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Miracle In The Gorbals
''Miracle in the Gorbals'' (1944) is a one-act ballet choreographed by Robert Helpmann to a story by Michael Benthall, with music by Arthur Bliss. The setting is the 1940s slums in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. It became a staple of the Royal Ballet, performed each season from 1944 to 1950 and receiving a revival in 1958. Background The idea for the scenario for ''Miracle in the Gorbals'' came to Michael Benthall while he was working on a gun site in Glasgow. He worked on a detailed story and the characters, discussing the action with dancer and choreographer Robert Helpmann. The next collaborator to be identified was the designer, Edward Burra. The composer Arthur Bliss set to work on the score, with scenario and initial designs before him. The Royal Ballet performed the ballet every season from 1944 to 1950 and revived it in 1958, but it did not perform it in Glasgow itself when touring Scotland in 1945. They also performed the ballet in Paris.Bland A. ''The Royal Ballet – the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Helpmann
Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE ( Helpman, 9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (now The Royal Ballet) under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer. Helpmann, from the outset of his career was an actor as well as a dancer, and in the 1940s he turned increasingly to acting in plays, at the Old Vic and in the West End. Most of his roles were in Shakespeare plays but he also appeared in works by Shaw, Coward, Sartre and others. As a director his range was wide, from Shakespeare to opera, musicals and pantomime. Helpmann became co-director of the Austra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Edwards
Leslie George Edwards (6 August 1916 – 8 February 2001) was a British ballet dancer and ballet master. He was one of the final links with Ninette de Valois's original pre-war Vic-Wells Ballet. Apart from two years of military service during the Second World War, his entire 60-year career was effectively spent with what became the Royal Ballet organisation, until his final retirement from the stage in 1993. Early years Edwards was born on 6 August 1916 and trained with Marie Rambert after leaving school at the age of 15. He then joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School. He also trained with Margaret Craske, Stanislav Idzikowski and Vera Volkova. He debuted at Rambert's Ballet Club in 1932. Performing career Edwards was a cast member in the original production of Antony Tudor's ''Jardin aux Lilas'' in 1936. He first danced with the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1933, however, he only officially joined the company in 1937. With the Vic-Wells Ballet, he was a member of the first cast of Freder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, the state government and the Australian federal government through the Australia Council. Performance venues Most of the Orchestra's performances take place in Brisbane at three venues: * Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Concert Hall * QSO Studios, South Bank * Brisbane City Hall In addition, the orchestra tours other parts of the state of Queensland regularly, including the following locations: * Gold Coast Art Centre * The Events Centre, Caloundra * Empire Theatres, Toowoomba * Pilbeam Theatre, Rockhampton * Mackay Entertainment Centre * Townsville Civic Theatre * Cairns Civic Theatre History Queensland Symphony Orchestra played its first concert on 26 March 1947, consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paavo Berglund
Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund (14 April 192925 January 2012) was a Finnish conductor and violinist. Career Born in Helsinki, Berglund studied the violin as a child, and played an instrument made by his grandfather. By age 15, he had decided on music as his career, and by 18 was playing in restaurants. During the Second World War, Berglund worked at the iron factories in Billnäs. Children were moved out of Helsinki during heavy stages of the war. His professional career as a violinist began in 1946, playing the whole summer at the officers' mess (Upseerikasino) in Helsinki. He had already played in dance orchestras in 1945. Formal study took place in Helsinki at the Sibelius Academy, in Vienna and in Salzburg. He was a violinist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1958 in the 1st violin section, unique among the instrumentalists in being accommodated for seating to account for the fact that he played the violin 'left-handed'. In a radio interview made of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, since 1979.Street, Sean, and Carpenter, R., ''The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, A Centenary Celebration''. Wimborne, The Dovecote Press Ltd, 1993 (). Principal conductors of the orchestra have included Sir Dan Godfrey, Rudolf Schwarz, Constantin Silvestri, Paavo Berglund, Andrew Litton and Marin Alsop. The current principal conductor is Kirill Karabits, since 2009. The orchestra is resident at Lighthouse in Poole, with other major concert series given at Portsmouth Guildhall, the Great Hall of Exeter University and Bristol Beacon. Shorter series are also given in Bournemouth (Pavilion Theatre) and Basingstoke. History Origins to 1934: The Godfrey era The Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra was founded in 1893 by Dan Godfrey as a grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the Graphophone#Commercialization, American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Laboratory and Bureau#Commercialization of phonograph patents, Volta Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records International, CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI's Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels, alongside former longtime rival RCA Records, as well as Arista Records and Epic Records. Artists who have recorded for Columbia include AC/DC, Adele, Aerosmith, Julie And ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingsway Hall
The Kingsway Hall in Holborn, London, was the base of the West London Mission (WLM) of the Methodist Church, and eventually became one of the most important recording venues for classical music and film music. It was built in 1912 and demolished in 1998. Among the prominent Methodists associated with the Kingsway Hall was Donald Soper, who was Superintendent Minister at the West London Mission from 1936 until his retirement in 1978. Overview Kingsway Hall took its name from the street on to which its main entrance opened. The address was West London Mission, 75 Kingsway, London . In 1899, the London County Council (LCC) was given the power to proceed with major slum clearance in the area between Holborn and the Strand. The Methodist Church had operated its West London Mission since 1887 occupying a number of rented buildings in Piccadilly, St James' Hall and Princes Hall, and the Strand, Exeter Hall. These venues were steadily reclaimed as sites for new hotels, so eventually, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor, was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades. From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the orchestra's chief conductor was Otto Klemperer, with whom the orchestra gave many concerts and made numerous recordings of the core orchestral repertoire. During Klemperer's tenure Legge, citing the difficulty of maintaining the orchestra's high standards, attempted to disband it in 1964, but the players, backed by Klemp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Holden
Stanley Holden (27 January 1928 – 11 May 2007), born Stanley Herbert Waller, was a British American ballet dancer and choreographer. Born in London, he joined the Royal Ballet in 1944 and won notice for performing numerous character roles, especially "Widow Simone" in the 1960 production of ''La fille mal gardée'' by Frederick Ashton. After retiring in 1969, he moved to California to teach and perform.Pasles, Chris (13 May 2007). Stanley Holden, 79; dancer who taught for years in Southland. ''Los Angeles Times'' He died from heart disease and colon cancer in Thousand Oaks, California in 2007, aged 79.Kisselgoff, Anna (15 May 2007). Stanley Holden, 79, a Dancer and Prominent Ballet Teacher, Is Dead'' The New York Times'' His former wife Stella Farrance was also a dancer in the Royal Ballet. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerd Larsen
Gerd Larsen born Gerd Elly (19 February 1921 – 4 October 2001) was a Norwegian ballerina who performed frequently with England's Royal Ballet, in a career lasting over fifty years up until her seventy-fifth birthday. In her later years she was known for her mime roles. Early life Gerd Elly was born in Oslo, Norway on 19 February 1921. Her father, Leonard, was a civil servant.Arnold Haskell, "Turner, Harold (1909–1962)", rev. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200accessed 22 March 2014/ref> Career In the late 1930s, Elly came to London to study with Margaret Craske, and Antony Tudor, the first British ballet expert to recognise her skills. She joined Tudor's London Ballet in 1938, founded after he broke with Ballet Rambert. In 1938, Tudor created two roles for Larsen, Canonetta in ''Soirée Musicale'' and the French ballerina in ''Gala Performance''. Elly first danced with Sadler's Wells Ballet (now The Royal Ballet) in 1944. This was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moyra Fraser
Moyra Fraser (3 December 1923 – 13 December 2009) was an Australian-born English actress and ballet dancer, who is best known for playing Penny in the long-running sitcom '' As Time Goes By''. Her sister was the actress Shelagh Fraser. She married author Douglas Sutherland, with whom she had a daughter, and Roger Lubbock, by whom she had two sons. Early life Moyra Fraser was born in Sydney, Australia to John Newton Mappin Fraser, a director of Mappin & Webb, and Vera Eleanor (née Beardshaw)Who's who in theatre, John Parker, 12th ed., 1957, p. 526 on 3 December 1923 and with her family emigrated to the United Kingdom in June 1924. Educated at St Christopher's, Kingswood, and Eversfield, Sutton, she left school at 14 to take up a scholarship with Sadler's Wells Ballet, where she was befriended by Robert Helpmann. Stage career Fraser joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet after training, dancing the title role in ''Giselle'', the Lilac Fairy in '' The Sleeping Princess'' and creating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Farron
Julia Farron (22 July 1922 – 3 July 2019) was an English ballerina, best known as one of the earliest and all-time youngest members of The Royal Ballet, the leading ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Julia Farron was born Joyce Margaret Farron-Smith in London. on 22 July 1922. In 1931, Farron became the first pupil to receive a scholarship to study under the direction of Dame Ninette de Valois at the Vic-Wells Ballet School. She made her professional stage debut in a pantomime in 1934, aged twelve. In 1936, having completed five years of study at the ballet school, she joined the Vic-Wells Ballet, becoming the company's youngest member, aged fourteen. The following year in 1937, she danced her first created role, ''Pepe the Dog'', in the ballet ''A Wedding Bouquet'' choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton. Farron would stay with the company throughout its development into The Royal Ballet, eventually achieving the rank of principal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
