments, in particular transpirational pull and root pressure, have since been shown to be adequate for explaining the ascent of sap. Chamberlain often expressed his disgust with Disraeli, the man whom he blamed in large measure for the injection of selfish class interest and jingoism into British public life in the next decades. In 1881, he wrote to his family in Britain, praising William Ewart Gladstone for introducing the Land Bill to bring in fair rents in Ireland, Chamberlain was an early supporter of Hanns Hörbigers Welteislehre, the theory that most bodies in our solar system are covered with ice. Due in part to Chamberlains advocacy, this became official cosmological dogma during the Third Reich, still, his scientific credentials were often cited by admirers to give weight to his political philosophy. Chamberlain rejected Darwinism, evolution and social Darwinism and instead emphasized gestalt which he derived from Goethe
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
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Portrait of Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
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Houston Stewart Chamberlain in 1895
