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Ruth Kobart
Ruth Kobart (April 24, 1924 – December 14, 2002) was an American performer, whose six-decade career encompassed opera, Broadway musical theatre, regional theatre, films, and television. Life and career Born as Ruth Maxine Kahn in Des Moines, Iowa, Kobart studied opera at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and made her professional debut as the Witch in an off-Broadway production of Engelbert Humperdinck's '' Hänsel und Gretel''. She frequently toured with the NBC Opera Theatre (NBCOT) and the New York City Opera (NYCO). With the NBCOT she notably created the role of Agata in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's ''Maria Golovin'' at the Expo '58 in Brussels on August 20, 1958; later the same year she portrayed the role on Broadway. For the NBC, she also created the role of Arina in the premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's '' The Marriage''. She played Madame Pace in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' at the NYCO in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Harry
''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ... action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry (film series), ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Inspector#Municipal police, Inspector Dirty Harry (character), "Dirty" Harry Callahan. The film drew upon the real-life case of the Zodiac Killer as the Callahan character seeks out a similar vicious psychopath. ''Dirty Harry'' was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a whole genre of police films. It was followed by four sequels: ''Magnum Force'' in 1973, ''The Enforcer (1976 film), The Enforcer'' in 1976, ''Sudden Impact'' in 1983, and ''The Dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Golovin
''Maria Golovin'' is an English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ... opera in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti. It is through-composed and centers on a romantic encounter between a blind recluse named Donato and the title character, a married woman living in a European country a few years after a war. The work was commissioned by Peter Herman Adler of the NBC Opera Theatre. Its first performance was at the International Exposition Pavilion Theater at Expo '58 in Brussels on 20 August 1958. Later that year, David Merrick and the NBC Opera mounted a Broadway theatre, Broadway production billed as a "musical drama." It was staged by Menotti and ran for five performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Martin Beck Theatre. The cast included Patricia Neway, Ruth Koba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Flea In Her Ear
''A Flea in Her Ear'' (french: La Puce à l'oreille) is a play by Georges Feydeau written in 1907, at the height of the Belle Époque. The author called it a vaudeville, but in Anglophone countries, where it is the most popular of Feydeau's plays, it is usually described as a farce. The plot hinges on the central characters having a double: a middle class businessman is indistinguishable from the hall porter of a shady hotel, and the two are persistently mistaken for each other, to the bafflement of both. Premiere The play was first performed at the Théâtre des Nouveautés, Paris, on 2 March 1907. ''Les Annales du théâtre et de la musique'' said of the play, "It is a piece for which we need to invent a new description: funny, pleasing, comical, frenzied, dizzying, it is all those, and more. The action goes forward with such velocity, explosiveness, ''prestissimo'', from start to finish that the actors and the audience cannot catch their breath for even a second." The play se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically ''Pseudolus'', ''Miles Gloriosus'', and ''Mostellaria'', the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line often used by vaudeville comedians to begin a story: "A funny thing happened on the way to the theater". The musical's original 1962 Broadway run won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Author (Musical). ''A Funny Thing'' has enjoyed several Broadway and West End ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (musical)
''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' is a 1961 musical by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name. The story concerns young, ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch, who, with the help of the book ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', rises from window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Company. The musical, starring Robert Morse and Rudy Vallée, opened at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway in October 1961, running for 1,417 performances. The show won seven Tony Awards, the New York Drama Critics' Circle award, and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1967, a film based on the musical was released by United Artists, with Morse, Vallee, Sammy Smith, and Ruth Kobart re-creating their stage roles. A 1995 revival was mounted at the same theatre as the original production (now named the Richard Rodgers Theatre). It ran for 548 performances and sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Traubel
Helen Francesca Traubel (June 16, 1899July 28, 1972) was an American opera and concert singer. A dramatic soprano, she was best known for her Wagnerian roles, especially those of Brünnhilde and Isolde. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, she began her career as a concert singer and went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera from 1937 to 1953. Starting in the 1950s, she also developed a career as a nightclub and cabaret singer as well as appearing in television, films and musical theatre. Traubel spent her later years in Santa Monica, California, where she died at the age of 73. Early life Traubel was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prosperous family of German descent. She was the daughter of Otto Ferdinand Traubel, a pharmacist, and Clara Traubel (''née'' Stuhr). She studied singing in her native city with Louise Vetta-Karst and later in New York City with Giuseppe Boghetti among other teachers. She made her debut as a concert singer with the Saint Louis Symphony Orches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pipe Dream (musical)
''Pipe Dream'' is the seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; it premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955. The work is based on John Steinbeck's novel ''Sweet Thursday''—Steinbeck wrote the novel, a sequel to ''Cannery Row'', in the hope of having it adapted into a musical. Set in Monterey, California, the musical tells the story of the romance between Doc, a marine biologist, and Suzy, who in the novel is a prostitute; her profession is only alluded to in the stage work. ''Pipe Dream'' was not an outright flop but was a financial disaster for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin held the rights to ''Sweet Thursday'' and wanted Frank Loesser to compose a musical based on it. When Loesser proved unavailable, Feuer and Martin succeeded in interesting Rodgers and Hammerstein in the project. As Hammerstein adapted ''Sweet Thursday'', he and Rodgers had concerns about featuring a prostitute as female lead and settin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodgers And Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s initiated what is considered the "golden age" of musical theater. Gordon, John Steele''Oklahoma'!'. Retrieved June 13, 2010 Five of their Broadway shows, ''Oklahoma!'', '' Carousel'', '' South Pacific'', ''The King and I'' and ''The Sound of Music'', were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of ''Cinderella'' (1957). Of the other four shows that the team produced on Broadway during their lifetimes, ''Flower Drum Song'' was well-received, and none was an outright flop. Most of their shows have received frequent revivals around the world, both professional and amateur. Among the many accolades their shows (and film versions) garnered were thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tartuffe
''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; french: Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theatre roles. History Molière performed his first version of ''Tartuffe'' in 1664. Almost immediately following its performance that same year at Versailles' grand fêtes (The Party of the Delights of the Enchanted Island/''Les fêtes des plaisirs de l'ile enchantée''), King Louis XIV suppressed it, probably due to the influence of the archbishop of Paris, Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe, who was the King's confessor and had been his tutor. While the king had little personal interest in suppressing the play, he did so because, as stated in the official account of the fête: although it was found to be extremely diverting, the king recognized so much conformity between those that a true devotion leads on the path to heave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Six Characters In Search Of An Author (opera)
''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' is an opera in three acts by composer Hugo Weisgall. The work uses an English libretto by Denis Johnston that is based on the play of the same name by Luigi Pirandello. The opera was commissioned by the New York City Opera under the leadership Julius Rudel. It premiered at New York City Center on April 26, 1959 in a production staged by William Ball and using sets and costumes designed by Gary Smith. The work was mounted in 1990 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in 1990, a production which was recorded and released on the New World Records label. The production was conducted by Lee Schaenen and starred Kevin Anderson as The Director, Bruce Fowler as The Tennore Buffo, Andrew Schroeder as The Accompanist, Michael Wadsworth as The Basso Cantante, Philip Zawisza as The Stage Manager, Elizabeth Futral as The Coloratura, Susan Foster as The Prompter, Joslyn King as The Mezzo, Dianne Pritchett as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Weisgall
Hugo David Weisgall (October 13, 1912 – March 11, 1997) was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions. He was born in Ivančice, Moravia (then part of Austria-Hungary, later in his childhood Czechoslovakia) and moved to the United States at the age of eight. Weisgall studied at the Peabody Institute, privately with Roger Sessions, and at the Curtis Institute of Music with conductor Fritz Reiner and composer Rosario Scalero. He later earned a Ph.D. in German literature at Johns Hopkins University. During World War II he was an aide-de-camp to General George S. Patton. After the war he became a professor, and taught at Queens College, the Juilliard School, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, all in New York City. His notable students include composers Dominick Argento, Bruce Saylor and the accordionist/composer William Schimmel. Weisgall came from a family of several generations of cantors, and maintained a lifelong i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
