Abraxas (ballet)
''Abraxas'' is a ballet in five scenes with both music and a libretto by Werner Egk that is based on the Faust legend. The original 1948 choreography for the ballet was created by Marcel Luipart, but elicited controversy and was banned after five performances by state censors. A subsequent version by choreographer Janine Charrat became a standard part of the German dance repertory, and the work also was choreographed successfully by Tom Schilling. History ''Abraxas'' was premiered by the Bavarian State Opera at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Germany on 6 June 1948 in a production using designs by Wolfgang Znamenacek. The ballet was controversial at its premiere due to its subject matter which some criticized as "obscene" and others as "demonic". It was banned by state censors after just five performances. However, the ballet was later re-choreographed by French dancer Janine Charrat in 1949, and her version of the ballet became a standard work in the German dance repertory. A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with Glossary of ballet, its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational ballet technique, techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways. A ''ballet'' as a unified work of art, work comprises the choreography (dance), choreography and music for a ballet production. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are usually performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets are often performed in simple costumes and without elaborate sets or scenery ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Libretto
A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass (liturgy), Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. The Italian language, Italian word (, ) is the diminutive of the word ''wiktionary:libro#Italian, libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language cognates, equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15- to 40-page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Werner Egk
Werner Egk (, 17 May 1901 – 10 July 1983), born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer. Early career He was born in the Swabian town of Auchsesheim, today part of Donauwörth, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to Augsburg when Egk was six. He studied at a Benedictine Gymnasium (Germany), Gymnasium (academic high school) and entered the municipal Music school, conservatory. Egk demonstrated talents as a composer, graphic artist, and writer, and he moved first to Frankfurt to improve his piano talents and then, in 1921, to Munich. There, working as a theater composer and playing in the Orchestra pit, pit, he married Elizabeth Karl, a violinist. He derived his pen name "Egk" from his wife's initials: ''Elisabeth, Karl'' (Elisabeth, née Karl). His only son, Titus, was born in 1924. Egk moved to Berlin in 1928, meeting composers Arnold Schoenberg and Hanns Eisler. He intended to become a cinema composer and accompanied silent films. When radio broadcasting ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Faust
Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a Crossroads (folklore), crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for Works based on Faust, many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "''Faustian''" imply sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain. The Faust of early books – as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them – is irrevocably damned because he prefers human knowledge over divine knowledge: "He laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called doctor of theology, but preferred to be styled doctor of medicine". Chapbooks containing v ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Encyclopaedia Britannica
An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically by article name or by thematic categories, or else are hyperlinked and searchable. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionary, dictionaries. Generally speaking, encyclopedia articles focus on ''factual information'' concerning the subject named in the article's title; this is unlike dictionary entries, which focus on Linguistics, linguistic information about words, such as their etymology, meaning, pronunciation, use, and grammar, grammatical forms.Béjoint, Henri (2000)''Modern Lexicography'', pp. 30–31. Oxford University Press. Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years and have evolved considerably during that time as regards language (written in a major inte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Janine Charrat
Janine Charrat (24 July 1924 – 29 August 2017) was a French dancer and choreographer. She was considered to be a child prodigy and appeared in ''Ballerina'' at the age of 12. She went on to choreograph over 50 ballets. Her 1949 choreography for composer Werner Egk's ballet ''Abraxas'' became a standard work in the German dance repertory. In 1961, she had a serious accident. During a television show, a candle set fire to her tutu and the ensuing burns covered 70% of her body. After receiving life-saving treatment at the Cochin hospital, she stayed at the Thermes de Saint Gervais Mont-Blanc baths. She managed to recover and returned to dancing in 1964. She was an officer of the Legion of Honour. Filmography * 1938: '' La Mort du cygne'', by Jean Benoît-Lévy * 1952: ''La Jeune Fille aux allumettes'', by Jean Benoît-Lévy * 1959: ''Les Algues'', by Louis Bertrand Castelli * 1962: ''Schéhérazade'' by Pierre Gaspard-Huit, with Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Kari ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 400 years, OUP has focused primarily on the publication of pedagogical ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera () is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bavarian State Orchestra. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Electress consort Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, when Giovanni Battista Maccioni's ''L'arpa festante'' was performed in the court theatre. In 1753, the Residence Theatre ( Cuvilliés Theatre) was opened as a major stage. While opera performances were also held in the Prinzregententheater (completed in 1901), the company's home base is the Nationaltheater München on Max-Joseph-Platz. In 1875, the Munich Opera Festival took place for the first time. Sir Peter Jonas became the general manager in 1993, the first British general manager of any major German-speaking opera house. In 2008, Nikolaus Bachler became Intendant (general manager) of the opera company, and Kirill Petrenko became Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) in 2013. In 20 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prinzregententheater
The Prinzregententheater, or, as it was called in its first decades, the Prinz-Regenten-Theater, in English the Prince Regent Theatre, is a concert hall and opera house on Prinzregentenplatz in the Bavarian capital of Munich, Germany. Building and History Initiated by Ernst von Possart, the theatre was built in the Prinzregentenstrasse as a festival hall for the operas of Richard Wagner near an area where a similar project of King Ludwig II had failed some decades before. Named after Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, the building was designed by Max Littmann and opened 21 August 1901 with a production of ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' by Richard Wagner. Like the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the auditorium was designed to Wagner’s specifications, but an amphitheater has replaced the loges. After the destruction of the Nationaltheater during World War II, the Prinzregententheater housed the Bavarian State Opera from 1944 to 1963 even though it also suffered damage dur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Semperoper
The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the Theaterplatz (Dresden), Theaterplatz near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany. The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in 1878. The opera house has a long history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. History The first opera house at the location of today's Semperoper was built by the architect Gottfried Semper. It opened on 13 April 1841 with an opera by Carl Maria von Weber. The building style itself is debated among many, as it has features that appear in three styles: early Renaissance and Baroque, with Corinthian style pillars typical o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Komische Oper Berlin
The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces operas, operettas and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, near Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, along with the Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin (Stage and Costume Design), has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation. History of the building The theatre was built between 1891 and 1892 by architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer for a private society. It first opened on 24 September 1892 as ''"Theater Unter den Linden"'' with Adolf Ferron's operetta ''Daphne'' and Gaul and Haßreiter's ballet ''Die Welt in Bild und Tanz''. The theatre was primarily a vehicle for operetta, but was also used for various other events and balls. Around 800 people could be seated in the stalls, and the balconies and various en-suite dinner rooms housed about a further 1,700 seats. Its dir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of ''Lieder'' (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being Censorship in Germany, banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris. Heine's early works, such as ''Letters from Berlin'' (1826) and ''Germany. A Winter's Tale'' (1828), gained widespread attention for their poetic expression, profound exploration of love, and satirical commentary on social phenomena. As a member of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |