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Edwin Ransford
Edwin Ransford (13 March 1805 – 22 November 1876) was an English opera singer and composer. Biography Ransford was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, near Moreton in the Marsh, Gloucestershire, on 13 March 1805. He first appeared on the stage as an extra in the opening chorus at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, and was afterwards engaged in the chorus at Covent Garden. During Charles Kemble's management of Covent Garden, Ransford was heard as a baritone in the part of Don Caesar in the '' Castle of Andalusia'', performed on 27 May 1829, and was engaged soon afterwards by Samuel James Arnold for the English Opera House (now the Lyceum). In the autumns of 1829 and 1830 he was at Covent Garden. In 1831 he played leading characters under Robert William Elliston at the Surrey Theatre, where he won great popularity. In 1832 he was with Joseph Grimaldi at Sadler's Wells, playing Tom Tuck in Andrew V. Campbell's nautical drama '' The Battle of Trafalgar'', in which he made a great hit w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Battle Of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval battle, naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). As part of Napoleon's plans to invade England, the French and Spanish fleets combined to take control of the English Channel and provide the Grande Armée safe passage. The allied fleet, under the command of the French admiral, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805. They encountered the British fleet under Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson was outnumbered, with 27 British Ship of the line, ships of the line to 33 allied ships including the largest warship in either fleet, the Spanish ''Span ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soho Square
Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, and a much weathered statue of the monarch has stood in the square, with an extended interruption, since 1661, one year after the restoration of the monarchy. Of the square's 30 buildings (including mergers), 16 are listed (have statutory recognition and protection). During the summer, Soho Square hosts open-air free concerts. By the time of the drawing of a keynote map of London in 1746 the newer name for the square had gained sway. The central garden and some buildings were owned by the Howard de Walden Estate, main heir to the Dukedom of Portland's great London estates. At its centre is a listed mock "market cross" building, completed in 1926 to hide the above-ground features of a contemporary electricity substation; small, octagonal, with Tudorbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Street (London)
Charles Street is a street in the Mayfair district of the City of Westminster, London. Location Charles Street runs roughly north-east from Waverton Street in the west to Berkeley Square in the east, bending slightly northward halfway along. The southwestern end is narrower. History The street is named after a member of the Berkeley family, and was built when Lord Berkeley's estate was developed. Most properties along the street were constructed between about 1745 and 1750, chiefly by carpenter John Phillips. Many of them are now listed by Historic England. Inhabitants * Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, British prime minister, was born in his father's house at 20 Charles Street in 1847. * Claude Watney lived at 20 Charles Street in the early 1900s. Listed buildings *2 Charles Street, a three-storey house, was built in the eighteenth century. It has been listed as Grade II by English Heritage since 1 December 1987. *6 Charles Street, a four-storey terrace house wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliza Cook
Eliza Cook (24 December 181823 September 1889) was an English author and poet associated with the Chartist movement. She was a proponent of political freedom for women, and believed in the ideology of self-improvement through education, something she called "levelling up." This made her hugely popular with the working class public in both England and America. Childhood Eliza Cook was the youngest of the eleven children of a brazier (a brass-worker) living in London Road, Southwark, where she was born. When she was about nine years old her father retired from business, and the family went to live at a small farm in St. Leonard's Forest, near Horsham. Her mother encouraged Eliza's fondness for imaginative literature, and despite attending the local Sunday school the child was almost entirely self-educated. At Sunday School she was encouraged by the music master's son to produce her first volume of poetry. She began to write verses before she was fifteen, contributing to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Charles Macready
William Charles Macready (3 March 179327 April 1873) was an English actor. Life He was born in London the son of William Macready the elder, and actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy, and where now the theatre is named after him, it was his initial intention to go to University of Oxford, but in 1809 financial problems experienced by his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810, he made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham. Other Shakespearian parts followed, but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man's departure for Bath in 1814. Here he remained for two years, with occasional professional visits to other provincial towns. On 16 September 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Garden as Orestes in ''The Distressed Mother'', a translation of Racine's ''Andromaque'' by Ambrose Philip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
School For Scandal
''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777. Plot Act I Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling Snake discuss her various scandal-spreading plots. Snake asks why she is so involved in the affairs of Sir Peter Teazle, his ward Maria, and Charles and Joseph Surface, two young men under Sir Peter's informal guardianship, and why she has not yielded to the attentions of Joseph, who is highly respectable. Lady Sneerwell confides that Joseph wants Maria, who is an heiress, and that Maria wants Charles. Thus she and Joseph are plotting to alienate Maria from Charles by putting out rumours of an affair between Charles and Sir Peter's new young wife, Lady Teazle. Joseph arrives to confer with Lady Sneerwell. Maria herself then enters, fleeing the attentions of Sir Benjamin Backbite and his uncle, Crabtree. Mrs. Candour enters and ironically talk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean (4 November 178715 May 1833) was a celebrated British Shakespearean stage actor born in England, who performed, among other places, in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris. He was known for his short stature, tumultuous personal life, and controversial divorce. Biography Early life Kean was born in Westminster, London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect's clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th-century composer and playwright Henry Carey. Kean made his first appearance on the stage, aged four, as Cupid in Jean-Georges Noverre's ballet of ''Cymon''. As a child his vivacity, cleverness and ready affection made him a universal favorite, but his harsh circumstances and lack of discipline, both helped develop self-reliance and fostered wayward tendencies. About 1794 a few benevolent persons paid for him to go to school, where he did well; but finding the restraint intolerable, he shipped as a cabin boy at P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyprus, a possession of the Venetian Republic since 1489. The port city of Famagusta finally fell to the Ottomans in 1571 after a protracted siege. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello is a Moorish military commander who was serving as a general of the Venetian army in defence of Cyprus against invasion by Ottoman Turks. He has recently married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy Venetian lady much younger than himself, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's malevolent ensign, who maliciously stokes his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage. Due to its enduring themes of passion, jealousy, and race, ''Othello'' is still topical and popular and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doge Of Venice
The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 and 1797. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the Venetian nobility. The '' doge'' was neither a duke in the modern sense, nor the equivalent of a hereditary duke. The title "doge" was the title of the senior-most elected official of Venice and Genoa; both cities were republics and elected doges. A doge was referred to variously by the titles "My Lord the Doge" ('), "Most Serene Prince" ('), and " His Serenity" ('). History of the title Byzantine era The office of doge goes back to 697. The first historical Venetian doge, Ursus, led a revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 726, but was soon recognised as the () and (a honorific title derived from the Greek word for consul) of Venice by imperial authorities. After Ursus, the Byza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fra Diavolo (opera)
''Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine'' (''Fra Diavolo, or The Inn of Terracina'') is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Daniel Auber, from a libretto by Auber's regular collaborator Eugène Scribe. It is loosely based on the life of the Itrani guerrilla leader Michele Pezza, active in southern Italy in the period 1800-1806, who went under the name of Fra Diavolo ("Brother Devil"). The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Ventadour in Paris on 28 January 1830 and an Italian version was prepared by Auber and Scribe for performance in London in 1857. This contained new recitatives and arias, as well as expanding the roles of Fra Diavolo's accomplices. The opera was Auber's greatest success, one of the most popular works of the 19th century and was in the standard repertory in its original French as well as German and Italian versions. An English translation was also prepared. Hugh Macdonald has characterised this comic ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Auber
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire. Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when the family's fortunes failed in 1820. He soon established a professional partnership with the librettist Eugène Scribe that lasted for 41 years and produced 39 operas, most of them commercial and critical successes. He is mostly associated with opéra-comique and composed 35 works in that genre. With Scribe he wrote the first French grand opera, ''La Muette de Portici'' (The Dumb Woman of Portici) in 1828, which paved the way for the large-scale works of Giacomo Meyerbeer. Auber held two important official musical posts. From 1842 to 1871 he was director of France's premier music academy, the Paris Conservatoire, which he expanded and modernised. From 1852 until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870 he was director of the imperial chap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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