|
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at grade II.Kennedy, p. 5 History of the house "There had been a manor house at Glynde Bourne (as it was often spelt) since the fifteenth century", but the exact age of the house is unknown. Some surviving timber framing and pre-Elizabethan panelling makes an early 16th-century date the most likely. In 1618, it came into the possession of the Hay family, passing to James Hay Langham in 1824. He inherited his father's baronetcy and estate in Northamptonshire in 1833 which under the terms of his inheritance should have led to him relinquishing Glyndebourne, but as a certified lunatic he was unable to do so. After litigation the estate passed to a relative, Mr Langham Christie, but he later had to pay £50,000 to pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, except in 1941–45 during World War II and 1993 when the theatre was being rebuilt, for a 1994 reopening. Gus Christie, son of Sir George Christie and grandson of festival founder John Christie, became festival chairman in 2000. Since the company's inception, Glyndebourne has been particularly celebrated for its productions of Mozart operas. Recordings of Glyndebourne's past historic Mozart productions have been reissued. Other notable productions included their 1980s production of George Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'', directed by Trevor Nunn, and later expanded from the Glyndebourne stage and videotaped in 1993 for television, with Nunn again directing. While Mozart operas have continued to be the mainstay of its repertory, the comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audrey Mildmay
Grace Audrey Laura St John-Mildmay (19 December 1900 – 31 May 1953) was an English and Canadian soprano and co-founder, with her husband, John Christie, of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' describes her voice "as a light lyric soprano employed with much charm." Early life and career Grace Audrey Louisa St. John Mildmay was born in Herstmonceux, Sussex, England. Her father was Sir Aubrey St John Mildmay, Bt, a British Anglican priest, and when she was three months old he accepted the parish of Penticton, British Columbia in Canada. She initially studied the piano, but a singing teacher discovered the potential of her voice. Mildmay first appeared publicly in a children's operetta production sponsored by the Vancouver Woman's Musical Club at the age of 18. She travelled to London to study with Walter Johnstone Douglas at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 1924. In 1927–28, she toured the United States and Canada as ''Polly'' in a productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Christie (Glyndebourne)
John Christie (14 December 1882 – 4 July 1962) was an English landowner and theatrical producer. He was the founder of the Glyndebourne Opera House and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera at his home at Glyndebourne, near Lewes in Sussex in 1934. Born to a wealthy landed family in Eggesford, Devon, Christie was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, later spending seven years at Eton as a master. His grandfather was William Langham Christie. He served in the trenches in the First World War with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, despite partial blindness, was awarded the Military Cross, and reached the rank of captain. Having been given the Glyndebourne Estate for his own use he began to develop local enterprises there from 1920 onwards: in 1923, he acquired the famous organbuilding company of William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Ltd., which had come into being around 1916 with the progressive merging of its two constituent firms. The firm remained in Christie o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Christie (Conservative Politician)
William Langham Christie (31 May 1830 – 28 November 1913) of Glyndebourne, Sussex, and Tapeley, North Devon, was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the son of Langham Christie, who had inherited Glyndebourne, the Sussex country house now famous for its music festival, after paying off a rival family claimant. William succeeded his father in 1861. William was the grandson of Daniel Beat Christin, a Swiss of obscure origins who anglicised his surname to Christie on entering the service of the East India Company and who retired to England in the 1780s having made a sudden fortune and an advantageous marriage to the daughter of Sir Purbeck Langham which brought Glyndebourne into the Christin/Christie family. During the 1870s William made substantial alterations to Glyndebourne, adding a brick extension, ornate stonework and balustrading. In 1876 he engaged architect Ewan Christian to install bay windows and add decorative brickwork to give the house its current Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Sussex
East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Brighton and Hove, and the county town is Lewes. The county has an area of and a population of 822,947. The latter is largely concentrated along the coast, where the largest settlements are located: Brighton and Hove (277,105), Eastbourne (99,180), and Hastings (91,490). The centre and north of the county are largely rural, and the largest settlement is Crowborough (21,990). For Local government in England, local government purposes, East Sussex comprises a non-metropolitan county, with five districts, and the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of Brighton and Hove. East Sussex and West Sussex Historic counties of England, historically formed a single county, Sussex. The northeast of East Sussex is part of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretto, librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, Theatrical scenery, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conducting, conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of Western culture#Music, Western classical music, and Italian tradition in particular. Originally understood as an sung-through, entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include :Opera genres, numerous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, RIBA President 1884–1886 and was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1887. He is an uncle of English-American architect Gordon W. Lloyd. Life National Portrait Gallery Ewan Christian is well-known for designing the National Portrait Gallery, London, National Portrait Gallery (1890–1895) in St Martin's Place, London, just north of Trafalgar Square. The building's facade, faced in Portland stone, is not typical of his work and was built towards the end of his life, completed shortly after his death. Christian was an unexpected and controversial choice for such a commission and was appointe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the South Downs. A traditional market town and centre of communications, in 1264 it was the site of the Battle of Lewes. The town's landmarks include Lewes Castle, Lewes Priory, Bull House (the former home of Thomas Paine), Southover Grange and public gardens, and a 16th-century timber-framed Wealden hall house known as Anne of Cleves House. Other notable features of the area include the Glyndebourne festival, the Lewes Bonfire celebrations and the Lewes Pound. Etymology The place-name "Lewes" is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter circa 961 AD, where it appears as ''Læwe''. It appears as ''Lewes'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The addition of the suffix seems to have been part of a broader trend of Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman scribes plu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks
The Royal Military Chapel, commonly known as the Guards' Chapel, is a British Army place of worship that serves as the religious home of the Household Division at the Wellington Barracks in Westminster, Greater London. Completed in 1838 in the style of a Greek temple and re-designed during the 1870s, the first chapel on the site was damaged by German bombing during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941. On Sunday, 18 June 1944, the chapel was hit again, this time by a V-1 flying bomb, during the morning service. The explosion of the bomb collapsed the concrete roof onto the congregation, which left 121 people killed and 141 injured (both military and civilian). Using the memorials from the old chapel as foundations, a new chapel was built in a Modernist style in 1963. In 1970 the building was made a Grade II* listed building. The Order of the Garter banner of Field marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was transferred from St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, to the Guards' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manor House
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term is today loosely (though erroneously) applied to various English country houses, mostly at the smaller end of the spectrum, sometimes dating from the Late Middle Ages, which currently or formerly house the landed gentry. Manor houses were sometimes fortified, albeit not as fortified as castles, but this was often more for show than for defence. They existed in most European countries where feudalism was present. Function The lord of the manor may have held several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron, spread across a kingdom, which he occupied only on occasional visits. Even so, the business of the manor was directed and controlled by regular mano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic Church, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicanism, Anglican, and some Lutheranism, Lutheran churches.''New Standard Encyclopedia'', 1998 by Standard Educational Corporation, Chicago, Illinois; page B-262c. Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures, and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastery, monastic churches, and episcopal residences. The cathedra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a contest for daylight air superiority over the United Kingdom between the and the Royal Air Force, Germany began conducting mass air attacks against British cities, beginning with London, in an attempt to draw the RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation.Price 1990, p. 12. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. Notable attacks included a large daylight attack against London on Battle of Britain Day, 15 September, a large raid on 29 December 1940 against London -- resulting in a firestorm known as the Second Great Fire of London,Hooton 1997, p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
