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Order Of Cultural Merit (Monaco)
The Order of Cultural Merit (; Monégasque: ''U̍rdine d’u Me̍ritu Cürtürale'') is the fourth highest Order of the Principality of Monaco. The order was established by Rainier III, Prince of Monaco on 31 December 1952 by Sovereign Order 689. It is awarded to recognize those who have made a distinctive contribution to the arts, letters or science through their work or teaching in Monaco. It may also be awarded to recognize individuals in those areas who have extended the intellectual influence of the Principality, even from outside Monaco. Insignia The order is presented in three different grades: Commander, Officer, and Knight. Each grade's insignia share certain characteristics. The badge of the Order consists of a round medallion, framed by a laurel wreath and suspended by the Heraldic Crown of Monaco. The obverse of the medallion contains the monogram of Prince Rainier III, formed by two mirrored "R"s, surrounded by the inscription "Principauté de Monaco 1952". The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of Merit
The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order remains the personal gift of its Sovereign—currently Edward VII's great-great-grandson Charles III—and is restricted to a maximum of 24 living recipients from the Commonwealth realms, plus honorary members. While all members are awarded the right to use the post-nominal letters ''OM'' and wear the badge of the order, the Order of Merit's precedence among other honours differs between countries. History In around 1773, George III considered establishing an order of knighthood to be called the "Order of Minerva" with membership restricted to 24 distinguished artists and authors. Knights would be entitled to the post-nominal letters ''KM'', and would wear a silver nine-pointed breast star with the image of Minerva at its centre, along wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monogram
A monogram is a motif (visual arts), motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a cypher (e.g. a royal cypher) and is not a monogram. Many of today's monograms are embroidered on items for the home like towels, bedding, robes etc. History Monograms first appeared on coins, as early as 350 BC. The earliest known examples are of the names of Greek cities which issued the coins, often the first two letters of the city's name. For example, the monogram of Achaea (ancient region), Achaea consisted of the letters alpha (Α) and chi (letter), chi (Χ) joined together. Monograms have been used as signatures by artists and Artisan, craft workers on paintings, sculptures and pieces of furniture, especially when guilds enforced measures against unauthor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for his tone, and gaining the nickname "King of the High Cs". As one of the Three Tenors, who performed their first concert during the 1990 FIFA World Cup before a global audience, Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of " Nessun dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-'' Aida'' Verdi roles, and Puccini works such as ''La bohème'', '' Tosca'', '' Turandot'' and '' Madama Butterfly''. He sold over 100 million records, and the first Three Tenors recording became the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvatore Accardo
Salvatore Accardo (; Knight Grand Cross born 26 September 1941 in Turin, northern Italy) is an Italian violinist and conductor, who is known for his interpretations of the works of Niccolò Paganini. Accardo owns one Stradivarius violin, the "Hart ex Francescatti" (1727) and had the "Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry" (1718). Biography Accardo studied violin in the southern Italian city of Naples in the 1950s. He gave his first professional recital at the age of 13 performing Paganini's ''Capricci''. In 1958 Accardo became the first prize winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa. In the 1970s he was a leader of the celebrated Italian chamber orchestra " I Musici" (1972-1977). After studying in Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, he taught there from 1973 to 1980. Accardo founded the Accardo Quartet in 1992 and he was one of the founders of the Walter Stauffer Academy in 1986. He founded the Settimane Musicali Internazionali in Naples and the Cremona String Festival in 1971, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enlarged the cello repertoire more than any cellist before or since. He List of compositions dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, inspired and premiered over 100 pieces, forming long-standing friendships and artistic partnerships with composers including Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutosławski, Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Norbert Moret, Andreas Makris, Herbert Von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Aram Khachaturian, and Benjamin Britten. Rostropovich was internationally recognized as a staunch advocate of human rights, and was awarded the 1974 Award of the International League of Human Rights. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya and had two daughters, Olga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures. Life and career Early training and career Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II. His voice matured early into its adult timbre, and at the age of 15, he auditioned for conductor Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, who encouraged him to pursue an operatic career. He began vocal studies with Ettore Campogalliani, and was accepted at age 16 as a student at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He then continued his studies in Rome, under the guidance of Teresa Pediconi and Armando Piervenanzi. After having won the National Competition for young opera singers in Spoleto, he made his debut in the same city in the role of Colline in ''La bohème'' in the Festival dei Due Mondi. Subsequently, an opportunity arose for him at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome when he was called upon to substitute in the role of Procida in Giuseppe Verdi's ''I vespr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Peyrefitte (; 26 August 1925 – 27 November 1999) was a French scholar and politician. He was a confidant of Charles de Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland. Peyrefitte is remembered for his support for partitioning Algeria amid the Algerian War. Peyrefitte served as Minister of Information from 1962 to 1966, establishing the rules of presidential debates between the two electoral rounds; and as Minister of Justice from 1977 to 1981, being involved in the affair surrounding the mysterious death of Robert Boulin in 1979. He became a member of the Académie française in 1977. On 15 December 1986, he survived an assassination attempt by members of Action Directe (AD) in front of his house. The driver of his car was killed in the bomb attack. Upon his death in 1999 he was honored by burial in Les Invalides which also houses the tomb of Napoleon and other revered national leaders. Books He wrote '' The Immobile Empi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a '' lirico-spinto'' tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into exclusively baritone parts, including '' Simon Boccanegra''. As of 2020, he has performed 151 different roles. Domingo has also achieved significant success as a crossover artist, especially in the genres of Latin and popular music. In addition to winning fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, several of his records have gone silver, gold, platin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hélène Carrère D'Encausse
Hélène Carrère d'Encausse (; née Zourabichvili; 6 July 1929 – 5 August 2023) was a French political historian who specialised in Russian history. From 1999 until her death in 2023, she served as the Perpetual Secretary of the Académie Française, to which she was first elected in 1990. Carrère d'Encausse was a member of the European Parliament between 1994 and 1999, representing the Gaullist-conservative party RPR. She was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal and Grand Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2008 and 2011, respectively. She was a cousin of Salome Zourabichvili, the current disputed President of Georgia. In 2023 she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in Social Sciences. Early life, family and education Hélène Zourabichvili was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris to Georges Zourabichvili, a Georgian immigrant of an educated middle class background, and Nathalie von Pelken, a penniless descendant of Prussian baron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian mezzo-soprano widely known in the music of Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Rossini and Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi and for lesser-known music of the Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical periods. She has also sung soprano and alto repertory. Bartoli is considered a singer with an unusual timbre. According to Nicholas Wroe in 2001, her voice was known for its "fully developed sumptuousness of the lower register, the vibrancy of the middle range...the top was limpid and powerful", and she was one of the most popular opera singers of recent years. Early life Bartoli was born in Rome. Her parents, Silvana Bazzoni and Pietro Angelo Bartoli, were professional singers and gave her her first music lessons. She first performed publicly at age nine as the shepherd boy in ''Tosca''. Bartoli lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurent Petitgirard
Laurent Petitgirard (born 10 June 1950, in Paris) is a French classical composer and conductor. Biography Laurent Petitgirard was born in Paris on 10 June 1950. He studied piano with his father Serge Petitgirard, a pupil of Alfred Cortot and Yves Nat, and composition with his older brother Alain Kremski (Kremski being their mother’s name). He has composed over twenty works of symphonic music, operas, ballets, chamber music and nearly one hundred and forty scores for film and television, in a style that is “always refined, dramatic and precisely tailored to the images”. He notably wrote the music for several films by Francis Girod and the 1991 Maigret television series. He also composes lyrical works. His first opera, Joseph Merrick dit Elephant man, with a libretto by Éric Nonn, premiered in 2002 at the Prague State Opera, under the direction of Daniel Mesguich. A new production of this opera was presented in 2005 at the Minneapolis Opera, directed by Doug Varone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James DePreist
James Anderson DePreist (November 21, 1936 – February 8, 2013) was an American conductor. DePreist was one of the first African-American conductors on the world stage. He was the director emeritus of conducting and orchestral studies at The Juilliard School and laureate music director of the Oregon Symphony at the time of his death. Early life and education DePreist was born in Philadelphia in 1936. He was the nephew of contralto Marian Anderson. He was in the 202nd Class at Central High School, Philadelphia, graduating in June, 1954. DePreist studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory while earning a bachelor's degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. On the side, he played percussion in a jazz quintet that performed on "The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen in 1956, and did enough composing to win a comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
