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Right and left of the house are the two old wells by Josef Gasser. They represent opposing worlds. On your left, it depens on your position: "music, dance, joy, levity", right: "Loreley, sadness, love, revenge". This one stands for Loreley...
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
Source: livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/46668
This photo appeared in the News, Volume 12, Number 20, November 10 to 24, 1986. The text was:
"BEYOND SCHOOL: increasing the opportunities for Aboriginal people in post-secondary education
The Aboriginal Education Conference held at the University on October 23 and 24 brought together over 100 Aboriginal Delegates, a majority of them Aboriginal, people mainly from throughout New South Wales and the Hunter Valley. Many of them were students, teachers and lectures from schools, TAFE, universities and colleges of advanced education who came to hear a number of distinguished Aboriginal educationists from other states discuss ways in which they are increasing opportunities for Aboriginal people to enter tertiary education and providing support for Aboriginal students.
Speakers included this year’s Boyer lecturer, Professor Eric Willmot, Head of the School of Education at the James Cook University, who argued the case for providing some exclusively Aboriginal schools while improving the quality of education for Aboriginal students in state schools.
The role that an Aboriginal community college can play in developing self-esteem, confidence and skills necessary to cope with tertiary education was outlined by Lillian Holt, Deputy Principal of the Aboriginal Community College, Adelaide
An overview of Aboriginal tertiary education in New South Wales was presented by Bob Morgan, President of the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group. Barry Thorne outlined the role and direction of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Aboriginal education.
The training programmes in business administration offered at associate diploma, degree and postgraduate diploma level by the Aboriginal Task Force at the South Australian Institute of Technology were described by Sonny Flynn, Co-ordinator of the Task Force. This replaced a paper to have been given and in fact supplied by Veronica Arbon, on the Programmes, many of them offered externally, by the Aboriginal Studies and Education Centre, at the South Australian College of Advanced Education designed as the key centre for Aboriginal Studies in Australia. Copies of this paper and some others can be obtained from the Department of Community Programmes.
Eve Fesl, a linguist and Director of the Aboriginal Research Centre at Monash University, emphasised the urgent need for Aboriginal graduates. “White people are at the top of the power structure”, Mrs Fesl said “and unless Aboriginal professional people can attain some of these top position, white people will be making decisions about Aboriginal lives for the rest of our lives and for the generations to come”.
She stressed the need for Aboriginal teachers as well as training programmes in Aboriginal culture and history for all teachers. “We can have the best programmes in the world, but if the teachers are racist, the kids will drop out anyhow”. Aboriginal lawyers are also need. “We are now having to pay white lawyers and then having to try to get across to them what we want on land rights and our feelings on the land”.
There is need too, for Aboriginal political scientist. A National Aboriginal Conference established in accordance with Aboriginal traditional systems may have been far more appropriate than the NAC designed by Europeans. Similarly problems experienced by land councils and co-operatives and decision made by bodies dealing with Aboriginal funding illustrate the importance of training Aboriginal economists, accountants, and business administrators.
Aboriginal philosopher, historians and archaeologists are needed to approach their fields from an Aboriginal perspective; likewise Aboriginal psychologists and sociologists who can not only introduce an Aboriginal perspective, but may throw a new light on such issues as why so many white people in Australia have more race hated towards Aborigines than any other group and what makes many white teachers racist in the classroom.
Aboriginal women in Alice Springs have developed plans for an Aboriginal birth centre since a newly-built Alice Springs Hospital is seen as inappropriate to Aboriginal birthing customs. There is a need for Aboriginal doctors and nurses (and architects) with a perception of the different values in Aboriginal society.
Eve Fesl highlighted the problems faced by Aboriginal graduates in what she described as “Aboriginal industry”. White Anglo-Saxon males are still the decision-makers. When equity programmes are introduced often women are chosen who uphold the values of the men in power, “door keepers” who will keep out ant bright women who may threaten male values. White “experts” and some Aboriginal people in positions of authority feel threaten by Aboriginal graduates and sometimes work against them. There is a need to reassure them that tertiary education does not, as it is sometimes claimed, undermine Aboriginality.
The Monash Orientation Scheme (MOSA) established be Eve Fesl and outlined by the current Director, Isaac Brown, in fact was designed to reinforce Aboriginality while giving support to Aboriginal students and equipping them with skills. Isaac Brown described the difficulties faced by Aboriginal students in universities, which he described as “male dominated, conservative, enlist Anglo institutions with a strong middle class bias”. The aim of MOSA is to help Aboriginal students cope with another culture while enabling their own to develop and strengthen. Aboriginal students come to MOSA from all over Australia, many of them come from remote areas.
Aboriginal students are encouraged to explode their past and attempt to identify their original forbears. Going to university is not seen as being isolated from the community, but getting to know the Aboriginal community and becoming part of it. Students attend weekly lectures given by Aboriginal people from the community and are taken to sacred sites, Aboriginal health centres and to other Aboriginal organisations in the community.
In developing literacy and improving communication skills, use is made if the increasing number of Aboriginal authors and comparison and mad with English authors.
Numeracy is developed by building on the knowledge of the community from which the student comes. Mathematics was a part of Aboriginal culture in so far as it was needed. MOSA starts at that point.
Aboriginal students are presented often for the first time with an account of the violence of contact history and the denigration of their culture. This can produce a group of “angry, bitter, frustrated blacks’. MOSA tries however to develop positive attitudes and to show, according to Isaacs Brown, “what we can do to live alongside and within another culture without losing our own”.
Aboriginal student are vulnerable to a “shame job”, humiliation and a sense of failure, so the emphasis in MOSA is on building up confidence and reinforcing positive attitudes.
It is seen as essential that the Director be an Aboriginal person with the required level of education and experience and that the Director should be accessible and approachable at all times. The emphasis is on security, but not dependency. The enclave, located centrally, continues to be used by Aboriginal undergraduate students fro continuing support.
MOSA is a highly successful programme and is seen as a model to be followed by other tertiary institutions.
The Aboriginal Education Conference arose largely as a result of a recommendation from the committee established by Senate to increase opportunities and support for Aboriginal students. Although we have Aboriginal medical students at the University, there are only three other Aboriginal students studying here. The committee had made a number of recommendations to remedy this situation and the Conference presented a splendid opportunity to find out what is succeeding in other places before we embark on our programme.
It also provided an excellent chance to hear from Aboriginal people involved at all levels in education process in this area
A panel of local Aboriginal staff and students from schools and tertiary institutions discussed the educational situation for Aboriginal people in the Hunter Region. Some clearly defined areas which emerged during the Conference provided topics for workshop during part of the final day. Among recommendations arising from the workshops were the need for greater consultation with Aboriginal groups, especially by funding bodies, the need for improvements to the secondary school system and the need for support systems such as those outlined by visiting speakers.
Resources and organisations were provided by the University, CAE, TAFE, the Awabakal Aboriginal Co-operative ant the Commonwealth Department of Education and the New South Wales Department of Education. The Women’s Committee of the Awabakal Aboriginal Co-operative and the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Service arranged child-minding facilities. The Conference was a truly co-operative effort which already promises some long-lasting benefits."
This image was scanned from a photograph in the University's historical photographic collection held by Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
If you have any information about this photograph, or would like a higher resolution copy, please contact us or leave a comment in the box below.
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
Right and left of the house are the two old wells by Josef Gasser. They represent opposing worlds. On your left, it depens on your position: "music, dance, joy, levity", right: "Loreley, sadness, love, revenge". This one stands for music...
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
The flexible cable, which makes contact between lens x body to control the diaphragm - the zooming movement 'go and back', finishes breaking the communication through the flexible (in diagnostic failure, as "error 01"). It cost US$ 340.00 to replace the part.
It´s a versatile & great lens but, this kind of defect unfortunately is happening frequently, denigrating its reputation.
see the related topic from owners - they had the same problem:
www.flickr.com/groups/canon24-105/discuss/72157624859596530/
- if you have/had a similar trouble, please leave a comment.
Jhansi ki Rani
Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (1828 – 1858), was the queen of the princely state of Jhansi in North India (now in Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh). She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_of_Jhansi
Statues of Lakshmibai are seen in many places of India, which show her and her son tied to her back.
The Rani of Jhansi was also depicted in a variety of colonial stereotypes in Victorian novels, which often represented her as a bloodthirsty queen responsible for the massacre of British colonials or even scandalously as a promiscuous woman in relationships with British men. These depictions had more to do with a colonial desire to denigrate the "rebel queen" than with truth. On the other side, Indian representations in novels, poetry, and film tend towards an uncomplicated valorization of Rani Lakshmibai as an individual solely devoted to the cause of Indian independence
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_of_Jhansi#Cultural_depictions_...
2015in02-2agr_1191
Back in school, ca.1964, it was briefly the vogue to denigrate someone as a ‘trog’. Abbreviated from troglodyte, or cave-dweller, such a person was deemed ‘uncouth’ or a ‘peasant’. While I do recall some taking umbrage at being so called, in the lexicon of schoolboy insults, trog was pretty mild stuff, and almost as soon as the fashion began, the term disappeared from common use.
Whilst early-era Homo sapiens was a cave-dweller, people evolved into building more salubrious habitations. But I was surprised to encounter modern-day cave dwellings in the Loire Valley on my original visits to the region, notably around Vouvray, Indre-et-Loire. Many dwellings have now become AirBnB residences. I’m not sure if that was the case with this example in Amboise, but I would certainly not call its owner a ‘trog’.
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
I was at Tapia, which is in Malibu Canyon
in Malibu, California
on this beautiful Sunday with my son Joshua
and my wife, to attend a book party for Sandy Ross
and her new book about the Bla-Bla Cafe in L.A.,
a book I edited several months ago.
While there was music playing and people eating
and drinking and generally partying and smiling
and feeling good, Joshua asked me if we could take
a walk in the woods, as he was the only kid there,
and got tired of his daddy talking to other adults in
what must have seemed to him like endless
conversation. (One seemed almost endless to me-
a polite but spirited debate about the American policy
in Guantanamo - a smart and gifted songwriter I know
actually suggested what we are doing there is
acceptable. I strongly disagreed.)
So Joshie and I strolled through the beautiful
canyon, admiring the immense and lovely trees,
and come to an unexpected little lake in the heart
of the woods, in which a Latino family was swimming
and playing. There were many adults and many kids
in the water, and there was one woman on the shore
sitting with a small dog, and a bucket of crayfish,
which the family was catching - perhaps to eat later?
I was not sure.
I stepped up to the water and said hello - buenos dias-
and asked if I could take some photographs - si! - and
I did - and this father of some of the children
emerged like Poseidon from the water and
proudly displayed this caught crayfish for my camera.
At the time, as is always the case, I just took this
picture along with scores of other ones, and was
surprised, as I often am, by the power of its
immediacy and action when I looked at it later.
My wife, who is a very protective mother, joined
us at the water, and forbid Joshua to go in. Later I
asked her why, and she said this was water being
fed by a water-treatment plant, and it certainly was
less than healthy for humans, of which Joshua is
one. She also strongly denigrated the
capture of the crayfish, which she felt was
disturbing the little ecosystem that is there
and also is rather unwise to eat.
And she's right, of course, as she usually is.
And the crayfish hunt was not a good idea. But I
couldn't dismiss how much fun that family had
for free in this Malibu water on this day.
I just hope they all
survived.
Cultures mimic and repeat themselves at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. Case in point, the way in which Westerners, particularly recently, are inclined to attempt to increase their self-esteem prior to achieving anything so that they subsequently achieve, parallels the way in which the West, particularly America, and Europe but now also Japan are pump-priming their economies.
The self-esteem movement is a sort of psychological Keynesianism: stimulate the economy, stimulate yourself, and you may see positive results.
Mohammed Ali, one of the most famous psychological Keynesians, claims it worked for him. As a fast but relatively frail youth set to go into the ring against a slugger like Sonny Liston, there was no option but to engage in a bit, or a lot, of "self-enhancement" (b.s.) . I believe that Ali has said subsequently that had he not done this, he would have been too afraid to box effectively. Ego-pumped, to an almost ecstatic extent as he was Ali thrashed Liston twice. There is footage on YouTube and it is beautiful to watch. I am not an economist but it seems quite probable to me that both psychological and economic Keynesianism - self-stimulation - can work, get things going, out of psychological and economic depression, and defeat anxiety, too.
The three books the covers of which are shown above, however, draw attention to the dangers of pump-priming the ego. I like the way that Dawes points out that, sure, self-esteem correlates with positive life outcomes, but in the main this is because positive life outcomes result in high self-evaluations. Raising self-esteem, by just praising oneself, is a bit like switching effect for cause. Fortunately in the mind, and in the economy, money, goods, effort, achievement and self-evaluations swirl around in a loop. So, in both cases, temporarily at least, Keynesianism can work, but it is dangerous.
Dangers include the lack of moral hazard. As gold bug pundits, and these authors claim, the awareness of the ability to pump yourself or the economy up, results in an addiction to so doing. Why bother trying and/or competing at the macro or microscopic level when one can just tell oneself that that one is doing well, or print money?
The biggest problem though is probably the danger of inflation. Psychologically, the creation of a society in which everyone is pump-priming their ego to the point where everyone has to do it more and more just to remain afloat. It is a symptom, in my humble opinion of a diseased society when the only group of people who are realistic and honest in their self-evaluations are the clinically depressed (Taylor & Brown, 1988). In other words, if you do not qualitatively ease your ego now in the USA, you are shafted, literally into a mental institution or a life of taking SSRIs. It becomes impossible to be the only one in the room that is only "okay" when everyone else is feeling "Grreat!"
Another problem is the way in which self-esteem manipulations tend to involve "downwards comparison," (Wilis, 1981) and the denigration of outgroups (Yuki, 2003). To inflate ones ego to the highs required to succeed in the USA, I think you need to have some sub-groups to put down. When I was a British 'public' school boy it seemed to me that a major technique of maintaining that public school boy feeling of suave superiority was distinguishing ourselves from "the plebs." Recently, as I read white Americans blame US crime on blacks and Hispanics, I wonder whether social equality will ever be possible in a Keynesian cultural psychology.
This is strange. The self-esteem movement, like Keynesianism, claims to promote equality, since money and praise can be pumped towards those without. Whether this can be shown to apply economically or not I am not sure, but psychologically, the more the socially disadvantaged attempt to praise themselves out of their social situation , the more the egos of those with real advantages are pumped up still further. Self-esteem is - as perhaps is also social economic position - comparative, so there will inevitably be a logic of the form: "Look at that simple/fat guy telling himself that he is clever/ beautiful. I am therefore, in comparison, Einstein / a Greek God."
In addition to these inflationary effects, there is another aspect of psychological Keynesianism that depends upon the way that it is carried out. Westerners generally praise themselves linguistically and fill their minds with happy speak. As Westerners lift off into the clouds of linguistic self-enhancement, they still do at least attend to their speech, whereas other forms of self expression fall by the wayside, as depressingly realistic. Thus, in a verbally narcissistic society (originally a contradiction but) the vast majority are obese.
The Japanese on the other hand have tended to promote positive self views - everyone looks cute - but may have a touch of linguistic brain fat as a result. To correct this imbalance, perhaps the Japanese verbal self-esteem movement is not so bad after all. And likewise, perhaps Americans should all be equipped with mirrors, ideally in their heads (Heine, Takemoto, Moskalenko, Lasaleta, & Henrich, 2008), I say, engaging in that which I am inveighing against.
Bibliography
Ehrenreich, B. (2009). Bright-sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. Macmillan.
Dawes, R. (1994). House of Cards. New York: Free Press. (Quoted by Heine. et al. 1999. Early critique of Self-Esteem movement, republished 2009)
Heine, S. J., Takemoto, T., Moskalenko, S., Lasaleta, J., & Henrich, J. (2008). Mirrors in the head: Cultural variation in objective self-awareness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(7), 879–887. Retrieved from www2.psych.ubc.ca/~heine/docs/2008Mirrors.pdf
Twenge, J.M. W. Keith Campbell (2009) The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, Free Press.
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193.
Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90(2), 245. Retrieved from psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/90/2/245/
Yuki, M. (2003). Intergroup comparison versus intragroup relationships: A cross-cultural examination of social identity theory in North American and East Asian cultural contexts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 166–183. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1519846.pdf
The Japanese realized that in order to win the war in the Pacific, they would have to bring the United States fleet into decisive combat. Their plan envisaged a deceptive move in a northern direction, towards the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. It would be a difficult campaign. The climate of the chain of islands that bounds the Bering Sea is not conducive for military operations or bases. It was cold and foggy in the summer, and bitterly cold in the winter. The climate was hard on man and machines. To counter the Japanese threat, the United States planned bases on the Aleutians. Into those bases throughout the first half of 1942, the nation moved her soldiers, sailors and airmen. Arkansas' 206th Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft) armed with obsolescent 3" anti-aircraft guns and water-cooled 0.50 caliber machine guns arrived in Dutch Harbor, the Aleutian Islands as part of the air defense. On the third of May, 1942, a Japanese task force made up of two light aircraft carriers and supporting ships moved into position 165 miles from Dutch Harbor. Fog shrouded their advance as they eluded the United States Navy forces that were searching for them. Half of the first attack group turned back because of the bad weather, but a dozen planes flew on to Dutch Harbor. Although the American forces were surprised, the 206th still managed to provide a thick screen of anti-aircraft fire. The gunners downed one Japanese Zero, but even more importantly, they denigrated the effect of the Japanese bombers' aim. Even so, the first attack cost the defenders of Dutch Harbor 25 killed in a 20-minute attack. This was the first Japanese attempt to destroy the new base at Dutch Harbor. Throughout the rest of the 3rd of June, weather assisted the defenders. On the 4th the Japanese struck again, damaging a hospital, oil storage facilities and killing more defenders. This was the last attack. Dutch Harbor was bloodied, damaged, but still in operation. The 206th served in Alaska from March, 1942 until they were deployed to Europe in 1944. The proud heritage of the 206th Coast Artillery is carried on today by the members of the Arkansas Army National Guard's 206th Field Artillery Regiment.
Old-school rock rebels and musical elders from the desert. Terakaft brings together the raw sounds of minimal indie guitar rock and the swaying pulse of Saharan journeys. They harness the energy of flirtatious midnight songs and the gravitas of respected advisors calling for peace and unity.
Tuareg guitar warriors, Terakaft keeps alive the musical spirit honed by decades of oppression, rebellion, and exile on Aratan N Azawad. Drawing on traditional forms of this Saharan nomadic people, filtered through an utterly fresh take on blues and rock, Terakaft ("Caravan") moves through Tuareg history and a sea of sand to take the plight of their people to the world, in angular guitar licks and pulsating grooves.
Based in Mali, the core of Terakaft got its start where it all started: with the boot camp blues that became a musical liberation movement. In hopes of liberating their denigrated, divided people scattered over five African countries, some Tuaregs turned to violence, gaining military and ideological training from the Libyans. But their casual, cigarette-fueled blues jams in between training sessions soon inspired a better way to shake up the Tuareg world: trade the machine guns for electric guitars, following in the footsteps of Bob Marley and John Lennon.
The resulting music sparked a revolution all its own, as young Tuaregs embraced the new sound, simply called “guitar" in Tuareg, and began taking ancient call-and-response poetic forms and making them rock. Terakaft leader Liya Ag Ablil (a.k.a. Diara) and the late Inteyeden (who like Diara once formed the core of Tinariwen) themselves began a new direction within that greater movement: They composed historical songs in the new rock style. Terakaft now embraces two generations of musicians and a body of music dedicated to the rich history and poetry of the Tuareg.
“Historically, our people had a huge territory that extended across the Sahara," explains bassist and singer Abdallah Ag Ahmed. “But now Tuaregs are all living in despair and isolation, each in their own little corner of the world. We want to unite our people," with rousing calls for progress like “Aghalem."
Terakaft has perfected the songs that launched this desert rock rebellion, with tracks like “Aratan N Azawad," which insists that children must study Tuareg language and history, which “is written in the mountains," for there to be hope. Originally composed by Diara during the Tuareg rebellion two decades ago, Terakaft brings balance and quiet insistence to the song's catchy melody and pared-down guitar solos.
Terakaft's vision of national unity and Saharan rock incorporates the rich heritage of Tuareg poetry and dance, blending it with the details of contemporary desert life. The brand image on a pack of Algerian cigarettes inspired “Akoz Imgharen" ("Four Patriarchs"), suggesting a council of wise elders for the four corners of Tuareg territory to Diara's imagination. The lyrical “Idiya Idohena" is based on iswat, the playful, sensual songs that accompany young Tuaregs' midnight dancing. The song is traditional, but Terakaft singer and guitarist Sanou Ag Ahmed adapted it for guitar and voices (and a subtle patter of palms).
Though firmly rooted in traditional forms, Terakaft has quietly expanded the musical palette of Tuareg rock. There's a sparkle and upbeat vibe reminiscent of West African guitar rock running parallel to the modal and bluesy feel that first won Tuareg music international attention. Interlocking bass grooves and drums add a funky complexity to songs like the romantic “Hegh Ténéré."
“We've just begun to work with musicians from other places, like the Indian singer Kiran Alhuwalia or a Celtic clarinetist we performed with not long ago in Angers," notes Diara. “It was great to play with them. And we now tour with Matthias [Vaguenez]," a percussionist and fixture on the French world music and trip hop scene, whose thoughtful playing weaves throughout the album.
Increasingly familiar with and known to the world at large, Terakaft remains devoted to their desert heritage and to their ongoing hope of a united Tuareg nation. “I have to say," reflects Diara, “there is nothing better than unity and peace."
democracystreet.blogspot.com/search?q=Karousos
Up at 5.30 for a day in London; cycle to Digbeth for a coach to Victoria (£9.40 return, and my folding bike in its bag accepted as luggage) then a District Line Underground to Kew, with a packed lunch from Lin.
The British Protectorate of the Ionian Islands, including Corfu, was headed by thirteen governors or rather a 'Commissioner' changed to 'Lord High Commissioners' - Sir James Campbell in 1814; half a century and twelve commissioners later, Sir Henry Storks, and overseeing the transition to union - enosis, Ένωσις - in 1864 with the Hellenic monarchy, the Greek Count Dimitrios Nikolaou Karousos. The formal and informal writings, official reports, petitions, newspaper extracts, copies of letters sent and received (those in French, Greek and Italian translated into English) along with marginal comments are bound in heavy volumes bearing the impress of the Colonial Office can be studied in the Reading Room of The National Archives at Kew, which I visited for the first time yesterday, in pursuit of unsatisfied curiosity about what Robert Holland and Diana Markides call The Abandonment of the Ionian Protectorate 1859-1864 in their fascinating history - The British and the Hellenes.
I'm also on a long delayed errand following the letter I got from Thanassis Spingos and Kostas Apergis in Ano Korakiana in December 2007:
Dear Simon. It is said that before the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece (1864), inhabitants of Ano Korakiana signed a 'paper' asking the British Government to keep the islands under Britain...We have been looking for this paper for years at the Greek archives without result. We wonder if you can help us by searching this paper in British archives (Parliament, Colonies archives, Foreign Office etc). We are sure that one of the names that signed the paper is Panos, Panayiotis or Panagiotis Metallinos (Μετταλινος). He was the 'leader'. A similar paper has been signed by inhabitants of Kinopiastes (another village in Corfu) and one village in Zakynthos island...
When I see Kostas or Thannassis I feel embarrassed at my delay. I think I've feared not finding the document they asked me about - through lack of diligence; through not being able to read the language in which it may be couched. After five hours hefting requested books from the locker allocated me in the Reading Room to my allocated desk I'd had a fascinating dip into original sources, gaining confidence as I went along, especially as all documents in Greek or Italian have an English translation attached. Only some of the handwriting is hard to follow.
I'd arrived as an ingénue. The staff at the National Archives are pros - bright, unpatronising. The place teems with people who know their way - veteran researchers - and others, like me, there for the first time.
First step was leaving my folding bicycle and bag in a cloakroom chained 'keep your key...put your laptop and pencils - no pens - in a transparent plastic bag.' Then came the daily briefing for newbies on how to get started - 20 minutes helpful guidance; then to 'The Learning Zone', a few yards away on the same floor where a bank of helpers, screens on-line to the archives, gave hints on catalogue searching. To see Ionian Protectorate documents I'd need a reader's card. That involved five minutes being photographed and showing ID - driving licence and a utility bill.
I haven't done original text research for so long, it was like going back to school without the trepidation. Finally I strolled through a polite security check, swiped my new card and came to the Reading Room where I asked for the documents suggested by Eleni Calligas, the young scholar who knows her way around these sources as well as anyone, an expert in Ionian politics and Hellenic nationalism:
I would suggest that the best place to look is the High Commissioner's Correspondence at the Colonial Office archive of the Protection, housed in the Public Record Office, now re-named National Archives but still held at the Kew. I would look at the last couple of years, from 1862 onwards - probably starting from CO136/177 to /184. If such a petition does exist and is signed by inhabitants of the village, it would be interesting to identify the local figure of importance, as the initiative probably emanated from there.
I found no petition from Ano Korakiana nor any of the senior names of the village - Savvanis, Vradis, Mandilas, Ionas, Markos, Metallinos, Laskaris, Kaloudis, Linosporis, Reggis, Balatsinos, Kendarchos or Kefallonitis - nor from Kinopiastes - about 6 miles south of Corfu Town - nor, indeed, from any village on the island.
This does not really surprise me. I understand from Kostas and Thannassis that the two villages on Corfu, and another whose name I don't know on Zakinthos, were opposed to enosis, and even today, of the island's eighteen bands, the philharmonic orchestras of Korakiana and Kinopiastes do not play at the celebrations of Unification Day held in Corfu each 21 May.
It's possible the petition, if it was a petition on paper rather than a representation delivered orally to Sir Henry, has disappeared from the record, or was never allowed to appear on it. Given the profile of enthusiasm displayed for enosis and the denigration of pro-English sentiments reported by Sir Henry Stork, it's possible that opposition was expressed a lot more privately than support.
I shall search the Storks files again, and look also at Foreign Office files, but it may be that I need to go back to the extraordinary tenure of the High Commissioner's Palace, William Gladstone, over seven weeks between the 24 November 1858 and the 19 February 1859. Perhaps it was during those weeks, before enosis seemed quite so foregone a conclusion, that the elders of Ano Korakiana and others delivered petitions against the ending of the Protectorate.
Such opinions may be unrealistic; they are still expressed, thus Harry Tsoukalas, a business man on the island, planning to stand in the 2009 EU elections in a week: "These things are anathema to say but the truth is that unification with Greece was the darkest day in our history. It was a huge mistake that we have regretted ever since." In Chapter two of their book, Holland and Markides, report Gladstone visiting Athens as part of his Ionian mission. While there he sounded out Ionian and Greek politician on the idea of unification:
This analysis stressed 'a divided sentiment' in Greek thinking on the matter, so that union was 'feared as well as desired'.The desire sprang from a natural inclination to cohabit with fellow Hellenes; the fear from the prospect of incorporating a branch of their race whose competitive abilities and education were so finely honed. In sum, the Greeks of the kingdom were fearful that union would turn out to be 'an annexation of Greece to the Islands, not of the Island's to Greece. (p.32)
In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Office Minister, dated 23.12.1862, received in London, Sir Henry Storks includes a translation of an unsigned note in Greek found in Corfu Town:
May the curses of St Spixidion(?)* light on him, who cries long live union with Greece.
*Almost certainly St.Spyridon, the island's protective patron saint.
democracystreet.blogspot.com/2009/07/noboro-fujishima-dir...
I was accused by a lady the other day of "misrepresenting" the Latino community in Chicago by posting only what she considered "negative" graff pics in Latino neighborhoods. I told the lady that I assume my viewers are smart and know that gang members only represent a small portion of the overall population of Latinos in Chicago, and that people know that most Latinos do not gangbang and work hard in legit businesses in order to try to make their way here for themselves and their families. I told her that if she was that concerned about my pics she should start an "anti cold war" page and only post "positive" pics. She said that she didnt think that page would draw as many viewers. I asked her why she thought so and she said because my page represents "the worst" the city has to offer and people are entertained by that. You be the judge.I know that Jinx was one of the originators if not THE originator when it comes to posting flicks online, and when I started it was basically me, Scumbag 106, and Ol Skool doing this on Flickr but now it has taken off and many more people have joined in as viewers and posters. There must be a reason why it's such a draw. My goal has never been to denigrate or "misrepresent" entire communities but we know gang nations are a "culture within all cultures" and that's been my focus with my page and will continue to be what it's about. If it was still the era of White gangs being out here and tagging heavy like they used to be I would be doing the same thing.
democracystreet.blogspot.com/search?q=Karousos
Up at 5.30 for a day in London; cycle to Digbeth for a coach to Victoria (£9.40 return, and my folding bike in its bag accepted as luggage) then a District Line Underground to Kew, with a packed lunch from Lin.
The British Protectorate of the Ionian Islands, including Corfu, was headed by thirteen governors or rather a 'Commissioner' changed to 'Lord High Commissioners' - Sir James Campbell in 1814; half a century and twelve commissioners later, Sir Henry Storks, and overseeing the transition to union - enosis, Ένωσις - in 1864 with the Hellenic monarchy, the Greek Count Dimitrios Nikolaou Karousos. The formal and informal writings, official reports, petitions, newspaper extracts, copies of letters sent and received (those in French, Greek and Italian translated into English) along with marginal comments are bound in heavy volumes bearing the impress of the Colonial Office can be studied in the Reading Room of The National Archives at Kew, which I visited for the first time yesterday, in pursuit of unsatisfied curiosity about what Robert Holland and Diana Markides call The Abandonment of the Ionian Protectorate 1859-1864 in their fascinating history - The British and the Hellenes.
I'm also on a long delayed errand following the letter I got from Thanassis Spingos and Kostas Apergis in Ano Korakiana in December 2007:
Dear Simon. It is said that before the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece (1864), inhabitants of Ano Korakiana signed a 'paper' asking the British Government to keep the islands under Britain...We have been looking for this paper for years at the Greek archives without result. We wonder if you can help us by searching this paper in British archives (Parliament, Colonies archives, Foreign Office etc). We are sure that one of the names that signed the paper is Panos, Panayiotis or Panagiotis Metallinos (Μετταλινος). He was the 'leader'. A similar paper has been signed by inhabitants of Kinopiastes (another village in Corfu) and one village in Zakynthos island...
When I see Kostas or Thannassis I feel embarrassed at my delay. I think I've feared not finding the document they asked me about - through lack of diligence; through not being able to read the language in which it may be couched. After five hours hefting requested books from the locker allocated me in the Reading Room to my allocated desk I'd had a fascinating dip into original sources, gaining confidence as I went along, especially as all documents in Greek or Italian have an English translation attached. Only some of the handwriting is hard to follow.
I'd arrived as an ingénue. The staff at the National Archives are pros - bright, unpatronising. The place teems with people who know their way - veteran researchers - and others, like me, there for the first time.
First step was leaving my folding bicycle and bag in a cloakroom chained 'keep your key...put your laptop and pencils - no pens - in a transparent plastic bag.' Then came the daily briefing for newbies on how to get started - 20 minutes helpful guidance; then to 'The Learning Zone', a few yards away on the same floor where a bank of helpers, screens on-line to the archives, gave hints on catalogue searching. To see Ionian Protectorate documents I'd need a reader's card. That involved five minutes being photographed and showing ID - driving licence and a utility bill.
I haven't done original text research for so long, it was like going back to school without the trepidation. Finally I strolled through a polite security check, swiped my new card and came to the Reading Room where I asked for the documents suggested by Eleni Calligas, the young scholar who knows her way around these sources as well as anyone, an expert in Ionian politics and Hellenic nationalism:
I would suggest that the best place to look is the High Commissioner's Correspondence at the Colonial Office archive of the Protection, housed in the Public Record Office, now re-named National Archives but still held at the Kew. I would look at the last couple of years, from 1862 onwards - probably starting from CO136/177 to /184. If such a petition does exist and is signed by inhabitants of the village, it would be interesting to identify the local figure of importance, as the initiative probably emanated from there.
I found no petition from Ano Korakiana nor any of the senior names of the village - Savvanis, Vradis, Mandilas, Ionas, Markos, Metallinos, Laskaris, Kaloudis, Linosporis, Reggis, Balatsinos, Kendarchos or Kefallonitis - nor from Kinopiastes - about 6 miles south of Corfu Town - nor, indeed, from any village on the island.
This does not really surprise me. I understand from Kostas and Thannassis that the two villages on Corfu, and another whose name I don't know on Zakinthos, were opposed to enosis, and even today, of the island's eighteen bands, the philharmonic orchestras of Korakiana and Kinopiastes do not play at the celebrations of Unification Day held in Corfu each 21 May.
It's possible the petition, if it was a petition on paper rather than a representation delivered orally to Sir Henry, has disappeared from the record, or was never allowed to appear on it. Given the profile of enthusiasm displayed for enosis and the denigration of pro-English sentiments reported by Sir Henry Stork, it's possible that opposition was expressed a lot more privately than support.
I shall search the Storks files again, and look also at Foreign Office files, but it may be that I need to go back to the extraordinary tenure of the High Commissioner's Palace, William Gladstone, over seven weeks between the 24 November 1858 and the 19 February 1859. Perhaps it was during those weeks, before enosis seemed quite so foregone a conclusion, that the elders of Ano Korakiana and others delivered petitions against the ending of the Protectorate.
Such opinions may be unrealistic; they are still expressed, thus Harry Tsoukalas, a business man on the island, planning to stand in the 2009 EU elections in a week: "These things are anathema to say but the truth is that unification with Greece was the darkest day in our history. It was a huge mistake that we have regretted ever since." In Chapter two of their book, Holland and Markides, report Gladstone visiting Athens as part of his Ionian mission. While there he sounded out Ionian and Greek politician on the idea of unification:
This analysis stressed 'a divided sentiment' in Greek thinking on the matter, so that union was 'feared as well as desired'.The desire sprang from a natural inclination to cohabit with fellow Hellenes; the fear from the prospect of incorporating a branch of their race whose competitive abilities and education were so finely honed. In sum, the Greeks of the kingdom were fearful that union would turn out to be 'an annexation of Greece to the Islands, not of the Island's to Greece. (p.32)
In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Office Minister, dated 23.12.1862, received in London, Sir Henry Storks includes a translation of an unsigned note in Greek found in Corfu Town:
May the curses of St Spixidion(?)* light on him, who cries long live union with Greece.
*Almost certainly St.Spyridon, the island's protective patron saint.
Right and left of the house are the two old wells by Josef Gasser. They represent opposing worlds. On your left, it depens on your position: "music, dance, joy, levity", right: "Loreley, sadness, love, revenge". This one stands for music...
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
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Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
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State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
Right and left of the house are the two old wells by Josef Gasser. They represent opposing worlds. On your left, it depens on your position: "music, dance, joy, levity", right: "Loreley, sadness, love, revenge". This one stands for Loreley...
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace wondered this week if Melania and Ivanka Trump were “numb, dead inside or paid off,” given their resounding silence in the wake of Rudy Giuliani’s comments denigrating Stormy Daniels and hailing “beautiful” and “classy” women.
President Donald Trump’s personal atto...
35.231.217.201/msnbc-host-asks-if-silent-ivanka-and-melan...
(E) Bad Trip series is a concretization of idea I had of showing a more dirty and human side of famous cartoon characters. We always see them been successful, been heroes or at least having fun, anyway I always wondered what would've been If they had the same delusions, bad feelings, breakouts as humans have their ups and downs along life. Not trying to denigrate any of this characters representations, only to have a different light on it.
democracystreet.blogspot.com/search?q=Karousos
Up at 5.30 for a day in London; cycle to Digbeth for a coach to Victoria (£9.40 return, and my folding bike in its bag accepted as luggage) then a District Line Underground to Kew, with a packed lunch from Lin.
The British Protectorate of the Ionian Islands, including Corfu, was headed by thirteen governors or rather a 'Commissioner' changed to 'Lord High Commissioners' - Sir James Campbell in 1814; half a century and twelve commissioners later, Sir Henry Storks, and overseeing the transition to union - enosis, Ένωσις - in 1864 with the Hellenic monarchy, the Greek Count Dimitrios Nikolaou Karousos. The formal and informal writings, official reports, petitions, newspaper extracts, copies of letters sent and received (those in French, Greek and Italian translated into English) along with marginal comments are bound in heavy volumes bearing the impress of the Colonial Office can be studied in the Reading Room of The National Archives at Kew, which I visited for the first time yesterday, in pursuit of unsatisfied curiosity about what Robert Holland and Diana Markides call The Abandonment of the Ionian Protectorate 1859-1864 in their fascinating history - The British and the Hellenes.
I'm also on a long delayed errand following the letter I got from Thanassis Spingos and Kostas Apergis in Ano Korakiana in December 2007:
Dear Simon. It is said that before the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece (1864), inhabitants of Ano Korakiana signed a 'paper' asking the British Government to keep the islands under Britain...We have been looking for this paper for years at the Greek archives without result. We wonder if you can help us by searching this paper in British archives (Parliament, Colonies archives, Foreign Office etc). We are sure that one of the names that signed the paper is Panos, Panayiotis or Panagiotis Metallinos (Μετταλινος). He was the 'leader'. A similar paper has been signed by inhabitants of Kinopiastes (another village in Corfu) and one village in Zakynthos island...
When I see Kostas or Thannassis I feel embarrassed at my delay. I think I've feared not finding the document they asked me about - through lack of diligence; through not being able to read the language in which it may be couched. After five hours hefting requested books from the locker allocated me in the Reading Room to my allocated desk I'd had a fascinating dip into original sources, gaining confidence as I went along, especially as all documents in Greek or Italian have an English translation attached. Only some of the handwriting is hard to follow.
I'd arrived as an ingénue. The staff at the National Archives are pros - bright, unpatronising. The place teems with people who know their way - veteran researchers - and others, like me, there for the first time.
First step was leaving my folding bicycle and bag in a cloakroom chained 'keep your key...put your laptop and pencils - no pens - in a transparent plastic bag.' Then came the daily briefing for newbies on how to get started - 20 minutes helpful guidance; then to 'The Learning Zone', a few yards away on the same floor where a bank of helpers, screens on-line to the archives, gave hints on catalogue searching. To see Ionian Protectorate documents I'd need a reader's card. That involved five minutes being photographed and showing ID - driving licence and a utility bill.
I haven't done original text research for so long, it was like going back to school without the trepidation. Finally I strolled through a polite security check, swiped my new card and came to the Reading Room where I asked for the documents suggested by Eleni Calligas, the young scholar who knows her way around these sources as well as anyone, an expert in Ionian politics and Hellenic nationalism:
I would suggest that the best place to look is the High Commissioner's Correspondence at the Colonial Office archive of the Protection, housed in the Public Record Office, now re-named National Archives but still held at the Kew. I would look at the last couple of years, from 1862 onwards - probably starting from CO136/177 to /184. If such a petition does exist and is signed by inhabitants of the village, it would be interesting to identify the local figure of importance, as the initiative probably emanated from there.
I found no petition from Ano Korakiana nor any of the senior names of the village - Savvanis, Vradis, Mandilas, Ionas, Markos, Metallinos, Laskaris, Kaloudis, Linosporis, Reggis, Balatsinos, Kendarchos or Kefallonitis - nor from Kinopiastes - about 6 miles south of Corfu Town - nor, indeed, from any village on the island.
This does not really surprise me. I understand from Kostas and Thannassis that the two villages on Corfu, and another whose name I don't know on Zakinthos, were opposed to enosis, and even today, of the island's eighteen bands, the philharmonic orchestras of Korakiana and Kinopiastes do not play at the celebrations of Unification Day held in Corfu each 21 May.
It's possible the petition, if it was a petition on paper rather than a representation delivered orally to Sir Henry, has disappeared from the record, or was never allowed to appear on it. Given the profile of enthusiasm displayed for enosis and the denigration of pro-English sentiments reported by Sir Henry Stork, it's possible that opposition was expressed a lot more privately than support.
I shall search the Storks files again, and look also at Foreign Office files, but it may be that I need to go back to the extraordinary tenure of the High Commissioner's Palace, William Gladstone, over seven weeks between the 24 November 1858 and the 19 February 1859. Perhaps it was during those weeks, before enosis seemed quite so foregone a conclusion, that the elders of Ano Korakiana and others delivered petitions against the ending of the Protectorate.
Such opinions may be unrealistic; they are still expressed, thus Harry Tsoukalas, a business man on the island, planning to stand in the 2009 EU elections in a week: "These things are anathema to say but the truth is that unification with Greece was the darkest day in our history. It was a huge mistake that we have regretted ever since." In Chapter two of their book, Holland and Markides, report Gladstone visiting Athens as part of his Ionian mission. While there he sounded out Ionian and Greek politician on the idea of unification:
This analysis stressed 'a divided sentiment' in Greek thinking on the matter, so that union was 'feared as well as desired'.The desire sprang from a natural inclination to cohabit with fellow Hellenes; the fear from the prospect of incorporating a branch of their race whose competitive abilities and education were so finely honed. In sum, the Greeks of the kingdom were fearful that union would turn out to be 'an annexation of Greece to the Islands, not of the Island's to Greece. (p.32)
In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Office Minister, dated 23.12.1862, received in London, Sir Henry Storks includes a translation of an unsigned note in Greek found in Corfu Town:
May the curses of St Spixidion(?)* light on him, who cries long live union with Greece.
*Almost certainly St.Spyridon, the island's protective patron saint.
Popular guy - only 7 days to hit 500 views. 37 for 1000.
UNIACKE, JAMES BOYLE, lawyer, politician, office holder, and sportsman; b. probably 1799 and baptized 19 Jan. 1800 in Halifax, son of Attorney General Richard John Uniacke* and Martha Maria Delesdernier; m. there 18 Dec. 1832 Rosina Jane Black, and they had several children; d. there 26 March 1858.
By 1810 James Boyle Uniacke’s father had established his position in the forefront of Halifax society. Although he was a stern man who expected from his sons accomplishments similar to his own, he used all of his influence to further their interests and no one could have been more helpful in their hours of need. James, after graduating from King’s College, Windsor, in 1818, articled in his father’s law office and was admitted attorney and barrister on 5 April 1823. Later that year he was off to London, by way of Boston and New York, to complete his legal studies at the Inner Temple. In London he was kept busy securing all sorts of things for a demanding father – livestock, spinning-wheels, engravings, books – but the senior Uniacke wanted most of all for his son to “return uncontaminated with the corruptions of a world new to you.” Perhaps he had reason to fear since, in contrast with the industry of his father, James returned to Halifax to live a comfortable, somewhat carefree existence.
One contemporary said that he “looked the aristocrat . . . tall, graceful, and a ‘prince among men’ . . . always attired in the latest London fashion.” Another account suggests that “in a heavy-eating, hard-drinking age, [he] made no bones about his intimate friendship with John Berleycorn as he raced his stable of fast horses on the Halifax Commons. He had a great thirst for companionship and conviviality.” As a supporter of the turf, Uniacke maintained a racing stud, one of two in the province. Once, in the legislature, he sarcastically compared his horses with John Young*’s truck horses, but got better than he gave. Alluding to Rosina Jane Black, the unattractive daughter of wealthy merchant John Black* whom Uniacke had married in 1832, Young simply replied that Scotsmen like himself selected their horses “upon the same principle that some gentlemen select their, wives – not for their beauty but for their sterling worth.” It was the inheritances of both his wife and himself which permitted Uniacke the indulgent type of existence during the 1830s that some observers found objectionable. A poet of the day, Andrew Shiels*, called him “a pompous piece of perishable clay!” Apparently Uniacke’s outward conduct and traits hid from Shiels the talents of the ablest of Richard John Uniacke’s sons.
Little is known of Uniacke’s practice of law, although his foreclosure of a mortgage led, in 1848, to a celebrated case, Uniacke v. Dickson, in which his lawyers won a victory by successfully contending that none of the statute law of England was in force in Nova Scotia, “except such portions as are obviously applicable and necessary.” In the 1830s and 1840s he participated in the establishment of some new business ventures in Halifax. In 1832 he became an incorporator and one of the first directors of the Bank of Nova Scotia. Seven or eight years later he helped to set up the Halifax Gas Light and Water Company and before long became its president.
Uniacke entered politics in 1830 by being elected to the House of Assembly for Cape Breton County, but was unseated because he lacked the necessary property qualification. Re-elected, he took his seat in January 1832 and remained in the assembly until 1854. Since the election of 1836 polarized assemblymen into tories and reformers, Uniacke had a chance to display his tory attitudes to the full in the session of 1837. Having taken a strong stand against Joseph Howe*’s 12 Resolutions, especially the tenth, which denounced the disposition of the councillors to “protect their own interests and emoluments at the expense of the public,” he naturally gloated when, for tactical reasons, Howe withdrew the resolutions.
Before the assembly opened in 1838, Uniacke had become a member of the newly created Executive Council, although refusing to admit that it operated under any meaningful degree of responsibility. On a wide variety of matters the battle was again joined between him and Howe. Uniacke did not oppose the incorporation of Halifax in principle, but decried a bill which, unlike the London charter, “put the respectability of the town under the controul of others, who should not possess that power.” Since the intent of the bill was to enfranchise only those freeholders who voted in provincial elections, Howe concluded that Uniacke and the Nova Scotia tories “believe, or affect to believe, that there is a danger in the very sound of British liberty.” When Uniacke sought the assembly’s approval of an address of the Constitutional Association of Montreal, Howe objected to any recognition of the ultra loyalists of the Canadas who, by seeking to continue a system rife with abuses, had helped to promote rebellion.
But the differences stemming from their backgrounds came out most strongly in the debate on the judiciary. In 1837 Howe had not protested against Uniacke’s sallies, but in 1838 he let it be known that if “jest, and anecdote and raillery” were to take the place of argument, he would show he was blessed with “a little imagination” too. That time came when Uniacke suggested that Howe’s proposals to cut costs meant that he was putting the judiciary up for sale to get the cheapest administration of justice: “What! £450 a year for a judge to travel the circuit? Why, Tim O’Shaughnessy! Tim Shea! or Con Lahy! would do the labour for half that sum.” Tired of Uniacke’s witticisms, Howe replied that he would like to have £450, the salary of a single judge, to distribute to the struggling residents of eastern Halifax County whom he had recently visited. Uniacke would always be an honoured guest in the homes of judges and leading officials where he would be dined at the public expense, “but give me a seat beneath the poor man’s roof – a portion of his humble fare – let me . . . feel that I am welcomed as a friend, and I seek no higher distinction.” The reformers, who had writhed under Uniacke’s scorn and ridicule for two sessions, enjoyed every moment of it.
Again, in 1839, the real jousting took place between Howe and Uniacke, and their exchanges rank high among the oratorical spectaculars of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Uniacke compared Howe to the Babylonian king who set up a golden image and cast into a fiery furnace everyone who refused to worship it. “He may heat the furnace seven times hotter, and cast me in, and I trust to come out as unscathed as Shadrach, Mesheck, and Abendnego.” When Howe labelled all his opponents as anti-reform, Uniacke replied, “I also am a reformer, we are all reformers,” only to meet Howe’s scornful comment that the tories were trying to cure Nova Scotia by using the new system of medicine known as homoeopathic: “They would administer the millionth part of a grain of reform every session, and that should satisfy all!” But however ferocious their exchanges, they always had a grudging admiration for each other; would that Uniacke were a reformer, said Howe, and “I would be proud to follow him.” As a result, the reformer William Young* wrote disconsolately to his brother George Renny: “Uniacke & I had a set-to & are on terms of open hostility – Howe & [Laurence O’Connor Doyle*] cultivate his good graces rather than mine.”
Essentially Uniacke and Howe differed on the very nature of colonial government. The latter had come to believe that, if Nova Scotians were to remain part of the British empire, they needed to be British subjects to “the fullest extent of British constitutional freedom,” while Uniacke held that the reformers’ proposals would reduce the governor to a cipher and lead to colonial separation: a colonial governor simply could not be responsible at the same time both to a colonial executive and to a colonial secretary pledged to sustain the unity of the empire.
Then almost like a bolt from the blue, Uniacke – always accepting without question what he thought were the intentions of the British government – changed his stance following a dispatch of 16 Oct. 1839, in which the colonial secretary, Lord John Russell, stated that colonial officers might have to retire “as often as any sufficient motives of public policy” required. Although the lieutenant governor of New Brunswick, Sir John Harvey, held that the dispatch conferred “a new . . . and improved constitution upon these Colonies,” Sir Colin Campbell*, his Nova Scotian counterpart, denied it. It turned out that Campbell was right and Harvey and Uniacke wrong since Russell intended only the occasional displacement of a single leading public officer to meet an obvious need and not the removal of all the governor’s advisers. Nevertheless, when Howe carried a vote of non-confidence in the Executive Council by a majority of three to one in February 1840, Uniacke resigned from it. He did so partly because he “owed it to the House” not to remain in a body “condemned by such an overwhelming majority.” But mostly it was because he believed Russell’s dispatch had granted new constitutions to the colonies and, as one whose first political principle was never to “withdraw [his] humble support from the Parent State,” he could not oppose the colonial secretary’s view. Although he still feared that the new system would transfer power from the government to a few popular leaders, he was “willing to try the experiment” because the British government had ordered it; in his view, however, it would have had a better chance of working in a united British North America, in which the executive council was converted into a genuine ministry. To the extent that Uniacke had become a reformer it was not because of personal conviction, but because of his interpretation of a dispatch, which was quite different from the colonial secretary’s intention. Strangely, he escaped for the most part the angry criticism of his former associates, the usual experience of turncoats in those years.
In the coalition government instituted by the new lieutenant governor, Lord Falkland [Cary*], in October 1840 Uniacke was again an executive councillor, and solicitor general as well after April 1841; also in the government were Howe, James McNab, and the tory leader, James William Johnston*. In 1841 Uniacke contested the speakership of the new assembly with Howe, but lost by 26 to 22, even though supported by all the tories. In December 1843, after Falkland allegedly broke faith with the reformers by appointing the tory Mather Byles Almon* to the council, Uniacke, along with Howe and McNab, withdrew. Falkland invited Uniacke to return in July 1844, but he refused because he believed “the sense of the Assembly is that the Queen’s Representative should be surrounded by Executive advisers sustained by a Representative majority.”
Uniacke’s position in the reform party was fully recognized when in February 1845 Falkland caused to be made public his dispatch of 2 Aug. 1844 in which he intimated a disposition by the reform party to exclude Howe from the council. Uniacke, with others, made an unequivocal denial. He, who had never before spoken with anything but veneration for the crown and its representative, heaped scorn on a governor who could “so far forget his high position as the Representative of Royalty” as to proscribe a single individual. If he could “proscribe one man, because he dislikes his politics, he may exclude another because he is not pleased with the contour of his features, or [because] he has not mixed in fashionable circles. . . . in a few years the country will teem with proscribed Councillors. . . . the cut of a coat, the curl of a whisker, scrofulous legs, or atheistical principles, may, at a whim of him in power, be sufficient grounds for proscription.” Falkland’s dispatch had also sought to denigrate the reformers generally by pointing out that they had “no acknowledged leader.” Hardly had it been made public when Howe stated: “Let there be no mistake about that point hereafter, for the Opposition ‘acknowledge’ . . . [Uniacke] as their leader.” Howe was, of course, accepting the fact that he had forfeited his own claims by his ridicule and otherwise harsh treatment of the lieutenant governor.
In the latter part of 1846 Falkland’s successor, Sir John Harvey, who also disliked the idea of party government, sought to restore the coalition, but Howe and the leading reformers turned him down. Luckily for them, Uniacke was in England and learning of events in Nova Scotia only through Howe’s letters. In a reply which throws a great deal of light upon a man who had been drawn almost unwillingly into the reform party, Uniacke wondered, since Harvey did not want a government of one party, if he “ought . . . to be pressed too closely on [a] point which will require a long time to work so as to be acceptable to the people.” Would it not be enough to humiliate Johnston by requiring him to sit at the same board with Howe, the man he had forced out in 1843? Obviously Uniacke still had misgivings about the workability of party government in a small colony like Nova Scotia. Yet, almost in the same breath, he admitted he had no strong feelings on this point, promised to “keep these sentiments to himself,” and wanted only a triumph over the party which had “planned and endeavored to work out the dirty intrigue of 1843.” Clearly he appreciated that he led the party largely in name and that the decision was not his to make.
More than once between 1845 and 1847 Howe expressed annoyance in private that he was getting little assistance in planning the party’s strategy and in perfecting its organization for the next election. When the election came in August 1847, Howe campaigned in the key areas, while Uniacke did little more than get himself elected. Even with the reform victory, there were apparently some doubts about Uniacke. So, when the Halifax Times seemed to be inviting Uniacke to turn traitor and dismember the party he led, Howe thought the matter serious enough to have his friend William Grigor sound him out. Grigor reported that Uniacke was still loyal to the reform cause; he also noted Uniacke’s insistence that “the first stroke of liberal policy” must be to “get hold of the government and then dictate terms . . . to stop at nothing but to clean out all.”
Uniacke was almost up to his old oratorical form when, in January 1848, he moved non-confidence in Johnston’s tory administration. On 2 February he was back in the Executive Council and leader (the title “premier” was, as yet, little used in Nova Scotia) of the first fully “responsible” government in Britain’s overseas empire; a week later he became attorney general. Uniacke did not stand out during his six years as leader of the government. At this time, of course, collegiality was the operative principle of the Executive Council and the leader was, at most, no more than primus inter pares; also, Uniacke, who performed at the optimum only when the spirit moved him, could not have been fully comfortable in a ministry dominated by Howe’s ideas and energy. Still, he participated actively in all the major political questions between 1848 and 1851, especially in the adaptation of the provincial institutions to the requirements of responsible government and the preparation of the province’s first revised statutes. His last decisive actions occurred in 1851 when Howe was absent in England seeking a guarantee for the intercolonial railway. With the proponents of the European and North American Railway from Halifax to Portland, Maine, threatening action which might stymie Howe’s efforts, Uniacke turned some of his old eloquence upon them: “Was it fair to stab him [Howe] in the back? You may try it . . . but if you do, the poinard will drop from your hand before you can strike.” Later, when Howe secured the guarantee and Uniacke failed to have it approved because George Young called it “niggardly,” he insisted that Young or himself must leave the cabinet.
Uniacke remained, but his activities in the legislature steadily diminished after 1851 because of failing health. According to his nephew, “the last 7 years of his life he was more or less paralyzed,” and during the session of 1854 a reform member reported him as “fairly used up and wholly unfit for public business.” He had lingered on only because of financial necessity, since he had apparently lost most of his own and his wife’s capital in bad investments in British railways. Finally, in April 1854, his colleagues eased him out of the Executive Council and appointed him commissioner of crown lands in place of John Spry Morris, on leave of absence in Britain. Though incompetent to perform the duties of the office, he survived as long as the liberals retained office, but the conservatives were unwilling to show the same compassion after they took over the government in February 1857 and they terminated his services at the end of the year. Early in 1858 he petitioned the assembly for a pension or retiring allowance and a liberal member introduced a bill to that end, but Uniacke died before it passed beyond first reading.
Uniacke was a study in contrasts, if not contradictions. Aristocratic in traits and temperament, he formed firm and lasting friendships with Howe and Doyle, both of whom possessed the common touch. Almost unequalled in his oratorical talents, he only occasionally disturbed a comfortable existence to display them to full advantage. An equivocal reformer, he found himself thrust into the leadership of a party which wanted a thorough transformation of the province’s political institutions. A free spender in earlier years, he ended up as a rather pitiful suppliant for government assistance. But whatever the contradictions he cannot be denied lasting recognition as leader of the first truly responsible government in the colonies.
It was surprising to come across a Texas-themed window at a bookstore in Oslo, Norway, especially on 17 mai, the nation's National Day.
It was even more surprising to find out what Helt Texas means in Norwegian.
The literal meaning of the title of this BBQ cookbook is Totally Texas in Norwegian.
However, in Norway today, the term "Texas" is a short-hand way of saying "crazy."
I learned that from the Washington Post :
"How ‘Texas’ became Norwegian for ‘crazy.'"
www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/26/how...
In Norway, when a party goes wild, when a soccer match gets heated, when a rare swordfish shoots out of a fjord with a loud noise and a massive splash, there is only one appropriate response: “Det var helt Texas!”
In English, “That is totally texas!”
Yes, it is a reference to America’s second most populous state, and no, it’s not really a compliment. Possibly unbeknownst in the Lone Star state, Norwegians have been using the term “texas” (always lower case, often accompanied by an exclamation point) to mean “exciting,” “crazy” or “out of control” for roughly half a century.
Americans — perhaps because we were too busy being “Texas” to notice — only found out a few days ago, when a reporter for Texas Monthly stumbled across a conversation about the term on Tumblr.
“Y’all,” the headline informed readers, partly amused, partly indignant, “Norwegians use the word ‘Texas’ as slang to mean ‘crazy.’ The things you learn on the Internet.”
The etymology of the phrase is fairly straightforward, if something of a stereotype.
“This historically goes back to Norwegians watching cowboy movies and reading literature about the wild West, you know?” Anne Ekern, a senior adviser at the Norwegian consulate in Houston, told NPR. “And the wild West held, I think with most Norwegians, held a strong Texas association. So when we use the expression ‘Texas,’ we think about — you know, most of us think about a lot of action, a lot fun and a lot of things going on.”
The first recorded use of “texas” to mean “crazy” came in the 1957 novel “The Boy Who Wanted to Buy Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation,” according to the BBC. The author Vegard Vigerust, a professor and poet, wrote, “Would make it even more texas in the village?”
These days, the term is widely used, Daniel Gusfre Ims of Norway’s Language Council told the BBC. The phrase “helt texas” (completely crazy) has been used in newspapers at least 50 times this year.
Metonymy, or the substitution of an associated word or phrase for a thing or concept itself (for example, calling a businessman a “suit”) is common in Norway, Gusfre Ims said. Norwegians use the term “hawaii football” for an “out-of-control” match, and “klondike,” the site of the Canadian gold rush, to describe wild economic expansion.
But he was eager to assure readers that the term is in no way a denigration of Texans themselves.
“What Norwegians think about Texas has nothing to do with the expression. We know Texas is not a lawless society,” he said.
Across the Atlantic, the reaction was, well, varying degrees of “texas.” Some took immediate offense to the term, posting comments on the Texas Monthly article that are not printable in a family newspaper.
Others were proud of the designation.
“I think that most Texans, especially with a sense of humor, kind of take that as a mark of pride,” Dan Solomon, the enterprising Texas Monthly reporter who broke the story, told NPR. “If you go to a party and things are raging and you say it was ‘texas,’ that’s all right. That seems like a thing we can live with.”
There is already a DetVarHeltTexas.com selling t-shirts bearing the phrase. The owners of the site have already laid claim to the trademark for “Det Var Helt Texas” and the phrase “Population: crazy,” as well as a Google maps pin that reads “Yee-haw!”
Meanwhile, Norwegians are likely to keep shaking their heads and calling things “texas.” At least, until they find out about Florida.
news.yahoo.com/human-rights-oil-and-bidens-shifting-appro...
Human rights, oil and Biden’s shifting approach to Saudi Arabia
What’s happening
President Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia — a country he once pledged to make a “pariah” — as part of a multi-country trip to the Middle East next month, the White House announced Tuesday.
Biden is expected to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely viewed as the country’s de facto leader, even though power is formally in the hands of his elderly father. The president’s willingness to meet the crown prince, colloquially known as MBS, is a sharp departure from the diplomatic cold shoulder he has given him since the start of his presidency.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have maintained a strong relationship for roughly 80 years built on mutual interest — with the Saudis providing a steady flow of gas from their massive oil fields in exchange for military protection and weapons from the U.S. The long-standing alliance has survived, in part, because of the willingness of American leaders to tolerate some of the abuses of the Saudi regime — including its oppression of women, LGBTQ people and minorities.
Biden has pushed back on Saudi rulers in a way that his predecessor, Donald Trump, never did. Early in his presidency, the Biden administration released an intelligence report that claimed the crown prince was directly involved with the plot to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who wrote for the Washington Post and was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The State Department also issued sanctions on 76 Saudi nationals in response to the report. Biden also pledged to end U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia’s extended war against Iran-backed groups in Yemen, which has caused what the United Nations has called “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”
Why there’s debate
Biden’s decision to travel to Saudi Arabia has sparked debate over how American leaders should balance U.S. economic and security interests bound up with Saudi influence and the American mission to promote human rights around the world.
The president has faced intense criticism from human rights groups, Saudi dissidents and even Khashoggi's fiancée, who have accused him of betraying his principles in the hope of coaxing the Saudis to release more oil and lower gas prices in the U.S. There have also been more measured critiques from within his own party, with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., arguing that Biden should be putting his efforts toward weaning the United States from fossil fuels, “so we don't have despots and murderers calling the shots.”
Some regional experts also have doubts about what Biden can gain in exchange for softening his opposition to Saudi abuses. They argue that it’s unlikely Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing nations it influences will ramp up oil production enough to make any real difference on prices at the pump in the U.S. Some argue that a massive increase in domestic oil production in recent decades means that the U.S. no longer needs to placate the Saudis in the way it did in the past.
But others take a pragmatic view, arguing that — however distasteful it may be — the U.S. has far too much on the line to allow its relationship with the Saudis to deteriorate. They say a strong alliance with Saudi Arabia can help serve as a bulwark against Iran, promote better relations between Gulf states and Israel, prevent China from dominating the Middle East and help punish Russia economically for its invasion of Ukraine. Some also make the case that the U.S. will be in a better position to pressure the Saudis to curb their human rights abuses in the context of a friendly relationship, rather than an adversarial one.
Perspectives
Supporters of Biden's trip
Like it or not, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia still need each other
“With oil already at $100 a barrel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have reason to do everything possible to prevent the disruption of Saudi supply. That means the two nations must return to the security-for-oil relationship that began nearly eight decades ago. … That relationship lasted, despite ups and downs, through 14 U.S. presidencies until Mr. Biden.” — Karen Elliott House, Wall Street Journal
A strong partnership can help the U.S. pressure Saudi Arabia on human rights
“To brand a country a pariah is to marginalize it and nullify an entire relationship. Common-sense discussions on common interests would no longer occur. Opportunities for dialogue would be washed away in a sea of antagonism.” — Daniel R. DePetris, Newsweek
Biden is right to try to salvage a relationship he nearly spoiled
“Biden’s attempt to isolate the prince has been a miserable failure. … If Biden is now beating a path to the kingdom, it is because he desperately needs Saudi Arabia to increase its crude oil output to tame prices that have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” — Bobby Ghosh, Bloomberg
Protecting American interests often requires unpleasant partnerships
“There's no sugarcoating it. Sometimes presidents must do things they find distasteful or that appear hypocritical to advance what they perceive to be the national interest — that is what Biden is doing here.” — Stephen Collinson, CNN
Spurning the Saudis would be a huge gift to Russia and China
“Biden ignored and denigrated them and pushed them right into the embrace of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. You can’t blame countries in the region for looking out for their interests, and if Washington won’t be there for them, then they will need to look elsewhere.” — Matthew Kroenig, Foreign Policy
Critics of Biden's trip
The U.S. is surrendering its authority on human rights
“At a time when the Biden administration is fighting to defend democracy in Ukraine, it's an embarrassment to be reconciling with the leader of a country who represses his own citizens.” — Aaron David Miller, CNN
Biden is making a major concession while gaining very little
“The problem is not just that a presidential visit to Riyadh would so obviously illustrate a compromise on principles. It is also that Biden probably will not gain anything meaningful in return. … If he follows through on his plans to visit Riyadh, Biden will be making a bad deal: exchanging near-certain reputational damage for the mere possibility of modest triumphs. It is a visit that should never have been planned.” — Dalia Dassa Kaye, Foreign Affairs
Biden is essentially letting MBS get away with murder
“In terms of any meaningful accountability from MBS on Khashoggi’s death or other important human rights issues, Biden is likely to come away empty-handed. … This lack of accountability is a lasting tragedy. In simple terms, MBS got away with it.” — David Ignatius, Washington Post
The right move would be to ensure the U.S. doesn't need Saudi oil at all
“Instead of getting on a plane to Saudi Arabia, the president would do better by the country if he stayed home and worked on delivering a domestic energy policy that maximized all of our resources and generated a more powerful American future.” — Editorial, Dallas Morning News
Biden is conceding far too much leverage to a much less powerful country
“Rather than rebuilding relations with Riyadh, Biden's approach will likely exacerbate the long-standing problems in US-Saudi relations. It will increase our dependence on the kingdom, which has long given its rulers carte blanche to act against American interests in the Middle East and beyond. MBS is playing hardball with the United States — and Biden just let him win.” — Trita Parsi, Common Dreams
Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in “The 360”? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10932387/Biden-meet-Saud...
Biden WILL meet with Saudi Crow Prince to talk oil prices
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says after the president insisted he won't visit with Mohammed bin Salman during Middle East trip next month
■ Average gas prices breached $5 per gallon last week for the first time ever last and have dipped slightly to $4.98 as of Sunday
■ 'President Biden wants to do anything he possibly can to help consumers. Gas prices have risen a great deal and it's clearly burdening households'
■ 'He stands ready to work with Congress and that's an idea that certainly worth considering,' she added
Yellen again said that inflation, with prices up 8.6 percent this May over last, is 'unacceptably high' but said that she did not believe a recession was 'inevitable'
■ Biden has come under increasing pressure even among his own party to suspend the gas tax, 18.3 cents a gallon, as a way to drive down prices
Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm said she thinks President Biden will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman to talk gas prices when he visits Saudi Arabia next month.
'I think he will meet with the Saudi crown prince,' Granholm told CNN's State of the Union, after President Biden said days ago that he would not meet with the crown prince.
Granholm says a meeting will take place, but her insistence is only the latest in a line of mixed messaging on the trip.
'I'm not going to meet with MBS. I'm going to an international meeting and he's going to be part of it,' Biden told reporters Friday at the White House before he left to spend the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Biden will be in Jeddah in mid-July to attend a meeting of the GCC plus 3 summit to talk oil production. While there he will meet with the aging Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The White House has noted that Salman's team, which includes his son and heir MBS, will simply be a part of that meeting. MBS will also be a part of the GCC plus 3 summit, which Saudi chairs.
But the kingdom said that MBS and Biden would be meeting unilaterally.
'The crown prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to address regional and global challenges,' the country said in a statement when Biden's trip was announced.
On Tuesday when it was announced that he would travel to Saudi Arabia, the world's second largest holder of petroleum reserves, a White House official told reporters in a briefing call that Biden did in fact plan to meet with the crown prince.
But the White House has downplayed the meeting with MBS, saying the president will meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and that the crown prince will be a part of that.
'Yes, we can expect the president to see the Crown Prince as well,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, in its statement on the trip, said Biden and MBS would meet.
'The crown prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to address regional and global challenges,' the statement said.
But White House deputy spokesman John Kirby said Biden will meet with the King and the meeting with MBS will be a part of that.
‘He's going to meet bilaterally with King Salman and King Salman’s team and the crown prince is part of that team. I suspect he'll see the crown prince in the context of the meetings. He's grateful for the king's willingness to host the GCC plus three. He's looking forward to, again, a wide scope of discussions,' he said on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
The trip comes as gas prices in the United States continue to surge, a key domestic issue Biden hopes to tackle going into November's midterm election.
Over the weekend, the national average for a gallon of gas reached $5 for the first time in American history.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil, and as a key member of OPEC plays a large part in setting oil prices worldwide.
And in another move to address record gas prices, a federal gas tax holiday is 'certainly worth considering' to lower gas prices, Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday morning.
Average gas prices breached $5 per gallon last week for the first time ever last and have dipped slightly to $4.98 as of Sunday.
Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether a gas tax holiday was a potential short-term solution, Yellen replied: 'President Biden wants to do anything he possibly can to help consumers. Gas prices have risen a great deal and it's clearly burdening households.'
'He stands ready to work with Congress and that's an idea that certainly worth considering,' she added.
Yellen again said that inflation, with prices up 8.6 percent this May over last, is 'unacceptably high' but said that she did not believe a recession was 'inevitable.'
Three quarters of CEOs across the globe are expecting a global recession within the next 12 to 18 months due to Russia's brutal war in Ukraine, a Conference Board survey warned last week.
Federal Chair Jerome Powell has warned the American economy will see even more damage before inflation comes down from its 41-year-high.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by 0.75 per cent - their biggest increase since 1994 - in an attempt to rein in inflation. Powell had warned last month that more hikes are likely in the near future.
'Inflation has obviously surprised to the upside over the past year, and further surprises could be in store. We therefore will need to be nimble in responding to incoming data,' he said.
'We think that the public generally sees us as as very likely to be successful in getting inflation down to 2 percent. and that's critical,' he noted. 'It will take some time to get inflation back down but we will do that.'
Biden has come under increasing pressure even among his own party to suspend the federal gas tax, 18.3 cents a gallon, as a way to drive down prices.
But Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer wrote a letter to President Biden this week warning him against taking such a step, according to The Hill.
The Oregon lawmaker said that doing so would create a 'massive gap' in the infrastructure and transportation budget. Suspending the federal gas tax through the rest of the fiscal year would leave the Highway Transportation fund $20 billion short, according to budget modeling from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm expressed hesitancy about suspending the gas tax on CNN Sunday. 'Part of the challenge with the gas tax, of course, is that it funds the roads. And we just did a big infrastructure bill to help fund the roads.'
Some states, including Maryland, Georgia and New York, have already moved to suspend their gas tax. Some suggest that Biden calling on the other states to do the same would also be an effective move from the White House to help ease pressure on Americans' pocketbooks.
Biden's economic team has discussed a gas tax holiday and is expected to meet for more talks on the matter later this week.
Biden has already tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which had a negligible effect on gas prices. Last week, he wrote a later to the CEOS of the nation's major fuel companies threatening to use his 'emergency power' if they do not take action to lower prices.
In a letter to Exxon obtained by Axios, Biden wrote that the difference 'of more than 15% at the pump is the result of the historically high profit margins for refining oil into gasoline, diesel and other refined products.'
'Since the beginning of the year, refiners' margins for refining gasoline and diesel have tripled, and are currently at their highest levels ever recorded,' he added in the letter to Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods.
'Government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that every region of this country is appropriately supplied,' he wrote. 'Already, I have invoked emergency powers to execute the largest Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in history, expand access to E15 (gasoline with 15% ethanol), and authorize the use of the Defense Production Act to provide reliable inputs into energy production.'
(History.com) July 5, 1921 - After Judge Hugo Friend denies a motion to quash the indictments against the major league baseball players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, a trial begins with jury selection. The Chicago White Sox players, including stars Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, and Eddie Cicotte, subsequently became known as the "Black Sox" after the scandal was revealed.
The White Sox, who were heavily favored at the start of the World Series, had been seriously underpaid and mistreated by owner Charles Comiskey. The conspiracy to fix the games was most likely initiated by first baseman Chick Gindil and small-time gambler Josep Sullivan. Later, New York gambler Arnold Rothstein reluctantly endorsed it. The schemers used the team's discontent to their advantage: Through intermediaries, Rothstein offered relatively small sums of money for the players to lose some of the games intentionally. The scandal came to light when the gamblers did not pay the players as promised, thinking that they had no recourse. But when the players openly complained, the story became public and authorities were forced to prosecute them.
The trial against the players was actually just for show. After a tacit agreement whereby the players assented not to denigrate major league baseball or Comiskey in return for an acquittal, the signed confessions from some of the players mysteriously disappeared from police custody.
The jury acquitted all of the accused players and then celebrated with them at a nearby restaurant. But the height of the hypocrisy surrounding the entire matter came when Shoeless Joe was forced to sue Comiskey for unpaid salary. During this trial, Comiskey's lawyers suddenly produced the confessions that had disappeared during the criminal trial, with no explanation as to how they had been obtained.
Arnold Rothstein never even faced trial, and Comiskey hoped to go back to business as usual. However, all did not end well for everyone. Other baseball owners, hoping to remove any hint that the games were illegitimate, hired Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to be the new commissioner of baseball. Landis was a hard-liner (and also a racist—he prevented blacks from playing in the major leagues during his reign into the 1940s) who then permanently barred the implicated Black Sox players from baseball.
Landis' decision has come under considerable criticism for its unfairness to a few of the players. Buck Weaver, by all accounts, had refused to take any money offered by the gamblers. He was purportedly banned from baseball for refusing to turn his teammates in. And although Shoeless Joe Jackson probably accepted some money, his statistics show that he never truly participated in throwing the games—he had the best batting average of either team in the series.
Jhansi ki Rani
Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (1828 – 1858), was the queen of the princely state of Jhansi in North India (now in Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh). She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_of_Jhansi
Statues of Lakshmibai are seen in many places of India, which show her and her son tied to her back.
The Rani of Jhansi was also depicted in a variety of colonial stereotypes in Victorian novels, which often represented her as a bloodthirsty queen responsible for the massacre of British colonials or even scandalously as a promiscuous woman in relationships with British men. These depictions had more to do with a colonial desire to denigrate the "rebel queen" than with truth. On the other side, Indian representations in novels, poetry, and film tend towards an uncomplicated valorization of Rani Lakshmibai as an individual solely devoted to the cause of Indian independence.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_of_Jhansi#Cultural_depictions_...
2015in02-2agr_1192cut1f
Girls are initiated individually in the village, rather than in groups in the forest. They are relieved of all physical labor, pampered, groomed, and sung to, for up to three months. They are not subjected to any physical operation. Like the boys, however, they are instructed in productive skills, cultural history, and social etiquette. Much of the instructional focus and symbolic expression is on augmenting reproductive capacity and on child-rearing competency. For most of nkanga, a girl remains isolated from males in a small seclusion hut, where she is regularly visited by elder women from the surrounding area. A young attendant is assigned to each girl, to be her constant companion and to attend to her every need. A girl is to remain silent throughout nkanga, speaking only in whispers to her attendant should the need arise. Nkanga, likewise, begins and ends with a well-attended public ceremony characterized by great revelry, most notably the singing of ribald songs extolling female virtues while denigrating male vices. Symbolically, nkanga possesses many levels of meaning. It expresses the unity of females in opposition to males, while simultaneously asserting the unity of all Lunda under matrilineal principles of social organization. Like mukanda, nkanga also symbolizes the death of one's former self, and rebirth as a new social persona. Gifts, primarily clothing and cash, are heaped on the new adult member of society.
Read more: www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Lunda-Religion-an...
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
Located next door, the former manse of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church also offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road.
Built in 1903, the same year as St Andrew's Church under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, the manse is a typical piece of Edwardian architecture, built in the Mock Tudor style so popular thanks to the Arts and Crafts Movement in England. The manse is dominated by two matching gables featuring ornate Arts and Crafts fretwork. The rough cast barge boards beneath the eaves are very Arts and Crafts inspired, as is the choice of red brick to build the manse with. The plain glass windows are also in keeping with the Arts and Crafts Movement, as is the simple fretwork of the central balcony and enclosed portico. The stained glass windows on the red brick ground floor are obviously more Art Nouveau influenced.
Arts and Crafts houses challenged the formality of the mid and high Victorian styles that preceded it, and were often designed with uniquely angular floor plans. This house's floor plan appears to be more traditional than others, with a central hallway off which the principal rooms were located.
With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church sold the manse, and today it has a new lease of life as a boutique bed and breakfast. The owners, capitalising on the fantastic views the manse has to offer, have converted the upper storey's rooms into luxury suites including the "Green Room" and the "Blue Room".
George Meikle Kemp. Architect and designer of the Scott Monument on Princes Street.
Painting by by William Bonnar RSA, from the National Galleries of Scotland. Bonnar is often credited with overseeing the completion of the Scott Monument following the untimely death of his brother-in-law, George Meikle Kemp who had designed the monument and was overseeing its completion when he died in an accident. If true, William would be an odd choice, as one of the few non-architects in the family.
George Meikle Kemp (25 May 1795—6 March 1844) was a self-taught Scottish architect who designed and built the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, Scotland. The poorly educated son of a shepherd, but showing talents in woodworking as a child, he was apprenticed to a joiner and millwright.
Kemp travelled and worked as a millwright for several years and, exercising a childhood fascination for Gothic architecture, took the opportunity to study many of the most important Gothic buildings in Scotland, England and France. As a result, he was said to have had a first-hand knowledge of Gothic architecture which was unrivalled in Scotland.
Settling in Edinburgh, Kemp won a competition to design a monument to the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott. He supervised its erection on Princes Street in the city but at the age of 48, before the building was finished, he drowned in the city's Union Canal. On its completion the monument was acclaimed and, despite his lack of formal training and with only the one building known to be for certain to his design, Kemp came to be revered as an architect.
Disablingly shy and socially awkward, while able to memorise exact details of buildings and measure precise distances by eye, Kemp is considered to have been high on the autism spectrum.
George Meikle Kemp was the second of six children of James Kemp, a shepherd, and his wife Jean Mowbray. He was born on 25 May 1795 at Hillriggs Farm above the town of Biggar in Lanarkshire. When Kemp was a child his father moved from farm to farm, wherever he could find work. The family were frequently on poor relief. Kemp was known to have lived at Newlanddale from just after his birth, moving to Ingraston in 1802 and Nine Mile Burn in 1805 before his father settled at Moorfoot, southeast of Penicuik, in 1807 when Kemp was 12.
Kemp's education, at parochial schools, was brief before he became a herdboy at the age of 11. At around this age, while on an errand, he visited the 15th century Rosslyn Chapel. The building awakened in Kemp an almost fanatical appreciation of Gothic architecture.
Kemp's artistic talents had already shown themselves in his childhood when he learned to carve local bog oak into trinkets and quaichs finished with intricate ornament. He also built miniature watermills in the hillside burns. His parents recognised his talents and they realised that he would benefit from proper training.
At the age of 14 Kemp was enrolled as an apprentice joiner with millwright and carpenter Andrew Noble at Moy Hall, Redscarhead, north of Peebles. He stayed there for four years, receiving a wide education. When at Moy Hall he repaired agricultural machinery and saw foundations laid and buildings erected. He taught himself or be a highly-skilled wood modeller. He also read ancient literature, wrote poetry and songs and played the violin.
Kemp developed a life-long habit of walking long distances. On Saturday nights he would walk for four hours from Redscarhead to visit his parents at Moorfoot, walking back late on Sundays. In adulthood he sometimes walked enormous distances so as to find work or study medieval architecture.
Kemp's apprenticeship was completed on 20 June 1813 when he was 18. He started work as a millwright in Galashiels. His job entailed not just the upkeep of mills but also the repair of the various wooden agricultural and industrial machines being invented at this time. His expertise in this work and his willingness to labour as a journeyman was to provide his sometimes meagre income for the next 14 years.
At the same time Kemp began an intense study of Gothic architecture. His job required much local travel and he sketched and studied the monastic churches of the area, such as Melrose, Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso. The abbey at Melrose was of great and lasting significance to Kemp; he returned to it repeatedly, and it became his most important inspiration for the Scott Monument. Kemp's method of looking at the architecture of a building was first to make a general study of it, then to carry out a few detailed sketches of decorative features. He did not draw plans there and then, but did so later, being able quickly to commit to memory the layout of a building and its intricacies.
In 1815 Kemp moved to John Cousin's building and joining workshop in Leith where he worked on the many new buildings in Edinburgh and learned the practicalities of converting architectural drawings into three-dimensional structures. In 1817 Kemp went to Manchester for three years, where he repaired machinery in the mills. He studied all the Gothic architecture he could find in the area, even walking for 24 hours to York in order to view the Minster. Kemp moved to Glasgow in 1820 and worked there for another four years while attending evening classes at Anderson's Institution, probably studying practical subjects like draughtsmanship, geometry and science. While in Glasgow he made a detailed study of Glasgow Cathedral and suggested restorations and additions.
In May 1824 Kemp went to London, but he failed to find permanent work there and disliked the city, so he stayed only a little over a year. From London, Kemp made for France in 1825, where he visited and studied more gothic buildings, including the great cathedrals and churches of Abbeville, Beauvais, Amiens, Paris and—in Belgium—Antwerp. At this time Kemp considered emigrating to Canada, but he instead returned to Scotland in 1827 because of the commercial embarrassments of a near relative.
Kemp returned to Edinburgh in 1827 and never left Scotland again. He married Elizabeth Wilson Bonnar (1808-1889) on 11 September 1832. They had four children: two boys and two girls.
Kemp now had a knowledge of Gothic architecture unrivalled in Scotland, and in England surpassed by only three other men. He had ambitions to become an architect, but he had not received specific training, and much of the architectural establishment was opposed to him. He became a Freemason, but the move failed to improve his prospects. While he had produced detailed, but uncommissioned, designs for the theoretical reconstructions of Glasgow Cathedral, Rosslyn Chapel, Trinity College Kirk and Melrose Abbey, he had never designed a new building.
In order to support himself and his wife and children Kemp became a cabinet-maker, but though he made impressively-crafted furniture he was largely unsuccessful. He was skilled at draughtsmanship, and drawings he made of Melrose Abbey were exhibited in the Scottish Academy Exhibition of 1830 and helped to make his name as an architectural illustrator.He was well-paid when the pictures were sold, but they could not support him adequately in the long term.
Kemp's elder brother, Thomas, helped by securing a job for him with the architect William Burn on the Duke of Buccleuch's estate at Bowhill near Selkirk. Burn engaged Kemp as a competent draughtsman, entrusting him with drawings for the new Bowhill House, and in 1831 commissioning him to make a wooden architectural model of Burn's design for a new palace for Buccleuch at Dalkeith. It took Kemp two years to build the model.
By 1834 Kemp's ideas on the restoration of Glasgow Cathedral and his proposed additions to it had been developed still further. He had produced an ambitious set of drawings of plans and elevations and had even built a large wooden model of the cathedral to illustrate his proposals. A local Glasgow committee took up the ideas, but Kemp's lack of practical experience as an architect went against him and the scheme failed to go ahead.
In 1836 a competition was launched to design a monument to the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who had died in 1832, to be erected in Edinburgh. Several architects had already been invited to submit designs, but none was considered adequate. The competition's three best designs would each receive a prize of 50 guineas (equivalent to £5,308 in 2021).
Kemp recognised his opportunity and after working at great speed for five days submitted an entry, using the pseudonym John Morvo, one spelling of the name of the French master mason who had worked on the building of Melrose Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel. Kemp's design was described by his first biographer, Thomas Bonnar, as “a lofty tower or spire of beautiful proportions, with elaborate and carefully drawn details, chiefly taken from Melrose Abbey”.
There were 54 entries in the competition and John Morvo was one of the three winners. It was not known who John Morvo was, but Kemp's identity was eventually discovered and he was awarded one of the prizes. However, many of the competitors were aggrieved that someone unqualified, inexperienced and obscure, and not even an architect, was one of the winners.
Unable to decide amongst the three winners, the competition committee invited further designs. Kemp submitted an improved version of his design under his own name and on 28 March 1838 he was announced as the winner. The organisers praised the "imposing structure ... of beautiful proportions, and in strict conformity with the purity of taste and style of Melrose Abbey, from which the author states it is in all its details derived”.
The site on Princes Street in Edinburgh was agreed. Kemp's approved builder was chosen, and it was decided that the monument was to be built of Binny sandstone. This stone was popular in Edinburgh because it was easily worked and could be transported into the city by the Union Canal, but hindsight has shown it be a poor choice because of its propensity for attracting soot.
Kemp took over as his own clerk of works, which gave him a regular income and the opportunity to supervise closely the building of his design. He was well liked by the craftsmen working for him, because of his humble origins and because he demanded accuracy and precision. In an early instance of his determination that the monument should be built in his own way, he rejected a proposal that wooden piles be driven into the ground to support the structure, insisting the excavation for the foundation should be carried down to the bedrock, 52 feet (16 metres) below the surface of Princes Street. However, Kemp at first lost an argument about the height of the monument; the organising committee blamed insufficient funds for their order to build it lower than originally planned, but Kemp eventually persuaded them to keep the structure's original height and in the end even slightly higher.
The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840, the 69th anniversary of Scott's birth, the day being especially declared a public holiday. Tens of thousands of people were present at the ceremony and Kemp was prominent among those being celebrated. As work progressed over the next four years, Kemp's presence on the building site, visible daily to passers-by on Princes Street, probably contributed to his growing public popularity. With the public interest in the Scott Monument, Kemp was now admired by the moneyed and influential classes in Edinburgh, and several potentially lucrative architectural commissions came his way.
In the early months of 1844 the monument was nearing completion. It was reported that as each step of the building was completed “the public eye detected some new beauty, and waited impatiently for the completion”. As the monument became a startlingly dramatic presence on Princes Street, Kemp was being increasingly fêted.
During the evening of Wednesday 6 March 1844, while walking on his way home from a meeting with his builder, Kemp drowned in the Union Canal. His body was found the following Monday.
The circumstances of Kemp's death have not been explained. Suicide was discounted. Other theories such as drunkenness, an attack by robbers or in fog losing his footing on the towpath were considered, but the cause of his drowning has never been resolved.
Kemp's death brought an outpouring of public grief. Huge crowds came to observe the funeral procession. The workmen who had laboured with him in the building of the monument carried his coffin from his home in Morningside to St Cuthbert's churchyard below Edinburgh Castle, where he was buried.
Kemp died intestate, leaving assets of around £203 (equivalent to £21,599 in 2021), some furniture, and the model of Glasgow Cathedral, which proved unsaleable. A memorial concert to support the Kemp family was held and the Freemasons contributed, but Kemp's wife, Elisabeth, was left with little to live on and had to take work as a seamstress.
After Kemp's death, the construction of the monument continued, under the supervision of his brother-in-law, William Bonnar. It was made more elegant when the height was increased to 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 metres). It was completed in the autumn of 1844, with Kemp's 10-year-old son, Thomas, placing the topmost stone. Vast crowds attended the inauguration ceremony in 1846. Since then the Monument has become an icon of Edinburgh and indeed of Scotland.
An early critic was the author Charles Dickens who, in 1847, wrote: "I am sorry to report the Scott Monument a failure. It is like the spire of a Gothic church taken off and stuck in the ground". Similar denigrators were few and the building was, and still is, almost universally admired.
There is a memorial stain glass window in a private home at Redscarhead, 3 miles north of Peebles.
Please pray for Siagh Krimo, an Algerian Christian who is scheduled to appear in court on September 29 to see if his five year prison sentence for blasphemy will be upheld. Here he is pictured with his wife and nine-month-old child.
Arrested on April 14, 2011 and held for three days for giving a CD about Christianity to his neighbor, Krimo was later summoned to the Criminal Court in the Djamel district of Oran on May 4 and charged with blasphemy. The court tried Krimo based solely on the neighbor’s accusation that Krimo attempted to convert him to Christianity even though the neighbor himself failed to appear at the hearing. The prosecutor, losing his lone witness and the bulk of his evidence, reportedly asked the judge to have Krimo’s sentence reduced to two years imprisonment. However, to the surprise of many, the judge sentenced Krimo beyond the prosecutor’s recommendation, giving him a five year prison sentence, the maximum punishment one can receive for blasphemy.
Krimo’s conviction was in accordance with Article 144 bis 2 of Algeria’s Penal Code which criminalizes acts that “insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means.”
Algerians were shocked that the blasphemy law was applied. “We did not expect this verdict at all,” Krimo’s defense lawyer Mohamed Ben Belkacem told Compass Direct News. “It was a heavy sentence. The judge punished the ‘Christian,’ not the ‘accused.’ There was no proof, and despite that, the court granted him no extenuating circumstances.”
“If they start applying the law like that, it means there is no respect for Christianity and pretty soon all the Christians of Algeria will find themselves in prison,” said Mustapha Krim, the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA).
Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (and one Spicebush Swallowtail) puddling.
Shawnee State Forest, Adams County, Ohio, USA.
April 24, 2015.
I know--not more Tiger Swallowtails!!
Growing up in London, Ontario as I did, I was totally infatuated with butterflies. Seeing just ONE Tiger Swallowtail back then was a rare treat. I might see one waft through my backyard every few days, if I was lucky.
My parents often took us picnicking at Waterworks Park in St. Thomas, Ontario. There, I might see a half-dozen of these beautiful yellow and black creatures on a good day, all soaring well out of reach--never seeming to land. That was as good as it gets, I thought.
I dreamed of seeing a cloud of Tiger Swallowtails dance around a puddle. I never really expected to witness that myself.
As an adult, seeing a large, bright yellow Tiger still evokes memories and dreams of my childhood. I never tire of seeing and photographing these "common" butterflies. No matter how many, or how often I see them, it's always very special to me.
Finding a group of puddling swallowtails is totally irresistible. Seeing an aggregation of this magnitude...is priceless. It's literally a dream come true, so I hope you'll humour me when I post all these images and videos. :-)
I've heard biologists refer to common butterflies as "trash species". I find that so offensive. Rarity does not impact beauty or value, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, the more common a butterfly is, the more successful it is, which should be celebrated, not denigrated. The fact that one species is common only means more people can appreciate it for themselves.
Whenever I'm tempted to think--oh, that's just another _____ , I think to myself, "What if this was so rare, that I only got to see one in my entire lifetime?" What if this is the very last I will ever see this?
I try to see each species anew every time I encounter it. Even the most ubiquitous, alien species, like the Cabbage White is extremely beautiful. The closer you look, the more you appreciate just how exquisite it actually is. It's not just black and white. There are subtleties you only see when you look more closely. Those gray/green eyes. Yellow scales mixed in with grey and white...they're stunning!
I hope these images of nature add peace, pleasure and beauty to your life. It is such a pleasure for me to be able to share nature with you. It brings joy to my life, and I hope these images bring you joy as well.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my Flickr site. :-)
Photographs, Text and Videos ©Jay Cossey, PhotographsFromNature.com (PFN).
All rights reserved. Licensing available.
Contact: Jay@PhotographsFromNature.com
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I met Richard on the right first. I saw his sign when I exited the Gaviidae building with my lunch. A few moments later, I turned to see him standing with a pot of flowers and a blue sign. The Hmong vendor next door at the Farmers Market in downtown Minneapolis had hired him, albeit briefly, to advertise their flowers.
After finishing my lunch, I came around to talk to him. As we chatted, he stopped and asked me, "Why did that woman just take my picture?" I didn't see her, but I think it was someone with a camera phone who snapped a quick pick. I told him that he did make an interesting subject, but, personally, I didn't like to take photos of people without their permission. (I have taken anonymous photos in highly traveled and public areas such as the State Fair, but not close portraits such as this.) He asked if I was a photographer, and I told him that I just did it as a hobby. I offered to take his photo an post it on the Internet in hopes that more people would see his sign: Try Me.
I had to run back to my office to get my Canon, and when I returned there was another woman snapping his photo with her smartphone. I assumed that she had asked his permission because she was very close, but he told her that he really did not want to be on Facebook. I don't blame him. There are too many photos made into memes on Facebook denigrating people.
I told him that I posted to Flickr, which his friend, Rio, recognized. He though maybe someone would see his sign and consider him for employment - something beyond holding flowers at a Farmers Market. He told me that toddlers were particularly drawn to him, which I believe: I watched my own children snuggle into the laps of daycare providers, and Mr. Richard has quite a lap. At 6'3" and more than twice my weight, he has a commanding presence, but up close he seems much more like a Teddy bear. A Teddy bear you don't want to cross, but a Teddy bear nonetheless.
I got Richard's permission for a couple of photos, and Rio jumped in as they are very good buds (Rio has a job, so when I handed them some money for being so agreeable, he passed it all on to Richard). I hope to see them again soon. Richard invited me to do some fishing with them.
Just to pay homage to our own staff (unfortunately, Ms Noor left our team keeping only honoris causa role in the Gisz48workshop). Her myopia grew only 1.5 D, so that she is now empowered with minus 13.5 D glasses ( these ~OO~ here are still from 2008). She refused to be photographed due to her marriage and mother's duties. If she will find her pics in publicly exposed collections of pornophiles, she will immediately follow method of Sandra the Great.
O tlolerance 4 "these kind of men" - she said. "Fun and strong glasses' agitprop yeah, vulgarity and denigration of WWSG never".
CDV by C. D. Fredericks & Co. New York, Habana and Paris
with period pencil inscription "Reverdy Johnson" on front and back.
Reverdy Johnson was a statesman and jurist from Maryland and a native of Annapolis. When not practicing law, he served at various times as a representative in the Maryland legislature and U.S. Congress, as well as Attorney General of the United States. In the election of 1860, Johnson did not support Abraham Lincoln, yet he was strongly opposed to secession on Constitutional grounds. When South Carolina seceded from the United States, Johnson immediately rallied to the support of the Union to denounce the “mischievous heresy of secession.” He denigrated South Carolina as “that gallant state of vast pretensions but little power, though, apparently in her own conceit, able to meet the world in arms.” Johnson added that by seceding from the Union the State was perpetrating treason. In spite of his clear sympathy for the South prior to South Carolina’s secession, for the remainder to the war, Johnson would only refer to the Confederates as “traitors, rebels or insurrectionists.”
Reverdy Johnson, the jurist and southern Unionist from Annapolis believed there was no excuse or justification for secession. The Maryland governor appointed Johnson to be one of five men representing Maryland at the Washington Peace Conference in 1861. In this capacity, he was “conspicuous by his earnest and eloquent efforts to avert the threatening calamities of civil war by measures of conciliation.” He served on a subcommittee organized to report on what they “deem right, necessary and proper to restore harmony and preserve the Union.” Johnson advocated that the Border States should band together to introduce amendments to the Constitution that would safeguard the South against attacks by Northern abolitionists. With this guarantee, he hoped the southern states might be induced to remain peacefully in the Union. Seven proposals were ultimately drafted by the Conference and submitted to Congress for consideration yet they could not get all parties to agree on a rational compromise, leading to the realization that nothing short of war would settle the dispute.
Johnson opposed secession as unconstitutional and he accused as traitors those agitating for the dissolution of the Union. “The offending citizen cannot rely, as a defense, on State power,” he argued. “His responsibility is to the United States alone. His allegiance, his paramount allegiance, out of which the responsibility springs as to all these powers, is to that government alone. His State cannot legally protect him, or stand in his place. Her prior sovereignty as to this was extinguished by the act of the people, in adopting the Constitution, never again to be resumed under that instrument.”
Furthermore, Johnson argued, the Constitution was not “fatally impotent” through lack of coercive power. “It is true, it contains no power to declare war against a State,” he admitted, “but it has every power for the execution of the laws and the enforcement of penalties. It goes against the individual offender. It makes no appeal to the State power to protect it. For that end, it is self-sustaining, it is its own protector. If the State places herself between the United States and the offending citizen and attempts to shield him by force of arms, it is she who declares war upon the United States, not the United States upon her. In such a contingency, the force used by the latter and which they have a clear right to use is not in attack but in defense, not war but the rightful vindication of rights against unjustifiable and illegal assault.”
Whenever possible, Johnson preached loyalty to the Union. He took secessionists head on, stating flat out that the Federal government had given no “cause for resistance to its rightful authority.” Even if Lincoln had predetermined to commit any illegal acts, he stated, the “friends of constitutional rights were numerous enough in Congress” to have stopped him. He accused the Confederates of firing on Fort Sumter “without cause,” and cautioned against joining the “mad and wicked men” who were bound to fail in their ill-conceived attempts to secede.
Johnson’s oratory helped cheer the Unionists and convinced many who were wavering to support the Federal government. He denounced those southern conspirators he felt were responsible for the “cruel and unprovoked rebellion,” saying, “they threw aside the mask, cast aside allegiance, and avowed themselves rebels and traitors” long before any aggression against them took place. He argued that the secessionist notion that State sovereignty was above the Federal government was “not only obscure in principle and impractical in practice,” but it also directly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution that bound all states together in perpetuity. Johnson then insisted that the war brought about by the southern rebellion was not waged to subjugate the South, but to “vindicate the Constitution and laws and maintain the existence of the government.”
All quotes taken from "Life of Reverdy Johnson" by Bernard C. Steiner, 1914, The Norman Remington Co., Baltimore
Dear John:
You Were Always Among Us
by Ricardo Alarcon
Remarks at the dedication of
José Villa's statue of John Lennon
Lennon Park, Havana, Cuba
December 8, 2000
Translated by Cindy O'Hara
Compañeras y compañeros:
Here, in front of the excellent work of art of José Villa, we return to listen to what some said twenty years ago today: "About this man you can believe anything except that he is dead."
Nostalgia does not bring us together. We are not inaugurating a monument to the past, nor a site to commemorate something that disappeared.
This place will always be a testimonial to struggle, a summoning to humanism. It will also be a permanent homage to a generation that wanted to transform the world, and to the rebellious spirit, innovative, of the artist who helped forge that generation and at the same time is one of its most authentic symbols.
The Sixties were much more than a period in a century that is ending. Before anything else, they were an attitude toward life that profoundly affected the culture, the society and politics, and crossed all borders. Their renewing impulse rose up, victorious, overwhelming the decade, but it had been born before that time and has not stopped even up to today.
To these years we turn our sights with the tenderness of first love, with the loyalty that all combatants feel for their earliest and most distant battle. With obstinate antagonism, some still denigrate that time -- those who know that to kill history, they must first tear out its most luminous and hopeful moment.
This is how it is, and has always been in favor of or against "the Sixties."
In that time old imperial colonies fell, people previously ignored arose and their art, their literature, their ideas started to penetrate the opulent nations. The Third World was born and tricontinental solidarity, and some discovered that there, in the rich north, existed another Third World that also awakened.
In the United States, a century after the Civil War, black people fought for the right to be treated as persons and with them marched many white students. In Europe young people repudiated imperial violence and identified themselves with the condemned of the earth. Nobody spoke yet of globalization but, for everyone, the Earth got smaller, the whole world became closer.
Then, finally liberated, appeared Cuba, truly discovered in 1959 as an inseparable part, fully pledged to liberty, life and truth.
Victory seemed immediate. To obtain it, people strove without rest. In mountains and cities, with stones and fists, with weapons snatched from the oppressors and also with speeches, poems and songs. They tried to assault the sky, to overcome, in a single act, all injustice, for blacks and women, for workers and the poor, for the sick, the ignorant, and the marginalized. They believed they could arrive at a horizon of peace between nations and equality among people.
It was more than anything the rebellion of the youth. Before their impetus fell dogmas and fetishes, they broke the molds of pharisee and banality, they turned back the dull mediocrity of an unjust and false society that reduces humanity to merchandise and converts everything into false gold.
Years afterward, and affirming the continuity of the movement, Lennon described it with these words: "The Sixties saw a revolution among the youth . . . a complete revolution in the mode of thinking. The young people took it up first, and the following generation afterwards. The Beatles were a part of the revolution. We were all in that boat in the Sixties. Our generation -- a boat that went to discover the New World. And the Beatles were the lookouts on that boat. We were a part of it."
Tumultuous was the passage from that memorable concert in 1963 when Lennon asked the people who occupied the most expensive theater seats to, instead of applauding, just rattle their jewels, to six Novembers later when he returned the Order of the British Empire in protest of the aggression in Vietnam and the colonialist intervention in Africa. The refusal to perform before an exclusively white public in Florida, in 1966; the refusal to perform in the South Africa of apartheid; the denunciation of racism in the United States when he arrived there to participate in concerts that had been boycotted by the Ku Klux Klan; the calls for peace in the Middle East; the support for young people who deserted the Yankee aggressor army and the constant support to the Vietnamese resistance and the struggle of the Irish people; the incessant search for new forms of expression, without ever abandoning the roots and authentic language of the people; the repudiation of the bourgeois system, its codes and merchandizing mechanisms; the creation of a corporation to combat them and defend artistic liberty, an entity to which was attributed, even, a certain communist inspiration.
The personal contribution of John Lennon stood out singularly and endured beyond the dissolution of the group. His songs form the most complete inventory of the collective struggle of the young people for peace, revolution, popular power, the emancipation of the working class and of women, the rights of indigenous peoples and racial equality as well as the liberation of Angela Davis and John Sinclair and other political prisoners, the denunciation of the massacre at Attica and the situation in North American prisons, in an interminable list. Beyond the music, in interviews and public statements, he openly expressed his identification with the socialist ideal.
Lennon was the object of intense and obstinate persecution by the Yankee authorities. The FBI, the CIA and the Immigration Service, instigated directly by Richard Nixon, the trickiest tenant the White House has ever had, spied on him and harassed him and strove to expel him from the United States. In spite of what their laws say and the countless measures carried out during a quarter of a century, these agencies still maintain in secret the documents proving the tenacious harassment they unleashed against him. The little that they have revealed shows that in just one year, between 1971 and 1972, the secret informants of their spies accumulated 300 pages and a file that weighs 26 pounds. With no other weapons than his talent and the solidarity of lots of North Americans, he was forced to confront for several years the powerful Empire led by the most sordid and arrogant political machine. This chapter will remain in history as an example of moral force and the force of ideas, and from it Lennon emerged as a paradigm of the entirely free and creative intellectual, precisely engaged with his time.
Dear John.
It was more that a few who said, twenty years ago, that that 8th of December was the end of an era. Many feared it among the millions who offered you ten minutes of silence and the multitude that on the 14th congregated in Central Park in New York to express a pain that time does not placate.
It was Yoko who then advised: "the message should not end." And little Sean, knew how to express the greater truth: He imagined you bigger, after death, "because now you are everywhere."
You were always among us. Now, in addition, we offer you this bench where you can rest and this park to receive your companeros and friends.
Your message could not disappear because love had, and still has, many battles to fight. Because you had the privilege to hear it in millions of voices that became yours and continued raising it up like a hymn.
Wasn't it a yellow submarine that surfaced that afternoon in 1966 in the port of New York and marched at the front of thousands of young people who condemned the war? How many hundreds of thousands demanded that peace be given a chance, and were in solidarity with the people of Vietnam, there in Washington, in front of the monument, that unforgettable November 15th in 1969? On that day, didn't your art reach its highest realization? How many times did it not multiply from Berkeley to New England and from one continent to another, that generation that believed that love could prevail over war? John, I am sure that you remember the martyrs of Kent State University who wanted to follow you, to also be working class heroes. It is known that it was your verses that were their only shield in front of the bullets of Nixon.
There were more, many more, that met to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Imagine, in 1991, when others said that the story had already ended. Some believe that you appeared in a window of the Dakota. All of us, you too, were happy. We saw, astonished, the faces of old comrades, confounded to be among countless young people who had not even been born when you, over there in Liverpool, intoned ballads of love with proletarian words and we here defied the monster.
Our boat will continue sailing. Nothing will stop it. It is driven by "a wind that never dies." They will call us dreamers but our ranks will grow. We will defend the vanquished dream and struggle to make real all dreams. Neither storms nor pirates will hold us back. We will sail on until we reach the new world that we will know how to build.
We will meet again, tonight, at the concert. We will go on together, always.
Ricardo Alarcon, currently the President of the Cuban Parliament, spent many years in New York City as Cuba's Ambassador to the United Nations.
Cindy O'Hara, the translator, maintains the Cuban Cost of Living website, which offers a fascinating look at the real Cuba, with text by Julián Gutierrez and Cindy's photographs. Cindy can be reached via e-mail at bella_isla@yahoo.com.
Alarcon's speech was originally published in Spanish by Juventud Rebelde.
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
Grid denigrated, adapted, upgraded
In this city and for about 100 years the grid-plan served its citizens on foot well. Now with about 80% of all trips made by car, truck or bus, the plan has been denigrated. At this cross intersection of three streets, none is two-way and the main north-south arterial with does not continue beyond the bridge, even though its extension exists. When driving, people have to learn and relearn that the grid has stopped being one, even though the map shows it unaltered: denigrated, confusing and frustrating and, at times risky. For those on foot and bike, all remains the same, apart from the increased risk of navigating crash-prone intersections and non-segregated paths. The lane segregation upgrade of the common grid emerged on this arterial on the year the photo was taken. (Most of 20 or so signs were edited out for clarity)
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
NO, Mr. Siegel did NOT buy the El Cortez, he was part owner of it AND the Flamingo was not "planned" at this time AND it was NOT the first Strip resort! At $3,600 per medallion, you'd think they would do a little research!
My good friend, Lynn Zook, wrote the following article in her blog at www.classiclasvegas.com
It's well worth reading!
"Why Wrong History is Bad History
The Fremont East Entertainment District spent considerable money to install historical markers in the sidewalks of Fremont Street from Fifth to Eighth Street. These markers form a historical time line of events in Downtown Las Vegas history. It was hoped that these markers would spur interest in our history as people walk up and down Fremont Street.
We think it was a good idea. With the coming PostModern Museum at Stewart and Third, the Visitors Center on Fremont Street and Union Park, we believe that there will be renewed interest not only in the history of Fremont Street but in the history of Las Vegas.
There's just one problem with the markers, some of the history is wrong.
Now this being Las Vegas, where myth trumps most of our real history, some believe it isn't that big of a deal. But to those of us who believe that the real history of not only Fremont Street but of Las Vegas is much more interesting and much more fascinating than the myths, we believe it is a big deal.
Eighteen bronze medallions were placed in the sidewalks in the Fremont East Entertainment District. City officials spent $3,600 for each medallion so it is not likely that they will replace the ones with the faulty historical information.
"If people are getting their history from markers in the sidewalk ..." said Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby.
Well Doug, people tend to think that if a city goes to the effort to chronicle its history either in plaques, sidewalk medallions or signage, that the history they are reading is accurate. Otherwise, what's the point of spending the money? What's the point of continuing to perpetrate the misinformation? Doesn't anyone in the city government care about the real history of our town?
There are plenty of historians here in town they could have reached out to, thus ensuring that the history on the plaques would be interesting and accurate. Instead, it sounds like those tasked with this mission, got the majority of the "interesting and pithy" historical facts from "intense internet research". One of the reasons we started our Classic Las Vegas Project and Blog was because we were appalled at the amount of historical misinformation on the Web about Las Vegas.
Mayor Goodman, when first told, had this to say: "I'm going to see what we can do, and I'm going to find out who's responsible for this," he said, adding he would consider tearing up the markers.
The next day however, Goodman had retreated from that statement and issued this one instead:
"It's a fun thing," he said of the markers. "I'm hoping people on the Fremont East are half-lit, and could care less what the markers say."
The fallacy with this thinking is that only drunk people visit Fremont Street. I'm going to go out on limb and say I'm fairly certain sober people visit Fremont Street regularly.
What about all those folks who will be living in Union Park? Won't they be taking their out-of-town guests and families for walks down Fremont Street (it will be their closest historical neighborhood after all) and they are not all going to liquored up beyond recognition.
What about those who tour the PostModern Mob Museum and then want to explore Fremont Street to see some of the historical sites they read about in the Museum? How many people visit Museums when they are "half-lit"?
Cultural tourism is going to be important on Fremont Street because Fremont Street is one of the few remaining links to our past where people can visit, read and imagine what life was like here in the 20th Century. By disregarding cultural tourism in his own backyard, Mayor Goodman discounts one of the main reasons for the renaissance that he believes so passionately is coming to Fremont Street.
If the City of Las Vegas is successful with plans for Union Park, the PostModern, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and other grand plans, then the demographic of those who visit Fremont Street will grow beyond the current demographic of tourists looking for a deal, locals who love the El Cortez and the homeless and addicted who still populate too much of the Street.
If you are the main cheerleader for better days are coming to Fremont Street because of gentrification and all your efforts to help spur that renaissance then why do you discount and disregard the cultural tourism that will be a main factor of interest? Isn't the whole idea of a cultural renaissance coming to Fremont Street is because Fremont Street can not survive without it?
Regarding his earlier pledge to find out who is responsible for the errors, the mayor joked: "That's when I thought there was one (a medallion) about me. I really could care less."
I know that Mayor Goodman likes to shoot from the lip but the message he is sending not only to the people who live here but to those that visit, is that our history is not important and is not anything we should care about.
Our history is worth caring about and worth discovering because Las Vegas did not spring fully formed from a fever dream of Bugsy Siegel or Benny Binion.
"Is it necessary to debunk a legend and the mystique that continues to draw 40 million people annually to this part of the desert?" asked Scott Adams, director of the Office of Business Development, in a written statement.
Yes, Scott it is because this isn't a John Ford movie, it's our history. Do people visit Boston or New York City or San Francisco or Los Angeles or Chicago to soak up the wrong history? No, the people who go on historical tours of cities do so because they are interested in the real history.
Las Vegas is here because the men and women who lived here and refused to give up on the town they called home despite the many hard times they endured. When their faith was finally rewarded during the War years and the Post War era, they continued to believe in their town and continued to help it grow. This history is much more important than the myths that have sprung up over the years.
For City Officials and the Mayor to denigrate their efforts and their accomplishments because "half-lit" tourists could care less does us all a disservice.
At some point, Las Vegas needs to grow beyond the stereotype of catering to the drunken hordes who only come here because what happens here, stays here.
If Las Vegas wants to be a place of culture, art and history, it is time we all grew up and realize that by denigrating our own history and the accomplishments of the men and women who made this metropolis possible, we continue to perpetrate the myth that nothing of historical significance happened here."
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
Located at number 19 Camp Street in the former Gold Rush town of Daylesford, the former St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church offers wonderful views as it looks down from the high side of the road, across the township, now known for its natural mineral springs and day spas.
Built in 1903 under the benefaction of Jessie Leggatt, who laid the foundation stone on the 9th of December that year, St Andrew’s is not unlike the Castlemaine Presbyterian Church in Lyttleton Street. Built of red brick with sandstone detailing, St Andrew’s has been built in a Picturesque Gothic style with adaptations of both Florentine and Pauduan Gothic. It features a splendid slate roof, and has been built in a symmetrical style, with two hexagonal towers to either side of the enclosed loggia entrance. The taller of the towers on the left hand side serves also as the church’s belfry and has a crenellated parapet and a copper covered spire. The gable over the front doors is pierced with a traceried window with two mullions in early English decorated style. The small gables of the transepts are pierced with single mullioned windows of the same period. The interior is filled with magnificent original features including stained glass windows, ceiling roses, cathedral ceilings, lovely old floorboards and an extremely rare church organ.
In the intervening years since 1903, Daylesford has gone through many changes, going from a town populated by citizens seeking to make their fortunes in gold, to those come to seek rest and relaxation in this now resort town in central Victoria. With parish numbers dwindling, the Presbyterian Church has seen fit to close the doors of St Andrew’s, opting for a smaller and less formal presence in the town’s community centre. At the time of photographing, St Andrew’s is up for sale, and has had council approval for the construction of apartments and town houses in the rear of the property and the adaptation of the church itself into a single or multiple dwellings. With an asking price just short of one million dollars, to date there has been very little interest in the property, and so St Andrew’s falls slowly, but surely into decay as neglect sinks in. The grass grows high around its bluestone foundations; graffiti denigrates Jessie Leggatt’s memorial plaque in the entranceway; the painted archway above the gates rots, save for the faded letters that spell out St Andrew’s in weathered greyish white flecks, and the old weatherboard Sunday School sags into the briars. A large holly tree, planted when the church was first built still sits at the side, waiting, like the church, for a new lease of life like other former churches in the area.
Capture in France (Dépt. Nièvre) on 2013 VII 30
Lg. 8 mm
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Det.: H. Dumas (Identification confirmed by Juuso Paappanen)
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By using the attached photos, we can happen at the same determination.
The Genus Atanycolus contains 10 European species.
The description of A. lateropus (Thomson 1892) is untraceable. Taxapad does not know it, the quotation by FE is doubtful
Thus let us see the 9 species which stay.
Main differences between our capture and the 8 species which follow :
* A. denigrator (L. 1758) : Head mainly or entirely black
... p.179/180 in ia800303.us.archive.org/19/items/keystoinsectsofe34bykh/k...
* A. fulviceps (Kriech. 1898) : Thorax ventrally yellow-reddish
... p.246-247 in ia800206.us.archive.org/35/items/entomologischena241898be...
* A. genalis (Thomson 1892) : Head mainly or entirely black
... p.179 in ia800303.us.archive.org/19/items/keystoinsectsofe34bykh/k...
* A. neessi (Marshall 1901) : Head mainly or entirely black
... p.179 in ia800303.us.archive.org/19/items/keystoinsectsofe34bykh/k...
* A. petiolaris (Thomson 1892) : Tergite 1 black
... p.117-118 in ia902606.us.archive.org/14/items/speciesdeshymn52andr/spe...
* A. sculpturatus (Thomson 1892) [sub-species of A. ivanovi] : Head mainly or entirely black
... p.178 in ia800303.us.archive.org/19/items/keystoinsectsofe34bykh/k...
* A. tunetensis Marshall 1901 : Tergite 3 sculptured with 2 Carinae
... p.372 in ia600201.us.archive.org/2/items/bulletindumusumn05musu/bu...
* A. wagneri Fahringer 1925 : In particular, the Thorax is not black
... footnotes p.99-100 in www.zobodat.at/pdf/ANNA_38_0098-0106.pdf
The 9th species A. initiator corresponds well to the description given p. 179 in ia800303.us.archive.org/19/items/keystoinsectsofe34bykh/k... , in particular the Head is mainly red
of Where the Determination
History of the Vienna State Opera
132 years house on the Ring
(you can see pictures by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1901
About three and a half centuries, until the early Baroque period, the tradition of Viennese opera goes back. Emperor Franz Joseph I decreed in December 1857 to tear down the old city walls and fortifications around the city center of Vienna and to lay out a wide boulevard with new buildings for culture and politics, the ring road.
The two Court Theatres (a speech and a musical theater) should find a new place on the ring. For the Imperial and Royal Court Opera House was chosen a prominent place in the immediate area of the former Kärntnertortheatre. This by the public that much loved opera theater was demolished in 1709 due to its confinement .
State Opera (K.K. Court Opera) 1903
The new opera house was built by the Viennese architect August Sicardsburg, who designed the basic plan, and Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior decoration. But other eminent artists had been involved: just think of Moritz von Schwind, who painted the frescoes in the foyer and the famous "Magic Flute", cycle of frescoes in the loggia. The two architects did not experience the opening of "their" opera house any more. The sensitive van der Null committed suicide since the Wiener (Viennes people) denigrated the new house as lacking in style, his friend Sicardsburg succumbed a little later to a stroke.
1869 - 1955
On 25 May 1869 the House was with Mozart's DON JUAN in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the highest building owner, and Empress Elisabeth opened.
However, with the artistic charisma under the first directors Franz von Dingelstedt, Johann Herbeck, Franz Jauner and Wilhelm Jahn grew the popularity of the building. A first highlight experienced the Vienna Opera under the director Gustav Mahler, renewing the outdated performance system from scratch, strengthening precision and ensemble spirit and also using significant visual artists (including Alfred Roller) for the shaping of the new stage aesthetic.
In the ten-year-period of his Directorate (1897-1907) continued Gustav Mahler, this very day, in the concert halls of the world as the most important member of a Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the 20th century omnipresent, the intensive fostering of Wagner, Mozart's operas and Beethoven's Fidelio were redesigned, the with Richard Strauss initiated connection to Verdi was held upright. Austrian composers were promoted (Hugo Wolf), the Court Opera was opened to European modernism.
Image: Emperor Franz Joseph I and Emperor Wilhelm II during a gala performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900 resulting from the "Book of the Emperor", edited by Max Herzig.
Technique: Lithography
from www.aeiou.at
In addition to the classics of the Italian repertoire were and are especially Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss (himself 1919-1924 director of the House), the musical protection gods of the Vienna State Opera.
staatsoper_81.jpg (28138 bytes)
The modern also always had its place: the twenties and thirties witnessed the Vienna premieres of Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Cardillac Hindemith, Korngold MIRACLE OF Héliane and Berg's Wozzeck (under President Clemens Krauss). This tradition was interrupted with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, yes, after the devastating bomb hits, on 12 March 1945 the house on the ring largely devastating, the care of the art form itself was doubtful.
The Viennese, who had preserved a lively cultural life during the war, were deeply shocked to see the symbol of the Austrian musical life in ruins.
But the spirit of the opera was not destroyed. On 1 May 1945 "State Opera Volksoper" was opened with a brilliant performance of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, on 6 October 1945 was followed by the re-opening of the hastily restored Theater an der Wien with Beethoven's Fidelio. Thus there were two venues for the next ten years, while the actual main building was rebuilt at great expense.
staatsoper_84.jpg (14707 bytes)
Visitors flock to the opera. Reopening on 5th November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
As early as 24 May 1945 the State Secretary of Public Works, Julius Raab, had announced the reconstruction of the Vienna State Opera, which should be placed in the hands of the Austrian architects Erich Boltenstern and Otto Prossinger. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the Schwindfoyer (evanescence foyer) had been spared from the bombs - with a new auditorium and modernized technology, the Vienna State Opera was brilliant with Beethoven's Fidelio under Karl Böhm on 5 November 1955 reopened. The opening ceremonies were broadcasted from Austrian television and in the whole world at the same time as a sign of life of the resurrected 2nd Republic understood.
staatsoper_83.jpg (33866 bytes)
State ceremony to the reopening on 5 November 1955. On the far right under the box of the Federal President a television camera of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is visible which broadcasted the event. Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / ÖGZ / Cermak
1955 to 1992
The dictum that the Vienna State Opera survives every director, is attributed to Egon Seefehlner which himself for many years run the businessses of the house. And yet marked he and the thirty-one other directors of the Vienna State Opera since 1869, great musicians or musical administrators, in their own way the profile of this world-famous institution:
staatsoper_82.jpg (13379 bytes)
Performance for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera on 5 November, 1955.
Image from © www.staatsvertrag.at / bildarchiv austria / ÖGZ / Hilscher
After the Second World War there were first the conductors directors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan - the latter insisted on the title "Artistic Director" and opened the Ensemble house to the international singer market, had the opera rehearsed in original language and oriented his plans to "co-productions" with foreign opera houses, however, which were only realized after his term.
It followed as directors Egon Hilbert, Heinrich Reif-Gintl, Rudolf Gamsjäger and the mentioned Egon Seefehlner, who was appointed for a second time at the top of the house after the departure of his successor in office Lorin Maazel. Claus Helmut Drese (State Opera director from 1986 to 1991) stood with Claudio Abbado an internationally renowned music director by his side. At the beginning of the 90s the forrmer star baritone Eberhard Waechter, at that time director of the Volksoper (People's Opera), charged with the direction. Only seven months have been granted to him as a director.
The era Ioan Holender (1992 to 2010)
After Waechter's tragic death in March 1992 took over general secretary Ioan Holender, a former singer (baritone) and owner of a singer Agency, the office to continue the tradition of perhaps the most important opera institution in the world over the millennium to 2010.
His play plan design relies besides an extremely wide repertoire with the columns Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss mainly on premieres. Mention may be made of Bellini's I Puritani (1993 /94), Massenet Hérodiade (1994 /95), Verdi's Jerusalem and Britten's PETER GRIMES (1995 /96), Verdi's Stiffelio and Enescu OEDIPE (1996 /97), Rossini's GUILLAUME TELL and Lehár's operetta THE MERRY WIDOW (1998/99) and Schoenberg's THE JAKOBSLEITER, Hiller's PETER PAN, Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX, Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Nabucco (2000/ 01), Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Janácek's Jenufa (2001/02), Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, Donizetti's La Favorite, Hiller's PINOCCHIO, Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (2002/ 03), Verdi's FALSTAFF, Wagner's FLYING DUTCHMAN and PARSIFAL, Strauss's Daphne (2003/ 04) and the world premiere of the original French version of Verdi's DON CARLOS (2003/ 04). A particular success of the recent past, the rediscovery of Fromental Halévy's La Juive Grand (1999 ) must be considered. Two premières concerned 1995 Adriana Hölszky's THE WALLS (co-production with the Vienna Festival at the Theater an der Wien ) and Alfred Schnittke's Gesualdo. On 15 June 2002 also THE GIANT OF STONE FIELD (Music: Peter Turrini: Friedrich Cerha libretto) premiered with great success, another commissioned work of the Vienna State Opera.
State Opera - © Oliver Thomann - FOTOLIA
Image : Vienna State Opera
In recent years it came up, in each case on 18 May, the anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, to concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna State Opera. These were under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (who since the 2002 /03 season the Vienna State Opera director Holender as music director of the house stands to the side) (1995), Carlo Maria Giulini (1996), Riccardo Muti (1997), Lorin Maazel (1998), Zubin Mehta (1999), Giuseppe Sinopoli (2000 ), Riccardo Muti (2001) and again Seiji Ozawa (2004).
Furthermore, was on 16 June, 2002 for the first time by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) a CONCERT FOR AUSTRIA organized. More CONCERTS FOR AUSTRIA followed on 26 October 2003 (Zubin Mehta) and 26 October 2004 (under Valery Gergiev).
At the Theater an der Wien Mozart's Così fan tutte experienced a triumphant new production conducted by Riccardo Muti. This Mozart cycle under Muti continued with DON GIOVANNI and 2001 LE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1999.
more...
Directors since 1869
Franz von Dingelstedt 07/01/1867 - 18/12/1870
Opening 5/25/1869
Johann von Herbeck 12/19/1870 - 30/04/1875
Franz von Jauner 01/05/1875 - 18/06/1880
Director College:
Karl Mayerhofer, Gustav Walter and
Emil Scaria 19.06.1880 - 31.12.1880
Wilhelm Jahn 01.01.1881 - 10.14.1897
Gustav Mahler 10/15/1897 - 31/12/1907
Felix Weingartner 01.01.1908 - 28.02.1911
Hans Gregor 01.03.1911 - 14.11.1918
Franz Schalk 15.11.1918 - 08.15.1919
Richard Strauss/Franz Schalk 16/08/1919 - 31/10/1924
Franz Schalk 1/11/1924 - 8/31/1929
Clemens Krauss 01/09/1929 - 15/12/1934
Felix Weingartner, 01.01.1935 - 08.31.1936
Erwin Kerber 09/01/1936 - 08/31/1940
Henry K. Strohm 09.01.1940 - 19.04.1941
Walter Thomas 02.01.1941 - 19.04.1941
Ernst August Schneider 04/20/1941 - 02/28/1943
Karl Böhm 03.01.1943 - 30.04.1945
Alfred Jerger,
State Opera in the Volksoper 01.05.1945 - 14.06.1945
Franz Salmhofer,
State Opera in the Theater an der Wien, 18.06.1945 - 31.08.1955
Karl Böhm 01.09.1954 - 31.08.1956
Herbert von Karajan 01.09.1956 - 31.03.1962
Herbert von Karajan/Walter Erich Schäfer 01.04.1962 - 08.06.1963
Herbert von Karajan/Egon Hilbert 09.06.1963 - 31.08.1964
Egon Hilbert 01.09.1964 - 18.01.1968
Heinrich Reif- Gintl 19.01.1968 - 31.08.1972
Rudolf Gamsjager 01.09.1972 - 31.08.1976
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1976 - 31.08.1982
Lorin Maazel 01.09.1982 - 31.08.1984
Egon Seefehlner 01.09.1984 - 31.08.1986
Dr. Claus Helmut Drese 01.09.1986 - 31.08.1991
Eberhard Waechter 01.09.1991 - 29.03.1992
Ioan Holender 01.04.1992 - 31.08.2010
Dominique Meyer since 01/09/2010
Opera world premieres
Abbreviations:
Od = the Odeon
Ron = Ronacher
TW = the Theater an der Wien
1875 10:03. Goldmark The Queen of Sheba
1877 04:10. Brüller Der Landfriede
1880 26.05. Riedel The Accolade
15.12. Brüller Bianca
1883 04.01. Leschetitzky The first fold
21.02. Bachrich Muzzedin
1884 26.03. Bachrich Heini of Styria
1886 30.03. Hellmesberger jun. Fata Morgana
4:10 . Hager Marffa
19.11. Goldmark Merlin
1887 03:04. Harold pepper
1889 27.03. Fox The Bride King
4:10. Smareglia The vassal of Szigeth
1891 19:02. Mader Refugees
1892 01.01. J. Strauss Ritter Pasman
16.02. Massenet Werther
19.11. Bulk Signor Formica
1894 20.01. Heuberger Miriam
1896 21.03. Goldmark The Cricket on the Hearth
1899 17:01. The Goldmark prisoners of war
1900 22:01. Zemlinsky It was once
1902 28.02. Forster The dot mon
1904 18:02. Wolf The Corregidor
1908 02.01. Goldmark The Winter's Tale
1910 12:04. The musician Bittner
18.05. Goldmark Götz von Berlichingen
1911 09:11. Bittner The mountain lake
1912 16.03. Oberleithner Aphrodite
1913 15.03. Schreker The game works and the Princess
1914 01.04. Schmidt Notre Dame
1916 04:10. R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna version)
1917 23.11. Zaiszek-Blankenau Ferdinand and Luise
1919 10.10. R. Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
1920 13.05. Weingartner Champion Andrea/The Village School
1921 09.04. The Bittner Kohlhaymerin
1924 20.09. Beethoven/R. Strauss The Ruins of Athens
1925 24.02. Kienzl Sanctissimum
27.03. Frank The image of the Madonna
1931 20.06. Wellesz The Bacchae
1932 10:11. Heger The beggar Nameless
1934 20.01. Lehár Giuditta
08.12. Bittner The violet
1935 26.12. Salmhofer lady in dream
1937 06.02. Wenzl - Traun rock the atonement
17.04. Frank The strange woman
18.11. Weinberger Wallenstein
1938 09.03. Salmhofer Ivan Tarasenko
1939 02:02. Will King ballad
1941 04:04. Wagner Régeny Johanna Balk
1956 17.06. Martin The Storm
1971 23.05. The visit of an old lady
1976 17.12. A Love and Intrigue
1989 25.11. The blind Furrer (OD)
1990 06:12. Krenek last dance at St. Stephen's (Ron)
1995 20.05. Hölszky The walls (TW)
26.05. Schnittke Gesualdo
2002 15.06. Cerha Der Riese vom Steinfeld
2007 15:04 Naske The Omama in the apple tree
2010 28.02. Reimann Medea
2010 10:05. Eröd dots and Anton