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Stephen Arlen
Stephen Arlen (31 October 1913 – 19 January 1972) was an English theatre manager and operatic administrator. Originally an actor, he took up backstage work as a stage manager, and in the years after the Second World War was in charge of stage management at the Old Vic. He was persuaded to join Sadler's Wells Opera as an administrator, and was the moving force behind the company's change of base from Sadler's Wells Theatre to the London Coliseum in 1968. He was seconded by Sadler's Wells to be adviser to the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, and administrative director of the National Theatre in its early days. Life and career Arlen was born Stephen Walter Badham, in Birmingham, the son of a comedian, Walter Cyril Badham, and his wife Annie Sophie ''née'' Earnshaw."Arlen, Stephen Walter (né Badham)"< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature. He initially rose to fame with '' Romancero gitano'' (''Gypsy Ballads'', 1928), a book of poems depicting life in his native Andalusia. His poetry incorporated traditional Andalusian motifs and avant-garde styles. After a sojourn in New York City from 1929 to 1930—documented posthumously in ''Poeta en Nueva York'' (''Poet in New York'', 1942)—-he returned to Spain and wrote his best-known plays, ''Blood Wedding'' (1932), ''Yerma'' (1934), and ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' (1936). García Lorca was gay and suffered from depression after the end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. 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'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Huisman
Maurice Huisman (1912 – 23 July 1993) was a Belgian Opera director. Life Born in Brussels, a chemist by training, he and his brother Jacques were involved in the founding of the Comédiens routiers, the precursors of the established in 1945. When in 1959 he succeeded Joseph Rogatchewsky at the head of La Monnaie, he developed a policy of international exchange and public outreach, with a particular focus on youth. That same year, he brought some of his dancers and the ballet troupe of La Monnaie to create the highly successful ''Rite of Spring''. Following this, Huisman and Béjart founded the Ballet of the 20th Century in 1960. Wishing to broaden the company's audience, they brought out the dance from the Théâtre de la Monnaie to present ''Les Quatre Fils Aymon'' at the Cirque Royal in 1961, the choreographer's first major popular success. This ballet was followed by many others, which made La Monnaie one of the first choreographic scenes in Europe But Huisman did not aba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiered many operas in the UK, employing a mix of established opera stars and young singers, reaching new opera audiences with popularly priced tickets. It survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was obliged to close for lack of funds. The company was revived in 1997, presenting mostly lighter operatic works including those by Gilbert and Sullivan. The company "was arguably the most influential opera company ever in the UK". Background Carl Rosa was born Karl August Nikolaus Rose in Hamburg, Germany, the son of a local businessman. A child violin prodigy, Rosa studied at the Conservatorium at Leipzig and in Paris. In 1863 he was appointed Konzertmeister at Hamburg, where he had oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Gibson (conductor)
Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson (11 February 1926 – 14 January 1995) was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant. He was also well known for his service to the BBC and his achievements during his reign as the longest serving principal conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in which the orchestra was awarded its Royal Patronage. Biography Gibson was born in Motherwell in 1926 and brought up in the village of New Stevenston, the son of James McClure Gibson and his wife Wilhelmina Williams. He was introduced to professional opera at the age of 12 when his parents took him to a performance of ''Madam Butterfly'' at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Magnusson, Magnus (1963), ''The Opera Makers'', in ''New Saltire'' No. 8, June 1963, New Saltire Ltd., Edinburgh, pp. 5 - 18 He was educated at Dalziel High School. He excelled at the piano and organ, and at 18 became the organist at Hillhead Congregational Church, Glasgow while studying music at the Royal Scottish Academy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Tucker
Norman Walter Gwynn Tucker (24 April 1910 – 10 August 1978) was an English musician, administrator and translator. Trained as a concert pianist, he was invited to join Sadler's Wells Opera in 1947 in an administrative role, and from 1948 to 1966 he was the managerial head of the company. His translations of operas new to the repertoire and fresh translations of repertoire works were performed by the company at Sadler's Wells Theatre and, after his retirement and the company's move, at the London Coliseum. Early years Tucker was born in the London suburb of Wembley, the son of Walter Edwin Tucker and his wife Agnes Janet."Tucker, Norman Walter Gwynn" ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 13 June 2011 He was educated at [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Littler
Prince Frank Littler CBE (25 July 1901 – 1973) born Prince Frank Richeux, was an English theatre proprietor, impresario, and television executive. Life and career Littler was born in Ramsgate, Kent, in the south east of England, the elder son in the family of five children of Jules Richeux (1863–1911), a cigar importer, and his wife, Agnes May, ''née'' Paisey (b. 1874). Richeux became a theatrical proprietor, leasing the Ramsgate Victoria Pavilion from 1906, while Agnes Richeux leased the Artillery Theatre, Woolwich, from 1909. After Richeux's death, his widow married, in 1914, the theatre manager Frank Rolison Littler (1879–1940), who adopted the five children, all of whom took his surname. Morley, Sheridan"Littler, Prince Frank (1901–1973)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, October 2009, retrieved 5 August 2014 The younger son Emile, and one of the daughters, Blanche, also went into theatrical management. With ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine (20 November 1910 – 20 January 1966) was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film. Early life and education Devine was born in Hendon, London to Georgios Devine (son of an Irish father and a Greek mother) and a Canadian mother, Ruth Eleanor Cassady (from Vancouver). His father was a clerk in Martins Bank. Ruth Devine became mentally unstable after her son's birth, and his parents' marriage, deeply unhappy throughout his early childhood, had broken down by the time he was in his early teens. At this time he was sent to Clayesmore School, an independent boys' boarding school founded by his uncle Alexander "Lex" Devine, who took his nephew under his wing hoping that he would take over the running of the school. In 1929, Devine went to Oxford University to read for a degree in history at Wadham College. It was at Oxford that his interest in theat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Byam Shaw
Glencairn Alexander "Glen" Byam Shaw, CBE (13 December 1904 – 29 April 1986) was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later. In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells (later known as the English National Opera). Life and career Early years Byam Shaw was born in London, the youngest of five siblings (four sons and one daughter) born to artist John Byam Liston Shaw and his wife, Caroline Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott (1870–1959), also an artist.Denison, Michael"Shaw, Glencairn Alexander Byam (1904–1986 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stars In Battledress
Stars in Battledress (SiB) was an organisation of entertainers who were members of the British Armed Forces during World War II. History In Britain, during the Second World War, entertainment was considered an essential to keep morale high. In 1939 ENSA was organised by Basil Dean to send groups of entertainers to factories and military camps. The artists in ENSA were initially civilians and consequently could not be sent to areas were fighting was occurring. This did not mean that they were in places where there was no danger from enemy action—the whole of Britain was a war zone due to the air raids. Later ENSA performers were commissioned as officers. In order to get concert parties to forward areas, ''Stars in Battledress'' was formed. Talent existing in serving members of the army and ATS was transferred and sent to perform in any location, even on the edge of a battlefield. Colonel Basil Brown, together with Major Bill Alexander and Captain George Black (son of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
