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John Medex Maddox
John Medex Maddox (1789–1861) was a Victorian-era playwright and one-time manager of the Princess's Theatre, London, Princess's Theatre in London's Oxford Street. Of Jews, Jewish descent, Maddox had been born John Medex and used "Maddox" as an ornamental suffix. His brother, Samuel Medex kept a cigar shop directly opposite the Princess's Theatre and his premises became something of a meeting point for London's actors and playwrights. Until taking over the Princesses Theatre in 1842, Maddox had led a roving life as stage-manager, acting-manager, and agent. He had also enjoyed a brief spell as manager of London's Colosseum theatre. Charles II, Duke of Brunswick, Charles, Duke of Brunswick, an exiled German aristocrat and London character, lent Maddox the cash to tide him over during the first few months of his management. His first productions at the Princesses were the opera ''La Sonnambula'' and an Oriental burlesque. The chief feature of Maddox's reign were English versions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princess's Theatre, London
The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess Victoria before her accession as queen. After an unsuccessful series of promenade concerts, alterations were made on the interior, and the theatre was reopened on 26 December 1842 with Vincenzo Bellini's opera ''La sonnambula''. The theatre, by now under the management of John Medex Maddox, presented operas and other entertainments, such as General Tom Thumb. The theatre is best remembered for Charles Kean's Shakespeare revivals, beginning in 1849 and continuing for ten years. Kean presented these in lavish and well-researched "authentic" productions and also presented French drama. Dion Boucicault became the theatre's leading actor, and Ellen Terry and Henry Irving got their s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Keeley (comedian)
Robert Keeley (1793 – 3 February 1869) was an English actor-manager, comedian and female impersonator of the nineteenth century. In 1823 he originated the role of 'Fritz' in ''Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein'', the first known stage adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel ''Frankenstein''. Early life Robert Keeley was born in London as one of sixteen children, his father being a watchmaker. Keeley was an apprentice printer to Hansard, but dissatisfied with this career he joined a travelling acting company. He was at the Richmond Theatre in 1813 before moving to Norwich for four years and then to the West London Theatre. He made his professional London debut at the Olympic Theatre in 1818 as Leporello in ''Don Giovanni in London'', based on Mozart's opera. In 1819 Keeley appeared at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and played the original Jemmy Green in ''Tom and Jerry, or Life in London'' by William Thomas Moncrieff at the Adelphi Theatre during 1821–2. At the end of 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1861 Deaths
Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry. Events January–March * January 1 ** Benito Juárez captures Mexico City. ** The first steam-powered carousel is recorded, in Bolton, England. * January 2 – Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies, and is succeeded by Wilhelm I. * January 3 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the Union. * January 9 – American Civil War: Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union. * January 10 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union. * January 11 – American Civil War: Alabama secedes from the Union. * January 12 – American Civil War: Major Robert Anderson sends dispatches to Washington. * January 19 – American Civil War: Georgia secedes from the Union. * January 21 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate. * January 26 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1789 Births
Events January–March * January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet ''What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution. * January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election and House of Representatives elections are held. * January 9 – Treaty of Fort Harmar: The terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, between the United States Government and certain native American tribes, are reaffirmed, with some minor changes. * January 21 – The first American novel, ''The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth'', is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown. * January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (today part of Washington, D.C.), as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States. * January 29 – In Vietnam, Emperor Quang Trung crushes the Chinese Qing forces in Ngá» ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Household Words
''Household Words'' was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's ''Henry V'': "Familiar in his mouth as household words." History During the planning stages, titles originally considered by Dickens included ''The Robin'', ''The Household Voice'', ''The Comrade'', ''The Lever'', and ''The Highway of Life''. ''Household Words'' was published every Saturday from March 1850 to May 1859. Each number cost a mere tuppence, thereby ensuring a wide readership. The publication's first edition carried a section covering the paper's principles, entitled "A Preliminary Word": A longer version of the publication's principles appeared in newspapers such as '' The Argus'' in September 1850. Theoretically, the paper championed the cause of the poor and working classes, but in fact it addressed itself almost exclusively to the middle class. Only the name of Dickens, the journal's "conductor", appeared; articles were un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Augustus Henry Sala
George Augustus Henry Fairfield Sala (November 1828 – 8 December 1895) was an author and journalist who wrote extensively for the ''Illustrated London News'' as G. A. S. and was most famous for his articles and leaders for ''The Daily Telegraph''. He founded his own periodical, ''Sala's Journal'', and the Sydney Savage Club. The former was unsuccessful but the latter still continues. Life Sala was born on 24 November 1828 in London. His legal father Augustus John James Sala (1789–1829) being the son of an Italian who came to London to arrange ballets at the theatres. His natural father and godfather was Captain Charles "Henry" Fairfield, an acquaintance of his mother, Henrietta Catharina Simon (1789–1860), an actress and teacher of singing. She was the daughter of Catherina Cells, a former slave, and Demerara planter D. P. Simon. His great-grandmother was the Caribbean entrepreneur, Dorothy Thomas. He was at school at Paris from 1839 but his family returned to England ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Kean
Charles John Kean (18 January 181122 January 1868), was an English actor and theatre manager, best known for his revivals of Shakespearean plays. Life Kean was born at Waterford, Ireland, a son of actor Edmund Kean and actress Mary Kean (''nee'' Chambers). After preparatory education at Worplesdon and at Greenford, near Harrow, he was sent to Eton College, where he remained three years. In 1827, he was offered a cadetship in the East India Company's service, which he was prepared to accept if his father would settle an income of £400 on his mother. The elder Kean refused to do this, and his son determined to become an actor. He made his first appearance at Drury Lane on 1 October 1827 as Norval in Home's ''Douglas'', but his continued failure to achieve popularity led him to leave London in the spring of 1828 for the provinces. In Glasgow, on 1 October in that year, father and son acted together in Arnold Payne's ''Brutus'', the elder Kean in the title-part and his son as Tit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
''Lucrezia Borgia'' is a melodramatic opera in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play ''Lucrezia Borgia'' by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. ''Lucrezia Borgia'' was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan. Performance history 19th century The first London production was at Her Majesty's Theatre on 6 June 1839 with Giulia Grisi and Mario.Ashbrook and Hibberd, p. 234 When the opera was staged in Paris (Théâtre des Italiens) in 1840, Victor Hugo obtained an injunction against further productions within the domain of French copyright law. The libretto was then rewritten and retitled ''La rinegata'', with the Italian characters changed to Turks, and the performances were resumed. The first English-language production was in London on 30 December 1843. The English tenor Sims Reeves was a noted Gennaro. ''Lucrezia'' was first presented in New Orleans on 27 April 1843 and then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as of 2012 had approximately 300 shops. It is designated as part of the A40, a major road between London and Fishguard, though it is not signed as such, and traffic is regularly restricted to buses and taxis. The road was originally part of the Via Trinobantina, a Roman road between Essex and Hampshire via London. It was known as Tyburn Road through the Middle Ages when it was notorious for public hangings of prisoners at Tyburn Gallows. It became known as Oxford Road and then Oxford Street in the 18th century, and began to change from residential to commercial and retail use by the late 19th century, attracting street traders, confidence tricksters and prostitution. The first department stores in the UK opened in the early 20th century, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Puritani
' (''The Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto by Count Carlo Pepoli, an Italian émigré poet whom Bellini had met at a salon run by the exile Princess Belgiojoso, which became a meeting place for many Italian revolutionaries. The opera is based on ''Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers'' (''Roundheads and Cavaliers''), a historical play written by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine and set in the English Civil War, which some sources state was based on Walter Scott's 1816 novel ''Old Mortality,'' while others state that there is no connection. When Bellini arrived in Paris in mid-August 1833, he had intended to stay only about three weeks, the main aim being to continue the negotiations with the Paris Opéra which had begun on his way to London a few months earlier. Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otello (Rossini)
''Otello'' is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by after William Shakespeare's play '' Othello, or The Moor of Venice''; it was premiered in Naples, Teatro del Fondo, 4 December 1816. The plot of the libretto differs greatly from Shakespeare's play in that it takes place wholly in Venice, not mainly on Cyprus, and the dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. The role of Iago is much less diabolical than Shakespeare's play or Verdi's 1887 opera ''Otello'', which was also based on it. Shakespeare derived his play from the story ''Un Capitano Moro'' ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. In further contrast, the role of Roderigo, a sub-plot in Shakespeare and Verdi, is very prominent in Rossini's version—some of the most difficult and brilliant music being assigned to the character Rodrigo. The roles of Otello, Iago, and Rodrigo are all composed for the tenor voice. Rossini's ''Otello'' is an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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