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Chess (musical)
''Chess'' is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA, lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, and book by Rice. The story involves a politically driven, Cold War-era chess tournament between two grandmasters, one American and the other Soviet, and their fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any real individuals, the character of the American grandmaster (named Freddie Trumper in the stage version) was loosely based on Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. ''Chess'' allegorically reflected the Cold War tensions present in the 1980s. The musical has been referred to as a metaphor for the whole Cold War, with the insinuation being made that the Cold War is itself a manipulative game. Released and staged at the height of the strong anti-communist agenda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Andersson
Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamma Mia! (musical), Mamma Mia!'' For the Mamma Mia! (film), 2008 film version of ''Mamma Mia!'' and its 2018 sequel, ''Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'', he worked also as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benny Anderssons orkester. Early life Göran Bror Benny Andersson was born 16 December 1946 in the Vasastan, Stockholm, Vasastan district of Stockholm to civil engineer Gösta Andersson (1912–1973) and his wife Laila (1920–1971). His sister Eva-Lis Andersson followed in 1948. Andersson's musical interest was spurred by his father and grandfather (Efraim), who played the accordion. At the age of six, they bought him one, too, and introduced him to Swedish folk music, traditional music, and schlager. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evita (musical)
''Evita'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Politics of Argentina, Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and death. The musical began as a Evita (album), rock opera concept album released in 1976. Its success led to productions in London's West End theatre, West End in 1978, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical, and on Broadway theatre, Broadway a year later, where it was the first British musical to receive the Tony Award for Best Musical. This has been followed by a string of professional tours and worldwide productions and numerous cast albums, as well as a Evita (1996 film), 1996 film adaptation. The musical was revived in London's West End in 2006, 2014, 2017, and 2025, and on Broadway in 2012. Synopsis Act I On 26 July 1952, a crowd in a Buenos Aires, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ambrosian Singers
The Ambrosian Singers are an English choral group based in London. History They were founded after World War II in England. One of their co-founders was Denis Stevens (1922–2004), a British musicologist and viola player who joined the BBC Music Department in 1949 and developed programs of Renaissance and early Baroque music. Stevens conducted them from 1956 to 1960. The other was John McCarthy (1919–2009), a professional tenor soloist. McCarthy continued to conduct them until the late 1980s. During the 1960s the choir called on the services of between 600 and 700 singers. They organised and created the Ambrosian Singers as a small professional chorus in 1951, initially to sing polyphonic choruses for renaissance and medieval pieces for ''The History of Music'' series. However, their repertoire greatly expanded afterwards. Depending on the style to be sung and on the occasion, they may go by the names "the Ambrosian Light Opera Chorus", "the Ambrosian Chorus", the "Ambrosian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polar Studios
Polar Studios was a recording studio in Stockholm, Sweden, which operated from 1978 through 2004. The studio was formed by ABBA musicians Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and the band's manager Stig Anderson, owner of the Polar Music recording label. The studio was used to record the last three ABBA albums, ''Voulez-Vous'', '' Super Trouper'' and '' The Visitors'', as well as their two non-LP singles " The Day Before You Came" and " Under Attack". Following the demise of ABBA, all members of the group continued using the studio to record their solo projects. In addition to ABBA, a range of other well-known artists recorded at Polar. Among the albums to have been recorded at the studio are Led Zeppelin's '' In Through the Out Door'' and Genesis' ''Duke''. History The studio was created in 1978 at a disused cinema theatre on the street floor (not ground floor, due to a bridge and streets separated by four floors) of a building known as ''Sportpalatset'' (Palace of Sports) in cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Album Musical
An album musical is a type of recording that sounds like an original cast album but is created specifically for the recording medium and is a complete entertainment product in itself, rather than just promoting or reflecting an existing or planned musical theatre production or revue. Although there has been no one term consistently used to describe this type of recording, the genre predates the use of the term "concept album" by several decades, dating back to the era of 78-rpm records with such original works as Gordon Jenkins' '' Manhattan Tower'' (1946, expanded in 1956), ''The Letter'', (1959) starring Judy Garland, and Stan Freberg's '' Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years'' (1961). On most contemporary concept albums, the performers or bands sing as themselves, whereas on an album musical the performers are playing characters in a story. Some original album musicals have later been expanded into staged musicals, including ''You're ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnetha Fältskog
Agneta Åse "Agnetha" Fältskog (; born 5 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and a former member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 Agnetha Fältskog (album), self-titled debut album. She rose to international stardom in the 1970s as a member of ABBA, which is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music acts in history. After the unofficial break-up of ABBA in December 1982, she had success later in the decade as a solo artist with three albums and a leading role in a movie. She became reclusive in the 1990s, avoiding outside publicity and residing on the Stockholm County island of Ekerö. Fältskog stopped recording music for 16 years until she released the album ''My Colouring Book'' in 2004, followed in 2013 by ''A (Agnetha Fältskog album), A'', her highest UK charting solo album to date. ABBA has since reformed, and Fältskog has resumed her previous role with the group. Life and career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Our Last Summer
"Our Last Summer" is a song by ABBA from the group's seventh studio album, '' Super Trouper''. It was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Ulvaeus found lyrical inspiration for the song in a memory of a romance he had when he was a teenager. During a visit to Paris, he met a girl from his home-town who was working as an au pair. "We had not been romantically involved in Sweden," he recalled, "but Paris tends to have that effect on people, and so it was with the two of us. She certainly took me to see the Quartier Latin, the Champs-Élysées and the Eiffel Tower, but to be honest I don't really remember much of Paris. I mostly remember her!" Recording for the track began on 4 June 1980 in Polar Music Studios. The song features Anni-Frid Lyngstad on lead vocals and her time in the studio during the recording is captured in a series of photographs taken by Anders Hanser. In the background of the bridge to this song, during Lasse Wellander's guitar solo, part of the ''Ches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK (formerly News International), which is owned by News Corp. Times Newspapers also publishes ''The Times''. The two papers, founded separately and independently, have been under the same ownership since 1966. They were bought by News International in 1981. In March 2020, ''The Sunday Times'' had a circulation of 647,622, exceeding that of its main rivals, '' The Sunday Telegraph'' and '' The Observer'', combined. While some other national newspapers moved to a tabloid format in the early 2000s, ''The Sunday Times'' retained the larger broadsheet format and has said that it intends to continue to do so. As of December 2019, it sold 75% more copies than its sister paper, ''The Times'', which is published from Monday to Saturday. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cats (musical)
''Cats'' is a sung-through musical theater, musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is based on the 1939 poetry collection ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicle cats, Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2024, ''Cats'' remains the List of the longest-running Broadway shows, fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the List of the longest-running West End shows, eighth-longest-running West End show. Lloyd Webber began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977, and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then recruited director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to turn the songs into a complete musical. ''Cats'' opened to positive reviews at the New London Theatre in the West End theatre, West End in 1981 and then to mixed revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in World Chess Championship 1966, 1966; defeated Petrosian in World Chess Championship 1969, 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in World Chess Championship 1972, 1972. Spassky won the Soviet Chess Championship twice outright (1961 USSR Chess Championship (29th), 1961, 1973 USSR Chess Championship, 1973), and twice lost in playoffs (1956 USSR Chess Championship, 1956, 1963 USSR Chess Championship, 1963), after tying for first place during the event proper. He was a Candidates Tournament, World Chess Championship candidate on seven occasions (Candidates Tournament 1956, 1956, Candidates Matches 1965, 1965, Candidates Matches 1968, 1968, Candidates Matches 1974, 1974, Candidates Matches 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Chess Championship 1972
The World Chess Championship 1972 was a match for the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The match took place in the Laugardalshöll in Reykjavík, Iceland, and has been dubbed the Match of the Century. Fischer became the first US-born player to win the world title. Fischer's win also ended, for a short time, 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Championship. Fischer won the right to challenge for the World Championship after some dominant performances during the qualification cycle, in which he defeated some of the world's leading players by unprecedented margins. The first game was played on July11, 1972. The 21st and last game, begun on August31, was after 40 moves, with Spassky resigning the next day without resuming play. Fischer won the match 12½–8½, becoming the eleventh undisputed world champion. The match was covered in the United States on ABC's Wide Worl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of Variation (music), variations, two film scores, and Requiem (Lloyd Webber), a Latin Requiem Mass. Several of Lloyd Webber's songs have been widely recorded and widely successful outside their parent musicals, such as "Memory (Cats song), Memory" from ''Cats (musical), Cats'', "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Opera'', "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from ''Evita (musical), Evita'', and "Any Dream Will Do (song), Any Dream Will Do" from ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''. In 2001, ''The New York Times'' referred to him as "the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
