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St. George's Hall (London)
St. George's Hall was a theatre located in Langham Place, off Regent Street in the West End of London. It was built in 1867 and closed in 1966. The hall could accommodate between 800 and 900 persons, or up to 1,500 persons including the galleries. The architect was John Taylor of Whitehall. The hall was known for three decades for its presentation of the German Reed Entertainments alongside other musical works and lectures. After 1895, it was used for vaudeville, drama, magic shows, as the headquarters of the London Academy of Music, and even as a skating rink. In 1933, it became a BBC broadcasting studio but was shut down after extensive damage from bombing in March 1943. The theatre was demolished in 1966, and St George's Hotel (now called Treehouse Hotel London) and Henry Wood House now stand on the site. German Reed Entertainments and lectures The hall was built as a concert hall for the New Philharmonic Society and opened on 24 April 1867. Rose Hersee and Madelin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Contrabandista
''The Contrabandista'', ''or The Law of the Ladrones'', is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand. It premiered at St. George's Hall, in London, on 18 December 1867 under the management of Thomas German Reed, for a run of 72 performances. There were brief revivals in Manchester in 1874 and America in 1880. In 1894, it was revised into a new opera, ''The Chieftain'', with a completely different second act. The piece was the first of Sullivan's full-length operas that was produced. It was not a great success, with Burnand's libretto receiving criticism, but its music exhibits many of the qualities and techniques that Sullivan would employ in composing his twenty further comic operas, including the famous series of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas produced between 1871 and 1896. Background In 1866, F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan, then 24 years old, wrote the one-act comic opera ''Cox and Box'' for a private performance at Moray Lodge, where a group of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Voysey (theist)
Charles Voysey (18 March 1828 – 20 July 1912) was a former priest of the Church of England who was condemned by the Privy Council for heterodoxy and went on to found a theist church. He was the father of architect Charles Francis Annesley Voysey. Early life and career Born in London on 18 March 1828, Voysey was the youngest son of architect Annesley Voysey, a relative of Samuel Annesley and of Susanna Wesley ( Annesley), mother of John and Charles Wesley. He entered St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1847 and received his B.A. from the University of Oxford in 1851. The following year he married Frances Maria Edlin and was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1853, becoming the curate of Hessle. Voysey served in that position for seven years, also serving as vice-principal of Kingston College. His eldest son Charles F. A. Voysey was born in Hessle in 1857. Voysey was appointed curate of St Andrew's, Craigton, Jamaica in 1858, where he lived for 18 months. In 1862, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Massey
Gerald Massey (; 29 May 1828 – 29 October 1907) was an English poet and writer on Spiritualism and Ancient Egypt. Early life Massey was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England to poor parents. When little more than a child, he was made to work hard in a silk factory, which he afterward deserted for the equally laborious occupation of straw plaiting. These early years were rendered gloomy by much distress and deprivation, against which the young man strove with increasing spirit and virility, educating himself in his spare time, and gradually cultivating his innate taste for literary work. He was attracted by the movement known as Christian socialism, into which he threw himself with whole-hearted vigour, and so became associated with Frederick Denison Maurice and Charles Kingsley. Later life From about 1870 onwards, Massey became increasingly interested in Egyptology and the similarities that exist between ancient Egyptian mythology and the Gospel stories. He studied the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chartism
Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, with particular strongholds of support in Northern England, the East Midlands, the Staffordshire Potteries, the Black Country and the South Wales Valleys, where working people depended on single industries and were subject to wild swings in economic activity. Chartism was less strong in places such as Bristol, that had more diversified economies. The movement was fiercely opposed by government authorities, who finally suppressed it. Support for the movement was at its highest when petitions signed by millions of working people were presented to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The strategy employed was to use the scale of support which these petitions and the accompany ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Maddison Morton
John Maddison Morton (3 January 1811 – 19 December 1891) was an English playwright who specialised in one-act farces. His most famous farce was '' Box and Cox'' (1847). He also wrote comic dramas, pantomimes and other theatrical pieces. Biography Morton was born in Pangbourne. His father, Thomas Morton, was also a well-known dramatist. Morton's first farce, ''My First Fit of the Gout'', was produced in London in 1835. He was the author of several other one-act farces, including ''My Husband's Ghost'' (1836), ''Chaos Is Come Again'' (1838), ''A Thumping Legacy'' (1843), ''Lend Me Five Shillings'' (1846), ''The Irish Tiger'' (1846), ''Done on Both Sides'' (1847), ''Who's My Husband?'' (1847), ''Going to the Derby'' (1848), ''Slasher and Crasher!'' (1848), ''Your Life's in Danger'' (1848), ''Poor Pillicoddy'' (1848), ''Where There's a Will There's a Way'' (1849), ''A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion'' (1849) ''My Precious Betsy'' (1850), ''Sent to the Tower'' (1850), ''Grimshaw, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone (14 September 1802 – 31 October 1879) was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826. He starred as a comic actor during much of his career for various periods at the Adelphi Theatre and the Haymarket Theatre, managing the Haymarket from 1853 to 1877. Biography Buckstone was born in Hoxton, London, the son of John Buckstone, a retired shopkeeper, and his wife Elizabeth (née Baldwin).Roy, Donald"Buckstone, John Baldwin (1802–1879)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 3 January 2015 He was educated at Walworth Grammar School and was briefly apprenticed on a naval ship at age 10 but returned to school. He studied law and was articled to a solicitor but turned to acting by age 19.''The Times'', 1 November 1879, p. 5 Early career Buckstone first joined a travelling troupe in 1821 as Gabriel in ''The Children in the Wood''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyes And No Eyes
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the eye is a complex optical system that collects light from the surrounding environment, regulates its intensity through a diaphragm, focuses it through an adjustable assembly of lenses to form an image, converts this image into a set of electrical signals, and transmits these signals to the brain through neural pathways that connect the eye via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Eyes with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, classified into compound eyes and non-compound eyes. Compound eyes are made up of multiple small visual units, and are common on insects and crustaceans. Non-compound eyes have a single lens and focus light onto the retina to form a single image. This type of eye i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Corney Grain
Richard Corney Grain (26 October 1844 – 16 March 1895), known by his stage name Corney Grain, was an entertainer and songwriter of the late Victorian era. Biography Born at Teversham in Cambridgeshire, Grain was the youngest son of John Grain, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Anne. His sister, Harriet Ann, was the mother of the barrister and judge Sir Travers Humphreys. Grain received what he referred to as "an average middle-class education". In 1858, at the age of 14, he attended school in Germany.Corney Grain, Richard. ''Corney Grain, by Himself'', John Murray, London. (1888) Returning to Britain with an interest in the Law, he enrolled as a student of the Inner Temple on 27 April 1863, and was called to the Bar on 30 April 1866. For a while he practised law on the Western Circuit. However, he had theatrical leanings, and sang and acted in private. Career Deciding to give up a legal career and try his hand on the stage, on 16 May 1870 Grain joined what was known as the Germa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallery Of Illustration
The Royal Gallery of Illustration was a 19th-century performance venue located at 14 Regent Street in London. It was in use between 1850 and 1873. The gallery was built in the 1820s by the architect John Nash (architect), John Nash as part of his own house, to display his considerable collection of paintings. In 1850 the building was named the Gallery of Illustration, and between then and 1855 it housed a diorama created and run by the theatrical scene-painters Thomas Grieve (painter), Thomas Grieve and William Telbin. From 1856 to 1873 the gallery was in the hands of the singer and actress Priscilla Horton and her husband Thomas German Reed, German Reed. Their entertainments developed from songs and comedy with piano accompaniment to programmes of short plays and operettas. In deference to respectable Victorian era, mid-Victorian doubts about the propriety of theatres, the Reeds called their productions German Reed Entertainments, "entertainments", and avoided the use of the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Reed Entertainment
The German Reed Entertainments were founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed (1817–1888) together with his wife, Priscilla German Reed (née Horton) (1818–1895). At a time when the theatre in London was seen as a disreputable place, the German Reed family provided family-friendly entertainments for forty years, showing that respectable theatre could be popular. The entertainments were held at the intimate Royal Gallery of Illustration, Lower Regent Street, and later at St. George's Hall, Langham Place, in London. Thomas and Priscilla German Reed usually appeared in them, together with a small group of players. They engaged talented newcomers, such as Frederic Clay, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Law, as well as established writers such as F. C. Burnand, to create many of the entertainments. Thomas German Reed composed the music for many of the entertainments himself. The German Reed theatrical revolution This form of entertainment consisted of musical pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscilla Horton
Priscilla Horton, later Priscilla German Reed (2 January 1818 – 18 March 1895), was an English singer and actress, known for her role as Ariel in W. C. Macready's production of ''The Tempest'' in 1838 and "fairy" burlesques at Covent Garden Theatre. Later, she was known, along with her husband, Thomas German Reed, for establishing and performing in the family-friendly German Reed Entertainments. There, she was a mentor to W. S. Gilbert, and her performances inspired Gilbert to create some of his famous contralto roles. Life and career Early years Horton was born in Birmingham. Her parents were Thomas Horton and Barbara, ''née'' Westwater. She performed on the stage in London from the age of ten, when she played the Gipsy Girl in ''Guy Mannering'' at the Surrey Theatre.Stedman, Jane W"Reed, (Thomas) German (1817–1888)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004, accessed 13 November 2008 The next year, Horton sang at Vauxhall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
