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Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes Blumer OBE (26 July 1936 – 5 December 2015) was an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.Rodney Milnes. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. He wrote under the professional name of Rodney Milnes. Life and career Milnes was born in Stafford, where his father was a surgeon. He learnt the piano as a child, to the level of playing the early Beethoven sonatas, and later recalled accompanying a fellow Oxford student in ''Winterreise'' at the Holywell Music Room. Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. Rodney Milnes, 1936-2015. ''Opera'', Vol 67 No 2, February 2016, p140-145. Milnes attended Rugby School and studied history at Christ Church, Oxford University. He was a member of the Oxford University Opera Club, taking part in ''The Fair Maid of Perth'' in 1955 (with Dudley Moore among the first violins and David Lloyd-Jones in the chorus),Rodney remembered (letters). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Critic
'' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of musical aesthetics. With the concurrent expansion of interest in music and information media since the turn of the 20th century, the term has come to acquire the conventional meaning of journalistic reporting on musical performances. Nature of music criticism The musicologist Winton Dean has suggested that "music is probably the most difficult of the arts to criticise." Unlike the plastic or literary arts, the 'language' of music does not specifically relate to human sensory experience – Dean's words, "the word 'love' is common coin in life and literature: the note C has nothing to do with breakfast or railway journeys or marital harmony." Like dramatic art, music is recreated at every performance, and criticism may, therefore, be dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Westrup
Sir Jack Westrup, (26 July 190421 April 1975) was an English musicologist, writer, teacher and occasional conductor and composer. Biography Jack Allan Westrup was the second of the three sons of George Westrup, insurance clerk, of Dulwich, and his wife, Harriet Sophia née Allan. He was educated at Dulwich College, London 1917–22, and at Balliol College, Oxford. He first read classics in which he gained first class honours in moderations (1924) and second class honours in ''literae humaniores'' (1926). He gained his B.Mus. degree in 1926, and a Master of Arts in 1929. He took an active part in music in the university as a keyboard and brass player. With an Italian expatriate Arundel del Re, he co-founded the Oxford University Opera Club while still an undergraduate, and was later its conductor. The club had a policy of producing works in English and used its funds to hire professional singers and conductors. In 1925, with William Henry Harris, he staged the first complete p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destiny (Janáček)
''Destiny'' (also known as ''Fate'', ) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer and Fedora Bartošová. Janáček began the work in 1903 and completed it in 1907. The inspiration for the opera came from a visit by Janáček in the summer of 1903, after the death of his daughter Olga, to the spa at Luhačovice. There, Janáček met Kamila Urválková, who had been the subject of an opera by Ludvík Čelanský, ''Kamila'', where she felt that Čelanský had falsely depicted her personality. After learning that Janáček was a composer, Urválková persuaded Janáček to write another opera to counteract Čelanský's portrait of her.Tyrrell, John, "Janáček's ''Fate''" (January 1972). ''The Musical Times'', 113 (1547): pp. 34–37. Janáček submitted the opera to the Brno Theatre in 1906, and to the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague in 1907, but both theatres rejected the score. The score stayed with the Vinohrady Theatre even after Janáče ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jacobin
''Jakobín'', or ''The Jacobin'', is an operatic pastoral comedy in three acts by Antonín Dvořák, his Op. 84 ( B. 159). Its Czech libretto by Marie Červinková-Riegrová employs characters from Alois Jirásek's story ''At the Ducal Court'' but in a plot of her devising. The opera's first performance took place on 9 February 1889 at the National Theatre in Prague with Adolf Čech conducting; it was however revised by both librettist (in 1894) and composer (in 1897) and premiered again, under Čech, on 19 June 1898, with notable adjustments to the last act, in the version that has since been standard. Evaluation Dvořák felt great affection for the subject, as the central character is a music teacher and he had in mind his former teacher Antonín Liehmann, whose daughter Terinka's name is taken by one of the main characters. John Clapham has briefly discussed the presence of Czech musical style in ''Jakobín''. H. C. Colles has described this opera as "the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rusalka (opera)
''Rusalka'' (), Op. 114, is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák. His ninth opera (1900–1901), it became his most successful, frequenting the standard repertoire worldwide. Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto on Karel Jaromír Erben's and Božena Němcová's fairy tales. The rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology; it usually inhabits a lake or river. For many years unfamiliarity with Dvořák's operas outside the Czech lands helped reinforce a perception that composition of operas was a marginal activity, and that despite the beauty of its melodies and orchestral timbres ''Rusalka'' was not a central part of his output or of international lyric theatre. In recent years it has been performed more regularly by major opera companies. In the five seasons from 2008 to 2013 it was performed by opera companies worldwide far more than all of Dvořák's other operas combined. The most popular excerpt from ''Rusalka'' is the soprano aria, the "Song to the Moon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Smith, Baron Smith Of Finsbury
Christopher Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury, (born 24 July 1951) is a British politician and a peer; a former Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister; and former chairman of the Environment Agency. For the majority of his career he has been a Labour Party member. He was the first openly gay male British MP, coming out in 1984, and in 2005, the first MP to acknowledge that he is HIV positive.Why this is the time to break my HIV silence Chris Smith writing in '''', 30 January 2005 Since 2015 he has been |
Lilian Baylis
Lilian Mary Baylis (9 May 187425 November 1937) was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera (ENO); a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre; and a ballet company, which eventually became The Royal Ballet. Early life Lilian Baylis was born in Marylebone, London, England, to parents Newton Baylis and Elizabeth (Liebe) Cons (or Konss). She was the eldest of six children, and grew up surrounded by music and performance. Her mother was a successful singer and pianist, and Baylis's education was grounded in the arts; she began performing and teaching music at an early age. She attended St. Augustine's school, Kilburn. She also took violin lessons at the ''Royal Academy of Music'' with leading professionals, such as John Tiplady Carrodus, who was principal first violin at Covent Garden. South Africa In 1891, the Baylis famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surtitles
Surtitles, also known as supertitles, Captitles, SurCaps, OpTrans, are translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera, theatre or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from the French language , meaning "over" or "on", and the English language word "title", formed in a similar way to the related and similarly-named subtitles. The word ''Surtitle'' is a trademark of the Canadian Opera Company. Surtitles came into widespread use in the 1990s to translate the meaning of the lyrics into the audience's language, or to transcribe lyrics that may be difficult to understand in the sung form in the opera-house Auditorium, ''auditoria''. The two possible types of presentation of surtitles are as projected text, or as the electronic libretto system. Titles in the theatre have proven a commercial success in areas such as opera, and are finding increased use for allowing hearing impaired, hearing-impaired patr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evening Standard
The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, England. It is printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format, and also has an online edition. In October 2009, after being bought by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, the paper ended a 180-year history of print circulation, paid circulation and multiple editions every day, and became a free newspaper publishing a single print edition every weekday, doubling its circulation as part of a change in its business plan. On 29 May 2024, the newspaper announced that it would reduce print publication to once weekly, after nearly 200 years of daily publication, as it had become unprofitable. Daily publication ended on 19 September 2024. The first weekly edition was published on 26 September 2024 under the new name of ''The London Standard' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject areas are politics and culture. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film, and TV reviews. It had an average circulation of 107,812 as of December 2023, excluding Australia. Editorship of the magazine has often been a step on the ladder to high office in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Past editors include Boris Johnson (1999–2005) and other former cabinet members Ian Gilmour (1954–1959), Iain Macleod (1963–1965), and Nigel Lawson (1966–1970). The former Conservative MP Michael Gove took over from Fraser Nelson as editor on 4 October 2024. Today, the magazine is a print-digital hybrid. In 2020, ''The Spectator'' became the longest-live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpers And Queen
''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporate Changes". ''The New York Times'', December 31, 1930. Page 36. "Albany, Dec. 30.—These corporate changes were filed today: ... nder heading 'Name Changes'Harper's Bazar, Manhattan, to Harper's Bazaar. ..." Originally published by Harper & Brothers, since 1913 the magazine has been owned and published by Hearst. The magazine is the world's oldest operating women's fashion magazine, and one of the first fashion magazines to be published in the United States. Its name change to ''Harper's Bazaar'' was filed on December 30, 1930. However, the first magazine under the name was November 1929. ''Harper's Bazaar''s corporate offices are located in the Hearst Tower, 300 West 57th Street or 959 Eighth Avenue, near Columbus Circle in Midtown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
