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Wexford Opera House opened to the public in September 2008 and the first opera of the festival of that year was performed a month later. It opened on the site of the Theatre Royal which had existed on this site since 1832 and had been the home of the Wexford Festival Opera since its inception in 1951.
The ethos of the festival has been to stage relatively unknown or forgotten operas. The festival initially focused on Italian opera, particularly the works of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, and the young Verdi, but has since widened its scope to other lesser-known works. Three operas are staged each year, providing a platform for young international singers to make their mark; Mirella Freni, Janet Baker, Geraint Evans, and Sergei Leiferkus are among those to have performed at this festival. The festival also features recitals, performances, and fringe events.
The Palais Garnier (English: Garnier Palace) is a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. The theatre was also often referred to as the Opéra Garnier, the Opéra de Paris or simply the Opéra. It was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new 2,700-seat house, the Opéra Bastille, with elaborate facilities for set and production changes, opened at the Place de la Bastille. The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet.
The Palais Garnier is "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica." This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank." This opinion is far from unanimous however: the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as "a lying art" and contended that the "Garnier movement is a décor of the grave".
The Palais Garnier also houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum). Although the Library-Museum is no longer managed by the Opera and is part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the museum is included in unaccompanied tours of the Palais Garnier.
EOS 5D Mark IV+Tokina opera 50mm F1.4 FF
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These photos are not too good as the light was going as it was getting towards dusk.Opéra de Nice, France, day 8 of our Cosmos tour, October 7, 2012.
We had two nights here in Nice but we stayed just out of Nice near the Airport. I rested on the first day as my leg was very sore so didn't do the day tour. So had to wait until my friend come back then we went into Nice.
Info on the Opéra de Nice: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ra_de_Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of about 1 million on an area of 721 km2 (278 sq mi). Located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille.
The city is called Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. Nice is the capital of the Alpes Maritimes département and the second biggest city of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille.
The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.[3] Through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength. For years it was a dominion of Savoy, then became part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to Piedmont-Sardinia until its reannexation by France in 1860.
The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winter there. The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais (‘the Walkway of the English') owes its name to the earliest visitors to the resort. For decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light has been of particular appeal to some of Western culture's most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France after the two main Parisian ones. It is the historical capital city of the County of Nice (Comté de Nice).
Taken From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice
The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, is an opera buffa in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. Wikipedia
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte
Language: Italian
Arias: Non più andrai, Se vuol ballare
Characters: Figaro, Conde de Almaviva, Don Curzio,
Wikipedia
somewhere near Colchester
On our way to London this week to see Tosca at Covent Garden. Angela Gheorghiu, due to sing the title role, pulled out at the last moment (as so often!) but she was more than competently replaced by the great Amanda Echalaz, and Vittorio Grigòlo was superb as Cavaradossi.
All in all the best Tosca either of us had ever seen.
It started raining shortly after I arrived. I was delighted because it resulted in extra reflexions of light.
We are going on a tour of the Opera House today.
St Peter and St Mary, Stowmarket, Suffolk
The crisp, simple 1994 spire of this church is a landmark on the busy A14, and, along with those of neighbouring Woolpit and Finborough, creates an illusion of some more distant part of the country when seen through the autumn mist from the hills on the far side of the Gipping valley. Suffolk doesn't have many spires, and this, perhaps, is the most elegant. Coming closer, the surprise of a substantial country market town gathers to surround the church, and St Peter and St Mary sits right beside the busy high street of the sixth largest urban area in Suffolk.
The north-west corner sticks out into the main crossroads, and there are three curious windows at the west end of the north aisle that face onto this junction. You wonder if there might have been a reason for this. But the church is cut off from the main shopping street by a barrier of buildings, its attractive tower peeping up behind a row of substantial 19th century banks. If you go up the passage to the church, you find that the graveyard has become a small, quiet park, with buildings on all sides. Most of the graves have been removed, or reset nearer to the church, apart from a few low tombchests, covered in moss and ivy.
St Peter and St Mary is clearly not a possible medieval dedication. Churches were dedicated according to feast days in the ordo of the Catholic Church, and there is no feast shared by St Peter and the Blessed Virgin. The original dedication was probably to St Peter and St Paul. The modern dedication is a result of the dedications of two churches being combined. At Domesday in 1086, the church on this site (of which nothing survives) was the church for the vill of Thorney, which included Stowupland, Gipping, Old Newton and Dagworth within its boundaries. In the south east corner of this grassed area there once stood another church, a smaller one dedicated to a Marian feast, probably the Assumption. This was the town church for Stowmarket. The modern dedication takes on board that of both churches, then, for the town church was demolished in the 16th century, during the trauma of the Reformation.
This is a large church, very much in the Decorated style of the 14th century. The spire has St Peter's keys in gold upon it, which we will come back to in a moment. It replaced an 18th century spire, which was taken down as unsafe in 1975. There is a processional way at the base of the tower, as at Ipswich St Lawrence and nearby Combs. There is a massive 15th century south porch, not as pretty as the one on the other side, but bearing the marks of continual use over the centuries.
After the grandness of the exterior, stepping inside used to be a bit of a disappointment. Stowmarket was a significant industrial town in the 19th century, and had a great tradition of protestant ministry. Because of this, very little that was medieval survived the Victorian restoration, which was by Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. It is interesting to compare this interior with that of Ipswich St Mary le Tower, another civic church reconstructed by Phipson. There, he was creating a liturgical space for the new Anglo-catholic theology of the Oxford Movement; here, the intention was more for a preaching space, although the usual Victorian sentimentalisms couldn't be escaped. Because of the tradition of this church, it might be that there wasn't much medieval for Phipson to destroy. Mortlock decries the restoration because of the loss of its fine 18th century furnishings, which were well documented.
However, in recent years there have been energetic efforts to transform the once-dour interior. The dull Victorian quarries in the south windows have all been removed, and the four most easterly windows have been filled with glass by the York-based stained glass artist Helen Whittaker. They depict the Four Seasons as four figures surrounded by a swirl of seasonal images, and verses from the Psalms. I thought they were very appropriate for the low church tradition of Stowmarket. They at once traditional and innovative, much braver than so much of the typically mundane glass which has been installed in English churches since the Millennium.
I'm told that the plan is for the quarries on the north side to also go, hopefully replaced by something equally as beautiful as the Four Seasons. The rather depressing massed ranks of Victorian benches are also destined to be removed, to be replaced by modern wooden chairs. This should create a delicious, light-filled nave which will be a pleasure to sit in.
The main family associated with this church were the Tyrrells. They lived at Gipping, but were buried here, in the east end of the north aisle, which was their chantry chapel. There are some excellent Tyrrell memorials of the 17th and 18th centuries, all worth a second look. Perhaps the grandest is the great tomb cover set in the eastern bay of the arcade, with its carvings facing into the nave; the sweetest is the brass to 8 year old Ann Tyrell, who died in 1638.There are benches at Gipping, decorated with the Tyrrell knot, that are said to come from this church originally.
Across the church, the south aisle chapel now contains the war memorial. Phipson kitted this out as a Lady Chapel, but his parclose screen was removed in 1921. Some of the benches at the east end of the nave have medieval bench ends. The rather curious pulpit is built using a frame of parts of the old roodscreen. Up in the chancel, Munro Cautley's ponderous altar looks on forbiddingly. The glass above isn't great, but in any case never had a chance. Stowmarket was a solidly reforming parish from the start.
Most of the internal devotional art was destroyed in the 1540s, and a hundred years later that man Dowsing came that way to deal with what had been missed. On Monday February 5th 1644, on the last day of his first tour of Suffolk, he arrived at about lunchtime. We gave order to break down about 70 superstitious pictures, his journal records, and to levell the chancel, to Mr Manning, that promised it; and to take down 2 crosses, one on the steeple, and the other on the church as it is called; and took off an inscription, of 'ora pro anima'.
William Manning was the churchwarden; in the recent edition of Dowsing's Journal, Dr John Blatchly records that he was a leading citizen of the town. In addition, the Vicar at the time was Thomas Young, arch-protestant tutor of the young John Milton; Young, unsurprisingly, kept his incumbency into the Commonwealth period until his death in 1655. The 70 superstitious pictures would have been in stained glass, and it seems about the right number to have filled the east window. Thus, a great medieval treasure was lost to us.
The chancel needed levelling because, in common with many churches, it had been raised above the level of the nave under the influence of Archbishop Laud, a decade earlier. Laud's intention was to recreate a sacramental space in the medieval manner, at a time when most churches were celebrating communion around a table in the nave. A few months after Dowsing's visit, Laud would go to the scaffold.
The crosses were outside, of course, and Dowsing frequently took issue with them. Interestingly, David Davy's sketch of the church in 1842, before Phipson got his hands on the building, shows the stumps of two crosses on the gable ends of the nave and chancel. Maybe Dowsing is a little confused - he wrote his journal up at the end of a busy day, during which he visited seven other churches. But the churchwarden's accounts go further, and state that, in fact, it was crossed keys, the symbol of St Peter, that were taken down from the spire. As John Blatchly says, Dowsing would be displeased to see that they are now back there.
The inscription ora pro anima means 'pray for the soul of', and was often found in pre-Reformation inscriptions. It is a sign of Catholic theology, and as such was anathema to the Puritans. Dowsing, a cautious, conservative man, usually only removed the part of the inscription that offended, rather than the whole thing, and rarely removed figure brasses. All the former brasses are missing from under the large tomb canopy, but they might just as easily have been stolen in later years. Curiously though, part of the inscription on the 1641 memorial to William and Dorothy Tyrrell has been obliterated. Now, this is a full century after the Reformation, and the paint on it can hardly have been dry by the time Dowsing visited, but the Tyrrells were notorious recusants, and that would have offended Dowsing greatly.
Perhaps there was something in the inscription that did too. Puritans have long memories, and the part of the Tyrrells in trying to re-establish English Catholicism in the 1550s would not have been forgotten.
Curiously, Dowsing did not visit Gipping itself, where the Tyrrells lived, and had their private chapel. Perhaps they were too powerful, but this doesn't seem right; the glass there was also attacked. Maybe Dowsing simply knew it had already been dealt with. Any glass that survived Dowsing here would, in any case, not have survived the great Stowmarket factory explosion of 11th August 1871, which destroyed so much of the town, and killed so many.
Stowmarket isn't particularly a tourist town, though it has a lot of character, and its church is well worth a visit.
A view of the Opera House from Circular Quay. The Opera Bar with the white umbrellas is also visible and probably one of my favourite bars in Sydney providing full views of the Harbour Bridge and North Sydney.
It is really hard to believe I've spent 23 years of my life in Sydney without appreciating its beauty until now. I think it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world but London still remains home for me, at least in the foreseeable future.
HDR, 9 exposures, using Photomatix Pro.
A great suggestion by David Storey - I have added a custom privacy mode Face Gesture - to turn it on and off.
Opera glasses were made as early as 1730 in the form of a telescope. Binocular opera glasses did not begin to appear until the early 19th century. It was around this time that they began to gain popularity, and by the 1850s they were a fashion accessory that opera and theatre goers had to have. These Mother of Pearl glasses were made around the late 19th century by Colmont in Paris. Colmont was a company that produced military and civilian optical eye-wear during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Vlad Troitsky before looks on press-show of opera "Koriolan“ at “KPI” Art and Culture Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine
The Central City Opera House located in the National Historic Landmark District in Central City, Colorado, USA was constructed in 1878 by Welsh and Cornish miners.
In 1877, the citizens of Central City organized a fundraising drive for a grand new opera house befitting the gold mining town's reputation as "the richest square mile on earth." Many of the town's residents were Welsh and Cornish miners, who brought with them a rich tradition of music from their homeland. While locals pitched in during construction, the organizers also retained some of the best building professionals in the area. Denver architect Robert S. Roeschlaub provided an elegant, understated design for the stone structure, and San Francisco artist John C. Massman added elaborate trompe l'oeil murals to the interior. A creek flows through a flume under the Opera House.
The early glory years following the 1878 grand opening were short-lived. Musical and theatrical events appeared on its stage; Buffalo Bill performed here as well as P. T. Barnum’s circus. When the Central City mines were played out, the Opera House fell into disrepair.
In 1929 a dedicated band of Denver preservationists and music lovers formed the Central City Opera House Association and went to work to turn the spotlights back on. A volunteer-driven effort led by Ida Kruse McFarlane, Edna Chappell and Anne Evans led to an extensive restoration of the Opera House in 1932. That summer, actress Lillian Gish opened the newly restored opera house with Camille, launching an annual tradition of summer festivals in Central City that continues to this day.
It appears in the credits of the 1975 cowboy film, Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox as a site used in a scene where actress Goldie Hawn performs a dance routine.
Maintenance of the building again declined after the 1950s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the entire structure from top to below bottom (the foundation and the flume) has been restored, rebuilt, renewed or revamped, including replacement of the 1920-era lighting relic by a computerized lighting system.
In 1999 the wooden chairs were replaced with plush new theater seating. A memorial to the original chairs is on the grounds of the house. Continuing a tradition from 1932, many of the chairs commemorate Colorado pioneers, notable performers, and opera supporters. Illustrious names like Horace Tabor, Buffalo Bill Cody, Beverly Sills, and Lillian Gish are carved on the backs of the seats.
The opera house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. (from Wikipedia)
The Oslo Opera House
Rolleiflex 2.8E3, TMX, EI 100, Caffenol-C-MRS 14min @ 20C
Regular C-C-M with Reduced Sodium carbonate content, 40g/l vs 54g/l normally.
Inaugurée en 1903, la salle de l’Opéra de Vichy, l’un des plus beaux Opéras d’Europe, pur joyau de style Art nouveau, unique en France, se prête à toutes les manifestations lyriques et chorégraphiques. Elle présente dans une harmonie or et ivoire, une merveilleuse décoration de masques, de lyres, de visages et de fleurs.
Cette décoration est l’œuvre du sculpteur d’ornements Pierre Seguin, du ferronnier Emile Robert et du peintre Léon Rudnicki.
Cette salle pouvant accueillir 1400 personnes est l’œuvre de Charles Lecoeur et Lucien Woog.