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Louise Gunning
Louise Gunning (1878 – 1960) was an American soprano popular on Broadway in Edwardian musical comedy and comic opera from the late 1890s to the eve of the First World War. She was perhaps best remembered as Princess Stephanie of Balaria in the 1911 Broadway production of ''The Balkan Princess''. During the war years Gunning began to close out her career singing on the vaudeville circuit. Early life and career Gunning was born on April 1, 1878, in Boston, Massachusetts and later lived in Brooklyn, New York, where her father was a Baptist minister. Her mother, Mary Gunning, was a choir director who, besides her daughter, also trained the silent film actress Lucille Lee Stewart. Gunning made her first stage appearances as a chorus singer in a Frank Daniels show and later as a solo act singing Scottish ballads. In 1897 (around the time of her parents' divorce) she appeared in a New York production of '' The Circus Girl'', followed in rapid succession by performances in the Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) and the fourth largest in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing. The library has branches in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island and affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the New York metropolitan area. The city's other two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are not served by the New York Public Library system, but rather by their respective borough library systems: the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of circulating libraries. The New York Public Library also has four research libraries, which are also open to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astor Theatre, New York City
The Astor Theatre was located at 1537 Broadway, at West 45th Street in Times Square in New York City. It opened September 21, 1906, with Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and continued to operate as a Broadway theatre until 1925. From 1925 until it closed in 1972, it was a first-run movie theater. History The Astor was first managed by Lincoln A. Wagenhals and Collin Kemper, then by George M. Cohan and Sam Harris, and later by the Shubert Organization. The theater was designed by architect George W. Keister. Among the plays that debuted at the Astor were Cohan's ''Seven Keys to Baldpate'' (1913) and '' Why Marry?'' (1917) by Jesse Lynch Williams, the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1925, Loew's Theatres bought the Astor and converted it into a movie house in order to have a Times Square " road show" showcase for first-run films from the MGM film studio. '' The Big Parade'' (1925) was the first film shown at the Astor where it ran for a continu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Jones (Edward German)
''Tom Jones'' is a comic opera in three acts by Edward German founded upon Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', with a libretto by Robert Courtneidge and Alexander M. Thompson and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor. After a run in Manchester, England, the opera opened in London at the Apollo Theatre on 17 April 1907 for an initial run of 110 performances. It starred Ruth Vincent as Sophia and Hayden Coffin as Tom Jones. The piece also had a provincial tour and a popular Broadway run in 1907. It then disappeared from the professional repertory but eventually became very popular with amateur groups. Background and productions The impresario Robert Courtneidge, noting the bicentennial of Fielding's birth in 1907, decided to adapt Fielding's novel as a comic opera. He commissioned Thompson and Taylor to collaborate on the libretto and German to write the music. The eroticism of the novel was reduced for Edwardian audiences. The influences of German's pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Véronique (operetta)
''Véronique'' is an opéra comique in three acts with music by André Messager and words by Georges Duval (journalist), Georges Duval and Albert Vanloo. The opera, set in 1840 Paris, depicts a dashing but irresponsible aristocrat with complicated romantic affairs, eventually paired with the resourceful heroine. ''Véronique'' is Messager’s most enduring operatic work. After its successful premiere in Paris in 1898, it was produced across continental Europe, Britain, the US and Australia. It remains part of the operatic repertoire in France. Background and first production After a fallow period in the mid-1890s, Messager had an international success with ''Les p'tites Michu'' (1897). In 1898 his improved fortunes continued when he was appointed musical director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. His work as a conductor left him little time for composition, and ''Véronique'' was his last stage work for seven years, despite its being his most successful work thus far.Wagstaff, Joh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
