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Spoleto Festival
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of concerts, opera, dance, drama, visual arts and roundtable discussions on science. The "Two Worlds" in the name of the festival comes from Gian Carlo Menotti's intention to have the worlds of American and European culture facing each other in his event; this concept would then be strengthened by the fact that it was held in conjunction with its "twin", the Spoleto Festival USA held annually in May/June in Charleston, South Carolina. That twinning lasted some 15 years and, after growing disputes between the Menotti family and the board of Spoleto Festival USA, in the early 1990s a separation occurred. Under Menotti's direction in 1986, a third installment in the Spoleto Festival series was held in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne's Spoleto Festiva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spoleto Festival 2008
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia, which forked into two roads at Narni and rejoined at ''Forum Flaminii'', near Foligno. An ancient road also ran hence to Nursia. The ''Ponte Sanguinario'' of the 1st century BC still exists. The Forum lies under today's marketplace. Located at the head of a large, broad valley, surrounded by mountains, Spoleto has long occupied a strategic geographical position. It appears to have been an important town to the original Umbri tribes, who built walls around their settlement in the 5th century BC, some of which are visible today. The first historical mention of ''Spoletium'' is the notice of the foundation of a colony there in 241 BC; and it was still, according to Cicero ''colonia la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for Film studio, studios. Russell is best known for his Academy Awards, Oscar-winning film ''Women in Love (film), Women in Love'' (1969), ''The Devils (film), The Devils'' (1971), The Who's ''Tommy (1975 film), Tommy'' (1975), and the science fiction film ''Altered States'' (1980). Russell also directed several films based on the lives of classical music composers, such as Elgar (film), Elgar, Song of Summer, Delius, The Music Lovers, Tchaikovsky, Mahler (film), Mahler, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Smith (sculptor)
Roland David Smith (March 9, 1906 – May 23, 1965) was an American Abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometry, geometric sculptures. Early life Roland David Smith was born on March 9, 1906, in Decatur, Indiana, Decatur, Indiana and moved to Paulding, Ohio in 1921, where he attended high school. From 1924 to 1925, he attended Ohio University in Athens (one year) and the University of Notre Dame, which he left after two weeks because there were no art courses. In between, Smith took a summer job working on the assembly line of the Studebaker automobile factory in South Bend, Indiana. He then briefly studied art and poetry at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Moving to New York City, New York, New York in 1926, he met Dorothy Dehner (to whom he was married from 1927 to 1952) and, on her advice, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper. His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his Yorkshire birthplace. Moore became well known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the Unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this counterculture with his views on drugs, sex, multiculturalism, hostility to bureaucracy, and openness to Eastern religions. Ginsberg is best known for his poem "Howl", in which he denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. San Francisco police and US Customs seized "Howl" in 1956, and it attracted widespread publicity in 1957 when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it described heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time when sodomy laws made (male) homosexual acts a crime in every state. The poem reflected Ginsberg's own sexuality and his relatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marisa Berenson
Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson (born February 15, 1947) is an American actress and model. She appeared on the front covers of ''Vogue'' and ''Time'', and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film ''Cabaret''. The role also earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. Her other film appearances include ''Death in Venice'' (1971), ''Barry Lyndon'' (1975), '' S.O.B.'' (1981) and '' I Am Love'' (2009). In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of ''Design for Living''. Early life Childhood Berenson was born in New York City, the elder of two daughters. Her father, Robert Lawrence Berenson, was an American career diplomat turned shipping executive of Lithuanian Jewish descent, and his family's original surname was ''Valvrojenski''. Her mother was Maria-Luisa Yvonne "Gogo" Radha de Wendt Schiaparelli, a socialite of Italian, Swiss, French, and Egyptian ancestry.Elsa Schiaparelli, ''Shoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Pacino
Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him one of the few performers to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts. A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino's film debut came at the age of 29 with a minor role in ''Me, Natalie'' (1969). He gained favorable notice for his first lead role as a heroin addict in '' The Panic in Needle Park'' (1971). Wide acclaim and recognition came with his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's ''The Godfather'' (1972), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Farris
Ralph Farris (born Ralph Howard Farris, Jr., 1970) is an American violist, violinist, composer, arranger, producer and conductor, best known as a founding member and artistic director of the ensemble ETHEL. Farris is an electric string player with a lengthy career that spans the gamut of musical genres from rock and jazz to Broadway. His instruments are outfitted with a piezoelectric pickup which allows him to play amplified. Amplification was initially adopted early in Farris's career in order to facilitate the playing of various "contemporary classical" pieces that involve electronic components. It continues to be integral to his signature sound. Early life Farris was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970, the son of musicians, Nancy DuCette Farris and Ralph Howard Farris. He began studying music at the age of 3, beginning with recorder and piano, moving on to violin at age six. As a boy soprano, he was featured as a soloist in several of his parents' Ralph Farris Chorale pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for his tone, and gaining the Honorific nicknames in popular music, nickname "King of the High Cs". As one of the Three Tenors, who performed their first concert during the 1990 FIFA World Cup before a global audience, Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of "Nessun dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-''Aida'' Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi roles, and Giacomo Puccini, Puccini works such as ''La bohème'', ''Tosca'', ''Turandot'' and ''Madama Butterfly''. He sold over 100 milli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnoldo Foà
Arnoldo Foà (24 January 1916 – 11 January 2014) was an Italian actor, voice actor, theatre director, singer and writer. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1938 and 2014. Biography Foà was born in Ferrara, Italy, to a Jewish family, though Foà was an atheist in his adult life. Foà completed high school in Florence, where he moved with his family, and studied at the acting school of Rasi. He abandoned his studies in economics and at age 20 moved to Rome, where he attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He was initiated to the Italian Scottish Rite Freemasonry in 1947 at the Lodge " Alpi Giulie" n.150 (in Rome), taking later the highest degree. Foà died on 11 January 2014 from respiratory failure, just 13 days short of his 98th birthday. Theatre 1930s * ''La serenata al vento'' by Carlo Veneziani, directed by Alberto Bracaloni, 1935 * ''La dodicesima notte'' by William Shakespeare, directed by Pietro Sharoff, 1938 * ''L’Alcalde di Zalamea'' by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman (; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as , was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions as well as dozens of ''divertissements''. Biography Early life Gassmann was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann (an engineer from Karlsruhe), and a Jewish mother, Luisa Ambron, born in Pisa. While still very young, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts. Gassman suffered from bipolar disorder. Career Gassman's debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's ''La Nemica'' (theatre). He then moved to Rome and acted at the ''Teatro Eliseo'' joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous for some time; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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