title: Shellac

text: The raw shellac, which contains bark shavings and lac bugs removed during scraping, is placed in canvas tubes (much like long socks) and heated over a fire. This causes the shellac to liquefy, and it seeps out of the canvas, leaving the bark and bugs behind. The thick, sticky shellac is then dried into a flat sheet and broken into flakes, or dried into "buttons" (pucks/cakes), then bagged and sold. The end-user then crushes it into a fine powder and mixes it with ethyl alcohol before use, to dissolve the flakes and make liquid shellac.


title: Shellac

text: Liquid shellac has a limited shelf life (about 1 year), so is sold in dry form for dissolution before use. Liquid shellac sold in hardware stores is often marked with the production (mixing) date, so the consumer can know whether the shellac inside is still good. Some manufacturers (e.g., Zinsser) have ceased labeling shellac with the production date, but the production date may be discernible from the production lot code. Alternatively, old shellac may be tested to see if it is still usable: a few drops on glass should dry to a hard surface in roughly 15 minutes. Shellac that remains tacky for a long time is no longer usable. Storage life depends on peak temperature, so refrigeration extends shelf life.


title: Shellac

text: The thickness (concentration) of shellac is measured by the unit "pound cut", referring to the amount (in pounds) of shellac flakes dissolved in a gallon of denatured alcohol. For example: a 1-lb. cut of shellac is the strength obtained by dissolving one pound of shellac flakes in a gallon of alcohol (equivalent to ). Most pre-mixed commercial preparations come at a 3-lb. cut. Multiple thin layers of shellac produce a significantly better end result than a few thick layers. Thick layers of shellac do not adhere to the substrate or to each other well, and thus can peel off with relative ease; in addition, thick shellac will obscure fine details in carved designs in wood and other substrates.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac naturally dries to a high-gloss sheen. For applications where a flatter (less shiny) sheen is desired, products containing amorphous silica, such as "Shellac Flat", may be added to the dissolved shellac.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac naturally contains a small amount of wax (3%–5% by volume), which comes from the lac bug. In some preparations, this wax is removed (the resulting product being called "dewaxed shellac"). This is done for applications where the shellac will be coated with something else (such as paint or varnish), so the topcoat will adhere. Waxy (non-dewaxed) shellac appears milky in liquid form, but dries clear.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac comes in many warm colours, ranging from a very light blonde ("platina") to a very dark brown ("garnet"), with many varieties of brown, yellow, orange and red in between. The colour is influenced by the sap of the tree the lac bug is living on and by the time of harvest. Historically, the most commonly sold shellac is called "orange shellac", and was used extensively as a combination stain and protectant for wood panelling and cabinetry in the 20th century.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac was once very common anywhere paints or varnishes were sold (such as hardware stores). However, cheaper and more abrasion- and chemical-resistant finishes, such as polyurethane, have almost completely replaced it in decorative residential wood finishing such as hardwood floors, wooden wainscoting plank panelling, and kitchen cabinets. These alternative products, however, must be applied over a stain if the user wants the wood to be coloured; clear or blonde shellac may be applied over a stain without affecting the colour of the finished piece, as a protective topcoat. "Wax over shellac" (an application of buffed-on paste wax over several coats of shellac) is often regarded as a beautiful, if fragile, finish for hardwood floors. Luthiers still use shellac to "French polish" fine acoustic stringed instruments, but it has been replaced by synthetic plastic lacquers and varnishes in many workshops, especially high-volume production environments.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac dissolved in alcohol, typically more dilute than French-Polish, is now commonly sold as "sanding sealer" by several companies. It is used to seal wooden surfaces, often as preparation for a final more durable finish; it reduces the amount of final coating required by reducing its absorption into the wood.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac is a natural bioadhesive polymer and is chemically similar to synthetic polymers. It can thus can be considered a natural form of plastic.


title: Shellac

text: With a melting point of , it can be classed as a thermoplastic; used to bind wood flour, the mixture can be moulded with heat and pressure.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac scratches more easily than most lacquers and varnishes, and application is more labour-intensive, which is why it has been replaced by plastic in most areas. Shellac is much softer than Urushi lacquer, for instance, which is far superior with regard to both chemical and mechanical resistance. But damaged shellac can easily be touched up with another coat of shellac (unlike polyurethane, which chemically cures to a solid) because the new coat merges with and bonds to the existing coat(s).


title: Shellac

text: Shellac is soluble in alkaline solutions of ammonia, sodium borate, sodium carbonate, and sodium hydroxide, and also in various organic solvents. When dissolved in alcohol (typically denatured ethanol) for application, shellac yields a coating of good durability and hardness.


title: Shellac

text: Upon mild hydrolysis shellac gives a complex mix of aliphatic and alicyclic hydroxy acids and their polymers that varies in exact composition depending upon the source of the shellac and the season of collection. The major component of the aliphatic component is aleuritic acid, whereas the main alicyclic component is shellolic acid.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac is UV-resistant, and does not darken as it ages (though the wood under it may do so, as in the case of pine).


title: Shellac

text: The earliest written evidence of shellac goes back years, but shellac is known to have been used earlier. According to the ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, an entire palace was built out of dried shellac.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac was in rare use as a dyestuff for as long as there was a trade with the East Indies. Merrifield cites 1220 for the introduction of shellac as an artist's pigment in Spain.


title: Shellac

text: The use of overall paint or varnish decoration on large pieces of furniture was first popularised in Venice (then later throughout Italy). There are a number of 13th-century references to painted or varnished cassone, often dowry cassone that were made deliberately impressive as part of dynastic marriages. The definition of varnish is not always clear, but it seems to have been a spirit varnish based on gum benjamin or mastic, both traded around the Mediterranean. At some time, shellac began to be used as well. An article from the "Journal of the American Institute of Conservation" describes using infrared spectroscopy to identify shellac coating on a 16th-century cassone. This is also the period in history where "varnisher" was identified as a distinct trade, separate from both carpenter and artist.


title: Shellac

text: Another use for shellac is sealing wax. Woods's "The Nature and Treatment of Wax and Shellac Seals" discusses the various formulations, and the period when shellac started to be added to the previous beeswax recipes.


title: Shellac

text: The "period of widespread introduction" would seem to be around 1550 to 1650, when the substance moved from being a rarity on highly decorated pieces to being described in the standard texts of the day.


title: Shellac

text: In the early- and mid-twentieth century, orange shellac was used as a one-product finish (combination stain and varnish-like topcoat) on decorative wood panelling used on walls and ceilings in homes, particularly in the US. In the American South, use of knotty pine plank panelling covered with orange shellac was once as common in new construction as drywall is today. It was also often used on kitchen cabinets and hardwood floors, prior to the advent of polyurethane.


title: Shellac

text: Until the advent of vinyl, most gramophone records were pressed from shellac compounds. From 1921 to 1928, tons of shellac were used to create 260 million records for Europe. In the 1930s, it was estimated that half of all shellac was used for gramophone records. Use of shellac for records was common until the 1950s and continued into the 1970s in some non-Western countries.


title: Shellac

text: Until recent advances in technology, shellac (French polish) was the only glue used in the making of ballet dancers' pointe shoes, to stiffen the box (toe area) to support the dancer en pointe. Many manufacturers of pointe shoes still use the traditional techniques, and many dancers use shellac to revive a softening pair of shoes.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac was used from the mid-nineteenth century to produce small moulded goods such as picture frames, boxes, toilet articles, jewelry, inkwells and even dentures. Advances in plastics have rendered shellac obsolete as a moulding compound.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac (both orange and white varieties) was used both in the field and laboratory to glue and stabilise dinosaur bones until about the mid-1960s. While effective at the time, the long-term negative effects of shellac (being organic in nature) on dinosaur bones and other fossils is debated, and shellac is very rarely used by professional conservators and fossil preparators today.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac was used for fixing inductor, motor, generator and transformer windings. It was applied directly to single-layer windings in an alcohol solution. For multi-layer windings, the whole coil was submerged in shellac solution, then drained and placed in a warm place to allow the alcohol to evaporate. The shellac locked the wire turns in place, provided extra insulation, prevented movement and vibration and reduced buzz and hum. In motors and generators it also helps transfer force generated by magnetic attraction and repulsion from the windings to the rotor or armature. In more recent times, shellac has been replaced in these applications by synthetic resins such as polyester resin. Some applications use shellac mixed with other natural or synthetic resins, such as pine resin or phenol-formaldehyde resin, of which Bakelite is the best known, for electrical use. Mixed with other resins, barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, zinc sulfide, aluminium oxide and/or cuprous carbonate (malachite), shellac forms a component of heat-cured capping cement used to fasten the caps or bases to the bulbs of electric lamps.


title: Shellac

text: It is the central element of the traditional "French polish" method of finishing furniture, fine string instruments, and pianos.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac, edible, is used as a glazing agent on pills (see excipient) and sweets, in the form of pharmaceutical glaze (or, "confectioner's glaze"). Because of its acidic properties (resisting stomach acids), shellac-coated pills may be used for a timed enteric or colonic release. Shellac is used as a 'wax' coating on citrus fruit to prolong its shelf/storage life. It is also used to replace the natural wax of the apple, which is removed during the cleaning process. When used for this purpose, it has the food additive E number E904.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac is an odour and stain blocker and so is often used as the base of ""all-purpose"" primers. Although its durability against abrasives and many common solvents is not very good, shellac provides an excellent barrier against water vapour penetration. Shellac-based primers are an effective sealant to control odours associated with fire damage.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac has traditionally been used as a dye for cotton and, especially, silk cloth in Thailand, particularly in the north-eastern region. It yields a range of warm colours from pale yellow through to dark orange-reds and dark ochre. Naturally dyed silk cloth, including that using shellac, is widely available in the rural northeast, especially in Ban Khwao District, Chaiyaphum province. The Thai name for the insect and the substance is "khrang" (Thai: ครั่ง).


title: Shellac

text: Wood finishing is one of the most traditional and still popular uses of shellac mixed with solvents or alcohol. This dissolved shellac liquid, applied to a piece of wood, is an evaporative finish: the alcohol of the shellac mixture evaporates, leaving behind a protective film.


title: Shellac

text: Shellac as wood finish is natural and non-toxic in its pure form. A finish made of shellac is UV-resistant. For water-resistance and durability, it does not keep up with synthetic finishing products.


title: Shellac

text: Because it is compatible with most other finishes, shellac is also used as a barrier or primer coat on wood to prevent the bleeding of resin or pigments into the final finish, or to prevent wood stain from blotching.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The Vampire Chronicles is a series of gothic horror novels and a media franchise, created by American writer Anne Rice, that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Rice said in a 2008 interview that her vampires were a "metaphor for lost souls". The homoerotic overtones of "The Vampire Chronicles" are also well-documented. As of November 2008, "The Vampire Chronicles" had sold 80 million copies worldwide.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The first novel in the series, "Interview with the Vampire" (1976), was made into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirsten Dunst. "The Queen of the Damned" (1988) was adapted into a 2002 film of the same name, starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah and using some material from 1985's "The Vampire Lestat". In May 2020, AMC acquired the rights to both "The Vampire Chronicles" and "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" for developing film and television projects. A seven-episode television adaptation, "Interview with the Vampire", premiered on AMC on October 2, 2022, starring Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: "The Vampire Chronicles" and Rice's "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" series have a few crossover novels, making "Witches" part of the "Vampires" universe.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Rice considered "Blood Canticle" a conclusion to the series and thought she would never write about Lestat again. In a 2008 interview with "Time", she called her vampires a "metaphor for lost souls", and noted that writing about them had been, to her, "a sort of search for God and a kind of grief for a lost faith." Her 1998 return to the Catholic Church after 38 years of atheism had prompted a change in the direction of her writing that resulted in her 2005 novel "" and its 2008 sequel "".


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: However, in the same interview, Rice said: "I have one more book that I would really like to write; and the book will have a definite Christian framework and it will concern the vampire Lestat; and it will be a story I think I need to tell. But it will have to be in a redemptive framework. It will have to be where Lestat is really wrestling with the existence of God in a very personal way." That same year she produced a YouTube video in which she told her readers that she had dismissed any intentions of writing any more books in "The Vampire Chronicles", calling the series "closed". Later, during a 2012 Q&A in Toronto, Canada, an audience member asked Rice if she would bring any of her old characters back, to which she replied: "I'm not ruling it out. I think it's very possible. I mean, I feel completely open with a new confidence in myself about it. I want to hear what Lestat has to say." On March 10, 2014, Rice announced a new installment of "The Vampire Chronicles" titled "Prince Lestat", calling it the first of a new series. "Prince Lestat" was released on October 28, 2014. A sequel, "Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis", was released on November 29, 2016, followed by "Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat" on October 2, 2018.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Louis de Pointe du Lac tells a young reporter the story of how he had been made a vampire in 18th-century New Orleans by Lestat de Lioncourt. In creating and sheltering the child vampire Claudia, Lestat and Louis had unknowingly set tragedy in motion.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: This book chronicles Lestat's own origins, as he resurfaces in the modern world and attempts to find meaning by exposing himself to humanity in the guise of a rock star. This attracts the attention of the ancient vampire Marius de Romanus, and culminates in the accidental awakening of Akasha, the ancient Egyptian queen and first vampire, who has been immobile for millennia and safeguarded by Marius.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Lestat has awakened Akasha, the first of all vampires, who has in her thousands of years of immobility, contrived an idealized way to achieve world peace, by killing almost all males and destroying all other vampires. She is herself destroyed by the vampire witch Mekare, who has awakened and returned after 6,000 years to fulfill a promise to destroy Akasha at the moment she poses the greatest threat.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The novel finds Lestat haunted by his past and tiring of immortality. A thief switches bodies with him and runs off, and Lestat enlists David Talbot, leader of the Talamasca and one of his only remaining friends, to help him retrieve it.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Lestat meets the Devil, who calls himself Memnoch. He takes Lestat on a whirlwind tour of Heaven and Hell, and retells the entirety of history from his own point of view in an effort to convince Lestat to join him as God's adversary. In his journey, Memnoch claims he is not evil, but merely working for God by ushering lost souls into Heaven. Lestat is left in confusion, unable to decide whether or not to cast his lot with the Devil.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Rice's "New Tales of the Vampires"—"Pandora" (1998) and "Vittorio the Vampire" (1999)—do not feature Lestat at all, instead telling the stories of the eponymous peripheral vampires, the Patrician Pandora from Rome in the 1st century B.C. and the 15th-century Italian nobleman Vittorio.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Armand tells his own life story in 1998's "The Vampire Armand", and Rice's "Mayfair Witches" series crosses over with "The Vampire Chronicles" in "Merrick" (2000) as Louis and David seek Merrick Mayfair's help in resurrecting Claudia's spirit. The origins of Marius are explored in 2001's "Blood and Gold", and "Blackwood Farm" (2002) tells the story of young Tarquin Blackwood as he enlists Lestat and Merrick to help him banish a spirit named Goblin. 2003's "Blood Canticle" intertwines the vampire, Blackwood and Mayfair storylines, and was intended by Rice to conclude the series.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: "Prince Lestat" (2014) rejoins the remaining vampires a decade later as Lestat faces pressure to lead them. "Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis" (2016) and "Blood Communion" (2018) continued this new narrative thread.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In her review of "The Vampire Lestat" (1985) "The New York Times" critic Michiko Kakutani noted, "We learn lots of 'facts' about vampires and vampire culture. We learn that they cry tears of blood, that they're capable of reading other people's minds, that they can be destroyed by fire and sunlight. We learn that 'no vampire may ever destroy another vampire, except that the coven master has the power of life and death over all of his flock'; and we learn that 'no vampire shall ever reveal his true nature to a mortal and allow that mortal to live'." Through "The Tale of The Body Thief" and "Memnoch The Devil", the cosmology of the series expands into exploration of broader supernatural themes and realms, particularly of Heaven and Hell, and also into exploration of apex supernatural entities like angels, the devil, and God Himself. Memnoch also acknowledges that many other types of earthbound supernatural creatures exist aside from the vampires, which leaves open connections to Rice's Taltos and werewolf stories.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The first vampires appeared in Ancient Egypt, their origin connected to spirits which existed before Earth. Mekare and Maharet, twin witches living on Mount Carmel, were able to speak to the mischievous and bloodthirsty shade Amel. Amel grew to love Mekare, becoming her familiar. In time, soldiers sent by Akasha, Queen of Egypt, burned their village and captured the two witches. Coveting their knowledge and power, the Queen imprisoned and tortured the witches for some time; this infuriated the spirit of Amel, who began to haunt Akasha's villages and her nobles.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In time, as Akasha's own treacherous noblemen conspired against her and instigated both her murder and that of her husband, King Enkil, the spirit of Amel infused into her body as she lay dying. The shade's power and bloodlust roused her from death – reborn as the first immortal. After siring her spouse as well, Akasha and Enkil became known as the Divine Parents. To punish the twins for standing against her, the Queen had Maharet's eyes torn out and Mekare's tongue severed. Before they were to be executed, the steward Khayman sired them both out of pity.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Together they formed the First Brood and stood against the Divine Parents and their followers, the Queen's Blood. Overwhelmed and captured, the twins were separated and sent into exile; Maharet to familiar lands in the Red Sea, and Mekare to uncharted waters out towards the west. After two millennia, the Queen and King went mute and catatonic. They were maintained like statues by elders and priests under the impression that if Akasha – the host of Amel, the Sacred Core – died, all vampires would die with her. As the Common Era arrived, most undead forgot.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: As years passed, the story of the Divine Parents were maintained by a few elders who barely believed it themselves. Despite this, many of the self-made blood gods – vampires from Akasha's earlier progeny – remained entombed in hollowed-out trees or brick cells where they starved. Early in the Common Era, the elder who was entrusted to keep the Parents abandoned Akasha and Enkil in the desert to wait for the sun to rise and consume them. While they remained unharmed, young vampires everywhere were destroyed by fire and even mighty elders were badly burned.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Following this, the fledgling Marius – a gifted Roman scholar – went to Egypt and retrieved the Divine Parents, making them his sacred responsibility as the new keeper. Over the course of nearly two millennia, they came to be known in legends as Marius and Those Who Must Be Kept. At some point in time, Maharet returned to her village on Mount Carmel in the guise of a distant family member. She returned periodically over the course of many centuries to keep a record of her descendants, all the way down to Jesse Reeves – one of the last of the Great Family.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Rice's vampires differ in many ways from their traditional counterparts such as Dracula. They are unaffected by crucifixes, garlic, a stake through the heart, or holy water. Ancient immortals are almost completely unaffected by the sun. The key trait of Rice's vampires is that they are unusually emotional and sensual, prone to aesthetic thinking. This lends well to artistic pursuits such as painting, writing, and singing; all of which are refined by their eidetic memory and heightened beauty.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Beyond their refined physical features, Rice's vampires are unique in that their appearance is more statue-like than human. Their pupils are luminous while in the dark and their nails appear more like glass. Being undead, their skin is likewise pallid as well as unusually smooth. Additionally, upon being sired, the vampire's body is essentially frozen in the state in which it died. Their hair and nails cease to grow; if they are cut, they will quickly grow back. The undead also possess no bodily fluids other than blood, as they are purged following death.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: While virtually all other internal bodily functions expire, Rice's vampires still possess a noticeable heartbeat – albeit considerably slower than that of a living heart. This ensures normal blood circulation and also synchronizes with that of their fledglings while turning them. When vampires enter a state of hibernation, their hearts cease to beat and they enter into a desiccated state in which their bodies become skeletal and dry from lack of blood flow. Blood starvation may also trigger this. Removing their heart from their bodies will also kill them.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Despite these differences, Rice's undead do share some similarities with mainstream vampire fiction. They are supernaturally strong and can move faster than the eye can see. Their senses are heightened and they will heal from any injury short of beheading and even reattach limbs. The act of feeding is highly sexualized in Rice's novels. Vampires both crave and need blood to sustain their unlife. While they can feed on animals, human blood is more nourishing. As they age, they're able to resist the urge more to the point where elders feed only for pleasure.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: As with most vampire fiction, all of the undead were originally human. To sire a fledgling, a maker must feed upon a victim to the point of death. The attacker must then offer their own blood for the mortal to drink. After their body expires, they resurrect as a newborn immortal. Fledglings retain all the memories and mannerisms they had in life, however these usually fade or change over time as they acclimate to their new existence. Many young vampires experience existential crises or crippling depression as they learn to cope with their isolated nature.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Within Rice's mythology, vampires possess certain paranormal abilities known as gifts. For younger undead, these gifts usually manifest in subtle ways. For older immortals – particularly ancient ones – these manifest as potent displays of both magic and their own inhuman natures. As vampires age, they become both stronger as well as more unnatural and statuesque in their appearance. Their demeanor usually becomes more tampered and calculating, even moreso as their more potent gifts manifest; which further distances them from their former human sentiments.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The series creates its own terminology: vampires call the transfer of vampirism to a human the "Dark Gift", and refer to the vampire bestowing it as the "maker" and the new vampire as a "fledgling". In ancient times vampires formed a religion-like cult, and in the Middle Ages, believing themselves cursed, dwelt in catacombs under cemeteries in covens which emphasized darkness and their own cursed state.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: Vampires are largely solitary; Lestat's "family" of 80 years is described as unusually long. There is no organized society beyond covens, religious bodies, and small groups from time to time. While a few vampires seem to find a way to cope with immortality, most capitulate to self-destructive anger or depression and do not survive beyond some decades or a few centuries. This is described in the series by the saying that vampires "go into the fire or go into history"—the few that survive far longer become legendary or semi-mythical characters. The most ancient vampires, a thousand or more years old, are known colloquially as "Children of the Millennia". In his life as a vampire, Lestat spends decades trying to find any vampire who is more than a few hundred years old, as a way to learn where they all came from and what their vampiric status means, a quest that eventually leads him to the 2000-year-old Marius.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In 2008 Rice called her vampires a "metaphor for lost souls", adding that "they were metaphors for us ... these were wonderful ways of writing about all our dilemmas in life... for me, supernatural characters were the way to talk about life; they were a way to talk about reality, actually." She also noted that writing about them had been, to her, "a sort of search for God and a kind of grief for a lost faith."


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: The homoerotic overtones of "The Vampire Chronicles" are also well-documented. Susan Ferraro of "The New York Times" wrote that "Gay readers see in the vampires' lonely, secretive search for others of their kind a metaphor for the homosexual experience." In 1996, Rice commented:


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In his book "Anne Rice and Sexual Politics: The Early Novels", James R. Keller asserts that the publication and success of Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" reinforced the "widely recognized parallel between the queer and the vampire." He notes that in particular "gay and lesbian readers have been quick to identify with the representation of the vampire, suggesting its experiences parallel those of the sexual outsider." Richard Dyer discusses the recurring homoerotic motifs of vampire fiction in his article "Children of the Night", primarily "the necessity of secrecy, the persistence of a forbidden passion, and the fear of discovery."


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: "Interview with the Vampire" was released in November 1994 starring Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as Louis, Kirsten Dunst as Claudia and Antonio Banderas as Armand.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: A second film, "Queen of the Damned", which combined plot elements of "The Vampire Lestat" and "The Queen of the Damned", was released in 2002 starring Stuart Townsend as Lestat and Aaliyah as Akasha.


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In August 2014, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment acquired the motion picture rights to the entire "Vampire Chronicles" series, with producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci signed to helm the potential film franchise. The deal also included a screenplay for "The Tale of the Body Thief" (1992) adapted by Christopher Rice, Anne Rice's son. In May 2016, writer–director Josh Boone posted a photo on Instagram of the cover a script written by him and Jill Killington. Titled "Interview with the Vampire", it is based on the novel of the same name and its sequel, "The Vampire Lestat".


title: The Vampire Chronicles

text: In November 2016, Rice announced on Facebook that the rights to her novels were reverted to her despite earlier plans for other adaptations. Rice said that she and her son Christopher would be developing and executive producing a potential television series based on the novels. In April 2017, they teamed up with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content to develop a series. As of early 2018, Bryan Fuller was involved with the creation of a potential TV series based on the novels. On July 17, 2018, it was announced that the series was in development at streaming service Hulu and that Fuller had departed the production. As of December 2019, Hulu's rights had expired and Rice was shopping a package including all film and TV rights to the series. In May 2020, it was announced that AMC had acquired the rights to "The Vampire Chronicles" and "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" for developing film and television projects. Anne and Christopher Rice would serve as executive producers on any projects developed. In June 2021, it was announced that AMC had given a series order for "Interview with the Vampire", an eight-episode television adaptation of the novel. The project will be executive produced by Rolin Jones and Mark Johnson and set to premiere in 2022. In August 2021, it was announced that Sam Reid is set to star as Lestat, and Jacob Anderson also set to star as Louis. The series premiered on AMC on October 2, 2022. "Interview with the Vampire" was renewed for an eight-episode second season in September 2022, ahead of its premiere on AMC. It has received critical acclaim, and is the first television series in Rice's Immortal Universe, based on the works of Anne Rice, with the second entry being the television adaptation of "Lives of the Mayfair Witches".


title: Mandolin

text: A mandolin ( ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.


title: Mandolin

text: There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the "Neapolitan" or "round-backed" mandolin, the "archtop" mandolin and the "flat-backed" mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued together into a bowl. The archtop, also known as the "carved-top" mandolin has an arched top and a shallower, arched back both carved out of wood. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. Each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music. Archtop instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music, and Mexican "estudiantinas".


title: Mandolin

text: Other mandolin varieties differ primarily in the number of strings and include four-string models (tuned in fifths) such as the Brescian and Cremonese, six-string types (tuned in fourths) such as the Milanese, Lombard and the Sicilian and 6 course instruments of 12 strings (two strings per course) such as the Genoese. There has also been a twelve-string (three strings per course) type and an instrument with sixteen strings (four strings per course).


title: Mandolin

text: Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard (the top). Early instruments were quiet, strung with gut strings, and plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder, using metal strings, which exert more pressure than the gut strings. The modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. There are usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic (f-hole). A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling.


title: Mandolin

text: Mandolins evolved from lute family instruments in Europe. Predecessors include the gittern and mandore or mandola in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were a variety of regional variants, but the two most widespread ones were the Neapolitan mandolin and the Lombardic mandolin. The Neapolitan style has spread worldwide.


title: Mandolin

text: Mandolins have a body that acts as a resonator, attached to a neck. The resonating body may be shaped as a bowl () or a box (). Traditional Italian mandolins, such as the Neapolitan mandolin, meet the necked bowl description. The necked box instruments include archtop mandolins and the flatback mandolins.


title: Mandolin

text: Strings run between mechanical tuning machines at the top of the neck to a tailpiece that anchors the other end of the strings. The strings are suspended over the neck and soundboard and pass over a floating bridge. The bridge is kept in contact with the soundboard by the downward pressure from the strings. The neck is either flat or has a slight radius, and is covered with a fingerboard with frets. The action of the strings on the bridge causes the soundboard to vibrate, producing sound.


title: Mandolin

text: Like any plucked instrument, mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously as with a bowed note on a violin, and mandolin notes decay faster than larger chordophones like the guitar. This encourages the use of tremolo (rapid picking of one or more pairs of strings) to create sustained notes or chords. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique: the plectrum (pick) strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would.


title: Mandolin

text: Various design variations and amplification techniques have been used to make mandolins comparable in volume with louder instruments and orchestras, including the creation of mandolin-banjo hybrids with the drum-like body of the louder banjo, adding metal resonators (most notably by Dobro and the National String Instrument Corporation) to make a resonator mandolin, and amplifying electric mandolins through amplifiers.


title: Mandolin

text: A variety of different tunings are used. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are tuned in unison. By far the most common tuning is the same as violin tuning, in scientific pitch notation G–D–A–E, or in Helmholtz pitch notation: g–d′–a′–e″.


title: Mandolin

text: Note that the numbers of Hz shown above assume a 440 Hz A, standard in most parts of the western world. Some players use an A up to 10 Hz above or below a 440, mainly outside the United States.


title: Mandolin

text: Other tunings exist, including "cross-tunings", in which the usually doubled string runs are tuned to different pitches. Additionally, guitarists may sometimes tune a mandolin to mimic a portion of the intervals on a standard guitar tuning to achieve familiar fretting patterns.


title: Mandolin

text: The mandolin is the soprano member of the mandolin family, as the violin is the soprano member of the violin family. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about . Modern American mandolins modelled after Gibsons have a longer scale, about . The strings in each of its double-strung courses are tuned in unison, and the courses use the same tuning as the violin: G–D–A–E.


title: Mandolin

text: The "piccolo" or "sopranino mandolin" is a rare member of the family, tuned one octave above the mandola and one fourth above the mandolin (C–G–D–A); the same relation as that of the piccolo (to the western concert flute) or violino piccolo (to the violin and viola). One model was manufactured by the Lyon & Healy company under the Leland brand. A handful of contemporary luthiers build piccolo mandolins.


title: Mandolin

text: The mandola, termed the "tenor mandola" in Britain and Ireland and "liola" or "alto mandolin" in continental Europe, is tuned a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the viola to the violin, or the alto flute to the flute. Some also call this instrument the "alto mandola". Its scale length is typically about . It is normally tuned like a viola (perfect fifth below the mandolin) and tenor banjo: C–G–D–A.


title: Mandolin

text: The "octave mandolin" (US and Canada), termed the "octave mandola" in Britain and Ireland and "mandola" in continental Europe, is tuned an octave below the mandolin: G–D–A–E. Its relationship to the mandolin is that of the tenor violin to the violin, or the tenor saxophone to the soprano saxophone. Octave mandolin scale length is typically about , although instruments with scales as short as or as long as are not unknown.


title: Mandolin

text: The instrument has a variant off the coast of South America in Trinidad, where it is known as the bandol, a flat-backed instrument with four courses, the lower two strung with metal and nylon strings.


title: Mandolin

text: The Irish bouzouki, although not strictly a member of the mandolin family, bears a reasonable resemblance, and also has a similar range, to the octave mandolin. It was derived from the Greek bouzouki (a long-necked lute), constructed like a flat-backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings, most often G–D–A–D. Other tunings include: A–D–A–D, G–D–A–E (an octave below the mandolin—in which case it essentially functions as an octave mandolin), G–D–G–D or A–D–A–E. Although the Irish bouzouki's bass course pairs are most often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, similar to the 12-string guitar. While occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is theoretically distinguished from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from , although scales as long as , which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown. In modern usage, however, the terms "octave mandolin" and "Irish bouzouki" are often used interchangeably to refer to the same instrument.


title: Mandolin

text: The modern cittern may also be loosely included in an "extended" mandolin family, based on resemblance to the flat-backed mandolins, which it predates. Its own lineage dates it back to the Renaissance. It is typically a five course (ten-string) instrument having a scale length between . The instrument is most often tuned to either D–G–D–A–D or G–D–A–D–A, and is essentially an octave mandola with a fifth course at either the top or the bottom of its range. Some luthiers, such as Stefan Sobell, also refer to the octave mandola or a shorter-scaled Irish bouzouki as a cittern, irrespective of whether it has four or five courses.


title: Mandolin

text: Other relatives of the cittern, which might also be loosely linked to the mandolins (and are sometimes tuned and played as such), include the 6-course/12-string Portuguese guitar and the 5-course/9-string waldzither.


title: Mandolin

text: The mandocello is classically tuned to an octave plus a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin, its strings being tuned to C–G–D–A. Its scale length is typically about . A typical violoncello scale is .


title: Mandolin

text: The mandolone was a Baroque member of the mandolin family in the bass range that was surpassed by the mandocello. It was as part of the Neapolitan mandolin family.


title: Mandolin

text: The Greek "laouto" or "laghouto" (long-necked lute) is similar to a mandocello, ordinarily tuned C/C–G/G–D/D–A/A with half of each pair of the lower two courses being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddle-less bridge glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings, and tied gut frets. Modern laoutos, as played on Crete, have the entire lower course tuned to C, a reentrant octave above the expected low C. Its scale length is typically about .


title: Mandolin

text: The Algerian "mandole" was developed by an Italian luthier in the early 1930s, scaled up from a mandola until it reached a scale length of approximately 25-27 inches. It is a flatback instrument, with a wide neck and 4 courses (8 strings), 5 courses (10 strings) or 6 courses (12 strings), and is used in Algeria and Morocco. The instrument can be tuned as a guitar, oud, or mandocello, depending on the music it will be used to play and player preference. When tuning it as a guitar the strings will be tuned (E) (E) A A D D G G B B (E) (E); strings in parenthesis are dropped for a five or four-course instrument. Using a common Arabic oud tuning D D G G A A D D (G) (G) (C) (C). For a mandocello tuning using fifths C C G G D D A A (E) (E).


title: Mandolin

text: The mandobass is the bass version of the mandolin, just as the double bass is the bass to the violin. Like the double bass, it most frequently has 4 single strings, rather than double courses, and also like the double bass, it is most commonly tuned to perfect fourths rather than fifths (a trait all other chordophones in the violin family possess): E–A–D–G which is also the same tuning as a bass guitar. These were made by the Gibson company in the early 20th century, but appear to have never been very common. A smaller scale four-string mandobass, usually tuned in fifths: G–D–A–E (two octaves below the mandolin), though not as resonant as the larger instrument, was often preferred by players as easier to handle and more portable. Reportedly, however, most mandolin orchestras preferred to use the ordinary double bass, rather than a specialised mandolin family instrument. Calace and other Italian makers predating Gibson also made mandolin-basses.


title: Mandolin

text: The relatively rare eight-string mandobass, or "tremolo-bass", also exists, with double courses like the rest of the mandolin family, and is tuned either G–D–A–E, two octaves lower than the mandolin, or C–G–D–A, two octaves below the mandola.


title: Mandolin

text: Bowlback mandolins (also known as roundbacks), are used worldwide. They are most commonly manufactured in Europe, where the long history of mandolin development has created local styles. However, Japanese luthiers also make them.


title: Mandolin

text: Owing to the shape and to the common construction from wood strips of alternating colors, in the United States these are sometimes colloquially referred to as the "potato bug" or "potato beetle" mandolin.


title: Mandolin

text: The Neapolitan style has an almond-shaped body resembling a bowl, constructed from curved strips of wood. It usually has a bent sound table, canted in two planes with the design to take the tension of the eight metal strings arranged in four courses. A hardwood fingerboard sits on top of or is flush with the sound table. Very old instruments may use wooden tuning pegs, while newer instruments tend to use geared metal tuners. The bridge is a movable length of hardwood. A pickguard is glued below the sound hole under the strings. European roundbacks commonly use a scale instead of the common on archtop Mandolins.


title: Mandolin

text: Intertwined with the Neapolitan style is the Roman style mandolin, which has influenced it. The Roman mandolin had a fingerboard that was more curved and narrow. The fingerboard was lengthened over the sound hole for the E strings, the high pitched strings. The shape of the back of the neck was different, less rounded with an edge, the bridge was curved making the G strings higher. The Roman mandolin had mechanical tuning gears before the Neapolitan.


title: Mandolin

text: Prominent Italian manufacturers include Vinaccia (Naples), Embergher (Rome) and Calace (Naples). Other modern manufacturers include Lorenzo Lippi (Milan), Hendrik van den Broek (Netherlands), Brian Dean (Canada), Salvatore Masiello and Michele Caiazza (La Bottega del Mandolino) and Ferrara, Gabriele Pandini.


title: Mandolin

text: In the United States, when the bowlback was being made in numbers, Lyon and Healy was a major manufacturer, especially under the "Washburn" brand. Other American manufacturers include Martin, Vega, and Larson Brothers.


title: Mandolin

text: In Canada, Brian Dean has manufactured instruments in Neapolitan, Roman, German and American styles but is also known for his original 'Grand Concert' design created for American virtuoso Joseph Brent.


title: Mandolin

text: German manufacturers include Albert & Mueller, Dietrich, Klaus Knorr, Reinhold Seiffert and Alfred Woll. The German bowlbacks use a style developed by Seiffert, with a larger and rounder body.


title: Mandolin

text: Japanese brands include Kunishima and Suzuki. Other Japanese manufacturers include Oona, Kawada, Noguchi, Toichiro Ishikawa, Rokutaro Nakade, Otiai Tadao, Yoshihiko Takusari, Nokuti Makoto, Watanabe, Kanou Kadama and Ochiai.


title: Mandolin

text: Another family of bowlback mandolins came from Milan and Lombardy. These mandolins are closer to the mandolino or mandore than other modern mandolins. They are shorter and wider than the standard Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallow back. The instruments have 6 strings, 3 wire treble-strings and 3 gut or wire-wrapped-silk bass-strings. The strings ran between the tuning pegs and a bridge that was glued to the soundboard, as a guitar's. The Lombardic mandolins were tuned g–b–e′–a′–d″–g″ (shown in Helmholtz pitch notation). A developer of the Milanese style was Antonio Monzino (Milan) and his family who made them for 6 generations.


title: Mandolin

text: Samuel Adelstein described the Lombardi mandolin in 1893 as wider and shorter than the Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallower back and a shorter and wider neck, with six single strings to the regular mandolin's set of 4. The Lombardi was tuned C–D–A–E–B–G. The strings were fastened to the bridge like a guitar's. There were 20 frets, covering three octaves, with an additional 5 notes. When Adelstein wrote, there were no nylon strings, and the gut and single strings "do not vibrate so clearly and sweetly as the double steel string of the Neapolitan."


title: Mandolin

text: Brescian mandolins (also known as Cremonese) that have survived in museums have four gut strings instead of six and a fixed bridge. The mandolin was tuned in fifths, like the Neapolitan mandolin. In his 1805 mandolin method, "Anweisung die Mandoline von selbst zu erlernen nebst einigen Uebungsstucken von Bortolazzi", Bartolomeo Bortolazzi popularised the Cremonese mandolin, which had four single-strings and a fixed bridge, to which the strings were attached. Bortolazzi said in this book that the new wire-strung mandolins were uncomfortable to play, when compared with the gut-string instruments. Also, he felt they had a "less pleasing...hard, zither-like tone" as compared to the gut string's "softer, full-singing tone."


title: Mandolin

text: He favored the four single strings of the Cremonese instrument, which were tuned the same as the Neapolitan.


title: Mandolin

text: Like the Lombardy mandolin, the Genoese mandolin was not tuned in fifths. Its 6 gut strings (or 6 courses of strings) were tuned as a guitar but one octave higher: e-a-d’-g’-b natural-e”. Like the Neapolitan and unlike the Lombardy mandolin, the Genoese does not have the bridge glued to the soundboard, but holds the bridge on with downward tension, from strings that run between the bottom and neck of the instrument. The neck was wider than the Neapolitan mandolin's neck. The peg-head is similar to the guitar's.


title: Mandolin

text: At the very end of the 19th century, a new style, with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments in the United States. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, luthier who founded the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited" in 1902. Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body and usually a scroll carved into the headstock; and the A-style, which is pear-shaped, has no points and usually has a simpler headstock.


title: Mandolin

text: These styles generally have either two f-shaped soundholes like a violin (F-5 and A-5), or a single oval sound hole (F-4 and A-4 and lower models) directly under the strings. Much variation exists between makers working from these archetypes, and other variants have become increasingly common. Generally, in the United States, Gibson F-hole F-5 mandolins and mandolins influenced by that design are strongly associated with bluegrass, while the A-style is associated with other types of music, although it too is most often used for and associated with bluegrass. The F-5's more complicated woodwork also translates into a more expensive instrument.


title: Mandolin

text: Internal bracing to support the top in the F-style mandolins is usually achieved with parallel tone bars, similar to the bass bar on a violin. Some makers instead employ "X-bracing", which is two tone-bars mortised together to form an X. Some luthiers now using a "modified x-bracing" that incorporates both a tone bar and X-bracing.


title: Mandolin

text: Numerous modern mandolin makers build instruments that largely replicate the Gibson F-5 Artist models built in the early 1920s under the supervision of Gibson acoustician Lloyd Loar. Original Loar-signed instruments are sought after and extremely valuable. Other makers from the Loar period and earlier include Lyon and Healy, Vega and Larson Brothers.


title: Mandolin

text: The ideal for archtops has been solid pieces of wood carved into the right shape. However, another archtop exists, the top made of laminated wood or thin sheets of solid wood, pressed into the arched shape. These have become increasingly common in the world of internationally constructed musical instruments in the 21st century.


title: Mandolin

text: The pressed-top instruments are made to appear the same as the carved-top instruments; however, the pressed tops do not sound the same as the carved-wood tops. Carved-wood tops when carved to the ideal thickness, produce the sound which consumers expect. Not carving them correctly can lead to a dull sound. The sound of a carved-wood instrument changes the longer it is played, and older instruments are sought out for their rich sound.


title: Mandolin

text: Laminated-wood presstops are less resonant than carved wood, the wood and glue vibrating differently than wood grain. Presstops made of solid wood have the wood's natural grain compressed, creating a sound that is not as full as on a well-made, carved-top mandolin.


title: Mandolin

text: Flatback mandolins use a thin sheet of wood with bracing for the back, as a guitar uses, rather than the bowl of the bowlback or the arched back of the carved mandolins.


title: Mandolin

text: Like the bowlback, the flatback has a round sound hole. This has been sometimes modified to an elongated hole, called a D-hole. The body has a rounded almond shape with flat or sometimes canted soundboard.


title: Mandolin

text: The type was developed in Europe in the 1850s. The French and Germans called it a Portuguese mandolin, although they also developed it locally. The Germans used it in Wandervogel.


title: Mandolin

text: The bandolim is commonly used wherever the Spanish and Portuguese took it: in South America, in Brazil (Choro) and in the Philippines.


title: Mandolin

text: In the early 1970s English luthier Stefan Sobell developed a large-bodied, flat-backed mandolin with a carved soundboard, based on his own cittern design; this is often called a 'Celtic' mandolin.


title: Mandolin

text: The tone of the flatback is described as warm or mellow, suitable for folk music and smaller audiences. The instrument sound does not punch through the other players' sound like a carved top does.


title: Mandolin

text: The double top is a feature that luthiers are experimenting with in the 21st century, to get better sound. However, mandolinists and luthiers have been experimenting with them since at least the early 1900s.


title: Mandolin

text: Back in the early 1900s, mandolinist Ginislao Paris approached Luigi Embergher to build custom mandolins. The sticker inside one of the four surviving instruments indicates the build was called after him, the "Sistema Ginislao Paris"). Paris' round-back double-top mandolins use a false back below the soundboard to create a second hollow space within the instrument.


title: Mandolin

text: Modern mandolinists such as Joseph Brent and Avi Avital use instruments customized, either by the luthier's choice or at the request of the player. Joseph Brent's mandolin, made by Brian Dean also uses what Brent calls a false back. Brent's mandolin was the luthier's solution to Brent's request for a loud mandolin in which the wood was clearly audible, with less metallic sound from the strings. The type used by Avital is variation of the flatback, with a double top that encloses a resonating chamber, sound holes on the side, and a convex back. It is made by one manufacturer in Israel, luthier Arik Kerman. Other players of Kerman mandolins include Alon Sariel, Jacob Reuven, and Tom Cohen.


title: Mandolin

text: Other American-made variants include the mandolinetto or Howe-Orme guitar-shaped mandolin (manufactured by the Elias Howe Company between 1897 and roughly 1920), which featured a cylindrical bulge along the top from fingerboard end to tailpiece and the Vega mando-lute (more commonly called a cylinder-back mandolin manufactured by the Vega Company between 1913 and roughly 1927), which had a similar longitudinal bulge but on the back rather than the front of the instrument.


title: Mandolin

text: An instrument with a mandolin neck paired with a banjo-style body was patented by Benjamin Bradbury of Brooklyn in 1882 and given the name "banjolin" by John Farris in 1885. Today "banjolin" is sometimes reserved to describe an instrument with four strings, while the version with the four courses of double strings is called a "mandolin-banjo".


title: Mandolin

text: A resonator mandolin or "resophonic mandolin" is a mandolin whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (resonators) instead of the customary wooden soundboard (mandolin top/face). Historic brands include Dobro and National.


title: Mandolin

text: As with almost every other contemporary chordophone, another modern variant is the electric mandolin. These mandolins can have four or five individual or double courses of strings. They were developed in the early 1930s, contemporaneous with the development of the electric guitar. They come in solid body and acoustic electric forms.


title: Mandolin

text: Specific instruments have been designed to overcome the mandolin's rapid decay with its plucked notes. Fender released a model in 1992 with an additional string (a high A, above the E string), a tremolo bridge and extra humbucker pickup (total of two). The result was an instrument capable of playing heavy metal style guitar riffs or violin-like passages with sustained notes that can be adjusted as with an electric guitar.


title: Mandolin

text: The international repertoire of music for mandolin is almost unlimited, and musicians use it to play various types of music. This is especially true of violin music, since the mandolin has the same tuning as the violin. Following its invention and early development in Italy the mandolin spread throughout the European continent. The instrument was primarily used in a classical tradition with Mandolin orchestras, so-called "Estudiantinas" or in Germany "Zupforchestern" appearing in many cities. Following this continental popularity of the mandolin family local traditions appeared outside Europe in the Americas and in Japan. Travelling mandolin virtuosi like Carlo Curti, Giuseppe Pettine, Raffaele Calace and Silvio Ranieri contributed to the mandolin becoming a "fad" instrument in the early 20th century. This "mandolin craze" was fading by the 1930s, but just as this practice was falling into disuse, the mandolin found a new niche in American country, old-time music, bluegrass and folk music. More recently, the Baroque and Classical mandolin repertory and styles have benefited from the raised awareness of and interest in Early music, with media attention to classical players such as Israeli Avi Avital, Italian Carlo Aonzo, and American Joseph Brent. In India, the mandolin is played in classical Carnatic music. The musician U. Srinivas was perhaps the greatest mandolin player in this style. Lauded across the world for his virtuosity with the instrument, he died young.


title: Mandolin

text: The tradition of so-called "classical music" for the mandolin has been somewhat spotty, due to its being widely perceived as a "folk" instrument. Significant composers did write music specifically for the mandolin, but few "large" works were composed for it by the most widely regarded composers. The total number of these works is rather small in comparison to—say—those composed for violin. One result of this dearth being that there were few positions for mandolinists in regular orchestras. To fill this gap in the literature, mandolin orchestras have traditionally played many arrangements of music written for regular orchestras or other ensembles. Some players have sought out contemporary composers to solicit new works.


title: Mandolin

text: Furthermore, of the works that have been written for mandolin from the 18th century onward, many have been lost or forgotten. Some of these await discovery in museums and libraries and archives. One example of rediscovered 18th-century music for mandolin and ensembles with mandolins is the "Gimo collection", collected in the first half of 1762 by Jean Lefebure. Lefebure collected the music in Italy, and it was forgotten until manuscripts were rediscovered.


title: Mandolin

text: Vivaldi created some concertos for mandolinos and orchestra: one for 4-chord mandolino, string bass & continuo in C major, (RV 425), and one for two 5-chord mandolinos, bass strings & continuo in G major, (RV 532), and concerto for two mandolins, 2 violons "in Tromba"—2 flûtes à bec, 2 salmoe, 2 théorbes, violoncelle, cordes et basse continuein in C major (p. 16).


title: Mandolin

text: Beethoven composed mandolin music and enjoyed playing the mandolin. His 4 small pieces date from 1796: Sonatine WoO 43a; Adagio ma non troppo WoO 43b; Sonatine WoO 44a and Andante con Variazioni WoO 44b.


title: Mandolin

text: The opera "Don Giovanni" by Mozart (1787) includes mandolin parts, including the accompaniment to the famous aria "Deh vieni alla finestra", and Verdi's opera Otello calls for guzla accompaniment in the aria "Dove guardi splendono raggi", but the part is commonly performed on mandolin.


title: Mandolin

text: Parts for mandolin are included in works by Schoenberg (Variations Op. 31), Stravinsky (Agon), Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet) and Webern (opus Parts 10)


title: Mandolin

text: Some 20th-century composers also used the mandolin as their instrument of choice (amongst these are: Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and Prokofiev).


title: Mandolin

text: Among the most important European mandolin composers of the 20th century are Raffaele Calace (composer, performer and luthier) and Giuseppe Anedda (virtuoso concert pianist and professor of the first chair of the Conservatory of Italian Mandolin, Padua, 1975). Today representatives of Italian classical music and Italian classical-contemporary music include Ugo Orlandi, Carlo Aonzo, Dorina Frati, Mauro Squillante and Duilio Galfetti.


title: Mandolin

text: Japanese composers also produced orchestral music for mandolin in the 20th century, but these are not well known outside Japan. Notable composers include Morishige Takei and Yasuo Kuwahara


title: Mandolin

text: Traditional mandolin orchestras remain especially popular in Japan and Germany, but also exist throughout the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. They perform works composed for mandolin family instruments, or re-orchestrations of traditional pieces. The structure of a contemporary traditional mandolin orchestra consists of: first and second mandolins, mandolas (either octave mandolas, tuned an octave below the mandolin, or tenor mandolas, tuned like the viola), mandocellos (tuned like the cello), and bass instruments (conventional string bass or, rarely, mandobasses). Smaller ensembles, such as quartets composed of two mandolins, mandola, and mandocello, may also be found.


title: Mandolin

text: A duet or duo is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece. A musical ensemble with more than two solo instruments or voices is called trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, etc.


title: Mandolin

text: Concerto: a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The Montreal Screwjob (also called the Montreal Incident; French: "Le Coup Tordu de Montréal" lit. Montreal's Twisted Coup) was an infamous unscripted professional wrestling incident that occurred on November 9, 1997, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view at the Molson Centre. Vince McMahon (World Wrestling Federation owner) and his employees covertly manipulated the outcome of the match between Bret Hart, the reigning WWF Champion, and Shawn Michaels. The manipulation – a "shoot screwjob" in professional wrestling parlance – occurred without Hart's knowledge and as a result he lost the title to Michaels in his last WWF match before departing for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The "screwjob" is generally believed to be an off-screen betrayal of Hart, who was one of the WWF's longest-tenured and most popular performers of all time.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam in August 1997. A week prior to Survivor Series, Hart, who had performed for the WWF since 1984, signed a contract to join WCW beginning in December 1997. McMahon sought to prevent Hart from leaving the company as the champion, but Hart was unwilling to drop the title to Michaels – with whom he had a long feud both on-screen and off – at the Survivor Series in his home country of Canada. Hart, Michaels, and McMahon came to an agreement where the Survivor Series match would end with a disqualification, which would result in Hart retaining the title. Hart would then lose or forfeit the title at a later date. However, McMahon decided without Hart's knowledge that Michaels would win the title at Survivor Series. Accounts differ as to who exactly was involved in the plan and the extent of their involvement. The plan was executed when match referee Earl Hebner, on direct orders from McMahon, ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Hart's signature finishing move, even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the winner by submission and crowned as the new WWF Champion.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The Montreal Screwjob has garnered a notorious legacy both on-screen and off, and was partly chronicled in the documentary film "" (1998). According to WWE, the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the end of the last match on the card of Survivor Series 1997, is considered the beginning of the Attitude Era. The far-reaching impact of the incident led to its adoption as a theme in matches and storylines of the WWF's Attitude Era and the creation of evil arrogant boss character "". Many wrestling fans, and several within the business, believe the entire incident was an elaborate work executed in collaboration with Hart. Nonetheless, Hart was ostracized from the WWF while McMahon and Michaels continued to receive angry responses from Canadian audiences for many years. WWF and WCW, as well as other wrestling organizations, would perform recreations of the incident, including as part of Hart's first PPV appearance for WCW at Starrcade, and at WWF's Survivor Series the following year.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart and McMahon later reconciled, and Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. On the January 4, 2010 episode of "WWE Raw", Hart, in his first live appearance on WWE television since the 1997 Survivor Series, had a lengthy on-screen discussion with Michaels about the Montreal Screwjob and other events in their past, and agreed to call a truce, bringing closure to the incident after more than 12 years. Hart would defeat McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in a No Holds Barred match built around lingering animosity from the Screwjob. Longtime industry writer Mike Johnson referred to the 1997 Survivor Series bout in which the Screwjob occurred as "arguably the most talked-about match in the history of professional wrestling".


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: At the time of the screwjob, Bret Hart was a 14-year veteran of the WWF, having got his first break in the promotion in the 1980s as one-half of the Hart Foundation tag team with his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart and manager Jimmy Hart. After the team had two reigns as the WWF Tag Team Champions - splitting from Jimmy Hart and becoming heroes between reigns - Hart then achieved tremendous success as a singles performer in the 1990s, twice taking the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, and then winning the WWF Championship five times. Between his third and fourth reigns, Hart took a seven-month leave of absence from the company after WrestleMania XII, during which he considered contract offers from both the WWF and its rival, WCW. In October 1996, Hart declined a three-year, $8.4 million offer from WCW, instead opting to sign an unprecedented 20-year deal offered by McMahon, which promised to make him the highest-paid wrestler in the company and secure him a major role with the company management following his retirement. Both Hart and the WWF saw the contract as an expression of mutual loyalty.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: By mid-1997, however, the WWF was facing financial difficulties due to stiff competition from WCW, which had become the largest professional wrestling promotion in the United States. At the same time, McMahon was planning to make the WWF a publicly traded company (even though the WWF wouldn't go public until 1999), a move which required him to minimize any long-term financial commitments.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: For several months prior to the 1997 Survivor Series, Hart and Shawn Michaels had several backstage arguments, culminating in a fight before a WWF Raw event in Hartford, Connecticut (after Michaels had publicly accused Hart of having an affair with Sunny) that saw Michaels suspended for two months. After a show in San Jose, California on October 12, 1997, Hart claimed he spoke to Michaels about being professional and trusting one another in the ring; Hart allegedly said he would have no problem losing to Michaels if McMahon requested. He also claimed that when Michaels replied that he "would not be willing to do the same" to Hart, Hart was shocked and became angry. This led to Hart's outright refusal to lose the WWF Championship to Michaels at the pay-per-view event in Montreal, although in , Hart states to McMahon that he would happily drop the belt but not in Canada. However, in his own autobiography, Michaels refuted Hart's claim, saying that he would have cleanly lost to Hart had storylines demanded so (though others, including Jim Cornette in various shoot interviews, have often refuted this, saying that they knew first-hand that Michaels had no intention of losing cleanly to Hart). Michaels also pointed out that he had lost cleanly to Hart several times in the past, most notably in the WWF's first ever ladder match at a "Wrestling Challenge" taping on July 21, 1992, which would subsequently be made available on multiple Coliseum/WWE Home Video releases, and in the main event of the 1992 Survivor Series. Michaels also lost to Hart in a Steel Cage match in December 1993.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: McMahon believed he made the right choice in pressing Hart to return, which kept him from joining WCW in 1996. However, by September 22, 1997, the WWF's monetary problems were at an all-time high. McMahon began to defer payments to Hart, claiming that the WWF was in "financial peril." At this time, McMahon reviewed the WWF's plans for the future, and saw the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and D-Generation X leading what was to become "The Attitude Era". WWF's plans did not include Hart; McMahon therefore encouraged Hart to reopen negotiations with WCW.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: While Hart considered an offer from then-WCW President Eric Bischoff, McMahon informed Hart that the WWF would honor his contract if he chose to stay. But, when Hart talked to McMahon about future plans and storylines, he was disappointed by McMahon's response and what he considered lackluster suggestions. At the time, Hart felt as though his career had been sabotaged by changes to his character, which had been retooled as an anti-America Canadian nationalist; as a result, he drew significant ire from American audiences, but remained a hero in his native Canada, as well as throughout Europe. As a result, he was neither a hero nor a villain, and as such could not be properly placed into feuds with other wrestlers with more concrete personas. Hart had also been unhappy about McMahon's move towards more controversial subject matter, which would become a staple of the company's product during the Attitude Era.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Convinced that McMahon's future plans did not include him, Hart resigned from the WWF and signed an agreement with WCW, which had just offered him a large $3 million per annum contract on November 1, 1997. Hart's signing the WCW deal caused McMahon to worry about the possibility of Hart entering WCW while still WWF Champion. Hart asked McMahon if he would be mocked after leaving for WCW, as had occurred with other wrestlers who had transferred to WCW from the WWF (for example, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage going by the names of "The Huckster" and "The Nacho Man" respectively in the "Billionaire Ted" sketches of early 1996, as well as having Rick Bognar and Glenn Jacobs portray the characters of Razor Ramon and Diesel respectively, characters that were made famous by both Scott Hall and Kevin Nash respectively before they joined WCW later in 1996). McMahon assured him that nothing of the sort would happen. Despite this, on the night after the Montreal Screwjob on "Monday Night Raw", D-Generation X performed a segment mockingly re-enacting the match between Michaels and Hart, with a little person dressed as Bret.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart's imminent move to WCW created a tense situation, as he had won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam 1997 from The Undertaker, which had featured Michaels as a special guest referee. The finish of the match saw Hart spit in Michaels face, followed by Michaels swinging a steel chair towards Hart, who ducked, and the chair striking The Undertaker down. Hart would cover The Undertaker, and Michaels would reluctantly perform the three count.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart's WCW contract was scheduled to begin on December 5, one month after the WWF's annual Survivor Series event, which was to be held in Montreal. Shawn Michaels, the leader of the emerging D-Generation X stable, had been booked into a main event title match with Hart at that show. McMahon, anxious for Hart to give up the title, sought his consent to job to Michaels. Hart, however, refused to give up the title to a member of The Kliq (a group that included Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Sean Waltman that had previously held enormous backstage influence), apparently standing up for the rest of the locker room. As part of their rivalry storyline, Michaels had repeatedly performed acts insulting the Canadian flag and Canadian fans, which had also upset Hart.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Wrestling fans also knew of Hart's long-standing personal difficulty with Michaels—Hart had been angered at Michaels's forfeiture of the WWF Championship in February 1997, ruining plans for a Hart–Michaels rematch at WrestleMania 13, where Michaels was expected to lose the title to Hart. Hart also believed that Michaels had faked a knee injury and talked about major surgery just to get out of their planned match. While Michaels denied rumors that he did not want to lose to Hart, and indeed Hart wound up winning the title shortly after Michaels relinquished it, Hart felt certain that Michaels would not have offered a loss in return if he had been staying with the WWF. The two had been involved in a real fight after Michaels implied that Hart was having an affair with WWF valet Sunny. The recent storyline rivalry had also seen Michaels make insulting remarks about Hart's father Stu Hart, which had left Bret and others in the Hart family upset. McMahon's offering of an estimated $3 million contract to Hart in 1996 had reportedly also upset Michaels.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: McMahon remained insistent about Hart dropping the title. The WWF owner was anxious over Hart pulling a move like that of former employee Debrah Miceli. Miceli, a veteran women's wrestler who competed under the name Madusa for much of her career, performed as Alundra Blayze in the WWF from 1993–1995 and won the Women's Championship during her stay there. McMahon, however, had neglected to renew her contract when it expired, and Miceli signed with WCW whilst still Women's Champion. When she made her first appearance on "WCW Monday Nitro", Madusa made fun of her time in the WWF and brought her title belt with her to the program, dumping it into a trash can. McMahon feared a repeat, despite claims from Bischoff that legal issues between the WWF and WCW would prevent such a thing, and that he would rather have Hart join WCW with a "clean slate".


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart continued to refuse to drop the title to Michaels, offering to lose the title anywhere in the United States prior to Survivor Series or to surrender the title to McMahon on the episode of "Monday Night Raw" the day after Survivor Series, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. After several disagreements, McMahon, Michaels and Hart agreed to a proposal of a disqualification finish, which would be the result of a brawl between Hart's allies Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Davey Boy Smith with Michaels's allies Triple H and Chyna, who would interfere in the match to aid Michaels. Hart would then lose or forfeit the title at a later date, as he was not due to start in WCW until December. Hart also asked for and obtained McMahon's permission for an opportunity to explain his actions, his heel character, praise McMahon and the WWF and thus leave on good terms with the company and the fans.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: At some point in the days leading up to Survivor Series, however, McMahon began to reconsider that decision. Word of Hart's impending departure from the company had leaked to fans and wrestling news sources. McMahon was worried that allowing Hart to remain champion after the match at Survivor Series would cause problems and reckoned that Bischoff was still prone to doing anything he could to get under McMahon's skin and McMahon thought he would be likely to mention the signing of Hart to WCW on "Nitro" the following night (something Bischoff said would not have happened under normal circumstances). Furthermore, Bischoff would have a one-hour head start on McMahon due to "Nitro" going on the air live at 8:00p.m., which would have been more than enough time to announce Hart's WCW arrival. Therefore, McMahon felt, he needed to find a way to preemptively strip Hart of the title.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: On November 8, 1997, one day before Survivor Series, McMahon met with Pat Patterson and Michaels in a hotel room in Montreal and planned the screwjob. It is unclear how many people knew of the impending betrayal, but McMahon's close aide Gerald Brisco was involved in the planning. Jim Ross has insisted that he did not know the screwjob would take place, although many, including various members of Hart's family, thought he was involved. Ross has stated that Jerry Lawler also did not know about the screwjob beforehand. Hart and Michaels had met with Pat Patterson to discuss the match setup and plan, during which Hart agreed to allow Michaels to put him into the Sharpshooter hold at a time when the referee would be unconscious, as Patterson suggested.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The rest of the match was planned to proceed thus: Hart would grab Michaels's foot and reverse the hold, putting him in the Sharpshooter. Michaels would submit to the hold, but the referee would still be unconscious. Hart would let go of the hold to try to revive the referee, but Michaels would hit Hart with his finisher, Sweet Chin Music, and make the pin. A second referee would then run to the ring with Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Davey Boy Smith following close behind. The second referee would start the count, but Owen and Davey Boy would break the pin. The original referee would then recover and start to make the count, but Hart would kick out, setting up about five more minutes of brawling that would result in a disqualification.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: In his 1998 documentary "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows", Hart said that his fears were largely assuaged because he was close friends with referee Earl Hebner and trusted him implicitly. Asked by Hart, Hebner swore by his children that he would never double-cross Hart and that he would rather quit his job than participate in a screwjob. However, according to Michaels's account of the events in his 2005 autobiography, "Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story", Michaels himself informed Hebner of the plan only on Sunday evening, just as Survivor Series was about to commence. This contradicted what Hebner said on a 2003 edition of "WWE Confidential", claiming that he first knew of McMahon's plan only ten minutes before the match finished, and out of panic following the bell ringing, he ran out of the ring and through the crowd, after which he locked himself in his hotel room for the night, refusing to speak to anyone.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Tensions and excitement were high as the wrestlers and officials congregated for Survivor Series. Hart was anxious over the match finish and had been warned of the prospect of a screwjob by his brother-in-law and Hart Foundation member Davey Boy Smith as well as Vader, who had experienced similar situations while wrestling in Japan. They advised Hart to be alert, not lie on his back for too long, kick out from pinfall counts immediately so as to avoid a fast count, and not allow himself to be placed in submission holds.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The Molson Centre in Montreal was sold out, with more than 20,000 fans in attendance. Rumors of Hart's imminent departure from WWF had leaked and consequently heightened the fan interest in the match. The mixed signals and a war of words between Hart, McMahon, Michaels and WCW further heightened anticipation. Emotions were also running high due to the Hart–Michaels rivalry and the "U.S. vs. Canada" storyline. While both men had been cordial with each other backstage, WWF officials ordered the deployment of a large number of company agents around the ring as a precaution if Hart decided to attack Michaels or McMahon in reaction to the double-cross. Highly unusual for any wrestling match, the deployment was explained on television as a necessary precaution in wake of the intense animosity between Hart's and Michaels's characters.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: There was also some legitimate concern that Michaels could be attacked during the planned in-crowd brawl, by fans angered at his actions of demeaning the Canadian flag. Michaels's entrance was greeted by loud booing and upon entering the ring, he proceeded to rub the Canadian flag against his crotch, picked his nose with it and later humped it—Michaels maintains that this flag desecration was actually suggested by Hart as an effective way to draw heat and emotion. The palpable anger of the fans was converted into raucous cheering as Hart entered the ring carrying the Canadian flag and wearing the championship belt. Hart, however, was visibly disturbed when segments of the crowd that were aware of his move to WCW jeered him with chants of "You sold out!" as the match progressed.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Once the match began, Hart and Michaels brought their performance outside the ring and into the crowd, while being followed by McMahon and WWF officials. As the climax of the match approached, the two wrestlers returned to the ring while WWF officials continued to order more personnel to ringside. Hart's suspicions were first aroused upon noticing that Vince McMahon was not at the announcers' table to perform commentary, and that on-screen commissioner Sgt. Slaughter was also standing at ringside with Vince McMahon. Nevertheless, the match continued. As planned, Michaels pushed Hebner in front of him as Hart jumped from the top turnbuckle, sending all three men to the canvas. Michaels and Hart both got up, but Michaels performed a rake on Hart's eye, sending Hart back to the mat. Michaels then proceeded to grab Hart's legs to execute the Sharpshooter maneuver.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: At this point, the match director was heard shouting instructions into his headset for Hebner to get up, but Hart did not notice anything amiss. Mike Chioda, the referee who was supposed to run in after Hebner went down, began yelling back that Hebner was not supposed to be up yet. Pat Patterson reacted in a similar way, and Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith, who were waiting for their cues to run in, remained backstage in a state of confusion. Michaels was then seen by many viewers as having glanced at Hebner as he put Hart in the sharpshooter, which some saw as proof that he was in on the scheme. Contrary to their agreed plan, Michaels tightened the hold and refused to offer his own leg to Hart for the latter to break out of the hold. At that moment, Hebner got to his feet, looked toward timekeeper Mark Yeaton, and shouted, "Ring the bell!" McMahon then elbowed Yeaton hard and yelled, "Ring the fucking bell!" Yeaton rang the bell just as Hart reached forward and grabbed Michaels's leg, which broke the hold and caused Michaels to fall. According to Bret Hart while he was trying to trip Shawn Michaels's knee he heard Vince McMahon say, "Ring the bell!" and he described he knew he was screwed right after the referee rang the bell.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Michaels's theme music then began playing as the ring announcer declared him the winner and the new WWF Champion. Hebner had already exited the ring and was on his way out of the arena. Jim Ross can be heard on commentary asking, "What happened?" A moment later, he says, "Bret Hart gave up in the Sharpshooter." After an initial moment of shock, Hart got to his feet, approached the apron where McMahon was standing and spat directly in his face, while Michaels feigned confusion. Michaels was ordered by McMahon to "pick up the damn belt and get the hell out of here!" Michaels left the arena with Brisco and Triple H and the broadcast signal cut off almost immediately after Michaels exited, with the last shot being a tight closeup of the Survivor Series logo above the entranceway. McMahon and most other WWF officials also quickly made their way backstage as an angry Hart smashed cameras, monitors, and ringside equipment. Fans in attendance also began to vent their fury on McMahon and WWF officials; a few even heaped garbage on them and some who were close enough pushed Michaels as he hurried backstage. Owen Hart, Neidhart and Davey Boy came out to the ring and had a conversation with Bret calming him down. Hart proceeded to finger trace "W-C-W" and "I love you" to the cheering fans before returning backstage.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: While much of the live Montreal audience immediately understood what had happened and responded angrily, television viewers had been left largely confused as Jim Ross promptly wrapped up the event on commentary and Survivor Series went off the air four minutes ahead of schedule with the parting image of Michaels holding the belt aloft as he disappeared backstage. Rumors and expressions of surprise and shock pervaded the Internet almost immediately after the match ended. Some observers considered it a creative and all-time great match finish. Observers of professional wrestling speculated whether the entire episode would result in WCW becoming the dominant promotion in Canada, where a large majority of fans had remained loyal to WWF, especially as the Hart family was working with the company.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: As seen on Hart's documentary, Hart proceeded to the dressing rooms and questioned Michaels, who pleaded that he knew nothing about what had taken place and was equally outraged. McMahon locked himself in his office with Pat Patterson and other agents. Mark Calaway, known in professional wrestling as The Undertaker, furious with McMahon, banged on the door. McMahon opened and was told by Calaway he had to apologize to Hart. As recounted in Michaels's autobiography, he was told by McMahon not to say anything about the screwjob to anybody, because McMahon needed to have everyone think that it was only him involved. Michaels offered his assurance that he would not carry the title belt out the next day on "Raw" and would refuse to say anything derogatory about Hart. Hart states in his autobiography that Undertaker and many wrestlers in the back supported him and it would have become mutiny. Hart proceeded to the dressing room to shower and change after discovering that McMahon, Brisco, and Slaughter had locked themselves in McMahon's office. When McMahon went to Hart's dressing room and tried to explain himself, Hart angrily rebuffed him and warned him to leave immediately or risk being punched.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: An altercation ensued, with Hart giving McMahon a single punch, dropping him to the floor. Although Vince's son, Shane McMahon, and Brisco struggled briefly with Hart and Davey Boy Smith, Hart told them to take McMahon and leave or risk similar consequences. Hart angrily asked McMahon if he was going to screw him on the pay he was still owed, to which a groggy McMahon replied in the negative. In the hallway outside the dressing rooms, Hart's then-wife Julie angrily confronted Triple H and others about the finish, but was escorted away by Owen Hart. McMahon had a black eye and a sprained ankle, which according to Bret Hart, was a result of his punch lifting Vince off the floor and Vince rolling his ankle once he landed. However, McMahon and Brisco have since stated on "WWE Confidential" that Brisco accidentally stepped on Vince's foot, which as he tried to get back to his feet, immediately sprained his ankle and sent him back to the floor, from which he suffered a concussion, and referred to Brisco's action as a 'comedy.' Michaels and Triple H were later confronted and assailed by angry fans outside the Molson Centre and in the lobby of their hotel.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: While Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and Owen Hart had flown out of Montreal with Bret, McMahon faced a major revolt in the WWF locker room. Most wrestlers were outraged at him and threatened to boycott "Raw" or leave the company altogether. McMahon addressed a meeting in an effort to mollify the wrestlers who had been outraged that a WWF veteran had been double-crossed by McMahon—many feared for their own future and were suspicious of McMahon. McMahon sought to explain that Hart had been disregarding the company's interests. By refusing to drop the title in Montreal, McMahon claimed Hart was jeopardizing the company's future by creating a potentially embarrassing situation that could affect its fortunes. The potential revolt was also quelled by Hart's counsel to wrestlers who asked him about boycotting "Raw" or leaving the company altogether. Hart advised them to fulfill their contractual obligations and not risk their own future over the episode. In protest, Mick Foley did not attend the next night's "Raw" show, but returned to work after that due to his contract stipulations.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Hart later commented in his autobiography that if Foley returned to WCW, he would be committing career suicide. Rick Rude, who was working there briefly as a story line manager for Michaels and was a real life friend of Hart's, called WCW and informed Eric Bischoff of what had transpired, and also returned to WCW two days after the events in Montreal mostly due to his disgust over Hart's treatment. Rude appeared on both "WWF Raw is War" and "WCW Monday Nitro" on November 17, 1997. A mustached Rude appeared on "Nitro", which was live, and proceeded to criticize Michaels, DX, and the WWF, calling the company the "Titanic" (a reference to Titan Enterprises, as WWF's parent company was then known, as the "sinking ship"). An hour later on "Raw" (which had been taped six days earlier), Rude then appeared with the full beard he had been sporting during his last few weeks in the WWF. Of the Hart family, only Owen continued to work with the company, being unable to terminate his contract.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: At the next night's "Raw" in Ottawa, Michaels appeared carrying the WWF title belt and performing a segment where he boasted before the audience of how he beat Hart with his own trademark move in his own country. McMahon gave a televised interview to commentator Jim Ross, explaining his version of events and making the now-infamous statement "Vince McMahon didn't screw Bret Hart. I truly believe that Bret Hart... screwed Bret Hart." Michaels continued his mocking of Hart in the coming weeks, performed a skit badgering a little person dressed up as Hart.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: As McMahon expected, WCW did address Hart and the aftermath of the screwjob on "Nitro" from the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis that same night. Mike Tenay and Tony Schiavone strongly criticized McMahon and Michaels for their actions. The show started with Bischoff making reference to Hart's impending arrival in WCW and his punching McMahon in the face, and he then used his on-air persona as the mouthpiece for the New World Order to claim (kayfabe) that Hart was to join the nWo as soon as he could be signed to WCW. Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and the rest of the nWo members stood with Canadian flags and sang the Canadian national anthem.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: WCW invoked the Screwjob again at Starrcade 1997, as Hart prevented Hogan from leaving with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. He claimed that the referee Nick Patrick gave a fast count and that he would not allow Sting to be screwed. The result was what critics called an anti-climax as most had expected Sting to win cleanly on skill alone. At Starrcade 1999, the finish of the match between Goldberg and Hart was for guest referee Roddy Piper to "ring the bell" once Hart placed Goldberg in the Sharpshooter despite Goldberg not submitting.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The "Montreal Screwjob" remains one of the most high-profile double-crosses in the history of professional wrestling and the first heavily publicized professional wrestling double-cross since Wendi Richter lost the WWF Women's Championship to a masked Fabulous Moolah following a money dispute on November 25, 1985. It is perhaps the most controversial match in the history of the WWF, with the effects of its outcome being felt for over a decade later due to its notoriety and the infamous legacy it left in the company. Hart was ostracized by McMahon and later refused offers of induction to the WWF Hall of Fame. The Hart family expressed outrage with McMahon and WWF for their neglect and the lack of safety precautions that could have prevented Owen Hart's later accident and death. The documentary "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows" included footage of McMahon's conversations with Hart in which he affirmed the planned disqualification finish and expressed determination for Hart to exit "the right way" and as amicably as possible—McMahon did not know that the conversation was being recorded. In the recordings, Hart refused to drop the title to Michaels.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: The Montreal Screwjob's impact defined later storylines and rivalries. The WWF successfully tapped fan outrage at McMahon over the incident by creating the persona of "Mr. McMahon" — an authoritarian and arrogant heel boss who imposed his own will and authority on rebellious characters such as Stone Cold Steve Austin. Within the storylines, McMahon "screwed" such wrestlers in order to hand the title to the performer of his choice. The "Bret screwed Bret" line inspired promos that McMahon made during his feud with Austin. At , McMahon sat at ringside, placed strategically near the timekeeper, during Austin's title defense against Dude Love, which caused Austin to allude to the Montreal Screwjob during a promotional interview. At Survivor Series 1998—the first anniversary of the screwjob—McMahon's son Shane, a match referee, abandoned his on-screen rebellion against his father and allowed his father to screw Austin, by refusing to count Austin's pinfall against Mankind. The McMahons then double-crossed Mankind in his main event WWF Championship match against The Rock later that night. Just as The Rock put the Sharpshooter hold on Mankind, McMahon called for the bell to be rung, even though Mankind did not submit. The Rock was declared the winner by submission and the new WWF Champion, fully re-enacting the Hart double-cross, this time with a switch between the respective face and heel characters.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: Since then, professional wrestling storylines, including some storylines written by WWE, continue to refer to the screwjob whenever a title match ends under controversial circumstances.


title: Montreal Screwjob

text: WWF eventually surpassed its arch-rival WCW. With its business steadily declining and a corporate takeover of its parent company (Time Warner) by America Online, WCW was put up for sale and purchased by Vince McMahon in 2001, once again making WWF the single-largest wrestling company in North America. Bret Hart's entry into WCW had been hailed at the time as a major coup for the company, but it subsequently failed to utilize his popular appeal. Hart's active wrestling career ended in 2000 after he suffered a serious concussion during a match with Goldberg. After dropping the WWF title to Austin at WrestleMania XIV in 1998, Michaels was forced into retirement for four years due to a serious back injury. After a long period of rehabilitation, Michaels returned to the ring in 2002 at SummerSlam, and eventually retired in 2010 at WrestleMania XXVI, losing a Streak vs. Career match to The Undertaker in the main event, but came out of retirement for one match eight years later at Crown Jewel in 2018.