If My Friends Could See Me Now

"If My Friends Could See Me Now", with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, is a song from the 1966 Broadway musical "Sweet Charity". In the musical the character of Charity, played in the original New York cast by Gwen Verdon, reflects on her marvellous luck as she spends time with Vittorio. In the 1969 film adaptation of "Sweet Charity", "If My Friends Could See Me Now" is performed by Shirley MacLaine.
Recorded versions.
As a show tune.
Gwen Verdon's rendition of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" is featured on the cast recording for the original 1966 Broadway production of "Sweet Charity": the song also appears on the cast recordings for the 1986 and 2005 Broadway revivals of "Sweet Charity" being performed by respectively Debbie Allen and Christina Applegate.
The Gwen Verdon recording of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" was utilized as the theme song for the pilot episode of the CBS-TV sitcom "The Nanny" although an original song entitled "The Nanny Named Fran" served as the theme song for the series' subsequent episodes: airings of "The Nanny"'s pilot episode in syndication utilize "The Nanny Named Fran" as that episode's theme song rather than "If My Friends Could See Me Now".
The original cast recording for the 1967 West End production of "Sweet Charity" features "If My Friends Could See Me Now" performed by Juliet Prowse. Bonnie Langford, who headlined the 1998 West End revival of "Sweet Charity", included "If My Friends Could See Me Now" in a medley of songs from "Sweet Charity" featured on her 1999 album "Now".
A 1995 studio recording of the score of "Sweet Charity" features Jacqueline Dankworth performing "If My Friends Could See Me Now".
Shirley Maclaine's performance of the song is featured on the 1969 movie soundtrack for "Sweet Charity": in addition Maclaine recorded the song for her 1976 "Live at the Palace" album.
Linda Clifford version.
In 1978 Linda Clifford released an album entitled "If My Friends Could See Me Now" featuring a disco version of the "Sweet Charity" song of that name. Clifford, who had been an extra in the filming of "Sweet Charity", originally responded negatively to the suggestion – made by a secretary at Curtom Records – that she record a dance version of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" "because I thought it would be sacrilegious. I've always been a theatre buff, so this [would be] a no-no. Then they recorded [the backing track] anyway and brought it to me, and I said, 'Ooh, I like that.' Once I heard the music I was like, 'It’s different but it’s the same.'" Clifford would recall how subsequent to her success with "If My Friends Could See Me Now" Cy Coleman would "[call] in to a radio station that I was being interviewed on and thanked me over the air for doing his song and bringing it to the masses."
"If My Friends Could See Me Now" in tandem with two other album tracks: "Gypsy Lady" and "Runaway Love", hit #1 on the "Billboard" disco chart dated April 29, 1978 remaining at #1 for a total of five weeks. Released as a 7" single in August 1978 – "Runaway Love" having been the lead 7" single from the "If My Friends..." album - "If My Friends Could See Me Now" reached #54 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with an R&B chart peak of #68. In the UK "If My Friends Could See Me Now" was issued as the A-side of a 7" single - with "Runaway Love" as the B-side - in May 1978 failing to become a major UK hit with a peak of #50 on the UK chart dated June 24, 1978.


Shakespeare on the River Festival


The Scarlet Letter (Laitman opera)

The Scarlet Letter is a 2008 opera by Lori Laitman to a libretto by David Mason based on the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The opera was given a professional premiere in 2016 by Opera Colorado.


Park Street station (MBTA)

Park Street is an MBTA transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the intersection of Park Street and Tremont Street at the eastern edge of Boston Common in Downtown Boston. One of the two oldest stations on the "T" (the other is Boylston), Park Street is the transfer point between the Green and Red Lines, as one of the quartet of "hub stations" on the MBTA subway system. Park Street is the fifth-busiest station in the MBTA network, with an average of 16,571 entries each weekday in FY2019.
History.
Initial construction.
Tremont Street subway.
The southern section of the Tremont Street subway from the Public Garden incline through Boylston to Park Street opened on September 1, 1897, followed on October 1 by the spur to the Pleasant Street Portal. The station was built with 4 tracks serving 2 island platforms; these were connected by two loops, allowing streetcars from the south and west to reverse direction and return to the portals and surface routes.
On September 3, 1898, the tunnel was extended to Scollay Square, Adams Square, Haymarket Square, and the Canal Street Incline. Some cars ran all the way through the tunnel on the outer tracks; others continued to loop at Park Street.
Boylston and Park Street were built with rectangular stone headhouses designed by Edmund M. Wheelwright that did not aesthetically match the Common. Unlike the interior decor, the headhouses were sharply criticized as "resembling mausoleums" and "pretentiously monumental". Later stations on the East Boston Tunnel and Washington Street Tunnel used more modest headhouse designs in response to this criticism.
Electric destination indicator boards were first installed at Park Street in 1899, replacing an announcer with a megaphone. Signalmen used metal picks to complete a circuit, lighting up a numeral indicating which berth the car arriving on a given route would stop at.
Main Line Elevated.
On June 10, 1901, the Main Line Elevated began running through the Tremont Street subway. The platforms at Park Street were retrofitted with raised wooden sections to allow elevated trains to run on the outer tracks to the Pleasant Street Portal, while streetcars continued to use the inner tracks and inner loop, entering the subway from the Public Garden incline. This arrangement lasted until Main Line service was moved to a separate tunnel under parallel Washington Street. Elevated trains last ran through the tunnel on November 28, 1908; they moved to the Washington Street Tunnel on November 30, and streetcar service returned to all tracks on December 4.
Cambridge subway.
On March 23, 1912, the Cambridge subway opened from Harvard Square to Park Street Under. Park Street Under was built with two tracks with one side platform each and a center island platform, intended as a Spanish solution setup to speed boarding. Stairwells were added to the original platform level to connect to the lower level platforms. Unlike most other underground stations on the system (which were cut and cover construction with low ceilings), Park Street Under featured a spacious double-vaulted ceiling.
It was the first transfer station on the system to receive the "Under" postfix, rather than a separate name from the existing station. This represented a change in naming policy, and the first step towards easing wayfinding difficulties in the complex system. North Station West (opened later in 1912), South Station Under (1916) and Scollay Under (1916) would later use this naming scheme. Construction of the Dorchester Tunnel begun on May 3, 1912; this extension opened to Washington on April 4, 1915, and in three more segments to South Station Under in 1916, Broadway in 1917, and Andrew in 1918.
Overcrowding had been a problem at Park Street since the Main Line was routed through it, and did not improve when it reverted to streetcar-only operations. The problem worsened with the influx of passengers transferring at Park Street Under, as the only entrances to those platforms were narrow staircases connecting through the streetcar level. In preparation for the Boylston Street subway and the extension of the Cambridge subway, the Boston Transit Commission substantially expanded the streetcar level. The platforms were extended to the south and straightened; the southbound platform was increased in area by one-half, and the northbound platform by three-eighths. The south headhouse of the southbound platform was moved south to the end of the expanded platform. The construction work began on August 7, 1914, and was completed on March 8, 1915.
Later changes.
A loudspeaker system for announcements was added in 1921. The Park Street Information Booth on the upper level, which soon became a Boston landmark, opened on December 15, 1923 and replaced an earlier kiosk in the same location. On January 3, 1925, an explosion of celluloid film carried by a passenger injured dozens on a streetcar arriving at the station.
Although the 1914–15 renovation increased the platform area, the narrow stairways to the lower level still impeded passenger flow. The stairway between the lower center platform and the upper northbound platform was replaced with a pair of stairways – one over the other – in a project that was completed in August 1921. Widening of the stairs between the southbound platforms was completed on August 22, 1922. The stairway between the upper southbound platform and the lower northbound platform was doubled in width, with the bottom half split into two sets in opposite directions. That work – partially necessitated by capacity increases in the East Boston Tunnel – was completed on December 24, 1924. Finally, widening of the stairs between the upper northbound platform and the lower southbound platform was completed on May 27, 1925. These improvements reduced the amount of room available on the north ends of the streetcar platforms, and boarding areas were moved south.
In July 1922, the Boston Transit Commission proposed the addition of a side platform adjacent to the outer northbound streetcar track, with a passageway under Tremont Street leading to two new entrances at Temple Place. Opening the Winter Street Concourse to passengers was also proposed, but was soon rejected by the Department of Public Utilities in favor of continued use as storage space for adjacent businesses. A more ambitious 1927 plan by one of the BERy trustees called for new side platforms on both sides of the streetcar level, with a sub-passage connecting the four streetcar platforms, as well as the Temple Place entrances and Winter Street passageway. In 1933, the two stairway headhouses on the east side of Tremont Street were replaced with low walls, as had previously been done at Scollay Square and Adams Square.
In 1936, in response to still-persistent overcrowding, the Boston Transit Department constructed a new northbound side platform under Tremont Street with entrances at Temple Street. The project also added a sub-passage connecting the streetcar platforms and a passage connecting the new platform with the Cambridge Tunnel fare lobby opposite Park Street, but did not open the Winter Street Concourse. The new platform moved the streetcar boarding area southbound for the second time. A new lighting system was also installed. The project, funded by the Works Progress Administration, cost $407,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Work began on January 8, 1936, and the new platform was opened on December 5.
The 1947 state act that created the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) from the Boston Elevated Railway established four immediate projects for the new agency, one of which was expansion of the Tremont Street subway to four tracks between Park Street and Scollay Square. As part of the plan, Park Street and Boylston stations were to be combined into a single Boston Common station, with a direct entrance from an underground parking garage. The garage ultimately opened in 1961, but the stations were not combined. The south headhouse on the northbound side was removed in 1963.
MBTA era.
In 1964, the outer loop track was removed. Instead, a new crossover switch was installed to allow southbound streetcars from the through track to reach either side of the southbound platform. There have been proposals to reconnect the outer loop, to allow trains on the outer inbound track to be turned around at Park Street, but this has not been done because of the cost of structural reinforcements that would now be required. A short stub "pit" track for emergency service remains within the inner loop. In 1966, the south headhouse on the southbound platform was converted to an information booth for the new Freedom Trail.
In 1967, as part of a general system rebranding by the newly formed MBTA, the subway lines were assigned colors. The streetcar system—then down to five branches, and soon four—became the Green Line, the Cambridge–Dorchester line became the Red Line, and the Main Line El became the Orange Line. In the 1970s, the MBTA began allowing street musicians to play in the station. Park Street was used as a filming location for "See How She Runs" (1978) and "" (1985–88); the sitcom "Park Street Under" (1979) was set in a fictional bar inside the station.
1970s modernization.
The 1970s saw the first major renovations to the station in four decades. In 1972, the agency received a federal grant that funded two-thirds of a $14.3 million modernization program for downtown stations, included $4.2 million for Park Street. As part of that project, the MBTA investigated the feasibility of connecting , Park Street, Washington, and with pedestrian tunnels. Plans were released for the modernization of Park Street and three other downtown stations on August 27, 1975.
A $3.6 million contract was awarded on December 1, 1976. The 1936-built Temple Place entrance and passageway were closed that month, and concession stands were removed in 1977. The modernization included new wall tiles, new lighting, rebuilt staircases, and upgrades to the faregate area on the southbound platform. The work included the replacement of the remaining original copper headhouses with three modern glass-and-steel structures. Elevators to the fare lobby from the Red Line center platform and the surface were installed in 1979, making the Red Line section accessible. However, the surface elevator was frequently out of service due to repairs and other construction in the station. The aesthetics of the renovation were not well received; one longtime employee remarked the station resembled a billiard parlor.
The Winter Street Concourse, an upper level of the Dorchester Tunnel between Park Street and Downtown Crossing, was cleared of some non-public storage and office space, and opened as a pedestrian connector in January 1979. It allows passengers to walk from the northbound Green Line side platform at Park Street to the southbound Orange Line platform at Downtown Crossing while remaining inside fare control.
Later changes.
From August 1981 to June 22, 1996, additional peak-hour Red Line trains ran between Quincy Center station and Park Street, using crossovers north of Park Street to reverse direction. Between November 30, 1981 and June 1982, Park Street was also the northern terminus of a small number of five-car trains (the first Red Line trains longer than four cars), as station platforms to the north were not yet extended for longer trains.
In the mid-1980s, the MBTA spent $80 million to extend the platforms of seven Red Line and three Orange Line stations to allow the use of six-car trains. The agency obtained a $22 million federal grant in 1984 to partially fund the , Park Street, and Washington station work. In 1985-86, the platforms at Park Street were extended to the north. Six-car trains began operation on January 21, 1988. Temporary artworks were placed in the station during the renovation as part of the Arts on the Line program. One work by Christopher Janney featured a synthesizer controlled by photoelectric sensors, placed so that passing passengers would interrupt the beams and change the sounds.
The MBTA opened bidding for an additional round of construction in March 1991; a $6 million contract was issued on July 10. The 1993-completed project included elevators to the Green Line sub-passage, completing elevator access to all platforms; however, Green Line trains were not yet accessible. The northbound Green Line headhouse was exit-only until June 20, 1992, when it was converted to also serve as an entrance. Around that time, a new south headhouse was built on the southbound side as the Freedom Trail information center was moved to a new structure nearby.
Around 2000, the MBTA outfitted the Green Line platforms with portable lifts as a temporary accessibility measure to serve the new low-floor Type 8 streetcars. A $15 million project to build raised low platforms at Park Street and began in 2001. The work at Park Street was done in segments to allow service to the station to continue during construction. Construction was completed in 2003. New elevators from the surface to the westbound Green Line unpaid lobby and from the westbound Green Line platform to the Red Line island platform opened on December 21, 2012. They were built, and two other elevators rebuilt, as part of the 2006 settlement of "Joanne Daniels-Finegold, et al. v. MBTA". In early 2019, the MBTA accepted bids for a $11.8 million renovation of Park Street station. The project includes replacement of all wayfinding signage and lighting, as well as the reopening of the 1976-closed Temple Place entrance. Work began in April 2019 and was largely completed in December 2020; the reopened entrance is expected to be complete in August 2021. The elevator between the Red Line lobby and platform will be replaced in 2022-2024 as part of accessibility improvements at Downtown Crossing.
Station layout.
Park Street is a bi-level station, with the Green Line running on the upper level and the Red Line on the lower level. The Green Line has four tracks numbered 1 to 4 (north to south). Tracks 1 and 2 serve an island platform for westbound trains. Tracks 3 and 4 serve an island platform for eastbound trains, with an additional side platform serving Track 4. Track 4 is used by all eastbound through trains; Track 3 is only used by trains terminating at Park Street, as it loops to rejoin Track 2. Both island platforms have headhouses and fare control areas on their northeast end; the westbound platform also has a headhouse at its southwest end. A sub-passage connects the middle of the three Green Line platforms. A passage from the eastbound side platform leads to a small fare lobby under Winter Street, with stairs to the surface and the Winter Street Concourse to Downtown Crossing.
The Red Line has two tracks: Track 5 southbound and Track 6 northbound. The Red Line has both island and side platforms; however, unlike the Spanish solution, all platforms are used for both boarding and alighting. Staircases connect each platform to both Green Line island platform and the fare lobby; exit-only escalators lead from the southern end of the side platforms to the surface. A backup control room for the subway system is located on the Green Line level over the middle of the Red Line platforms.
Park Street station is not a major bus transfer point, though MBTA bus routes and (plus the single early-morning outbound trips of routes , , and ) and several MVRTA commuter routes stop on Tremont Street at Temple Place.
Accessibility.
Park Street station is accessible for passengers on all trains. Elevators connect the surface to the westbound Green Line platform, and to the fare lobby. The Red Line center platform has elevators to the westbound Green Line platform and to the fare lobby; the Red Line side platforms are not accessible. Elevators also connect the westbound Green Line platform and the eastbound side platform to the sub-passage. Because there are no elevators connecting the Red Line with the southbound Orange Line at Downtown Crossing, the accessible route for that transfer uses the Winter Street Concourse and the elevator at Park Street.
Public art.
There are several pieces of public art in the station. "Celebration of the Underground" by Lilli Ann K. Rosenberg is a large wall mosaic along the outer outbound (westbound) tracks at the Green Line level, and can be viewed from the outbound island platform. The mosaic commemorates the designation of the Tremont Street subway, including Park Street station, as a National Historic Landmark. Created in 1978, it received renewed attention in 2020 after it was cleaned and better lit.
"Benedictions" by Ralph Helmick consists of two giant bronze hands each mounted separately over the inbound and outbound Red Line tracks on the lower level of the station. Each hand is posed in a classic gesture of benediction or blessing.


Cornerstone Festival

Cornerstone Festival was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around July 4 near Bushnell, Illinois, drawing some 20,000 attendees each year. In a given year, many artists that played at Cornerstone also played at other events such as Creation Festival and mainstream festivals and tours such as the Warped Tour. The final festival was held in 2012.
Cornerstone Festival was a member of the Christian Festival Association.
History.
From 1984 to 1990, Cornerstone was held at the Lake County Fairgrounds near Grayslake, Illinois. In 1991, Cornerstone moved near the town of Bushnell (outside Macomb) where the organizers of the festival purchased a large piece of land, which is now called "Cornerstone Farm".
Tens of thousands of people attended Cornerstone Farm each year and saw over 300 bands play many styles of music, including rock, metal, punk, hardcore and pop music. In addition to the many musicians, Cornerstone Festival also presented guest speakers, and featured independent/foreign film screenings, writers' seminars, and art workshops.
In 2010 the festival's main stage moved to the "Midway", which is about 0.7 miles northeast of its previous location in the "bowl".
The 2011 festival featured a Jesus Rally showcasing many of the groundbreaking Jesus music artists including; Servant, Daniel Amos, Randy Stonehill, Barry McGuire, Resurrection Band, Phil Keaggy, and Classic Petra.
On May 15, 2012 it was announced that the 2012 Festival would be the last. The final song performed at Cornerstone, on July 7, 2012, was "To Bid Farewell" performed by Derri Daugherty and Steve Hindalong of The Choir.


Lucy Mooney

Lucy Mooney (c. 1880 – 1969) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective and worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee. Despite losing an arm before she began working at the Bee, she was an accomplished quilter. Pete Seeger owned one of her quilts. Her work has been exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Frist Art Museum.
Life.
Mooney and her husband Needom worked as domestic attendants to the Sandy Hill house, the former Van de Graaff plantation in Gee's Bend. W.C. Travis was their employer in residence at the time.


Gina See-Yuen Wong

Gina See-Yuen Wong is a filmmaker and founder of the Pineapple Underground Film Festival, which screens independent films from around the world. She also runs Experimenta, a performance art space in Hong Kong.
Career.
In 2009, Wong directed the video short “Shanghai Saga: Other Skies, Other Lands.” The short film was selected in the International Competition section of the 55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. In 2011 she wrote, produced, and directed the documentary “Orient Top Down”.
She founded and curated the Pineapple Underground Film Festival (PUFF) in Hong Kong in 2011. PUFF is an independently funded, indie film festival as opposed to other film festivals in China which are run by the government. Wong works to promote independent cinema in Hong Kong and throughout China. The festival includes a side feature, Secret Cinema, which takes the films from the film festival to Shanghai, where it is illegal to hold a film festival. PUFF selects feature films, shorts and documentaries that would otherwise not be distributed in Hong Kong. The first festival featured films from Canada, the United States, Greece, Italy, and China, as well as Iran, Brazil, Taiwan, Norway, and Spain. The initial festival featured 26 films, and was up to 76 films by 2013.
Wong produced “The Lives of Hamilton Fish” and “The Road to South” in 2013.
Wong is also curator and co-founder of Experimenta, a digital media and performance art space in Hong Kong. The space features a projection screen and rows of wooden chairs for showing experimental cinema. Experimenta has hosted exhibitions of artists including João Vasco Paiva, Nadim Abbas, Susanne Buerner, Lam Hoi Sin, and Ho Sin Tung. In 2013, Wong co-produced a video art exhibition “The Personal and the Political” with Lam Hoi Sin. Wong was on the board of Para/Site Art Space.


Bruno Bartoletti

Bruno Bartoletti (Sesto Fiorentino, 10 June 1926 – Florence, 9 June 2013) was an Italian operatic conductor. His active international career lasted from 1953 to 2007, and he specialized in the Italian repertory and contemporary works. He was particularly noted for his 51-year association with Lyric Opera of Chicago, as co-artistic director, artistic director, principal conductor, and artistic director emeritus. He also served as Artistic Director of both the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1965–1973) and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1985–1991), and as principal conductor of the Danish Royal Opera (1957–1960), in addition to frequent work as a guest conductor at various major opera houses.
Life and career.
Bartoletti's father was Umberto Bartoletti, a blacksmith, who also played clarinet in a Florence band. As a youth, Bartoletti played the piccolo. A teacher in Florence recognised the young Bartoletti's talent in music, and her husband, the sculptor Antonio Berti, recommended him to the Cherubini Conservatory. There, he studied flute and piano.
Bartoletti later played in the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and subsequently became a staff pianist with the Teatro Comunale Florence, at its centre of vocal training. He was an assistant to such conductors as Artur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Vittorio Gui and Tullio Serafin. In particular, Serafin encouraged Bartoletti to study conducting. In December 1953, Bartoletti made his professional conducting debut at the Teatro Comunale with "Rigoletto". In 1957, he became resident conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where his work included conducting the Italian premiere of Shostakovich's "The Nose". Subsequently, Bartoletti was artistic director of the Rome Opera from 1965 to 1973. He returned to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as its artistic director from 1985 to 1991. Elsewhere in Europe, Bartoletti served as principal conductor of the Royal Danish Opera from 1957 to 1960.
Bartoletti made his US conducting debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1956, conducting "Il trovatore", as a replacement for the indisposed Serafin. In 1964, Bartoletti was named co-artistic director of Lyric Opera, alongside Pino Donati, and served jointly with Donati until 1974. In 1975, Bartoletti became sole artistic director, and held the post until his retirement in 1999. Following his retirement, he had the title of artistic director emeritus for the remainder of his life. Bartoletti began as Lyric Opera's principal conductor in 1964, and served in that capacity until 1999. Over the period from 1956 to 2007, Bartoletti conducted approximately 600 performances of 55 operas with Lyric Opera, with his final conducting appearance at Lyric Opera in a 2007 production of "La traviata". His other notable conducting work at Lyric Opera included conducting the US premiere of Britten's "Billy Budd" in 1970, and the 1978 world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's "Paradise Lost".
Bartoletti focused almost exclusively on opera in his career, with few conducting engagements in symphonic work. He conducted several world premieres of works by composers such as Luciano Berio, Luigi Dallapiccola, Paul Dessau, Lodovico Rocca, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Alberto Ginastera ("Don Rodrigo", 1964). His commercial recordings Ponchielli's "La Gioconda", Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", and "La Cena delle Beffe" of Umberto Giordano (from the Opernhaus, Zürich, in 1996), as well as DVDs of "Death in Venice", "La bohème", "Giovanna d’Arco", "Macbeth", "La gazza ladra", and television films of "La sonnambula" and "Tosca".
The Italian government had bestowed on Bartoletti the rank of "Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana". He was also a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and a winner of the Abbiati Prize. In his later years, Bartoletti taught at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. His final operatic performance was a production of "Manon Lescaut" in February 2011.
Bartoletti was married to the former Rosanna Sandretti, an elementary-school teacher, from 1 July 1953 until her death on 2 August 2011. The marriage produced two daughters, Chiara Bartoletti and Maria Poggi, who both survive Bartoletti. Other survivors include a sister, a brother, and five grandchildren, Livia, Filippo, Arianna, Margherita, and Nicolò.


Danmark Har Talent (season 4)

The fourth season of Demark har talent aired on TV2 on 20 January 2018 and finished on 14 April 2018. The series will be again host by Christopher Læssø and Felix Schmidt. On the judging panel Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen, Cecilie Lassen, and Peter Frödin will return while new forth judge Thomas Buttenschøn while Nabiha won't return for her third season. once again in this season the golden buzzer is available for each judge to press and the hosts once the whole season to put one act straight through to the live shows. Moonlight Brotheres Won the competition against Anastasia Skukhtorova Who came second and Dance Group Champions League Family came third.
Semi-finals.
The semi finals began on 10 March 2018. 7 acts will perform every week. 1 act will advanced from the public vote 1 act will advanced from the judges vote


Bristol Shakespeare Festival

The Bristol Shakespeare Festival is an open-air theatre festival founded in 2004 and held annually in the parks and green spaces of the city of Bristol, as well as in both traditional and non-traditional theatre spaces in the city.
The festival is a not-for-profit organisation that claims to be the largest professional open air Shakespeare festival in the UK.
Running during the month of July, the festival plays host to a wide range of theatre companies, usually presenting between seven and ten full professional productions, from across the United Kingdom.


Horia (Bretan)

Horia is a 1937 Romanian-language opera by Nicolae Bretan to a libretto by . The story is based on the story of Vasile Ursu Nicola "Horia", the 1784 Transylvania Romanian peasants revolt led by Horia, Cloșca and Crișan. The opera premiered on January 24, 1937 at the Romanian Opera, Cluj. It received its radio premiere on July 27, 1975.
Instrumentation.
The opera is scored for the following instruments:
Synopsis.
Horia, a peasant, arrives at the court of Baron Kemény to plead for reforms to ease the plight of the serfs. The men disagree over gradual versus drastic reform, and disagreement ends with the Baron threatening Horia with death. Meanwhile, Horia's wife, Dochia, and daughter, Ileana, are visited at their home by Ileana's fiancé, Ionel. Sensing danger is at hand, the women plead with him to remain at home, but Ionel leaves to join Horia. The women are then visited by Baron Nyíl, who intends to take Ileana for himself. Dochia grabs an axe to defend her daughter and herself, when they are interrupted by Horia, who swears justice will be done before dismissing the baron.
In a tavern two serfs discuss their treatment at the hands of the nobility. Pavel is despondent over the loss of his wife, but Nuţu is resolved to avenge his wife's and son's deaths. Both decide to join Horia's rebellion. The serfs convene and Horia tries to quell their fears, extolling virtue and humanity over vengeance. Horia's vision of a just, peaceful cause wins out, and leaders are elected: Cloșca will lead the Romanian campaign, Crișan will lead the Hungarian campaign, and Horia is named commander. The compact is sealed with a pledge of faith.
After the rebellion is underway, the serfs demand retribution for their grievances. Nuţu plans to execute Baroness Hunfy for killing his relatives, but Horia stops him. Nuţu brands Horia a traitor to the peasantry for his friendship to Baron Kép, who saved Horia's life. Nuţu reveals that Kép was visiting Hunfy and that Nuţu has set her castle alight, killing the baron. News arrives that the aristocracy have fled to Fort Deva and that imperial troops will rescue them unless the peasants can get there first.
As the next scene opens the revolt has been quashed and from Deva the nobles plot the capture of Horia. They search the captive peasants for one who will betray their leader: Ionel refuses and kills himself, but Nuţu agrees.
The leaders are captured; Crișan has committed suicide, Horia and Cloșca are sentenced to death. Horia's pleas for the people fall on deaf ears, as do Ileana's petitions for clemency. Horia and Cloșca are taken to be executed and the curtain falls.


Santa Cruz Shakespeare

Santa Cruz Shakespeare is an annual professional theatre festival in Santa Cruz, California, founded in 2014. Its predecessor, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, lost the financial support of its host and sponsor, the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2013. Members of the original company immediately began fundraising and raised enough money to relaunch the festival as an independent entity.
History.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz was founded in 1981 by Audrey Stanley and performed annually on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Plays by Shakespeare (and others) were performed both indoors on the UCSC Theater Arts Mainstage and outdoors in the Sinsheimer-Stanley Festival Glen. Usually, the company's season ran from July to early September and presented three or four plays that ran concurrently in repertory. Over time, the company ran up deficits, which were paid by the University of California. In 2008, with California's budget crisis having resulted in reduced funding, the university could no longer afford to cover these debts. An agreement was reached that if the theater could raise $300,000, it could continue operation. Within 10 days of the agreement's announcement, over $400,000 was raised. However, claiming continuing financial problems, in 2013 the UCSC Arts Division dean announced that Shakespeare Santa Cruz would end after that year's winter holiday production.
Following this announcement, members of the theater company began a campaign to raise money to become an independent company. In December 2013, a new entity known as Shakespeare Play On was formed for this purpose, co-headed by Shakespeare Santa Cruz artistic director Marco Baricelli and actor/director Mike Ryan. An online platform for accepting donations was established with the Network for Good. By February 2014, they raised over $1 million (USD) through crowdfunding to continue on without the financial support of the university. In March 2014, the new company changed its name to Santa Cruz Shakespeare. "The New York Times" referred to the company's rebirth as an "underdog success story."
For its inaugural season under its new arrangement, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presented "As You Like It", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", and "The Beard of Avon" in July and August 2014. All three shows were performed in the Sinsheimer-Stanley Festival Glen on UCSC's campus.
For the 2015 season Mike Ryan took over sole Artistic Director duties and the company announced productions of "Much Ado About Nothing", "Macbeth", and David Ives's adaptation of Pierre Corneille's "The Liar".
For the 2016 season the company moved to a new purpose-built home in the Audrey Stanley Grove at Upper DeLaveaga Park in Santa Cruz.


8539 Laban


Alluvial diagram

Alluvial diagrams are a type of flow diagram originally developed to represent changes in network structure over time.
In allusion to both their visual appearance and their emphasis on flow, alluvial diagrams are named after alluvial fans that are
naturally formed by the soil deposited from streaming water.
Interpretation.
In an alluvial diagram, blocks represent clusters of nodes, and stream fields between the blocks represent changes in the composition of these clusters over time. The height of a block represents the size of the cluster and the height of a stream field represents the size of the components contained in both blocks connected by the stream field.
Application.
Alluvial diagrams were originally developed to visualize structural change in large complex networks. They can be used to visualize any type of change in group composition between states or over time and include statistical information to reveal significant change. Alluvial diagrams highlight important structural changes that can be further emphasized by color, and make identification of major transitions easy.
Alluvial diagrams can also be used to illustrate patterns of flow on a fixed network over time. The "Users Flow" feature of Google Analytics uses alluvial diagrams to graphically represent how visitors move among the nodes (individual pages) on a web sites.


Ros Tapestry Project

The Ros Tapestry Project is a major community arts and history project centered on the town of New Ross in County Wexford, Ireland. The project is dedicated to producing a tapestry in fifteen panels which tells the story of the coming of the Normans to Ireland in the 12th century and the foundation of the port and town of New Ross at the beginning of the 13th century. Each tapestry panel is approximately four and a half feet deep (1.5m) by six feet (1.8m) wide and tells of a unique aspect of the epic story. Six panels were finished for an Exhibition in 2007 and a further nine panels are now (2020) completed.
History of the Project.
Beginning.
The project began in May 1998 with an idea to make a tapestry telling the story of the coming of the Normans to Ireland in tapestry form and to hang this tapestry in the historic St. Mary's Church of Ireland Church in New Ross. The idea originated with the Rector of the Church, Reverend Paul Mooney, who then consulted with Alexis Bernstorff, an art historian and professional in the field of tapestry and fabric restoration. Over the summer of 1998, Dr. Mooney and Alexis Bernstorff consulted with local artist Ms. Reiltin Murphy to create a visualisation of how the tapestry could be best displayed in the Church of Ireland parish church. At that time the focus of the tapestry widened from the story of the Norman expansion into Ireland in the latter part of the 12th century to include the founding of the port and town of New Ross at the beginning of the 13th century. A provisional list of fifteen themes for tapestry panels was outlined, as well as the measurements for the panels to be hung from the gallery of the late Georgian, early 19th-century church. Countess Ann Griffin Bernstorff, professional artist and mother of Alexis Bernstorff, was approached to consider designing the tapestry and offered to paint the cartoons for the fifteen panels. Countess Bernstorff began with some experimental pieces in the Autumn of 1998 and a draft plan for the project was produced and circulated at that time.
Planning.
In the spring of 1999, a small committee of people began to plan for the project in earnest, and New Ross lawyer Simon Kennedy freely gave of his time and services to draft articles of association for the project and to register the project as a company limited by guarantee without shares. This not-for-profit legal status helped pave the way for applications for grants and for the successful application for status for the project.
Painting.
Meanwhile, following extensive historical research Countess Bernstorff painted the cartoon for the first tapestry panel which depicted the Hook Lighthouse in the Medieval era. This lighthouse is the oldest continually serving working lighthouse in Europe and was founded by monks in the early Middle Ages as Christianity came into southeast Ireland. This panel was given to a group of volunteer stitchers in Fethard-on-Sea in early 2000, as there is a policy to locate the creation each panel close to the historical location, and this panel was completed over the next three years. Alexis Bernstorff supervised the training of stitchers and the coordination of the production of the tapestry panel and served in this capacity on all tapestry panels.
Stitching.
From 2000 to 2012, twelve panels were produced by the extraordinary commitment, skill and 'espirit de corp' of the voluntary stitchers. These panels are:
Over the last fourteen years 150 voluntary stitchers stitching on panels at various locations in County Wexford and at one location in County Kilkenny in Ireland. In many cases people have agreed to let a room of their house be used for up to four or more years as a location for the stitching of panels.
, three additional panels have been completed. These are:


Kontu Internet Community


Victor de Sabata

Victor de Sabata (10 April 1892 – 11 December 1967) was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.
De Sabata was acclaimed for his interpretations of orchestral music. Like his near contemporary Wilhelm Furtwängler, de Sabata regarded composition as more important than conducting but achieved more lasting recognition for his conducting than his compositions. De Sabata has been praised by various authors and critics as a rival to Toscanini for the title of greatest Italian conductor of the twentieth century, and even as "perhaps the greatest conductor in the world".
In 1918, aged 26, de Sabata was appointed conductor of the Monte Carlo Opera, performing a wide variety of late-19th century and contemporary works, and earning acclaim from Maurice Ravel. De Sabata became the music director at La Scala in Milan, a post he would hold for over 20 years. His animated conducting style led one observer to describe his appearance in performance as "a cross between Julius Caesar and Satan."
Following World War II, his career expanded internationally. He was a frequent guest conductor in London, New York and other American cities. His post-war operatic work included celebrated collaborations with Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi, most notably his famous recording of "Tosca" with Callas in 1953. His career was cut short by a heart attack that same year.
Early life.
Victor de Sabata was born in Trieste, at the time part of Austria-Hungary, but now part of Italy. His Roman Catholic father, Amedeo de Sabata, was a professional singing teacher and chorus master, and his mother, Rosita Tedeschi, a talented amateur musician, was Jewish.
De Sabata began playing the piano at the age of four, and composed a gavotte for that instrument at the age of six. He composed his first work for orchestra at the age of twelve.
His formal musical studies began after his family moved to Milan around 1900. In Milan, de Sabata studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, excelling at piano, violin, theory, composition and conducting, and graduating "cum laude" in composition, piano and violin. He would remain a virtuoso pianist and violinist up until the end of his life.
In 1911 he performed in an orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini who influenced him to become a conductor. De Sabata's first opera, "Il macigno", was produced at the opera house of La Scala on 31 March 1917 to a mixed reception. It was frequently performed during the next few years.
Conducting career.
1918–1929.
In 1918 de Sabata was appointed conductor of the Monte Carlo Opera, performing a wide variety of late-19th century and contemporary works. In 1925, he conducted the world premiere of "L'enfant et les sortilèges" by Ravel. Ravel said that de Sabata was a conductor "the like of which I have never before encountered" and wrote him a note the next day saying that "You have given me one of the most complete joys of my career". Ravel also claimed that, within twelve hours of receiving the score to "L'enfant", the conductor had memorized it.
In 1921, while still conducting opera at Monte Carlo, de Sabata began his career as a symphonic conductor with the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1927 he made his U.S. debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, substituting for Fritz Reiner in the first eight concerts of the year. He did the same in 1928.
1929–1945.
De Sabata conducted the orchestra of La Scala in concert starting in the 1921–22 season, and conducted opera there from 1929. He became the principal conductor in 1930 in succession to Toscanini. Soon after taking up the post, he resigned because of a disagreement with the orchestra over the poor reception of his composition "A Thousand and One Nights". Toscanini wrote him a letter in order to persuade him to return, saying that his absence was "damaging to you and the theater".
De Sabata did return to La Scala, and continued in the post for over 20 years. However, he did not reply to Toscanini, and the two conductors remained estranged until the 1950s.
During the 1930s, de Sabata conducted widely in Italy and Central Europe. In 1933 he made his first commercial recordings with the Orchestra of the Italian Broadcasting Authority in Turin, including his own composition "Juventus". According to Benito Mussolini's son Romano, de Sabata was "a personal friend" of the Italian dictator, and gave "several concerts" at the leader's Villa Torlonia home.
According to George Richard Marek's biography of Toscanini, de Sabata's friendship with Mussolini became another factor distancing him from his former mentor Toscanini.
In 1936, he appeared with the Vienna State Opera. In 1939, he became only the second conductor from outside the German-speaking world to conduct at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus when he led Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" (Toscanini had been the first, in 1930 and 1931). Among the audience at Bayreuth was the young Sergiu Celibidache, who hid in the lavatory overnight in order to surreptitiously attend rehearsals. That same year he made celebrated recordings of Brahms, Wagner and Richard Strauss with the Berlin Philharmonic. He forged a friendship with the young Herbert von Karajan. In the closing stages of the war, de Sabata helped Karajan relocate his family to Italy.
In 1940 he met the seventeen-year old Valentina Cortese in Stresa, with whom he began a romantic relationship; They separated in 1948.
1945–1953.
After World War II, de Sabata's career expanded internationally. He was a frequent guest conductor in London, New York and other American cities. In 1946 he recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the Decca recording company. In 1947 he switched labels to HMV, recording with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. These sessions included the premiere recording of Debussy's "Jeux". He would go on to make more recordings with the same orchestra in 1948. In 1950 he was temporarily detained at Ellis Island along with several other Europeans under the newly passed McCarran Act (the reason was his work in Italy during Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime). In March 1950 and March 1951 de Sabata conducted the New York Philharmonic in a series of concerts in Carnegie Hall, many of which were preserved from radio transcriptions to form some of the most valuable items in his recorded legacy.
De Sabata's base remained La Scala, Milan, and he had the opportunity to work with two upwardly-mobile sopranos: Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. In August 1953 he collaborated with Callas in his only commercial opera recording: Puccini's "Tosca" for HMV (also featuring Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi along with the La Scala orchestra and chorus). This production is widely regarded as one of the greatest opera recordings of all time. One critic has written that de Sabata's success in this "Tosca" "remains so decisive that had he never recorded another note, his fame would still be assured".
Heart attack and retirement.
The "Tosca" recording was planned to be only the first of a series of recordings in which HMV would set down much of de Sabata's operatic repertoire. However, soon after the sessions he suffered a heart attack so severe that it prompted him to stop performing regularly in public. His decision to stop conducting has also been attributed to "disillusionment".
His scheduled December 1953 La Scala performance of Alessandro Scarlatti's "Mitridate Eupatore" with Callas was replaced at short notice by an acclaimed Cherubini "Medea" with Leonard Bernstein. He resigned his conducting post at La Scala and was succeeded by his assistant Carlo Maria Giulini.
Between 1953–1957 he held the administrative position of "Artistic Director" at La Scala. This period was notable for a reconciliation with Toscanini (with whom he had had a cool relationship for twenty years) during a La Scala production of Spontini's "La vestale" in 1954.
De Sabata conducted only twice more, once in a studio recording of Verdi's "Requiem" from June 1954 for HMV, and for the last time at Arturo Toscanini's memorial service (conducting the funeral march from Beethoven's "Eroica Symphony" at La Scala opera house followed by Verdi's "Requiem" in Milan Cathedral ) in 1957. The last decade of his life was devoted to composition, but with few results. Although Walter Legge (husband of Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf) offered de Sabata an opportunity to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1964 and later suggested de Sabata write a completion to Puccini's opera "Turandot", neither opportunity was realised. He enjoyed solving mathematical problems in his retirement.
Death.
Victor de Sabata died of heart disease in Santa Margherita Ligure, Liguria, Italy in 1967, aged 75. At his memorial service, the Orchestra of La Scala performed without a conductor as a mark of respect. De Sabata is buried in the cemetery of near Bergamo.
The "Award Victor de Sabata" is named after de Sabata. A prize for young musicians sponsored by the province of Genoa and the region of Liguria, the competition takes place in Santa Margherita.
Conducting style.
De Sabata's conducting style combined the fiery temperament, iron control and technical precision of Toscanini with greater spontaneity and attention to orchestral color. He was exceptionally demanding of his players: according to one musician: "Those eyes and ears missed nothing ... the players had been made to work harder than ever before and they knew that, without having been asked to play alone, they had been individually assessed". On the podium he "seemed to be dancing everything from a tarantella to a sabre dance". He suffered from a limp as a result of a childhood polio infection.
Norman Lebrecht describes him as "a musician whose mild manners turned to raging fury whenever he took stick in hand". One critic used the phrase "lull and stun" to summarize his technique.
A violinist in the London Philharmonic Orchestra compared de Sabata with Sir Thomas Beecham, saying that while Beecham made the orchestra "red hot", de Sabata made it white hot. Another player described de Sabata's appearance when conducting as "a cross between Julius Caesar and Satan".
Double-bass player Robert Meyer, who has played under many leading conductors including Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer, Giulini, Walter, Koussevitzky and Stokowski, describes de Sabata as "undoubtedly the finest conductor I have ever encountered". He conducted rehearsals, as well as concerts, from memory.
A musician who played under both Toscanini and de Sabata at La Scala compared them, saying:[Toscanini] wasn't like "Dede" – De Sabata: he, too, was a great conductor, but he was changeable. One day he would be fine and would conduct a certain way; the next day he would be full of aches and pains and would conduct a different way. He was always somewhat ill. He, too, would be transformed, once he picked up the baton... and I must admit that "Tristan und Isolde" made an even bigger impression when De Sabata conducted it than with Toscanini. Toscanini was perfection: upright, even. De Sabata, on the other hand, pushed and pulled the music. Afterwards, when Toscanini had left, De Sabata was the only one who could take his place. Despite his faults, he, too, was a great conductor and a musician of the highest order. Once, in "Turandot", he heard a mistake made by the third trombone, and it was discovered to be a printer's error that not even Toscanini had caught."
Conductor Riccardo Chailly reports that de Sabata would have the strings sing along with the trombone "glissandi" at the climax of Ravel's "Boléro", and that Chailly himself asks orchestras to do the same thing.
Criticism.
Toscanini did not approve of de Sabata's conducting style or of many of his interpretations: he considered the younger man's gestures to be too flamboyant.
Puccini wrote in a letter dating from 1920 that "although [De Sabata] is an excellent musician of the other school – that is, the modern school – he can't, and does not know how to, conduct my music."
Anecdotes of musical abilities.
After de Sabata was shown the score for the first time of Elgar's "Enigma Variations", the next day he conducted a rehearsal of the work from memory and pointed out several errors in the orchestral parts which no-one, including Elgar himself, had noticed previously.
During a rehearsal of Respighi's "Pines of Rome" in London, de Sabata "demonstrated the bowing and fingering of the high cello part in the first movement by playing it—without even a glance at the part. The pianist asked for advice about the solo cadenza, which de Sabata also played by heart. In the rehearsal interval, he asked the "flicorni" for the final movement to play their brass fanfares. They did. 'What are you playing?' he asked. 'It is an octave higher.' 'Can't be done, Maestro.' ... The Maestro borrowed one of their instruments and blew the correct notes in the right octave."
"A visitor [to La Scala] rehearsing "Tristan" asked Victor de Sabata to take the baton while he tested the sound from the centre of the auditorium. Needless to say, the sound he heard was totally different from the one he produced. De Sabata, without uttering a word, asserted his dominance of the orchestra just by standing there". When Herbert von Karajan was making his own recording of "Tosca" in 1962, he would often ask his producer John Culshaw to play selections from the de Sabata/Callas recording to him. Culshaw reports that "One exceptionally tricky passage for the conductor is the entry of Tosca in act 3, where Puccini's tempo directions can best be described as elastic. Karajan listened to de Sabata several times over during that passage and then said, 'No, he's right but I can't do that. That's "his" secret.'"
Selected discography.
The recordings that de Sabata made in the studio are, with some exceptions, considered less gripping than the best of his work in the concert-hall and opera-house. (This may be related to the fact that he is said to have hated making recordings). Fortunately there are now several unauthorized "live" recordings that demonstrate how exciting de Sabata could be on the podium (although the sound quality can be problematic). This contrast comes through in the two different versions of Richard Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration" and Verdi's "Requiem" listed below.
Compositions.
De Sabata's compositions are written in a late-romantic style with similarities to Respighi and, especially, Richard Strauss (one early commentator went so far as to call de Sabata the older composer's "adoptive son").
It was as a composer that de Sabata first came to widespread attention, with the production of his opera "Il Macigno" in La Scala's 1917 season followed by performances of his orchestral "Symphonic Suite" (1912) and symphonic poem "Juventus" (1919) by conductors such as Walter Damrosch, Pierre Monteux, and Arturo Toscanini during the early 1920s. His compositions are little-known today, although Lorin Maazel had them in his repertoire.
One reason may be that de Sabata did relatively little to perform and publicize his own works, preferring that his music should succeed or fail on its own merits. Critical opinion on the merits of his compositions has long been divided. For example, a 1926 "Time Magazine" review described his "Gethsemani" as "shallow, unoriginal music for which even the philanthropic genius of a Toscanini could not achieve distinction", while a critic for "International Record Review", writing in the early 2000s, said that the same work "contains some of the loveliest orchestral sounds I have heard in years".
Family connections.
De Sabata's daughter Eliana (a film screenwriter) is married to conductor Aldo Ceccato, who was also de Sabata's pupil.
His granddaughter, Isabella de Sabata, is married to conductor John Eliot Gardiner. His grandson, Cristiano Ceccato, son of Eliana, is a former student of CAD pioneer John Frazer and worked for architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.
Spelling of name.
The capitalizations Victor de Sabata and Victor De Sabata are both found, and the first name is often given in the Italian form Vittorio, especially in Italy. However, examples of the conductor's autograph signature clearly show that he spelt his name Victor de Sabata with a lower-case "d", and contemporary playbills indicate that he used the first name Victor, even when performing in Italy.
Notable premieres.
In concert
On record


The Dressmaker (opera)

Modehandlerskan ("The Modiste" or "The Dressmaker") is a three-act operetta by Franz Berwald, to a libretto by the composer and others.
The piece was written in Elfvik in 1843. Excerpts were first performed at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm on 26 March 1845 (described by "New Grove" as 'a fiasco'), with a vocal score being published that year.
The overture was recorded for CD in 1995 by the St Petersburg Hermitage Orchestra conducted by Mats Liljefors.
Sources.
Layton R, Van Boer BH. Franz Berwald. In: "The New Grove Dictionary of Opera." Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.


Matthew Breen (journalist)

Matthew Breen is an American journalist and editor living in New York, NY, United States. He is the editorial director at Logo. He was previously the editor-in-chief of "The Advocate", a national LGBT news magazine, and deputy editor at "Out". He was previously a freelance film critic, and the program director for the 2001 Austin Film Festival, and an associate film programmer for the 2002 IFP/West Los Angeles Film Festival, and media manager for the 1998 and 1999 Sundance Film Festivals.
Breen's petition demanding the pardon of the approximately 49,000 men convicted of "gross indecency" laws in the United Kingdom gathered nearly 500,000 signatures. U.K. campaigners and the relatives of Alan Turing delivered 10 Downing Street in 2015. The Alan Turing Law was enacted in 2017.


Albert Vanloo

Albert Vanloo (Brussels, 10 September 1846 – 1920, Paris) was a Belgian librettist and playwright.
Vanloom lived in Paris as a child and was attracted to the theatre. As a young student he began writing plays and opéra comique libretti, notably with Eugène Leterrier who remained his main collaborator until the latter's death in 1884. He also worked with the writers William Busnach, Henri Chivot and Georges Duval.
Libretti.
For Alexandre Charles Lecocq
For Jacques Offenbach
For Emmanuel Chabrier
For Edmond Audran
For André Messager


Fyre Fraud

Fyre Fraud is an American documentary film directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason that premiered on January 14, 2019, on Hulu.
Premise.
"Fyre Fraud" is described in its press release as a "true-crime comedy bolstered by a cast of whistleblowers, victims, and insiders going beyond the spectacle to uncover the power of FOMO and an ecosystem of enablers, driven by profit and a lack of accountability in the digital age".
Production.
On April 16, 2018, it was announced that Hulu was developing a docuseries about the infamous failed 2017 musical festival Fyre Festival. The film was set to be directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason and executive produced by Michael Gasparro, John Amato, Dana Miller, Angela Freedman, and Sharmi Gandhi. Production companies involved with the film were slated to include The Cinemart, Mic and Billboard.
On January 14, 2019, Hulu debuted the production, titled "Fyre Fraud", in a surprise "rush release" with no promotion, advertising, or press preceding the film's launch. The premiere allowed Hulu to get their project out to audiences four days before Netflix's documentary about the same subject, "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened", was released.
In February 2019, Entertainment One acquired the international rights to "Fyre Fraud".
Reception.
The film was met with a positive response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 80% approval rating with an average rating of 6.41/10 based on 30 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "In the battle over Fyre Festival content, "Fyre Fraud" comes out swinging with a questionable interview of conman Billy McFarland and a thoughtful exploration of nefarious social strategy." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
In a positive review, "RogerEbert.com"s Nick Allen gave the film a rating of 3½ out of 4 stars and praised it saying, ""Fyre Fraud" does not just dunk on McFarland, Ja Rule, and anyone who might be complicit—they’re clowns already, their plainly not-smart choices and astounding arrogance making for super-size schadenfreude. More persuasively, it's a damnation of the mentality that helped make it possible, calling out a culture that progressively puts more value into how you make yourself look online." In a similarly favorable analysis, "Decider"s Joel Keller commended the film and recommended that viewers stream it declaring, ""Fyre Fraud" is a fascinating examination of social media influencers, millennials who get hooked on their feelings of FOMO, and a modern-day con artist who will likely learn nothing from this or his prison sentence."
In a more mixed assessment, "Collider"s Brian Tallerico gave the film a "B−" grade and said, "With a bit more polish and a bit more confidence, "Fyre Fraud" would be a powerful documentary that used Fyre Festival as a springboard for a more incisive examination of fraud in the age of social media, using the festival as a metaphor for expectations versus reality, which (as my wife astutely pointed out), is a mirror for how social media tends to function. Instead, "Fyre Fraud" is content to exist as a dark comedy of sorts, poking fun at the players involved without really absorbing the seriousness or gravity of their actions."
On the 71st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, "Fyre Fraud" earned a nomination for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming.


Police Woman (film)

Police Woman (), released in the United States as Rumble in Hong Kong, is a 1973 Hong Kong action crime film written, produced and directed by Hdeng Tsu, who also co-stars in the film. The film stars Lin Chiu, Charlie Chin and Jackie Chan. The film is also known as Young Tiger.
The film was released in Hong Kong on 26 April 1973.
Plot.
Chien Chen, a Hong Kong taxi driver, picks up Ho Mei Fong, a woman on the run from a gang of criminals. She dies suddenly and mysteriously in his back seat, but not before hiding her purse in the taxi. Now, the gang members begin to torment Chen, hoping he will hand over the purse, despite Chen being completely unaware of it.
Chen is visited by a woman claiming to Ho Mei Fong's sister and looking for the purse. Days later, the dead woman's real sister, Police Inspector Ho Wai Ma, visits Chen and reveals that she had not spoken to her sister in years as she had become involved in the criminal underworld. The pair decide to team up to find Ho Mei's killers and bring them to justice.
The impostor turns out to be Sao Mei, who also works for the gang's evil boss. Chen witnesses her being kidnapped by the thugs and follows them to their hideout, joined by Ho Wai Ma. However both heroes are captured by the villains. Locked in a room together, Sao Mei reveals the truth to Ho Wai. The boss recruits attractive young women, such as Sao Mei and Ho Mei Fong, to become drug smugglers for him. However Ho Mei became desperate to escape and took photos of the mole faced gang leader planting a car bomb which subsequently killed a man. The gangsters become aware of this and force her to drink poison. Secretly assisted by Sao Mei, Ho Mei escapes the hideout with the incriminating evidence hidden in her purse. Tragically she did not make it to the hospital in time, and died in Chen's taxi.
Chen, Ho Wai and Sao Mei manage to escape from their holdings and fight off their captors, then summon both the police and Chen's fellow taxi drivers to their location. The criminals try to escape, but in a final brawl Chen defeats the gang leader and retrieves Ho Mei's purse from his taxi. The evidence and the villains are then handed over to the police.
Production.
It is set and filmed in Hong Kong in 35 days on 8 June – 13 July 1972.
Home Media.
American Home video companies like Xenon Entertainment Group and Madacy Entertainment released the film on video in the early 2000s as Rumble In Hong Kong. Clearly this was an attempt to capitalize on Jackie Chan's recent popularity in the west thanks to the release of Rumble in the Bronx and other films.
On 17 September 2001, DVD was released by Prism Leisure Corporation at the United Kingdom in Region 2.


Onion diagram

 An onion diagram is a kind of chart that shows the dependencies among parts of an organization or process. The chart displays items in concentric circles, where the items in each ring depend on the items in the smaller rings.
Information.
The onion diagram is able to show layers of a complete system in a few circles. Each of the circles is able to represent a component that is dependent upon the component on the inside of it shown by the circle inside of it. The main concept of the diagram is shown by the center circle of the diagram. This chart is used due to the fact that it has a clear visual representation that is easy to read, and it has a strong visual impact.
Variations.
There is also the cultural onion which has seven layers to it including artifacts, behaviors, feelings, values, beliefs, worldview and ultimate allegiance. These layers organize a person's reality and life. The outer most layers are the most accessible while the in-depth ones are only accessible with connections to the person. The seven layers are integrated into three structural levels, which are the foundational, the evaluating, and the actualizing level.


Marilyn I. Walker

Marilyn Isabelle Walker was a Canadian fibre artist, author, teacher and philanthropist. She was an active contributor to the arts and fine arts across Canada and at Brock University in particular. Born in the Niagara Peninsula in Southern Ontario, she was an influential figure in the Region and supporter in the revitalization of the arts. In 2003, she wrote a book called "Ontario's Heritage Quilts", which celebrated the work of Ontario Quilters. In 2007, Marilyn Walker won the Mayors Patron of the Arts Award by the city of St. Catharines for her contributions to the area. She curated the first Canadian Contemporary Quilt Competition and also won the International Women's Day award in 2008. She delivered a speech to a majority but not exclusively female audience of 400 about determination in the face of adversity. In 2009, she received the Laura Sabia Award which recognizes a woman who has furthered the interest of arts in the community. Marilyn Walker is one of the most generous philanthropists in Canada. She has dedicated large amounts of time and resources to the revitalization of the arts in the Niagara. Her contributions to the Niagara Region has greatly improved the quality of life for the residence in the areas of education, arts, and health. Walker's donation to Brock University comes at a time when the value of arts has been diminishing. However, the donation brings hope to the revitalization of the arts, especially in the Niagara Region and St. Catharines. In 2009, she donated a total of $15 million to the development of the new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing arts in downtown St. Catharines. As mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, said "There’s lots of people who go through life and they’re not remembered, because they didn’t make contributions, Marilyn Walker, you have made a contribution that will be remembered." Walker died on October 1, 2015 at the age of eighty.
Textile work.
Walker was known for her work in the textile industry as well as her contribution to bringing the importance of textile work and quilts to the public. Marilyn was an authority on Canadian quilts and other textiles and lectured all around Canada and the United States on the artistic, historical and significance of quilts. She was also the 1st president of the Niagara Quilters Association. Walker said "In quilting and in life, people should be allowed freedom of speech and freedom of art." She wrote a book in 2003 entitled "Ontario's Heritage Quilts" which celebrated the work of Ontario quilters.


Patsy (Monty Python)

Patsy is a character in the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and the musical "Spamalot". He is played by Terry Gilliam in "Monty Python and The Holy Grail". Serving as King Arthur's assistant, he only has a few simple tasks throughout the entire film, such as using two halves of a coconut to simulate the hoofbeats of Arthur's nonexistent horse.
He also announces King Arthur's arrival by trumpet, as when Arthur's group approaches a castle inhabited by French soldiers early in the movie. Patsy has only one line in the film: "It's only a model," said when the Knights of the Round Table first catch sight of the castle at Camelot.
Patsy's fate is left ambiguous in the film; he disappears after King Arthur encounters Tim the Enchanter, and is not seen again.
In the 2005 musical, "Spamalot", Patsy has a bigger role with many more lines, and he sings "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from "Monty Python's Life of Brian" to King Arthur, and they later sing "I'm All Alone". As in the film, Patsy follows King Arthur everywhere and bangs coconuts together to simulate Arthur's horse. In the original Broadway production, he was played by Michael McGrath, who impersonated Terry Gilliam's role in the film.
McGrath's role in the musical was praised in reviews, and he was nominated for the 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for "Spamalot". In the musical, Patsy is half Jewish. He didn't mention this at first because "it's just not the kind of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian." King Arthur also refers to him as "family."


Gavin Heffernan

Gavin Heffernan (born April 2, 1980) is a Canadian filmmaker/screenwriter/photographer.
He co-wrote the psychological horror feature "The Taking of Deborah Logan" (2014) and Paramount's "" (2015) with writing partner Adam Robitel. Also known for directing experimental visual works, primarily timelapse, most notably featured in The Rolling Stones' 2015 Zip Code Tour as well as their 2016 Desert Trip shows. Heffernan and frequent photo partner Harun Mehmedinovic also contributed visuals to Pink Floyd's Roger Waters' 2016 concerts and Paul Simon's 2018 Homeward Bound Farewell Tour.
In 2015, Heffernan and Mehmedinovic launched SKYGLOW, a crowdfunded book and Blu Ray project to tackle the rising danger and damage of urban light pollution. The fundraising campaign generated significant publicity and ended on May 9, 2015 as the fourth most successful Kickstarter campaign ever in the Photobooks category. The SKYGLOW book released in April, 2017 at SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM and was created in association with the International Dark Sky Association.
An alumnus of McGill University and the American Film Institute. While attending McGill, Gavin wrote, directed, edited, and acted in two student feature films, "The Steaks" (2000) and "Expiration" (2004), both filmed primarily in Montreal, Quebec. Though budgeted at a meagre $10,000, "Expiration" was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in Toronto at the 2004 Canadian Filmmakers' Festival, got a 76% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and received acclaim from publications "Variety", "Ain't it Cool News" and "Film Festival Today".
His unconventional anti-war documentary "Grand Wheel" (2008) premiered at the "2008 SXSW Film Festival" and played more than fifty film festivals in twenty countries worldwide. It won "Silver Bear" at the "37th Festival of Nations" in Austria, "Best Cinematography" at the 2008 Canadian Filmmakers' Festival, and "Best Experimental Film" at the 2009 Oxford Film Festival. His 2010 collection of experimental shorts about the fall of man titled "Devolution" premiered at the Florida Film Festival and won an Audience Award at the 2010 HollyShorts Film Festival. The sci-fi follow-up "Devolution: Reckoning" premiered at the 2011 Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.
Heffernan's timelapse art has been featured in Leonardo DiCaprio's Ice on Fire global warming doc for HBO, Virgin America flights, BBC Earth, Bravo's first scripted show Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, The National Park Service's "100 Years" Centennial Video, and many other press and TV outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, "TIME Magazine", "National Geographic", "CBS News", and "WIRED", among others. Borrego Springs, California named the 2014 edition of their annual town festival after Heffernan's "Borrego Stardance" astro timelapse and October 25 was subsequently named "Gavin Heffernan Day" in San Diego County by Senator Joel Anderson.


The Next Time

"The Next Time" backed with "Bachelor Boy" was the first of three number one hit singles from the Cliff Richard musical, "Summer Holiday". Both sides were marketed as songs with chart potential, and the release is viewed retrospectively as a double A-side single. However, technically double A sides were not regarded as such until 1965, so "The Next Time" was pressed as the A-side, with "Bachelor Boy" the B-side (written by Bruce Welch and Cliff Richard). The song was succeeded at number one by The Shadows' "Dance On!".
The recording of the song took place at Abbey Road Studios in London on 10 May 1962. It was produced by Norrie Paramor and engineered by Malcolm Addey. The single spent three weeks at No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1963.
The song was included on the January 1963 album "Summer Holiday". The film was the most successful box-office attraction of the year.
Chart performance.
The single is retrospectively referred to as a double A-side because both sides of the single were promoted. In many countries, "Bachelor Boy" became the bigger hit and the charts listed it first or on its own. In some countries both sides were listed separately on the charts despite them being the same record.
Bachelor Boy.
Notes:
Other versions.
The singer Richard Anthony made a French version entitled "Après toi".
Hank Marvin did an instrumental version on "Hank Plays Cliff" (1995).


List of songs in On the Record

Following the success of "The Lion King", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Aida", Disney wanted to create a musical that showcased a wide variety of Disney songs without a movie screen. After one attempt on a play called "When You Wish", On the Record was made. The original cast featured Ashley Brown, Emily Skinner, Brian Sutherland, and Andrew Samonsky. All but Skinner were featured on the soundtrack. Skinner was replaced by Kaitlin Hopkins. The songs and movies are listed below.
Composing Credits.
Many composers and lyricists are credited as working on this project, inasmuch as their songs are included in the show. The full list is below.


Der Rosenkavalier discography

This is a select list of recordings of "Der Rosenkavalier", a three-act opera by Richard Strauss with a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The work was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt.
References.
Notes
Sources


William Ault

William Ault (1842 – 12 March 1929) was an English potter, involved with a number of companies in the Staffordshire potteries and South Derbyshire making art pottery and more utilitarian wares.
In 1883 he established the Bretby Art Pottery (formally Henry Tooth & Co.) with Henry Tooth, who had left the Linthorpe Art Pottery, of which he was co-founder. This was initially based in Church Gresley in Derbyshire, but later moved to Woodville, Derbyshire, nearby. In 1887 Ault established the Ault Pottery, formally William Ault & Co, in Swadlincote, also in Derbyshire. Their art pottery was mostly branded as Ault Faience, regardless of the material.
Their most interesting and sought-after wares use designs by Christopher Dresser. These firstly resulted from the purchase of some of the Linthorpe Art Pottery's moulds for Dresser designs, after this went out of business in 1889–91. Ault's company continued to use some Dresser moulds until the 1920s. Other moulds were bought by Tooth and the Torquay Terracotta Company. Dresser also worked directly for Ault as a freelance designer, from 1892 to at least 1896. Their other wares were often larger pieces such as jardinières. William Ault's daughter Clarissa Ault, who initialed her pieces "CJA", was the leading painter; her sister Gertrude was also a decorator.
Career.
Ault was born at Bagnall, near the centre of the English pottery industry at Stoke-on-Trent, and started his career as a "packing boy" in a pottery at Longton, where he was gradually promoted to management. He ran the Bretby Art Pottery 1883–1887, then William Ault & Co, selling goods as "Ault Pottery" and "Ault Faience". He was also a Methodist lay preacher.
The firm merged with the Ashby Potters' Guild in Woodville in 1919, the formal name becoming at first "Ault and Tunnicliffe", Pascoe Tunnicliffe being the new Works Director. The wares were initially called "Aultcliff" and then from 1937 "Ault Potteries Ltd". William Ault had retired in 1922, when he was 80, and the business was wound up in the 1930s, ending as part of Pearsons of Chesterfield.
Ault died at his home (Brookland, Ashby-de-la-Zouch) on 12 March 1929.
Dresser period.
Dresser's contract with Ault, signed in May 1893, paid £400 over three years, and specified that a stamped signature ("Chr. Dresser") should be used as a mark on his designs. It also specified he should travel to the factory twice a year, with first-class train expenses and a guinea a day for hotel costs (Dresser lived in Barnes, London, then in Surrey), for up to three days. On his visit he was to "inspect the production of objects", "instruct the workmen" and "criticise objects already made". Dresser's designs were decorated in a variety of ways in the Ault factory, including some painted with plant or animal scenes and the like, which do not really match Dresser's elegant geometrical shapes.
An Ault Pottery pattern book including over 900 drawn pottery designs by many different hands, and some cryptic notes apparently relating to payments to Dresser, was unveiled by the Dorman Museum in Linthorpe in 2015; they also have a collection of Dresser/Ault pieces. They had bought the book in 2013/14 from someone who had found it "saved from a skip in the 1960s" when working for Pearsons. Some 40–50 of the designs were thought to be by Dresser, including several well known ones, and it was hoped that study might be able to confirm that other designs were by him.


Grace Snyder

Grace Bell McCance Snyder (April 23, 1882 – December 8, 1982), is an American quilter, former pioneer and centenarian, whose story is known through the books "No Time on My Hands" and "Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie".
Biography.
Childhood.
Grace McCance went to Nebraska with her parents in 1885 to homestead in a sod house in Custer County. She had nine siblings. As a small child, she pieced quilt blocks while tending the family's cows.
Adulthood.
McCance married Bert Snyder in 1903 and lived on a ranch forty miles (70 km) northwest of North Platte,<ref name="QNM Mar/832"></ref> where they raised four children: Nellie Snyder Yost, Miles, Billie, and Bertie.
The relatively isolated ranch life gave McCance ample time for quilting, and she became nationally recognized for the skill and complexity of her quilts. The Congress of Quilters Hall of Fame in Arlington, Virginia, inducted her in 1980, as did the Nebraska Quilters Hall of Fame in 1986.
McCance lived to be 100 years old. She is buried in North Platte Cemetery in North Platte, Nebraska.
Books.
McCance is remembered by her own memoir "No Time On My Hands" as told to her daughter Nellie Snyder Yost.
Her story is also told in the children's biography "" by Andrea Warren (Morrow Junior Books, 1998).


Berit Hjelholt

Berit Ann-Mari Hjelholt née Eriksson (1920–2016) was a Finnish-born Danish textile artist. For many years, her large tapestry "Som en rejselysten flåde" (1987) hung behind the speaker's chair in the Folketing or Danish parliament. It was removed in 2016.
Biography.
Born on 21 September 1920 in Munsala, Finland, Berit Ann-Mari Eriksson was the daughter of the fisherman and farmer Otto Alfred Eriksson (1882-1965) and Edit Maria Sundell (1888-1959). One of seven children, she was brought up in a modest but tightly-knit Swedish-speaking family where the girls were taught to spin. Her father was often away, travelling as far afield as New Zealand as a craftsman, but always entertaining the family with stories of his adventures on his return. From 1939, she attended the Konstindustriella Läroverket Atheneum in Helsinki, an arts and crafts college, where she learnt textile arts, graduating in 1947.
In 1946, while on a course at the Konstfack in Stockholm, she met the Danish psychologist and resistance fighter Gunnar Hjelholt who was recovering from imprisonment in a German concentration camp. They married in 1949 and moved to Denmark where they settled in Bagsværd. After giving birth to two children, Hjelholt taught evening classes in textile printing and ceramics. She also started to weave. As a result of her husband's work as a consultant psychologist for the shipping company J. Lauritzen A/S, she accompanied him to India, Thailand, Hawaii, Japan and the United States. On returning to Denmark, she studied Japanese and calligraphy at the University of Copenhagen (1964–67). In 1969, the family moved to the north of Jutland. Inspired by the surrounding countryside, she created colourful textiles in the old farmhouse they had bought.
In 1987, she was invited to decorate the Folketing's parliamentary chamber with a two-piece tapestry titled "Som en rejselysten flåde" ("As an adventurous fleet"), inspired by her childhood memories of her father's travels to distant lands. A combination of the moving sea and distant mountains conveyed a spirit of ambition in a work which demonstrated her mastery of the art of tapestry.
The tapestry remained in the chamber until 2016 when it was moved to the Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum.
Hjelholt has also decorated a number of Danish churches, with works such as "Livets træ" ("Tree of Life") in Ellebæk Church in Holstebro (1989) and "Denne er Dagen" ("This is the Day") for Østervang Church in Glostrup (1994). Her work has been exhibited in several solo exhibitions in Denmark and Sweden, in particular in 1990 at the Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum in Hjørring.
Berit Hjelholt died on 30 July 2016 in Fjernitslev and is buried in Jammerbugt in the north of Jutland.


Aizukeizan ware

 refers to a type of Japanese pottery that is produced in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.


The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)

The Lady of the Lake (Polish original title: "Pani Jeziora") is the fifth and final novel in the Witcher Saga written by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1999. It is a sequel to the fourth "Witcher "novel, "The Tower of Swallows" ("Wieża Jaskółki").
Plot.
Frame story (I).
Sir Galahad, King Arthur's knight, stumbles upon Ciri bathing, mistaking her for The Lady of the Lake. After correcting him, Ciri recounts her story, but warns him it does not have a happy ending. By way of example, she confesses to Galahad that the blood staining her clothes came from friends who died in her arms after she failed to save them.
Frame story (II).
Years after the events of the main story, a young sorceress, Condwiramurs, is apprenticed to Nimue, the (true) Lady of the Lake, to study the legend of Geralt and Ciri. Condwiramurs's magical talent is clairvoyant dreams, which are stimulated by studying the paintings and other images of the semi-mythic story.
Yennefer.
Stefan Skellen, the coroner of Nilfgaard, is working with the sorcerer Vilgefortz, who has imprisoned the sorceress Yennefer (Geralt's lover and Ciri's foster mother) in some unknown castle.
Geralt.
Geralt and his company - Dandelion, Regis, Milva, Angoulême, and Cahir - have been relaxing in the small duchy of Toussaint, while Geralt is distracted by monster-hunting contracts and by a passionate affair with the Duchess's court sorceress, Fringilla Vigo. Fringilla is secretly a member of the newly-formed Lodge of Sorceresses, which wishes both to take its own revenge on Vilgefortz and capture Ciri for their own political ends, and thus have ordered Fringilla to prevent Geralt from seeking either of them out. Geralt is spurred into action when his latest contract takes him into a cave being used for a secret meeting between Skellen and several rebellious Nilfgaardian nobles, plotting the Emperor's overthrow. Overhearing Vilgefortz's location from Skellen, Geralt rushes back to his party and orders them to prepare to leave immediately. Unable to prevent him leaving, Fringilla seduces Geralt one last time to learn the location, which she passes on triumphantly to the Lodge. The Sorceresses teleport their own strike force to the location, only to find an abandoned castle. Fringilla's superiors acidly inform her that her powers of seduction were not so great as to make Geralt tell her the true location, since he is determined to reach Vilgefortz and Ciri first.
Dandelion, enjoying the company of his lover, the Duchess Anna Henrietta, decided to stay in Toussaint and not join the rest of the group in their rescue mission.
Ciri.
After escaping from Skellen and the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart (in the previous novel), Ciri was teleported to a foreign world, Aen Elle, which appears to be ruled by elves, who live in peace except for occasional fights with the unicorns. A magical barrier prevents her from leaving, and she complains about being kept prisoner, but she is told by the sage Avallac'h that in order to leave she must first bear the child of their king, Auberon. Avallac'h also explains that Ciri not only has elven blood, but she possesses a rare gene specifically engineered by the elves that will ensure her child is the most potent magic-user in history, a power that will be necessary to save the world - including Ciri's home and the people she cares about - from an impending cataclysm. Despite her reluctance, Ciri agrees, but Auberon is unexpectedly unable to perform, even after several nights.
Ciri confronts Avallac'h, demanding to be released if Auberon is unable or unwilling to fulfill his role in the agreement. Avallac'h urges her to be patient, reassuring her that time passes differently in Aen Aelle, and no matter how long it takes for her to bear the child, once she has done so, she will be returned to her own time. By contrast, Eredin Breacc Glas, the commander of a cavalry unit that guards the kingdom from unicorns, tells Ciri that she will never be free of their world; if the king fails to impregnate her, then someone else will.
After the king's latest failure, Ciri rides her horse, Kelpie, as far as she can from the castle, but the barrier prevents her from escaping. But she is confronted by several unicorns, one of whom, Ihuarraquax, she saved from death (in "The Time of Contempt"). The unicorns then reveal how she can bypass the barrier, and she asks that Ihuarraquax come with her.
Before leaving, she concedes that Auberon has been kind to her in spite of her situation, and returns to the castle to say goodbye to him. She finds him dying after drinking a phial of liquid given to him by Eredin as an aphrodisiac (it is left open to interpretation whether Eredin deliberately poisoned the king, or whether the king overdosed on the otherwise harmless substance). Ciri stays with Auberon until he dies, then steals a boat for herself and Kelpie, which is revealed to be the only way to pass the barrier. She is confronted by Eredin, enraged by her attempt to escape. A brief battle ensues, in which she injures Eredin and escapes to join Ihuarraquax and other unicorns waiting for her. Eredin and his riders chase her, and a battle between the Dearg Ruadhri (Eredin's Red Riders) and the unicorns ensues. Ciri, in the midst of chaos, teleports out of the world with the assistance of Ihuarraquax. After jumping between several worlds and times, she eventually appears before Nimue and Condwiramurs, who wish her luck on her journey and provide a portal to the right place and time.
Jarre.
The story then follows Jarre, Melitele's temple scribe who chooses to join the army which has formed due to the alliance between all of the Northern Kingdoms to repel the invading Nilfgaardian army. He meets up with several individuals, including characters seen earlier in the story, and joins a unit called the PFI, or "Poor F**king Infantry." The two armies collide in a valley near the village of Brenna. The battle lasts several hours, with neither side gaining a clear advantage, until Elven units, led by Yaevinn, attack the flanks of the Northern army, going so far as to slaughter the injured in medical tents. As the Northern army finally starts to rout, a contingent of Redanian Forces charge over a hill that was not scouted beforehand. This causes panic amongst the Nilfgaardian forces, which soon are slaughtered. The commander of the Nilfgaardians, Coehoorn, is killed in an attempted escape. The battle is afterwards referred to as the Miracle at Brenna. The Northern alliance pushes all Nilfgaardian forces south of the Yaruga river, which served as the border, and a ceasefire is declared in order to make peace.
Climax.
Ciri is revealed to have gone to Vilgefortz's castle in order to save Yennefer herself, knowing that Yennefer would die without help. Ciri asks that Yennefer be released in exchange for herself, but Vilgefortz imprisons her anyway. Then, Geralt arrives at the castle. He and his group storm the castle, killing many of Skellen's men before eventually Milva dies from an enemy arrow. Geralt and Regis find Yennefer instead of his daughter, whereas Cahir and Angoulême go to save Ciri once they learn she is there. Yennefer is eventually saved. Then Geralt continues searching for Ciri to save her. Bonhart ambushes Ciri, desiring to kill her in a fair fight, but she flees and encounters Cahir, who wants to fight Bonhart himself to save Ciri. Cahir is killed outright, and soon after Angoulême dies from her wounds. Ciri and Bonhart soon fight, with Ciri finally winning by using the environment to her advantage. Ciri takes the three witcher medallions that Bonhart claimed to have taken off the corpses of witchers previously; Bonhart, humiliated at having been beaten and having to beg Ciri for his life, tries to attack her from behind. Ciri evades Bonhart, slits his throat and watches him bleed to death, before running to find Geralt and Yennefer.
Meanwhile, Geralt, Regis, and Yennefer seek and fight Vilgefortz. Regis is obliterated in the fight by Vilgefortz, turning into a molten mass of dust. Geralt and Vilgefortz fight, with Geralt being victorious (using the help of a magical medallion his lover Fringilla Vigo gave him back in Toussaint). Ciri and Geralt eventually find each other, and choose to go outside along with Yennefer. On their way to the courtyard, Geralt and Ciri kill more of Skellen's men. As they reach the courtyard, they find the Emperor of Nilfgaard's men taking the castle and imprisoning everyone. The Emperor is revealed to be Ciri's father, who faked his death years ago. The emperor turns out to be a firm believer in a prophecy, and wants to impregnate his own daughter and make her empress to ensure the safety of the world in the generations to come, the prophecy hinging on Ciri's special abilities and blood. After a long conversation with Emhyr (the emperor), Geralt understands the latter will issue him and Yennefer a death sentence as they are witnesses and now know sensitive information. Emhyr grants Geralt and Yennefer the option to commit suicide in a bath instead on their own leisure as an act of goodwill, while Ciri is taken to the capital of Nilfgaard to be married to the Emperor. Geralt, without much of a choice, accepts, and Yennefer and Geralt take a bath together, preparing to die. When they ask the guards for the dagger to finally put an end to their lives, Ciri eventually enters the room, saying that the Emperor and his men left without a word. The three soon leave, with Ciri leading the way to all of the places during her adventures earlier in the story in order to take revenge or pay her respects to those who have helped or hurt her during her journey. Yennefer is soon contacted by the Lodge of Sorceresses and is summoned to Montecalvo castle along with Ciri. Yennefer, having no choice, accepts, and departs from Geralt, telling him she will have to summon Ciri as well in a few days as they have to solve this matter. Geralt and Ciri continue traveling. He takes her to Touissant, arriving just in time to watch Dandelion face his execution. Dandelion is saved by a last moment whim of Duchess Anna Henrietta, who decided not to execute him after all. It is later revealed that he was caught cheating on the Duchess, and that the execution ceremony Geralt and Ciri witnessed was not the first he was spared from, given the Duchess's flaky personality and frequent change of heart. The trio exits Touissant in a hurry, afraid the Duchess will change her mind, after which Ciri departs to Montecalvo while Geralt and Dandelion head to Rivia.
In the meantime, the Lodge meets Ciri for the first time, revealing their plans to Ciri, as they meant to marry her off to Prince Tankred, the Kovirian heir. They make a point of telling her she's only meant to be his lover and bear his child, as they cannot guarantee marriage simply because she's no longer in possession of her birthright titles (notably the only heir of the Cintrian throne, as the emperor of Nilfgaard married a young girl upon whom this title had been falsely bestowed, thus making her the de facto ruler of Cintra and stripping the real Cirilla of any titles she had. Ciri, grown tired of all the plots to marry her off, impregnate her or just make plain use of her womb for a "greater cause", agrees to think about it and return to the Lodge after she discusses the matter with Geralt. She then asks to go with Yennefer and meet Geralt in Rivia, as planned. The Lodge votes (half against and half for), with Phillipa having the decisive vote in favor of letting Ciri go and see Geralt, arguing it's Ciri's destiny, thus tipping the scales.
During Geralt's time in Rivia, meeting with his old friends - Yarpen Zigren and Zoltan Chivay, a riot erupts, in which humans are killing non-humans indiscriminately. Geralt, in order to defend his dwarven friends, enters the fray and kills several individuals before being impaled on a pitchfork. Ciri, Yennefer, and Triss Merigold arrive in Rivia shortly after the rioting starts, and they eventually find Geralt on the verge of death. Before doing so, the two sorceresses manage to conjure up a spell that causes a brief storm, in which large hailstones drop from the sky, dispersing the rioting mob. Yennefer, in an attempt to heal Geralt, loses consciousness.
Ihuarraquax the unicorn, who seemingly had sacrificed himself to save Ciri previously, shortly appears running on the surface of the lake and channels his power through Ciri to apparently heal Geralt. Guided by the unicorn, Ciri then asks her friends to help her put the bodies of the two, Geralt and Yennefer, on a boat that appeared from nowhere out of fog. While Triss, Dandelion, and their dwarven friends say their goodbyes, Ciri takes off into the lake and the three disappear into the fog. Geralt and Yennefer awake in peace in an unknown location, (hinted to be the isle of Avalon due to the apples from the Arthurian Legends) comforting each other without knowing where they are.
Ciri ends recounting her tale to Galahad, who has been listening intently the entire time. When Galahad asks if that "is the end of the story"? Ciri says that she doesn't want the story to end like that, and says the tale ends with Yennefer and Geralt getting married, and that a celebration ensued between all the different dead and living characters of the saga and they live happily ever after. Ciri starts crying when finishing her story like a fairytale. Galahad eventually invites her to Camelot, which she accepts. They both are shown to be attracted to each other. The saga ends with Ciri and Galahad riding side by side, holding hands.
Translations.
It was published in Czech (Leonardo, 2000), Russian (AST, 2000), Spanish (Bibliopolis, 2006), Lithuanian (Eridanas, 2007), French (Bragelonne, 2011), German (DTV, 2011), Italian (Editrice_Nord, 2015), Finnish (WSOY, 2016) and Dutch (Luitingh-Sijthoff 2016). The English translation was released by Victor Gollancz on March 14, 2017 (Orbit/US) and March 16, 2017 (Orion/UK).


Pratt Prize for Music Theatre

The Pratt Prize for Music Theatre was an award for an unperformed Australian musical. It was initiated through the Pratt Foundation in 2001 to stimulate music theatre writers and composers to create work with commercial appeal. The award originally comprised a $50,000 cash prize and a workshop valued at $30,000.
Recipients were:


Met Gala (opera)

A Metropolitan Opera Gala or simply a Met Gala is a formal event hosted by the Metropolitan Opera. The Met frequently stages "Gala" events in which it celebrates the talents of its top performers.