Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Reviews 
The critic of Le Figaro wrote on 28 May 1870, "M. Léo Delibes has composed for the three scenes of Coppélia a distinguished, piquant, and colorful score, excellently orchestrated ... It is very difficult to write for legs with a little artistry, taste, and style. For instance, ballets such as Giselle are not improvised by the dozen. M. Delibes has avoided the commonplace in a piece where it has every right to succeed."

The critic of Le Ménestrel wrote about Bozzacchi on 29 May 1870, "The title of child prodigy should be devised for her had it had not been abused in so many other cases; although scarcely fifteen years old she is already a very skillful dancer, what is better still in our opinion, she is a graceful and a witty actress; add to that a well-proportioned, dainty little body, and that she bids fair to have the prettiest features in the world. If she fulfills all her first promises, she will be a power in her profession."

Other performances
Other performances

France 
Coppelia was, and still is, very popular. The Paris Opéra Ballet has performed Coppelia 711 times over 90 years. In 1996, Patrice Bart created a new version of the ballet. He went back to Hoffmann's fairy tale. In the process, he brought some psychological depth to the ballet's characters. He even put one of Hoffmann's original characters, Professor Spalanzani, into his new version. Bart also used music from Delibes's operas Le Roi l'a dit and Lakmé.

England 

Coppélia was first performed in England at the Empire Theatre in London on 14 May 1906. Adeline Genée danced Swanhilda. The Royal Ballet first staged Coppélia in 1933. This staging was Nicholas Sergeyev's version based on the 19th century revision by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. Dame Ninette de Valois danced Swanilda in Sergeyev's 1933 version. In 1954, de Valois created her own version based on the Russian versions of Coppélia.
Russia 
Coppélia was first performed in Russia in 1884. Marius Petipa adapted the original choreography for this production. In 2009, Sergei Vikharev reconstructed Coppélia for the Bolshoi Ballet from the Mariinsky Theatre records of 1894. This version featured new designs and 24 dancers in the "Dance of the Hours". Vikharev's version was staged in London in 2010 as part of the Bolshoi's summer tour.

United States 
Coppélia was first performed in the United States by the American Opera Company at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 11 March 1887. Marie Giuri danced Swanhilda and Felicita Carossa danced Frantz. Anna Pavlova made her American debut in the role of Swanhilda at the Metropolitan Opera on 28 February  1910. George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova choreographed a version of Coppélia in 1974. Their production used the traditional story in the first two scenes, but dropped the third scene's "Dance of the Hours" for a general celebration of ballet.
Australia 
Coppelia was first performed in Australia in Melbourne in 1913. Adeline Gennée and members of the Imperial Russian Ballet performed the ballet on the opening night of their Australian tour. This version was produced by Alexandre Volonine, and was supplemented with music by C. J. M. Glaser.

The first Australian production premiered in 1931 in Sydney, Australia. This production was designed and staged by Louise Lightfoot and performed by the First Australian Ballet. Australian ballet lovers then saw selections from the ballet as well as complete, full length productions by both Australian and foreign companies in the following decades.
China 
A version of Coppélia was staged by the National Ballet of China in Beijing in 2002. The dances for this production were designed by Par Isberg. The production opened at the Tianqiao Theatre on 1 May 2002. Wang Qiming played Coppélia.  The production stayed close to the original, but the story was simplified and made modern. Costumes included jeans for men and short, tight skirts for women. Some of the women danced on roller skates.

Notes

References

Other websites
 Project Gutenberg: Der Sandmann (in English)

Ballets
Compositions by Léo Delibes
Pan-German Movement (from , all, and Germania) is a nationalist ideological and political movement promoting the unification of all German-speaking peoples of Europe.

+
Nationalism
IMVU is an instant messaging client that uses three dimensional avatars to represent people. It was made in 2004 and has over 20 million users. Users can change how their avatar looks by buying things with "IMVU credits" earned in the game. It is free to join, but some features cost money. Most features can be bought with the game currency ("IMVU credits").

Related pages
Active Worlds
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Constance, Countess Markiewicz, born Constance Georgine Gore-Booth, 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.

She was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, but she did not take her seat.  Instead she and the other Sinn Féin TDs formed the first Dáil Éireann.  She is well known for founding Cumann na mBan.

She was also the first woman in Europe to be a cabinet minister, She was Minister of Labour of the Irish Republic between 1919 and 1922.

1868 births
1927 deaths
Politicians from London
Sinn Féin MPs
Fianna Fáil politicians
Sinn Féin members of Dáil Éireann
NAS can also be a shorthand for Network-attached storage.

Nasir Jones (born September 14, 1973), better known as Nas, is an American rapper, songwriter, record executive and actor. He is best known for his first album, Illmatic, which was released in 1994. It has been widely critically praised. He followed up with several commercially successful albums, such as It Was Written, I Am…, Nastradamus, Stillmatic, God's Son, Street's Disciple, Hip Hop Is Dead, Untitled, Life Is Good, and the King's Disease series. Nas has been nominated for fourteen Grammy Awards; his thirteenth studio album King's Disease took the crown for Best Rap Album of the year during the 63rd Grammy Awards. Famed for his storytelling prowess and lyrical creativity, Nas is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.

Personal life
Nas was born on September 14, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Olu Dara, is a musician who plays the trumpet. When Nas was young, his family moved to Queens, New York.
On June 15, 1994, Nas's ex-fiancée Carmen Bryan gave birth to their daughter, Destiny. Nas was married to Kelis from 2005 until they divorced in 2010. She is the mother of his son.

Career

1990s
Nas started making music when he was a teenager. He recorded his first music with a producer called Large Professor, but did not yet publish it. Nas' first published song was "Live at the Barbeque" in 1991. He was a guest artist on this song, which was by the group Main Source. In 1992, Nas released his first single, a song called "Halftime". This song was first published as part of a movie's soundtrack.
Nas released his first album, called Illmatic, in 1994. The album got very good reviews. People especially liked Nas' songwriting skills on the album. Because it was so well liked, Illmatic is often called a classic. Today, many people still say that Illmatic is one of the best hip-hop albums ever. Nas released his second album in 1996. He called the album It Was Written. On this album, Nas tried to make songs that a bigger audience would like. He also made expensive music videos to promote the album.
Nas also joined a hip hop group called The Firm. The other members of the group were Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature. The Firm first appeared as a group on It Was Written. In 1997, The Firm released an album together. The Firm's album sold many copies, but sold less than the group had hoped it would. After this album, The Firm stopped making music as a group. Nas instead started making his third album by himself. He planned to call this album I Am... The Autobiography, and wanted it to be a double album. People leaked many of the songs from this album onto the Internet before it came out. Because of this, Nas decided to record new songs for the album. He also changed the title to I Am.... This album came out in 1999. Nas also released another album, called Nastradamus, in 1999. Nastradamus was originally meant to have the leaked songs from I Am..., but Nas changed his mind and decided to record new songs for it.
2000s
In the late 1990s, Nas began feuding with rapper Jay-Z. In 2001, Jay-Z wrote a song called "Takeover" that insulted Nas. Nas replied by writing a song called "Ether" that insulted Jay-Z in return. "Ether" appeared on Nas' fifth album, Stillmatic, which he released in 2001. Stillmatic was mostly well liked. Its good reception helped to boost Nas' career after his last two albums had received bad reviews. Nas' next album was The Lost Tapes, an album made of songs he had written earlier but never published. The Lost Tapes got good reviews. Some critics said it was his best album since Illmatic.

Nas released several more albums in the 2000s. In 2002, he released God's Son. This album sold many copies, causing it to go platinum. It also included the song "I Can", which became Nas' biggest hit song. After this, Nas' next album was a double album called Street's Disciple. The album got good reviews, but sold fewer copies than his earlier albums.
Nas and Jay-Z ended their fued in 2005. To show that they had made up, Nas made a surprise appearance at a Jay-Z concert in 2005. The two musicians performed Jay-Z's song "Dead Presidents" together. At this time, Jay-Z was the president of the record label Def Jam Recordings. Nas signed a contract with Def Jam in January 2006. On the Def Jam label, Nas released his next album in 2006. This album was called Hip Hop Is Dead. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was Nas' first number-one album since I Am..., and his third ever. In 2007, Nas announced that he wanted to call his next album Nigger. Because the title was a racial slur, many people were unhappy with this announcement. Nas was criticized by famous progressives like Jesse Jackson, and also by the conservative news channel Fox News. Because of the controversy, Nas decided to release the album without any title at all.
2010s
In 2010, Nas released an album with Damian Marley called Distant Relatives. It entered the Billboard 200 at number five. Three singles were released from the album. In 2012, Nas released his eleventh album Life Is Good. He wrote it after he divorced Kelis. The album received good reviews.

In 2014, a documentary called Nas: Time Is Illmatic was released. The movie celebrated the 20th anniversary of Illmatic. Nas also performed songs from Illmatic at the Kennedy Center. In 2017, Nas did more work in film and TV. He wrote a song for the TV show The Getdown and appeared in a documentary called The American Epic Sessions.
Nas' next album was called Nasir. It was released in 2018. Kanye West produced all of Nasir. The album received mixed reviews. In 2019, Nas released The Lost Tapes 2. He had originally planned to release this album soon after The Lost Tapes. However, the album was delayed several times. In 2020, Nas released an album called King's Disease. This album won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Nas had been nominated for many Grammy Awards, but this was the first time he won. Nas then released an album called King's Disease II in 2021. He also released the album called Magic in the same year. In 2022, he released King's Disease III.

References

Other websites 
Nas at Def Jam.

1973 births
Living people
African-American rappers
Rappers from New York (state)
Hardcore hip hop artists
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. The United Kingdom was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland) and the Kingdom of Ireland. Its name was changed in 1927 after the majority of Ireland left the UK in 1922 and became the sovereign Irish Free State, thus leaving only six counties in the north within the UK.

List of monarchs 
The monarch continued to use the title of King or Queen of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1927. 

House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 

 George III (1801–1820) (monarch from 1760)
 George IV (1820–1830)
 William IV (1830–1837)
 Victoria (1837–1901)
 Edward VII (1901–1910) 
 House of Windsor (as of 1914) 
 George V (1910–1922) (title used until 1927)

Related pages
 History of the United Kingdom

Other websites 
 British History Online
 Act of Union 1800
1922 disestablishments in Europe
1801 establishments
1800s establishments in Europe
Xerox is an American company that makes and sells photocopiers and paper. It was the first brand of modern photocopiers. The term xerox has become a generic trademark. This means people often use 'xerox' to mean any copy machine, and "xeroxing" to mean photocopying.  The company was founder in 1906. Its  headquarters is in Norwalk, Connecticut. Ursula Burns became the CEO and Chairwoman in 2009.

Sources 

American technology companies
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies based in Connecticut
1906 establishments in the United States
Agneta Sjödin (born 20 July 1967 in Norrbo, Hälsingland) is a Swedish television presenter.

Hostings
Tur i kärlek
Fångarna på fortet
Småstjärnorna
Sikta mot stjärnorna
Jakten på den röda rubinen
Saknad
Let's Dance
Gladiatorerna
Miss Sweden

1967 births
Living people
Swedish television presenters
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s.

Gallery

Related pages
Baroque music
Rococo

Other websites 

The difference between Classicism and baroque in video.

Art movements
Architectural styles
Éamon de Valera (born with the name Edward George de Valera, ) (14 October 1882 – ) was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland. Co-owner of one of the Irish Press Newspapers, he served in public office from 1917 to 1973.  Several times he was either head of state or head of government in Ireland.

De Valera was a leader of Ireland's struggle for independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  He also led opposition to the anti-Treaty in the Irish Civil War.   De Valera was the author of the Constitution of Ireland.

His family 
De Valera was born in the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital in New York City in 1882 to an Irish mother; he said that his parents were Catherine Coll Wheelwright, an immigrant from Bruree, County Limerick, and Juan Vivion de Valera, a Spanish-Cuban settler and sculptor, and that they were married in 1881 in New York.
In 1885, after his father's death, de Valera was taken to Ireland by his Uncle Ned. He was brought up by his grandmother Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in County Limerick.  At the age of sixteen, he won a scholarship to Blackrock College, County Dublin. In his first year in Blackrock College he was Student of the Year. In 1903 was became mathematics teacher at Rockwell College, County Tipperary. When he graduated in mathematics from the Royal University of Ireland he went back to Blackrock College  He taught in many other colleges, including Belvedere college where he taught Kevin Barry, the young Irish republican hanged by the British during the Irish War of Independence.
Early political activity 
De Valera was an active gaeilgeoir (Irish language enthusiast). In 1908 he joined the Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League), where he met Dubhghlas de hÍde, later first President of Ireland, and also Sinéad Flanagan, another teacher who he married on 8 January 1910 at St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin.

Easter Rising 
On 25 November 1913 he joined the Irish Volunteers. He was soon elected captain of the Donnybrook company, then commandant of the Third Battalion and adjutant of the Dublin Brigade. He also joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which secretly controlled the central executive of the Volunteers.
On 24 April 1916 the Easter Rising began. De Valera occupied Boland's Mills, Grand Canal Street in Dublin. After the fighting de Valera was court-martialled, convicted, and sentenced to death, but the sentence was changed to for life imprisonment. This was because he was not kept in Kilmainham Jail with the first prisoners executed. The delay meant British authorities started to check if he really was an American citizen, and wonder how the United States would react to the execution of one of its citizens.

De Valera's supporters say he showed leadership skills and a great ability for planning. His enemies claim he suffered a nervous breakdown during the Rising.
After imprisonment in Dartmoor, Maidstone and Lewes prisons in England, de Valera and other prisoners were released under an amnesty in June 1917. On 10 July 1917 he was elected member of the British House of Commons for East Clare (the constituency which he represented in Dail Eireann until 1959) in a by-election after MP Willie Redmond died fighting in World War I.

President of Sinn Féin 
British newspapers and picture postcards often called the Easter Rising the Sinn Féin rebellion. From 1917 de Valera was president of Sinn Féin.  He and the other survivors of the Rising took over Sinn Féin and then turned into a republican party. Arthur Griffith, had wanted an Anglo-Irish "dual monarchy", with an independent Ireland governed separately from Britain, their only link being a shared monarch, like Canada and Britain today.
That had been the way Ireland was governed with the so-called Constitution of 1782 under Henry Grattan, until Ireland joined with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.

President of Dáil Éireann 

Sinn Féin won 73 out of 104 Irish seats in the 1918 general election.  A lot more people wanted an independent Ireland  after the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed of the 1916 leaders and the threat of conscription.  In January 1919, these Sinn Féin MPs, or "TD"s, met in the Mansion House (City Hall), Dublin and formed the First Dáil Éireann ().

De Valera was not at this meeting because he had been arrested.   He escaped from Lincoln Prison in February 1919, and when he got back to Dublin he replaced Cathal Brugha as Prime Minister .   The Dáil Constitution passed by the Dáil said that the Príomh Aire was prime minister not head of state.
In September 1919 the British authorities said that The Dáil was illegal.  The fighting against Britain escalated into the Irish War of Independence (also called the 'Anglo-Irish War').

President of the Republic 
In January 1921, he got back from the United States with a loan of $5,500,000  This made him very popular.

In August 1921 de Valera had Dáil Éireann change the 1919 Dáil Constitution to upgrade his title from prime minister to President of the Republic. He said that as Irish head of state he would not go to the Treaty Negotiations of October–December 1921 because the British head of state, King George V would not be there either.

The Treaty 
The Treaty replaced the Republic by a dominion of the British Commonwealth with the King represented by a Governor-General of the Irish Free State. This was just how Canada was governed.  Treaty was finally signed on 6 December 1921.
De Valera's opponents said that he did not join the negotiations because he knew that the British would only allow an Irish dominion, not a republic, and did not want to be blamed for giving up the idea of a republic. De Valera said he was angry because the delegates working out the treaty had not asked him before signing the treaty.  But at a secret session of the Dáil during the Treaty Debates and publicised in January 1922, his ideas for a treaty included dominion status, the 'Treaty Ports', a veto by the parliament in Belfast, and  the king as head of the Commonwealth. Ireland's would pay a share of the imperial debt.

When the Treaty was accepted by 64 votes to 57, de Valera and a large minority of Sinn Féin TDs left Dáil Éireann. He resigned and Arthur Griffith was elected President of Dáil Éireann in his place.
In March 1922, de Valera made an angry speech saying that, if the Treaty was accepted, it might be necessary to "wade through Irish blood" to achieve Irish freedom. Later he said that  De Valera's enemies said that this was encouraging civil war.

Civil War broke out in late June 1922.

Civil War 
Fighting in the Irish Civil War started on 28 June 1922 and ended in May 1923 when the pro-treaty Free State forces beat the anti-Treaty IRA.

De Valera was supposed to be the head of the anti-Treatyites, but he had little power. Usually he had little influence with the IRA Chief of Staff, Liam Lynch. De Valera formed a republican government on 25 October 1922 but it had no real authority and was never like the Dáil governments of 1919–21, which was an alternative government to the British, even running their own courts.
When the IRA's new Chief of Staff called a ceasefire Frank Aiken on 30 May 1923 the government had won. Many republicans were arrested when they came out of hiding and returned home. De Valera was arrested in County Clare and interned until 1924.

The 'empty formula' 
De Valera resigned from the presidency of Sinn Féin after losing a vote to accept the Free State Constitution (if the Oath of Allegiance was dropped).  In March 1926 he formed a new party, Fianna Fáil (Soldiers of Destiny).  Fianna Fáil was successful in elections, but for over a year a it did not take its seats in the Dáil.  When a new law made candidates promise to take the oath if elected,  de Valera and his TDs took the Oath of Allegiance in 1927.  They said the oath was "an empty formula" that is, just words they had to say, they did not have to believe them.
Back in Power 
Six years after it was founded Fianna Fáil won 72 seats in the 1932 general election, and had a plurality in the Dáil.  That is, it was the largest party but had less than half of all of the seats, which would be a majority. On 9 March Governor-General James McNeill appointed de Valera President of the Executive Council . He abolished the oath and stopped paying money owed to Britain.

De Valera called a general election in January 1933 and won 77 seats, giving him an overall majority. Under his leadership, Fianna Fáil won further general elections in 1937, 1938, 1943 and 1944.
De Valera was his own Minister for External Affairs. He attended meetings of the League of Nations, and was president of the Council of the League on his first appearance at Geneva in 1932.  In 1934, he supported the admission of the Soviet Union into the League. In September 1938 he was elected nineteenth president of the Assembly of the League, a tribute to the international recognition he had won by his independent stance on world questions.

De Valera's new constitution – Bunreacht na hÉireann 

During the 1930s, de Valera changed a lot of the Irish Free State constitution.

The Governor-General of the Irish Free State could reserve or deny the Royal Assent to any changes after being advised (ordered) by His Majesty's Government in London.  After a legal argument with the British Government the power this was changed to His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State

That meant that de Valera was the only person who could stop a bill becoming law.
De Valera abolished:
 The Oath of Allegiance;
 Appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; and
 The Senate, which was controlled by the opposition parties.

When King Edward VIII abdicted (resigned) as  King of Ireland de Valera passed two Bills; 
 one took out all mention of the King and Governor-General in the constitution
 the second said the King's only job was formally sending and receiving ambassadors.

In July 1936, de Valera wrote to King Edward in London saying that he planned to introduce a new constitution.  This was only a little different from the Bunreacht na hÉireann (meaning literally the Constitution of Ireland).

The new constitution was not an act of the Dáil but was voted for in a referendum, because de Valera wanted a new start for the new country he was setting up.

Neutrality in World War II 
Ireland stayed neutral in World War II, which was called The Emergency in Ireland.   Both the possibility of a German invasion and a British invasion were discussed in the Dáil.
But even though de Valera hated Britain, Irish neutrality often favoured the allies:

 The Irish government weather reportshelped to decide when D-Day should be;
 British planes from Lough Erne in County Fermanagh flew a shortcut across Donegal to patrol the Atlantic.
 The German Ambassador's Eduard Hempel radio transmitter was shut down in 1943.
 Crashed airmen "operational" flights were interned until the end of the war.  If the flight was "non-operational" the crew were allowed home.  Nearly all Allied airmen were said to be on "non-operational" flights, while German airmen were judged to be on "operational"
 Roughly 45,000 Irish  men voluntarily joined the Allied forces (including Patrick and Tom Clancy, who had also been IRA volunteers).
In May 1945, de Valera visited  the German minister in Dublin, to express sympathy over the death of the Führer. Along with President Douglas Hyde, de Valera was the only head of government to do this.  De Valera did not visit the American embassy following the death of Roosevelt, as David Gray, the American Ambassador said he would not receive de Valera. All flags were flown at half-mast on Roosevelt's death on de Valera's instructions

Post–war period 
After sixteen years in power, Fianna Fáil lost the 1948 election. John A. Costello was Taoiseach of a coalition Government.   It was Costello who declared Ireland a republic, making de Valera's friend President Ó Ceallaigh Ireland's head of state. In 1951 de Valera was returned to power but without an overall majority. Many people thought this was his worst government.  He spent several months in the Netherlands where he had six operations on his eyes.
Fianna Fáil was defeated again in the 1954 general election, but in 1957 de Valera, won a majority of nine seats. This was the beginning of another sixteen year period in office for Fianna Fáil. But de Valera was only Taoiseach for two years.

In 1959 he was elected President of Ireland, as which he served until 1973. At his retirement at the age of 90, he was the oldest Head of State in the world.

Éamon de Valera died in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, County Dublin on 29 August 1975 aged 92. His wife, Sinéad de Valera, four years his senior, had died the previous January, on the eve of their 65th wedding anniversary. He is buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.

Overview 

In his recent controversial biography by Tim Pat Coogan says that his failures are more than his achievements, and that de Valera's popularity fell as Michael Collins's rose.
Garret Fitzgerald summarised his last term as Taoiseach; 
  
Total economic stagnation marked de Valera's last seven years as leader of his party - because all of the chickens of his disastrous commitment to an inward-looking policy of self sufficiency were coming home to roost.

References

Other websites 
 

 

 

1882 births
1975 deaths
Fianna Fáil politicians
Government ministers of Ireland
Politicians from New York City
Prisoners of war
Sinn Féin members of Dáil Éireann
Taoisigh of Ireland
Operetta is a term which started to be used in the 19th century to describe an opera that was not too serious and often full of fun.  It is often described as “light opera” (“light” meaning “not serious“).  In an opera everything is usually sung.  In an operetta there is a lot of spoken dialogue, and songs and dances are added to this.  Similar traditions already existed in other countries, e.g. in Germany where the Singspiel tradition was popular (e.g. Mozart’s The Magic Flute).

The operetta tradition started in France and soon spread to Austria and other countries.  It remained popular until the mid-20th century, when it gradually turned into musical comedy.
The composer Jacques Offenbach can be thought of as the creator of the operetta tradition. It grew out of the opéra comique which had become quite long and serious.  There was a need for shorter, more humorous musical entertainments.  Offenbach was composing operettas in the 1850s in Paris.   In England such works were often called “comic operas” or “opera comedies”.   Then Johann Strauss became very popular in Vienna.  He was already very well known in the ballroom, but when he started to write for the theatre he soon became a rival to Offenbach, whose operettas had become very popular in Vienna.  Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”) has been performed more than any other operetta.  In Spain the Zarzuela was a kind of operetta.
Many people were involved in the creating and performing of operettas.  The performers often had to both sing and act very well.  Bizet, Chabrier and Delibes all wrote operettas as well as operas and other types of music.  In England the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan were a kind of English form of operetta.

One of the most popular of all operettas was Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) by Franz Léhar.  It was produced in 1905 in Vienna.  Léhar wrote many other operettas as well.  Franz von Suppé is another composer who wrote operettas in the Austrian tradition. The most known Romanian operetta is Crai nou (New moon) by Ciprian Porumbescu.
In the early 20th century the French operetta became less popular as there was more interest in the Viennese operetta.  After World War I Berlin was the centre of German operetta.  By the middle of the 20th century many composers were writing light operas which were based on American dance band music.  These were no longer called “operettas”.  The word “operetta” continued to be used for light operas which were more in the style of traditional central European music.

Musical forms
Opera genres
Investiture means the formal installation of somebody (heir, elect of nominee) in public office by formally giving him the "insignia".  The term is normally reserved for formal offices of state, aristocracy and church.

In the Middle Ages investiture was the ceremonial transfer of a fief by an overlord to a vassal.  The lord invested the vassal with a fiefdom, by giving a symbol of the land or office.  From feudal times up to the present, the term has been used in canon law to refer to a cleric receiving the symbols of spiritual office, such as the pastoral ring, mitre and staff, signifying transfer of the office.

United Kingdom
United Kingdom 

In the United Kingdom, around 2,600 people are invested personally by The Queen or a member of the Royal Family. A list of those to be honoured is published twice a year, in either the New Year's Honours List or The Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Approximately 22 Investitures are held annually in Buckingham Palace, one or two at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and one in Cardiff.

Investiture Controversy 

The question who should invest (appoint) whom was the subject of a conflict between the Catholic church (mainly the papacy) and state (mainly the Holy Roman Empire) in the Middle Ages during the so-called lay investiture controversy.

Footnotes 

Ceremonies
For the electronics brand-name of the same name, see Best BuyInsignia (the plural of Latin insigne'': emblem, symbol) is a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction. Insignia are especially used as an emblem of a specific or general authority.

Typical examples of insignia are:

 Crowns
 Flags of a country or state
 Coats of arms and Heraldry
 Seals
 Ensigns
 Roundels
 Badges
 Cockades

 Other National Emblems
 Shoulder patch, or shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI)
 Military rank and unit markings
Official insignia are often protected by law as to allow their use only by people holding a specific office or staff members action on behalf of such a person. Misuse, defacement and destruction of such symbols is considered an offense in many countries.

Symbols
Military uniform
(IRA) against the British soldiers (known as the Black and Tans because of the colour of their uniform) who were trying to keep Ireland under British control.

The war was fought between 1919 and June 1921. The fighting stopped while a peace treaty was worked out. 

It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)  men fought the British soldiers because they wanted Ireland to be its own country and wanted Britain to move its army out of Ireland.

6 IRB members were killed including 3 who were executed. These executions angered the Irish people and caused many people to become Republicans. Republicans lived mostly in the south of Ireland. Ulster was considered to be the most unionist part of Ireland. This was caused by the Ulster Plantations. The Unionists wanted to stay under control of the British Government.
In 1917 the IRB was renamed the IRA and in 1919, the fighting started. By the end of 1919, the IRA had beaten the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Ireland had no police forces. In London, the British government began to debate about Ireland's rule. The war waged on until 1921 when Irish Sinn Féin leaders and British MPs made a peace treaty (called the Anglo-Irish Treaty). This treaty created the Irish Free State this meant that Ireland was given Dominion Status. The treaty gave all the same rights to the Irish government as that of the Canadian or Australian government.

It handed power of 26 of the 32 counties to the Irish Government. The 6 counties that were kept by the British Government were all in Ulster and formed Northern Ireland.

Related pages
 History of Ireland
Irish Republican Army

20th century in Ireland
Wars involving the United Kingdom
Irish War of Independence
Rebellions in Europe
20th-century rebellions
1919 in the United Kingdom
1920 in the United Kingdom
1921 in the United Kingdom
A bishop () is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player starts the game with two bishops. At the start of a game, one bishop is placed in between the knight and the queen. This piece is the queen's bishop. The other bishop is placed between the knight and the king. This piece is the king's bishop. The bishops are also referred to as the light-square bishop and dark-square bishop, depending on the square color it starts on. In chess notation, the starting squares are c1 and f1 for White's bishops, and c8 and f8 for Black's bishops.
History 
The bishop first appeared in medieval European chess. In Chaturanga, the bishop was represented as an armed attendant who sat on the back of an elephant. The Arabs called this figure "al-fil", which means "elephant". However, elephants were not known in Central Europe, so they could not recognize the figure. The bishops were interpreted differently by the different nations. That is why the bishop is a "Läufer" (runner) in Germany, a "fou" (fool) in France and a "alfiere" (standard-bearer) in Italy.

How the bishop moves 
The bishop moves diagonally. It can move as far as a player wants it to, unless another piece blocks its path. A bishop can never leave the color of square that it starts on.

In the centre of an empty board, a bishop can move to 13 squares.

Chess pieces
The Bathurst 1000 is a car race held at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is held every year.

List of winners

Auto racing
Sport in Australia
New South Wales
A South Atlantic tropical cyclone is an unusual form of weather event. Usually, strong wind shear is the biggest problem why tropical cyclones do not normally form in the southern Atlantic Ocean. If there was ever a "hurricane season" in the south Atlantic, it would most likely happen during the opposite of the north Atlantic season, from December to May with mid-March being the peak when the oceans are warmest in the Southern Hemisphere.

Cyclone Catarina

Cyclone (or Hurricane) Catarina was an extraordinarily rare tropical cyclone, forming in the southern Atlantic Ocean in March 2004. Just after becoming a hurricane, it hit the southern coast of Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina on the evening of March 28, with winds estimated near 180 km/h (112 mph), making it a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The cyclone killed 3-10 people and caused millions of dollars in damage in Brazil.

This event is thought to be a nearly once-in-a-lifetime event by meteorologists.
Other known South Atlantic tropical cyclones

Angola tropical cyclone of 1991

On April 10, 1991, what was either a strong tropical depression or a weak tropical storm formed in the eastern South Atlantic, recorded by weather satellites off the coast of Angola. It reached a peak on the 13th, and dissipated two days later, drifting west-southwestward from where it formed. Of the few South Atlantic tropical cyclones that have existed, this was the only one in the eastern Atlantic. This was also the first South Atlantic tropical cyclone ever observed.

Tropical cyclone of January 2004
A small area of convection developed on a trough of low pressure in mid-January off Brazil. It organized and appeared to become a tropical depression on January 18. The next morning, it had a small amounts of convection near the center and well-defined bands, and the system, either a weak tropical storm or a strong tropical depression, likely reached its peak. Located 150 n miles southeast of Salvador, Brazil, it weakened as upper level shear, normal for the basin, prevailed. The depression moved inland on the 20th as a circulation with no convection, and dissipated the next day over Brazil, where it caused heavy rains and flooding. This would mark the first time in recorded history that two tropical cyclones (Catarina and the January storm) have been seen during the same year in the South Atlantic, and may be considered to make up the 2003-04 South Atlantic hurricane season.

Tropical cyclone of February 2006 / 90L Invest (South Atlantic)
A small area of convection 600 miles southeast of Rio de Janeiro moved into an area of low wind shear and barely 26°C warm waters on February 23, 2006. The wave had deep convection, was able to form a closed LLC and had 35 mi/h (56 km/h) winds as measured by Quikscat on February 24, 2006. These characteristics were operationally recognized for three hours before high shear began to tear the system apart, just short of the six hours required to be officially declared a tropical depression. It is possible that the system maintained these features longer and may have briefly been a tropical depression. While under study, the system was referred to as 90L Invest. The shear would eventually cause the system to dissipate later that night. Picture

Tropical storm Anita

Tropical storm Iba

Known South Atlantic Subtropical storms

Subtropical storm Arani

Subtropical storm Bapo

Subtropical storm Cari

Subtropical storm Deni

Subtropical storm Eçaí

Subtropical storm Guará

Subtropical storm Jaguar
Subtropical storm Kurumí

Related pages
 Tropical cyclone
 Southern Hemisphere

References

Other websites
 NOAA info on South Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclones
Opera buffa is an Italian term meaning “comic opera”.  It is mainly used for 18th century Italian comic operas.  Opera buffa contrasts with opera seria (“serious opera”) in which the story was a tragedy.  Opera seria was supposed to be “serious”, while opera buffa was an entertaining musical comedy.  Like the opera seria, everything was sung, there was no spoken dialogue.  This was different from comic opera in other countries.  The story in opera buffa is told in recitative and then there were arias for the characters to show their feelings and show off their voices.
Although we use the term “opera buffa” today, in the 18th century they called such operas by other names, e.g. “commedia in musica”, “dramma giocosa”, “operetta”, “burlesca” etc.  An opera buffa was usually a full length work: one which would fill a whole evening’s entertainment.  It was different from an “intermezzo” or “farsa” which was a short musical comedy that was performed during the intervals of a musical tragedy, although the difference between the two is not always obvious.  The intermezzo became longer and longer during the 18th century and gradually developed into opera buffa.  Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrone was an intermezzo which became very famous after Pergolesi’s death.  It influenced opera buffa.  

Opera buffa always included a lot of caricature.  The characters showed human weaknesses such as , ,  and  (people who were pretending to be wise and important).  They often poked fun at the ruling classes.
In opera buffa the acting was always very important.  It was a very lively show, with a lot happening very quickly.  At the end of each act all the main characters sang together: this is called an “ensemble” (the French word for “together”).

Opera buffa started in Naples and gradually spread to other parts of Italy.  It was particularly popular at carnival time.  Important composers of opera buffa include Carlo Goldoni and Baldassare Galuppi.

By the end of the 18th century it was not always possible to tell the difference between an opera buffa and an opera seria.  Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, for example, has a lot of comedy, but there is also a serious side.

Opera genres
Opera seria  is an Italian term which refers to the "serious" style of Italian opera in the 18th century.  It was different from opera buffa which was a musical comedy.  Opera seria was supposed to be about serious tragedy.  The term “opera seria” only started to be used after the time when it was popular in order to talk about the historic period.

Italian opera seria was always in the Italian language, even when it was composed or performed in other countries such as Germany, Austria, England and Spain.  In France the opera seria was not so popular.  They had their own forms of opera.

Popular composers of opera seria included Hasse, Vinci, Jommelli, George Frideric Handel, Piccinni, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Gluck, and Mozart.
Opera seria was often called dramma per musica ("drama through music").  The story was told in recitative, a quick-flowing music with simple accompaniment.  Then there were arias which were the big songs where the singers could show off their skills.  They were normally in da capo form (a main section, a middle section, and the main section repeated).  The opera would start with an overture and there would also be some ensembles where several characters sang at once.

The stories of opera seria were usually about the ancient Greek and Roman gods or kings.  This was in contrast to opera buffa, which was about ordinary people and often made fun of kings and nobility.

The main singers in opera seria were mostly castrati, male singers who had been castrated when they were young so that they still sang with high voices.  Gradually during the 18th century the female singers got more of the main roles (the “prima donna” or “first lady”).
One of the first composers of opera seria was Alessandro Scarlatti. In England George Frideric Handel wrote many great opera seria. The most important man in the development of mid-18th century opera seria was Metastasio who wrote libretti.  His words were set by the greatest composers in Europe: Hasse, Porpora and, especially, Mozart.

In the later part of the 18th century Christoph Willibald Gluck changed a lot of traditions in opera.  He did not want opera to be just a way for singers to show off their voices.  He wanted the story to be important.  He did not use dry recitative but tried to make the drama, dance and music all important, especially the chorus. Orfeo ed Euridice was his first important opera, followed by others such as  Alceste.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was influenced by Gluck’s reforms.  His two great opera seria were Idomeneo (1780) and La clemenza di Tito (1791).  Mostly, however, Mozart was not so interested in writing about the old Greek gods and kings.  His other great Italian operas: Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni are something between opera seria and opera buffa.  These were set to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte.  

Other important opera seria composers were Luigi Cherubini and Gaspare Spontini, followed by Rossini whose musical style made further changes to opera seria.

Opera genres
Mosbach (South Franconian: Mossbach) is a town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. About 25,000 people live there. It is between Heidelberg and Heilbronn. There are other big towns nearby: Sinsheim, Eberbach and Osterburken.

In Neckarelz, a suburb of Mosbach, is the most important train station. There are trains running from Mannheim - Heidelberg - Heilbronn, Stuttgart - Heilbronn - Neckarelz and Kaiserslautern - Mannheim - Heidelberg - Mosbach - Osterburken. There are also 2 other stations: Mosbach and Mosbach West. There are only trains from Kaiserslautern to Osterburken.

Mosbach has an area of . The postal codes are from 74801 to 74821, the old one was 6950. The telephone numbers start with +49 6261, The cars have number plates with the letters MOS.

References

Other websites

 Mosbach.de
There are 32 historic counties on the island of Ireland. 26 are in the Republic of Ireland and 6 are in Northern Ireland.

The counties in italics do not have a county council, instead they are have two or more smaller administrative county councils (called districts, in Northern Ireland)

Several large towns are county boroughs.  These councils have the same powers and duties of a county council.

county

Lists of counties
Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is a Benedictine abbey. It lies on the Danube, near the city of Melk. It is located in Lower Austria. It is one of the distinguishing features of a region known as Wachau. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The abbey was almost totally destroyed in a fire, on 14 August 1297. It was rebuilt in Baroque style at the beginning of the 18th century.

Images 

Benedictine abbeys
Buildings and structures in Austria
Churches in Austria
Lower Austria
18th-century buildings and structures
Walenstadt is a small city in east Switzerland. It is near Lake Walen and is divided in four part cities: Tscherlach, Berschis, Walenstadt and Walenstadtberg.

References

Other websites 

 Official website 

Municipalities in Sarganserland
Cities in Switzerland
Exhibitionism is behavior done to attract attention. In everyday life, extraverts may be exhibitionists. 

As a mental disorder exhibitionism is pleasure a person feels by showing their genitals to strangers to shock or frighten them.

Less severe forms of exhibitionism are streaking, mooning, and flashing.

References

Human sexuality
Nudity
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter. He was born in New York City. During 40 years Rockwell drew the cover pages of The Saturday Evening Post. He died of emphysema in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge owns much of his work.

He is well known for the set of paintings called the Four Freedoms - four pictures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, called: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.

Other famous paintings are
The Problem We All Live With (1964) - the painting shows Ruby Bridges.

Related pages 
List of American painters

References 

1894 births
1978 deaths
American painters
Artists from New York City
Deaths from emphysema
Disease-related deaths in Massachusetts
The Zuiderzeewerken (Zuiderzee Works) are a system of dams, land reclamation and water drainage works in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. Plans for the works date back to the 1600s, but it was not until a very bad flood in 1916, that the Dutch parliament finally agreed to pay for the works. Now it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

First some dams or dykes were built to separate the South Sea () from the North Sea. The biggest was the Afsluitdijk ('closure dyke'). It is  long. When it was finished in 1932, the South Sea was completely cut off and from then on would become a lake called the IJsselmeer.

Land reclamation meant building more dams and pumping out the water inside. The new land is called a polder. Polders make new land for agriculture and make flood protection better, because the lake is smaller.