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Trumpets And Drums
''Trumpets and Drums'' (german: Pauken und Trompeten) is an adaptation of an 18th-century English Restoration comedy by Farquhar, ''The Recruiting Officer''. It was written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with Benno Besson and Elisabeth Hauptmann.Willett (1967, 63). It was first performed in 1955 in a production directed by Besson, with music by Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (whose songs for the play have been called " Weill-like" by John Willett). It was the first premiere of Brecht's final season at the Berliner Ensemble. Willett identifies an instance of Brecht's lifelong indebtedness to Rudyard Kipling in the play's "Song of the Women of Gaa." The production strongly influenced the English director William Gaskill William "Bill" Gaskill (24 June 1930 – 4 February 2016) was a British theatre director who was "instrumental in creating a new sense of realism in the theatre". Described as "a champion of new writing", he was also noted for his productions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote ''The Threepenny Opera'' with Kurt Weill and began a life-long collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler. Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, he wrote didactic ''Lehrstücke'' and became a leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre") and the . During the Nazi Germany period, Brecht fled his home country, first to Scandinavia, and during World War II to the United States, where he was surveilled by the FBI. After the war he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Returning to East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann (20 June 1897, Peckelsheim, Westphalia, German Empire – 20 April 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who worked with fellow German playwright and director Bertolt Brecht. She got to know Brecht in 1922, the same year she came to Berlin. She worked as a secretary for the German-American poet and writer Herman George Scheffauer.See Sabine Kebir Ich fragte nicht nach meinem Anteil Elisabeth Hauptmanns Arbeit mit Bertolt Brecht (Aufbau-Verlag GmbH: Berlin 1997), p. 22. She began collaborating with Brecht in 1924, and is listed as co-author of ''The Threepenny Opera'' (1928). She purportedlyBrecht & Co.: Sex, Politics and the Making of the Modern Drama by John Fuegi wrote the majority of the text as well as providing a German translation of John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'', on which the musical play is based, as working material for Brecht and Kurt Weill, the composer. She reportedly wrote at least half of the ''Mahagonny-Songspiel'', but was not credited. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Gaskill
William "Bill" Gaskill (24 June 1930 – 4 February 2016) was a British theatre director who was "instrumental in creating a new sense of realism in the theatre". Described as "a champion of new writing", he was also noted for his productions of Bertolt Brecht and Restoration comedy. Born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Gaskill was educated at Salt High School, Shipley, where he ran an amateur theatre with Tony Richardson. He won a scholarship to attend Hertford College at Oxford University, where he began directing, and he subsequently studied in Paris with Étienne Decroux. He received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Director in 1959 for his direction of ''Epitaph for George Dillon'' on Broadway. Gaskill worked alongside Laurence Olivier as a founding director of the National Theatre from its time at the Old Vic in 1963. In 1962, he directed Vanessa Redgrave and Eric Porter in ''Cymbeline'' for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was the artistic director of the Royal Cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' duology ('' The Jungle Book'', 1894; '' The Second Jungle Book'', 1895), ''Kim'' (1901), the '' Just So Stories'' (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include " Mandalay" (1890), " Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), " The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".Rutherford, Andrew ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Willett
John William Mills Willett, MBE (24 June 1917 – 20 August 2002) was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English. Early life Willett was born in Hampstead and was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford. He went on to the Manchester College of Art and Dance, and then to Vienna, where he studied music (Willett played the cello) and stage design. Willett began his career as a theatre designer. However, this career was cut short by World War II. He served in Intelligence and the Eighth Army, in North Africa and Italy. Beginning his war in July 1940 as a second lieutenant in the British Army, he ended it just over five years later as a lieutenant colonel. In August 1942 he was transferred to the Intelligence Corps, in April 1944 he was mentioned in dispatches and in June 1945 he was made an Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). After being demobilised, Willett worked first for the ''Manche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work, ''The Threepenny Opera'', which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose,Kurt Weill Cjschuler.net. Retrieved on August 22, 2011. ''''. He also wrote several works for the concert hall and a number of works on Jewish themes. He became a United States citizen on August 27, 1943.
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Rudolf Wagner-Régeny
Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (28 August 1903, Szászrégen, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Reghin, Romania) – 18 September 1969, Berlin) was a composer, conductor, and pianist. Born in Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, since 1920 Romania, he became a German citizen in 1930, and then East German after 1945. From 1919 to 1920 he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1920 he enrolled at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik as a student of Rudolf Krasselt and Siegfried Ochs for conducting, and for orchestration of Emil von Řezníček, and with Friedrich Koch and Franz Schreker for musical composition, graduating in 1923. He served as choirsmaster at the Volksoper Berlin from 1923–1925. In 1927 joined Laban's dance company where he conducted productions for three years. Wagner-Régeny first gained notice as a composer with his theatre pieces for Essen. In 1929 he met the designer Caspar Neher, who wrote the texts for Wagner-Régeny's best-known operas. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1955 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1955. Events *February 8 – Jin Yong's first ''wuxia'' novel, ''The Book and the Sword'' (書劍恩仇錄), begins publication in the ''New Evening Post'' (Hong Kong), where he is an editor. *March 3 – Jean Cocteau is elected to the ''Académie française'' (inducted October 20); on January 8 he has been elected to the ''Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique'' (inducted October 1). *April 16 – Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' is released in U.K. cinemas. *July 10 – Jorge Luis Borges is appointed Director of the National Library of the Argentine Republic. *July 14 – Director Stephen Joseph sets up Britain's first theatre in the round at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, predecessor of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. *July 30 – The English poet Philip Larkin, having become University Librarian at the University of Hull on March 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benno Besson
Benno Besson (born René-Benjamin Besson; 4 November 1922 in Yverdon-les-Bains – 16 February 2006 in Berlin, Germany) was a Swiss actor and director. He had great success as director at Volksbühne Berlin, Deutsches Theater and Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin, where he went by an invitation of Bertolt Brecht in 1949. Some of his acquainted stagings were ''The Dragon'' by Evgeny Schwartz, so that he travelled with Deutsches Theater all-around Europe and Asia (also in Japan), and '' Der Frieden'' (Aristophanes edited by Peter Hacks). He became the Intendant at Volksbühne in the 1960s and worked often with Heiner Müller. In his plays, he worked amongst others with the popular actors Fred Düren, Eberhard Esche and Ursula Karusseit. He had six children, including actress Katharina Thalbach Katharina Thalbach (; actually ''Katharina Joachim genannt Thalbach''; born 19 January 1954) is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble () is a German theatre company established by actress Helene Weigel and her husband, playwright Bertolt Brecht, in January 1949 in East Berlin. In the time after Brecht's exile, the company first worked at Wolfgang Langhoff's Deutsches Theater and in 1954 moved to the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, built in 1892, that was open for the 1928 premiere of ''The Threepenny Opera'' (''Die Dreigroschenoper''). Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble Brecht's students Benno Besson, Egon Monk, Peter Palitzsch, and Manfred Wekwerth were given the opportunity to direct plays by Brecht that had not yet been staged. The stage designers Caspar Neher and Karl von Appen, the composers Paul Dessau and Hanns Eisler, as well as the dramaturge Elisabeth Hauptmann, were among Brecht's closest collaborators. After her husband died in 1956, Weigel continued managing the Berliner Ensemble until her death in 1971. The Berliner Ensemble achieved success through long and meticulous rehears ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Recruiting Officer
''The Recruiting Officer'' is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury (the town where Farquhar himself was posted in this capacity) to recruit soldiers. The characters of the play are generally stock, in keeping with the genre of Restoration comedy. Characters Plot The play opens with the recruiter, Captain Plume's Sergeant Kite, recruiting in the town of Shrewsbury. Plume arrives, in love with Sylvia, closely followed by Worthy, a local gentleman who is in love with Sylvia's cousin Melinda. Worthy asked Melinda to become his mistress a year previously, as he believed her to be of inadequate fortune to marry. But he changes his mind after she comes into an inheritance of £20,000. Melinda accepts an invitation from Captain Brazen, another recruiter, to annoy Worthy, as she was offended by Worthy's previous offer. However, her maid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Farquhar
George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux’ Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes that "Our sole source of information as to the time of his birth is the entry of his matriculation in the register of Trinity College" on 17 July 1694, where "His age is given as 17." Earlier biographers took this to mean Farquhar was in his 17th year—hence born in 1678—and Strauss favors this date. But later writers, such as William Myers, ed., George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer and Other Plays'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. vii, give the dual year, and John Ross, ed., ''George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer (New Mermaids),'' 2nd ed., (London: A&C Black, 1991), p. xiii, gives a birthdate of "''ca.'' 1677" for the playwright. – 29 April 1707) was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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