title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: Several episodes involve Superman encountering other superheroes in the DC universe. Batman appears the most often, along with several of his allies and antagonists from "The New Batman Adventures", including The Joker, Robin, Alfred Pennyworth, Harley Quinn, Bane, Commissioner Gordon, and Ra's al Ghul, among others. In addition, other episodes feature The Flash (alongside the Weather Wizard), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) (with Sinestro and the Green Lantern Corps), Aquaman, and Doctor Fate (along with his wife Inza and Karkull).


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: In the time between the initial end of "Batman", Steven Spielberg approached Bruce Timm about his admiration for his previous show while being curious about an adventure cartoon. Spielberg asked Timm and his crew to come up with concepts for him to look at (one of these ideas eventually sprung into "Freakazoid!", which involved a crazed superhero, although Timm had aimed for a straightforward hero show rather than overt comedy). At any rate, Warner Bros was anticipating a feature film of "Superman" and thus wanted to make a television series to go alongside it, which led Jean MacCurdy to approach Timm about the idea of doing a series on Superman, which he agreed to. Initially, Timm struggled with finding the visual style, to the point where he thought of trying to aim for a retro feel similar to the Fleischer Studios "Superman"-cartoon (as his prior "Batman" series had touches of inspiration from said studio). An original character design sheet showed the characters in a stylized 1940s/1950s style (not unlike that of the live-action "Adventures of Superman" TV series); however, Timm decided that he could not compete against the "perfection" of the past, although he would utilize influence from classic deco, which he described as "bright, futuristic, optimistic, ocean liner art deco...much more in line with Superman's character." As with the first season of "Batman", the opening theme sequence of "Superman" lacked an on-screen title. Also like "Batman", the opening theme for "Superman" lacked any lyrics, instead of being an instrumental piece played over various scenes from the series. The character design for the title character was inspired not by one of the comics but instead "The Mighty Hercules" (1963) with the design of the title character.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD., TMS-Kyokuchi Corporation, Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD and Group TAC contributed some of the animation for this series. During the series, Timm and his crew began using TMS-Kyokuchi Corporation as an outsourced pre-production unit as well as an animation unit, and TMS storyboarded and directed episodes themselves. TMS also did the digital black hole effects in the episode "Absolute Power," although Koko and Dong Yang did the background and character animation. Like the previous shows, the animation on the series was done in traditional cels. The latter series "Batman Beyond" used cel animation in the first 26 episodes, it was then switched to digital ink and paint in the second half of season 2.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: One noticeable aspect of the series carried over from Byrne's work was Superman's powers were significantly downplayed compared to his comic book counterpart. Whereas in the comic he could lift millions or billions of tons effortlessly, this version struggled lifting trucks, construction equipment, roadways, etc. The writers admit that he was made as strong as the story permitted. His durability was also considerably less than while bullets bounced off him, heavier ordnance like high caliber bullets, cannons, and missiles caused him pain or discomfort (but it is often due only to the recoil, such weapons are still rather inefficient, only slowing him down). He's also recurrently shown being sensitive to electricity, high-voltage electric currents being able to cause him a great deal of pain (for this reason, Livewire is one of his most formidable enemies in this animated series), and in one episode lasers proved capable of blinding him temporarily. Despite this greatly reduced durability, he's very rarely shown injured or bleeding. His lung capacity seems also quite limited since he needs special equipment to go underwater or in outer space.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: In addition, the ship that carries the infant Kal-El to Earth is designed to have a pilot, and the autopilot used instead was programmed to land smoothly upon reaching its destination. This was done so that the ship is in perfect working condition during Superman's adulthood and could be used as his mode of long-range transportation in space.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: Season two was originally scheduled to run 26 episodes, but it was extended to 28 episodes in order to accommodate a two-part story introducing Supergirl.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: While the series adapts many villains from Superman's rogues gallery in the comics, the primary antagonists that he faces throughout the show and the DCAU continuity as a whole are Lex Luthor, Brainiac and Darkseid.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: In the series, the writers decided to alter Brainiac's origin by making him an artificial intelligence supercomputer from Krypton, instead of the planet Colu like the comics, to give him a more personal rivalry with Superman. While the producers of the show found Brainiac's character and abilities interesting in the comics, they disliked his original design so they drastically altered his appearance; his green artificial skin was replaced with an icy-blue coloration, and the rest of his outfit became a mix of purple and grey rather than pink and black. Corey Burton's vocal performance as Brainiac was done in a cold, low-affect style similar to HAL 9000 in the "Space Odyssey" films and the 'Control Voice' heard during the opening narration of "The Outer Limits".


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: To pay tribute to Jack Kirby's Fourth World creations, the show introduced the New God Darkseid as Superman's archenemy. In contrast to the character's less than faithful adaptations in "" and "" in the 1980s, "Superman: The Animated Series" portrays Darkseid as the evil and omnipotent cosmic dictator originally envisioned by Kirby in the comics. Michael Ironside's vocal performance was initially lowered for Darkseid's first two appearances in the series, though this modulation was later dropped in favor of Ironside's natural voice. The character is notable for being the only villain the DCAU's version of Superman is willing to kill, and Darkseid's actions in the series finale in addition to their rivalry become a recurring staple throughout subsequent spin-off shows.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: As with the majority of shows in DC animated universe, "Superman: The Animated Series" received a comic adaptation taking place in the same universe, that ran from 1996 to 2002, with 68 issues, an annual and a special issue featuring Lobo. Paul Dini wrote the first issue of the series, followed by Scott McCloud, Mark Millar and Evan Dorkin. Among the artists that contributed to the series are Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, Mike Manley, Aluir Amancio, Min S.Ku and Neil Vokes.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: Superman The Last Son Of Krypton compiling the first 3 episodes of the series was released on February 3, 2004 on DVD. Much like "Batman: The Animated Series" and other Warner Bros. cartoons adapted from popular DC Comic books, "Superman: The Animated Series" was released on DVD January 25, 2005, though it did not receive the same disc transfer as "Batman" did (the second disc of each volume was given the Side A/B treatment). The DVDs present the series' episodes in their airing order along with special features. Volume Two was released on December 6, 2005, and Volume Three was released on June 20, 2006. On November 24, 2009, Warner Home Video released "Superman: The Complete Animated Series", a 7-disc boxed set that includes all 54 episodes of the series as well as extensive bonus features. On October 26, 2021 Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released "Superman: The Complete Animated Series" on Blu-ray, also including all 54 episodes and bonus materials.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: A direct-to-DVD feature, "" was released in 2006, although it is not considered to be part of DCAU continuity, despite featuring the same character designs as "Superman: The Animated Series", as well as both Tim Daly and Dana Delany reprising their voice roles as Superman and Lois Lane, respectively.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: "" was later altered from its original airing on February 7, 1998. Originally the Dan Turpin funeral at the episode's end was a true homage to late New Gods creator Jack Kirby and featured several of his comic creations as attendees to the funeral including Nick Fury, the Fantastic Four, Big Barda, Scott Free, Orion and others, alongside Kirby's friends and fans Mark Evanier, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alex Ross, his father Norman Ross and Stan Lee. These characters and persons were later removed and the scene pacing was re-edited for subsequent airings and its DVD release on "Superman: The Animated Series" Volume 3 Disc 3. The original sketches for this scene can be found at Michael Eury's book "The Krypton Companion" published by TwoMorrow's Publishing (). Neither DC nor Warner ever commented on the decision to alter this particular scene, but it has been speculated that copyright issues regarding the use of the likenesses of Marvel Comics characters and the long-time rivalry between the two companies might have motivated the deletion. On March 17, 2021, "Superman: The Animated Series" was made available in high-definition on the streaming service HBO Max. They used the original broadcast version of this episode, reinstating the original mourners at Dan Turpin's funeral. The original version also made it to the official Blu-ray set later that same year.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: As with "Batman: The Animated Series", Shirley Walker was in charge of the series' music. Walker wrote the series theme and composed themes for various characters, as well as scoring six episodes herself – "Father's Day," "The Hand of Fate," "Obsession," "Absolute Power" and the two-parter "Legacy." Unlike the previous series, only four other composers worked on the series – Kristopher Carter, Harvey R. Cohen, Michael McCuistion, and Lolita Ritmanis. Almost every episode had a completely original score; very few reused music from previous shows, and only one episode ("Superman's Pal," credited to Carter, McCuistion, Ritmanis, and Walker) was entirely "scored" with tracked material.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: On January 28, 2014, La-La Land Records released a 4-disc compilation of music from the series, collecting 20 complete episode scores, including those of the "World's Finest" three-parter, the "Apokolips... Now!" two-parter, the "Little Girl Lost" two-parter and "In Brightest Day...". It is a limited edition release of 3000 units and can be purchased through the label's website.


title: Superman: The Animated Series

text: "Superman 64", released for the Nintendo 64 console in 1999, was the first video game to be produced based upon the series, however it is considered to be one of the worst Superman video games and worst games ever. A second video game, "" was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube consoles. It was produced by a different company, and was described as "a respectable but average superhero game."


title: Cronos (film)

text: Cronos is a 1992 Mexican independent horror drama film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Federico Luppi and Ron Perlman. "Cronos" is del Toro's first feature film, and the first of several films on which he worked with Luppi and Perlman. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 66th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. A stand-alone sequel, "We Are What We Are", was released in 2010, with the only connection being Daniel Giménez Cacho reprising his role as Tito the Coroner.


title: Cronos (film)

text: In the year 1536, an alchemist in Veracruz develops a mechanism that can give eternal life. In 1937, an old building collapses and the alchemist, who has marble-white skin, is killed when his heart is pierced by the debris. Investigators go to search the home of the alchemist, but they never reveal what else was discovered in the home: Basins filled with blood from a corpse.


title: Cronos (film)

text: In 1996, an old, somewhat religious antique dealer, Jesús Gris, notices the base of an archangel statue is hollow. He opens it and finds a 450-year-old mechanical object. After he winds the ornate, scarab-shaped device, it unfurls spider-like legs which grip him tightly, and inserts a needle into his skin, which injects him with an unidentified solution. An insect — entombed within the device and meshed with the internal clockwork — produces the solution. Gris eventually discovers his health and vigor are returning, as is his youth. His skin loses its wrinkles, his hair thickens and his sexual appetite increases. He also develops a thirst for blood. This at first disgusts him, but he eventually succumbs to the temptation. He then uses the device later that night, but says his nightly prayer as he does. His granddaughter Aurora notices this, and begins to worry about Gris.


title: Cronos (film)

text: Meanwhile, a rich, dying businessman, Dieter de la Guardia, who has been amassing information about the device for many years, has been searching for the archangel statue with the Cronos device. He has appropriated several archangels already. He sends his thuggish American nephew Angel, who suffers his uncle's abuse on a daily basis for an inheritance, to purchase the archangel at the antique shop.


title: Cronos (film)

text: During a New Year's Eve party, Gris sees a man bleeding from the nose and follows him into the men's room and waits for a chance to get his blood off of the sink countertop. Another man comes out of one of the stalls, sees the blood and cleans it up. Gris notices blood on the floor and decides to lick it up, until an unknown man walks up and kicks him in the face, which knocks him unconscious. Gris appears to be asleep in Angel's car and Angel gives him some alcohol and then tries to beat him into giving up the device. When Gris faints, Angel places his body inside a car and pushes it off a cliff. Gris briefly awakens and prays for survival, but seemingly dies. He later revives in an undertaker's establishment and escapes before he can be cremated. He returns to his home where Aurora lets him in. Dieter beats Angel for not ensuring Gris's heart was destroyed, and sends him to check on the body. Gris works on a letter to his wife in which he comments on the changes to his body, and tells her that after completing some 'unfinished business' he will return to her. He notices that his skin burns in the presence of sunlight and sleeps in a box to avoid it.


title: Cronos (film)

text: Eventually, he and Aurora bring the device to Dieter's headquarters, where the businessman offers him a "way out" in exchange for the device. Gris comments on his damaged skin and the businessman tells him to peel it off because he has new skin underneath, which is marble-white like the dead alchemist. Gris threatens to destroy the device, but is told that he will die should that happen. Gris agrees to hand it over in exchange for knowing the "way out", whereupon Dieter stabs him. Before being able to strike the killing blow to the chest, Dieter is incapacitated by Aurora and Gris feeds on Dieter. Angel finds the dying Dieter and crushes his throat with his foot, tired of his abuse and waiting for his inheritance. Angel confronts Gris on the rooftop of the building and beats him severely. Gris throws them both off the roof, killing Angel.


title: Cronos (film)

text: Aurora finds Gris unconscious, and uses the device to wake him. Noticing that her hand is bleeding, Gris is tempted to feed off his granddaughter, but he eventually controls himself. He then painfully destroys the device, despite previous warnings. Surprised to still be alive, he believes God to have saved him because of his attempted self-sacrifice. He returns to his home and lies in bed with Aurora and his wife, waiting for the rising sun to see if he is free of the effects from the device.


title: Cronos (film)

text: The film received acclaim by critics for its acting, originality, mythology, religious references, and its balance of horror and drama. When the film got the attention of international film critics including those from United States, it has since been recognized as one of the greatest horror films and Spanish language films of all-time. Rotten Tomatoes reports an 89% approval rating based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The critical consensus reads: "Guillermo del Toro's unique feature debut is not only gory and stylish, but also charming and intelligent." It was also entered into the 18th Moscow International Film Festival.


title: Cronos (film)

text: In the early 2010s, "Time Out" conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. "Cronos" was placed at number 96 on their top 100 list.


title: Cronos (film)

text: The film has become part of The Criterion Collection. The film's Blu-ray disc includes the film with both the introduction in English, and a version in its original Spanish language. In the website's plot synopsis of the film, it's described as "A dark, visually rich, & emotionally captivating fantasy". The film is sold separately, and as part of a movie collection named, "Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro", which includes del Toro's other Spanish language horror films "The Devil's Backbone" & "Pan's Labyrinth".


title: Cronos (film)

text: In North America, the film was given limited release to only 2 theaters where it grossed $17,538 its opening weekend and grossed a total of $621,392 playing at a total of 28 screens. After many critics viewed the film, they felt it deserved a wider release.


title: Cronos (film)

text: "Cronos" was first released on DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on 14 October 2003 as a "10th Anniversary Edition", which includes two commentaries, one by del Toro, and the other by three of the four producers, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, two galleries for production photos and concept art, and an easter egg which plays the theatrical trailers of four films, including "Cronos". On 7 December 2010, The Criterion Collection released "Cronos" on both DVD and Blu-ray with a new cover by Mike Mignola. The disc contains two audio commentaries by cast and crew, a video tour of del Toro's home office, several interviews, and "Geometria", a 1987 short film (although finished in 2010) written and directed by del Toro. The Criterion Collection also released the film as a part of the box set "Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro" that includes three of Guillermo del Toro's Spanish films, the other two being "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Devil's Backbone".


title: Crêpe

text: A crêpe or crepe ( or , , ) is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: "sweet crêpes" () or "savoury galettes" (). They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, jam, or hazelnut cocoa spread. Crêpes can also be flambéed, such as in crêpes Suzette.


title: Crêpe

text: The French term "" derives from , the feminine version of the Latin word , which means "curled, wrinkled, having curly hair."


title: Crêpe

text: In France, crêpes are traditionally served on the Christian holiday Candlemas (), on February 2. In 472, Roman Pope Gelasius I offered (later said Crêpes) to French pilgrims that were visiting Rome for the Chandeleur. They brought the dish back to France, and the day also became known as "Le Jour des Crêpes" ("The Day of the Crêpes"). The day is also celebrated by many as the day that marks the transition from winter to spring (similar to the North American tradition of Groundhog Day), with the golden color and circular shape of crêpes representing the sun and the circle of life.


title: Crêpe

text: There are various superstitions surrounding making crêpes for Le Jour des Crêpes. For e.g., holding a gold coin (such as a Louis d'or) or ring in one's left hand while successfully flipping a crêpe in a pan with one's right hand is said to bring the person wealth for the upcoming year (other variations describe a year of good weather). Another version of the tradition involves cooking a crêpe with a gold coin on top. Some people will hide the first crêpe in a drawer instead of eating it, also for good luck in the coming year. Eating and sharing crêpes with others on Candlemas is another tradition based on popes giving food to the poor every year on February 2.


title: Crêpe

text: A traditional French proverb describes the tradition of eating crêpes on Candlemas, “manger des crêpes à la chandeleur apporte un an de bonheur” (eating crêpes on Candlemas brings a year of happiness).


title: Crêpe

text: Sweet crêpes are generally made with wheat flour (). When sweet, they can be eaten as part of breakfast or as a dessert. Common fillings include hazelnut cocoa spread, preserves, sugar (granulated or powdered), maple syrup, golden syrup, lemon juice, whipped cream, fruit spreads, custard, and sliced soft fruits or confiture.


title: Crêpe

text: Savory crêpes are made with non-wheat flours such as buckwheat. A normal savory crêpe recipe includes using wheat flour but omitting the sugar. Batter made from buckwheat flour is gluten-free, which makes it possible for people who have a wheat allergy or gluten intolerance to eat this type of crêpe. Common savory fillings for crêpes served for lunch or dinner are cheese, ham, and eggs, ratatouille, mushrooms, artichoke (in certain regions), and various meat products.


title: Crêpe

text: Crêpes can also be made into crepe cakes by adding the plain crepes on top of each other, and within the two layers adding a layer of cream. Fruits, chocolate, cookies, marshmallow, etc., can be added. Most of the crêpe cake is sweet and it is usually considered as a dessert. It can also replace the traditional birthday cake. Crêpe cakes are usually 15-30 layers, and the crêpes used are very thin and soft.


title: Crêpe

text: Batters can also consist of other ingredients such as butter, milk, water, eggs, flour, salt, and sugar. Fillings are commonly added to the center of the crêpe and served with the edges partially folded over the center.


title: Crêpe

text: An Indian variety of the crêpe uses a multi-grain flour called "bhajanee", eggs, curd, and an assortment of spices as its ingredients. It is a modern variation of an Indian dish called Thalipeeth.


title: Crêpe

text: A cake made with layers of crêpes with a filling in between is called “gâteau de crêpes” or “ミルクレープ(mille-crêpes)” (a Japanese-made French word combining crêpes and mille-feuille). This French pâtisserie, was popularized by Emy Wada, a pâtissier who studied in France and operated Paper Moon Cake Boutiques in Japan, in the 1980s. In 2001, she expanded to New York City where she supplied crêpe cakes to popular chains Dean & DeLuca and Takashimaya through the company Lady M.


title: Crêpe

text: The standard recipe for a French crêpe calls for flour, eggs, milk, salt, and butter. Sugar is optional. In industrial production of crêpes, the dry ingredients are combined with eggs to form a dough. The rest of the wet ingredients being used are then added to thin out the batter to a consistency loose enough to easily be spread. The batter is added, one ladle at a time, to a hot greased pan, cooked until golden, then flipped. Crêpe batter is characterized by its liquidity, making it easy to spread out in a thin layer. Crêpes are also characterized by their quick cooking time, usually taking 20–30 seconds per side.


title: Crêpe

text: In older versions of crêpe recipes, beer or wine was used in place of milk. Buckwheat flour is often used as well, specifically in making a Breton Galette.


title: Crêpe

text: A crêperie may be a takeaway restaurant or stall, serving crêpes as a form of fast food or street food, or it may be a more formal sit-down restaurant or café. Crêperies can be found throughout France and in many other countries, but especially in Brittany. Many also serve apple cider, a popular drink to accompany crêpes.


title: Crêpe

text: "Mille crêpes"() are a French cake made of many crêpe layers. The word "mille" means "a thousand", implying the many layers of crêpe. Another standard French and Belgian crêpe is the "crêpe Suzette", a crêpe with lightly grated orange peel and liqueur (usually Grand Marnier), which is lit during presentation.


title: Crêpe

text: The 49er flapjack is a sourdough crêpe which is popular in the United States, getting its name from the popularity of this style of pancake during the California Gold Rush. Because it is similar to a Swedish pancake, the 49er is sometimes served with lingonberry sauce, although most often it is rolled up with butter and powdered sugar, or served open-faced and topped with maple syrup.


title: Crêpe

text: "Crêpe dentelle" is a crispy biscuit made with a very thin layer of crêpe folded in a cigar shape and then baked. It is usually enjoyed with a hot drink during the "goûter", in France.


title: Crêpe

text: In Norwegian, crêpes are called "pannekake", in most German regions "Crêpes" (referring to a wide and flat crêpe, as opposed to the smaller and thicker native "Pfannkuchen" pancakes). In Swedish, a crêpe is called "pannkaka" in southern regions while being called "plättar" in the north, in Danish, "pandekager" ("pancakes"), in Icelandic it is called "pönnukaka", in Finnish a crêpe is called either "ohukainen" or "lettu" or "räiskäle", in Greek it is krepa (Κρέπα), in Dutch it is a "pannenkoek" or "flensje", and in Afrikaans a "pannekoek", which is usually served with cinnamon and sugar. In the Spanish regions of Galicia and Asturias, they are traditionally served at carnivals. In Galicia, they're called "filloas", and may also be made with pork blood instead of milk. In Asturias, they are called "fayueles" or "frixuelos", and in Turkey, "akıtma".


title: Crêpe

text: In areas of central Europe, formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian empire, there is a thin pancake comparable to a crêpe that in Austro-Bavarian is called "Palatschinken"; in ; and in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, and ; in . In the Balkan countries, "palačinka" or "pallaçinka" may be eaten with fruit jam, quark cheese, sugar, honey, or the hazelnut-chocolate cream Nutella, while there is also a breaded variant which is mostly filled with meat. Restaurants which are specialized in palačinci are called "Palačinkara" in the region. In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, there is a similar dish known as the blintz. The "Oxford English Dictionary" derives the German and Slavic words from the Hungarians "palacsinta", which it derives from the Romanian "plăcintă", which comes in turn from classical Latin "placenta" ("small flat cake"), even though the Romanian "plăcintă" is more similar to a pie, and the crêpes are actually called "clătită".


title: Crêpe

text: During the Russian celebration of Maslenitsa (Russian Butter Week), one of the most popular foods are blini, or crêpes. Since they are made from butter, eggs, and milk, crêpes are allowed to be consumed during the celebration by the Orthodox church. White flour can be replaced with buckwheat flour and milk can be switched for kefir, and oils can be added or substituted. Blini are served with a piece of butter and topped with caviar, cheese, meat, potatoes, mushrooms, honey, berry jam, or often a dollop of sour cream. The dish is supposed to represent the sun since the holiday is about the beginning of the spring.


title: Crêpe

text: Crêpes have also long been popular in Japan and Malaysia, with sweet and savory varieties being sold at many small stands, usually called crêperies. In Argentina and Uruguay, they are called "panqueques" and are often eaten with dulce de leche. Various other French foods such as crêpes, soufflés, and quiche have slowly made their way into American cooking establishments. Typically, these franchises stick to the traditional French method of making crêpes but they have also put their own spin on the crêpe with new types such as the hamburger and pizza crêpe. In Canada, particularly in French-speaking regions, crêpes and galettes have long been traditional food items.


title: Crêpe

text: The Japanese crêpes developed into something different from the French crêpes due to its various fillings and toppings, and the style later spread outside of Japan. It is often called 'Harajuku Crêpes'. In Japan, French crêpes were introduced in the 1970s, and they were only spread with jam and were not very popular. In 1977, Mizuki Ono opened a crêpe shop in Harajuku, and taking inspiration from ice cream monaka, began to sell crêpes with ice cream, whipped cream, and sliced fruit, which became very popular. They were rarely made at home and spread as sweets purchased from street stalls and eaten on the street.


title: Crêpe

text: In Mexico, crêpes are known as "crepas", and were introduced during the 19th century by the French and are typically served either as a sweet dessert when filled with "cajeta" (similar to dulce de leche), or as a savoury dish when filled with "Huitlacoche" (corn smut), which is considered a delicacy.


title: Crêpe

text: In South India, a similar dish made of fermented rice batter is called a dosa, which often has savory fillings. In Western India, a dish made of gram flour is called "Pudlaa" or "Poodla", with the batter consisting of vegetables and spices. Another variety is called "patibola" and is sweet in taste due to milk, jaggery, or sugar. The injera of Ethiopian/Eritrean/Somali/Yemeni cuisine is often described as a thick crêpe. In Somalia, malawah is very similar to a crêpe. It is mostly eaten at breakfast.


title: Crêpe

text: In the Philippines, a native crêpe recipe is the "daral" which is made from ground glutinous rice and coconut milk batter ("galapong"). It is rolled into a cylinder and filled with sweetened coconut meat strips ("hinti").


title: Crêpe

text: In Indonesia, Kue leker is a type of Indonesian crêpe. Also, "ledre", a rolled banana crêpe from Bojonegoro.


title: Crêpe

text: In China, Jianbing is a traditional Chinese street food similar to crêpes. It is generally eaten for breakfast and hailed as "one of China's most popular street breakfasts". It consists of wheat and grain-based crepe, an egg, deep-fried crackers (known as Bao Cui/薄脆 in Chinese), 2-3 savory/spicy sauces, and chopped scallions & coriander.


title: Giselle

text: Giselle (; ), originally titled Giselle, ou les Wilis (, "Giselle, or The Wilis"), is a romantic ballet ("ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. It was an unqualified triumph. It became hugely popular and was staged at once across Europe, Russia, and the United States.


title: Giselle

text: The ghost-filled ballet tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl named Giselle and a disguised nobleman named Albrecht, who fall in love, but when his true identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion, Giselle goes mad and dies of heartbreak. After her death, she is summoned from her grave into the vengeful, deadly sisterhood of the Wilis, the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers and take revenge in the night by dancing men to death by exhaustion (a popular theme in Romantic-era ballets). Led by Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, they target Albrecht when he comes to mourn at Giselle's grave, but her great love frees him from their grasp. They gain their power in numbers as they effortlessly move through dramatic patterns and synchronized movements and control the stage with their long tulle dresses and stoic expressions, creating an ethereal atmosphere that builds as they gradually close in on Albrecht. By saving him from the Wilis, Giselle also saves herself from becoming one of them.


title: Giselle

text: Librettists Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier took their inspiration for the plot from a prose passage about the Wilis in "De l'Allemagne", by Heinrich Heine, and from a poem called "Fantômes" in "Les Orientales" by Victor Hugo.


title: Giselle

text: Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot created the original choreography. The role of Giselle was intended for Carlotta Grisi as her debut piece for the Paris public, and she was the only ballerina to dance it at the Paris Opera for many years. The traditional choreography that has been passed down to the present day derives primarily from the revivals staged by Marius Petipa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. One of the world's most-often performed classical ballets, it is also one of its most challenging to dance.


title: Giselle

text: The ballet opens on a sunny autumnal morning in the Rhineland during the Middle Ages. The grape harvest is in progress. Duke Albrecht of Silesia, a young nobleman, has fallen in love with a shy, beautiful peasant girl named Giselle, despite being engaged to Bathilde, the Duke of Courland's daughter. He disguises himself as a humble villager called "Loys" to court the enchanting and innocent Giselle, who knows nothing of his true identity. With the help of his squire, he hides his fine attire, hunting horn, and sword before coaxing her out of her house to romance her as the harvest festivities begin.


title: Giselle

text: Hilarion, a local gamekeeper, is also in love with Giselle and is highly suspicious of the newcomer who has won her affections. He tries to convince her that her beau can't be trusted, but she ignores his warnings. Her mother, Berthe, is very protective of her, as she has a weak heart that leaves her in delicate health. She discourages a relationship between Giselle and Loys, thinking Hilarion would be a better match, and disapproves of her fondness for dancing, due to the strain on her heart.


title: Giselle

text: A party of noblemen seeking refreshment following the rigors of the hunt arrive in the village with Bathilde among them. Albrecht hurries away, knowing he would be recognized and greeted by her, exposing him as a nobleman. The villagers welcome the party, offer them drinks, and perform several dances. She is charmed with Giselle's sweet and demure nature, not knowing of her relationship with Albrecht. Giselle is honored when Bathilde offers her a necklace as a gift before the group of nobles depart.


title: Giselle

text: The villagers continue the harvest festivities, and Albrecht emerges again to dance with Giselle, who is named the Harvest Queen. Hilarion interrupts the festivities. He has discovered Albrecht's finely made sword and presents it as proof that he is really a nobleman who is engaged to another woman. Using Albrecht's hunting horn, Hilarion calls back the party of noblemen. Albrecht has no time to hide and has no choice but to greet Bathilde as his fiance. All are shocked by the revelation, but none more than Giselle, who becomes inconsolable when faced with his deception. Knowing that they can never be together, she flies into a mad fit of grief in which all the tender moments she shared with Loys flash before her eyes. She begins to dance wildly and erratically, ultimately causing her weak heart to give out. She collapses and dies in Albrecht's arms. Hilarion and Albrecht turn on each other in rage before Albrecht flees the scene in misery. The curtain closes as Berthe weeps over her Giselle's body.


title: Giselle

text: In the original version, taken up again recently by a production of the ROB, Giselle stabs herself with Albrecht's sword, which explains why her body is laid to rest in the forest, in unhallowed ground, where the Wilis have the power to summon her. Most modern versions are sanitized and have edited out the suicide.


title: Giselle

text: Late at night, Hilarion mourns at Giselle's forest grave, but is frightened away by the arrival of the Wilis, the ghostly spirits of maidens betrayed by their lovers. Many were abandoned on their wedding days, and all died of broken hearts. They, led by their merciless queen, Myrtha, dance and haunt the forest at night to exact their revenge on any man they encounter, regardless of who he may be, forcing their victims to dance until they die of exhaustion.


title: Giselle

text: Myrtha and the Wilis rouse Giselle's spirit from her grave and induct her into their clan before disappearing into the forest. Albrecht arrives to lay flowers on Giselle's grave and he weeps with guilt over her death. Her spirit appears and he begs her forgiveness. She, her love undiminished unlike her vengeful sisters, gently forgives him. She disappears to join the rest of the Wilis and Albrecht desperately follows her.


title: Giselle

text: Meanwhile, the Wilis have cornered a terrified Hilarion. They use their magic to force him to dance until he is nearly dead, and then drown him in a nearby lake. Then they spy Albrecht, and turn on him, sentencing him to death as well. He pleads to Myrtha for his life, but she coldly refuses. Giselle's pleas are also dismissed and he is forced to dance until sunrise. However, the power of Giselle's love counters the Wilis' magic and spares his life. The other spirits return to their graves at daybreak, but Giselle has broken through the chains of hatred and vengeance that control the Wilis, and is thus released from their powers and will haunt the forest no more. After bidding a tender farewell to Albrecht, she returns to her grave to rest in peace.


title: Giselle

text: The French Revolution (17891799) brought sweeping changes to theatre in France. Banished were the ballets the aristocracy preferred about the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. Instead, ballets about everyday people, real places, real time, the historical past, and the supernatural took prominence. These sorts of ballets were preferred by the burgeoning middle class.


title: Giselle

text: Two ballets caused great excitement in Paris in the 1830s. In November 1831, Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable" had its first performance. It featured a short ballet called "Ballet of the Nuns". In this little ballet, scantily clad nuns rise from their graves to dance wantonly in the moonlight. The public loved this little supernatural ballet.


title: Giselle

text: In March 1832, the ballet "La Sylphide" debuted in Paris. This ballet is about a beautiful sylph who loves James, a young Scotsman. Tragedy occurs. After dallying in the woods, the sylph dies when her earthly lover uses a bewitched scarf to trap her. This ballet brought Marie Taglioni before the French public. She was the first to dance "en pointe" for artistic reasons rather than spectacle and was also the first to wear the white, bell-shaped, calf-length ballet skirt now considered an essential feature of the romantic ballet. Poet and critic Théophile Gautier attended the first performance of "La Sylphide". His ideas for "Giselle" would show touches of "La Sylphide" ten years later. It would be set in a real place and in the past, for example, and would be about everyday people and supernatural women.


title: Giselle

text: In an 1841 news article announcing the first performance of "Giselle", Théophile Gautier recorded his part in the creation of the ballet. He had read Heinrich Heine's description of the Wilis in "De l'Allemagne" and thought these evil spirits would make a "pretty ballet". He planned their story for Act II and settled upon a verse by Victor Hugo called "Fantômes" to provide the inspiration for Act I. This verse is about a beautiful 15-year-old Spanish girl who loves to dance. She becomes too warm at a ball and dies of a chill in the cool morning.


title: Giselle

text: Heine's prose passage in "De l'Allemagne" tells of supernatural young women called the Wilis. They have died before their wedding day and rise from their graves in the middle of the night to dance. Any young man who crosses their path is forced to dance to his death. In another book, the Wilis are said to be jilted young women who have died and become vampires. This is assumed to be the reason that they hate men.


title: Giselle

text: Gautier thought Heine's Wilis and Hugo's fifteen-year-old Spanish girl would make a good ballet story. His first idea was to present an empty ballroom glittering with crystal and candlelight. The Wilis would cast a spell over the floor. Giselle and other dancers would enter and whirl through the room, unable to resist the spell to keep them dancing. Giselle would try to keep her lover from partnering other girls. The Queen of the Wilis would enter, lay her cold hand on Giselle's heart and the girl would drop dead.


title: Giselle

text: Gautier was not satisfied with this story. It was basically a succession of dances with one moment of drama at its end. He had no experience writing ballet scenarios so he called upon Vernoy de St. Georges, a man who had written many ballet librettos. St. Georges liked Gautier's basic idea of the frail young girl and the Wilis. He wrote the story of Giselle as it is known today in three days, and sent it to Léon Pillet, the director of the Paris Opéra. Pillet needed a good story to introduce Grisi to the Paris public. He found that story in "Giselle". Grisi liked it as much as Pillet did, so "Giselle" was put into production at once.


title: Giselle

text: The balletomanes of Paris became very excited as the opening night of "Giselle" approached. News reports kept their interest alive. Some reports said that Grisi had had an accident whilst other reports indicated that the conductor was ill with a tumor. Still others said that the stage hands feared for their safety.


title: Giselle

text: Hopes that the ballet would be ready in May were dashed and the opening night was postponed several times. Grisi was absent for a few days and her return was delayed to protect her health. Lighting, trapdoors, and scene changes needed further rehearsals. Cuts were made in Grisi's role to spare the dancer's health. Instead of returning to her tomb at the end of the ballet, it was decided that she would be placed on a bed of flowers and sink slowly into the earth. This touch preserved the romantic mood of the Act II finale.


title: Giselle

text: At last, on Monday, 28 June 1841 the curtain rose on "Giselle" at the Salle Le Peletier. Grisi danced Giselle with Lucien Petipa as her lover Albrecht, Jean Coralli as the gamekeeper Hilarion, and Adèle Dumilâtre as Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis. Typical of the theatrical practices of the time, "Giselle" was preceded by an excerpt from another production—in this case, the third act of Rossini's opera, "Mosè in Egitto". In 1844 Marie Guy-Stéphan made her first appearance in the title role for the first production of "Giselle" in Spain. She performed in numerous works by Pepita.


title: Giselle

text: In spite of the chief machinist shouting orders to his crew that could be heard by the audience, "Giselle" was a great success. Grisi was a sensation. Ballet-goers regarded her as another Marie Taglioni, the greatest ballerina of the period.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was a great artistic and commercial success. "Le Constitutionnel" praised Act II for its "poetic effects". "Moniteur des théâtres" wrote that Grisi "runs [and] flies across the stage like a gazelle in love". One critic made a detailed analysis of the music in "La France Musicale". He thought the Act I waltz "ravishing" and noted that the scene of Berthe's narrative was filled with "quite new" harmonic modulations. He praised other moments in Act I (especially the mad scene), and was in raptures with the music of Act II, singling out the entrance of the Wilis and the viola solo played through Giselle's last moments. He thought the flute and harp music accompanying Giselle as she disappeared into her grave at ballet's end "full of tragic beauty."


title: Giselle

text: Coralli was praised for the Act I peasant "pas de deux" and for the "elegance" of Act II. Coralli followed a suggestion made by Gautier and picked the most beautiful girls in the company to play the peasants and the Wilis. One observer thought the selection process cruel: the almost-beautiful girls were turned away without a second thought.


title: Giselle

text: Grisi and Petipa were great successes as the tragic lovers. Gautier praised their performance in Act II, writing that the two dancers made the act "a real poem, a choreographic elegy full of charm and tenderness ... More than one eye that thought it was seeing only [dance] was surprised to find its vision obscured by a tearsomething that does not often happen in a ballet ... Grisi danced with a perfection ... that places her in the ranks between Elssler and Taglioni ... Her miming surpassed every expectation ... She is nature and artlessness personified."


title: Giselle

text: Adam thought Petipa "charming" as both dancer and actor, and that he had "rehabilitated" male dancing with his performance. Of Dumilâtre he wrote, "... in spite of her coldness, [Dumilâtre] deserved the success she achieved by the correctness and the 'mythological' quality of her poses: perhaps this word may seem a little pretentious, but I can think of no other to express such cold and noble dancing as would suit Minerva in a merry mood, and in this respect [Dumilâtre] seems to bear a strong resemblance to that goddess."


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" made 6,500 francs between June and September 1841. This was twice the amount for the same time period in 1839. Grisi's salary was increased to make her the top earner among the dancers at the Opéra. Souvenirs were sold, pictures of Grisi as Giselle were printed, and sheet music arrangements were made for social dancing. The sculptor Emile Thomas made a statuette of Giselle in her Act II costume. A silk cloth was manufactured called "façonné Giselle", and Madame Lainné, a milliner, sold an artificial flower called 'Giselle'. The ballet was parodied at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in October 1841.


title: Giselle

text: Adolphe Adam was a popular writer of ballet and opera music in early 19th-century France. He wrote with great speed and completed "Giselle" in about two months. The music was written in the smooth, song-like style of the day called "cantilena". This style is well known to music lovers from Bellini's opera "Norma" and Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor".


title: Giselle

text: Adam used several "leitmotifs" in the ballet. This is a short musical phrase that is associated with a certain character, event, or idea. Adam's leitmotifs are heard several times throughout the ballet. There is a leitmotif associated with Giselle and another with Albrecht. Hilarion's motif marks his every entrance. It suggests the Fate theme in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.


title: Giselle

text: Another leitmotif is associated with the "he loves me, he loves me not" flower test in Act I, which is heard again in the mad scene, and in Act II when Giselle offers flowers to Albrecht. The Wilis have their own motif. It is heard in the overture, in Act I when Berthe tells the story of the Wilis, and in the mad scene. It is heard again in Act II when the Wilis make their first entrance. The hunting horn motif marks sudden surprises. This motif is heard when Albrecht is exposed as a nobleman.


title: Giselle

text: The music was completely original. A critic noted, however, that Adam had borrowed eight bars from a romance by a Miss Puget and three bars from the huntsman's chorus in Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Euryanthe".


title: Giselle

text: Adam's score for "Giselle" acquired several additional numbers over the course of its history, with some of these pieces becoming an integral part of the ballet's performance tradition.


title: Giselle

text: Immediately following the first "répétition générale" of "Giselle" on the stage of the Paris Opéra, the danseuse Nathalie Fitz-James used her influence as the mistress of an influential patron of the theatre to have a "pas" inserted for herself into the ballet. Jean Coralli was required to quickly arrange a number for Fitz-James, which was arranged by Coralli as a "pas de deux" with the danseur Auguste Mabille serving as Fitz-James's partner. Coralli's original intentions were to have the ballet's composer Adolphe Adam supply the music for Fitz-James's "pas", but by this time Adam was unavailable. In light of this, Coralli chose a suite by the composer Friedrich Burgmüller's titled "Souvenirs de Ratisbonne" to fashion music for Fitz-James's required "pas". This "pas de deux", which was dubbed the "Pas des paysans" (or "Peasant pas de deux"), became part of the ballet's performance tradition.


title: Giselle

text: For Carlotta Grisi's performances as Giselle with the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Perrot commissioned the composer Cesare Pugni to score a new "pas de cinq" for the ballerina that was added to the first tableau. This "pas" was only retained for Grisi's performances and never performed again after her departure from St. Petersburg. Marius Petipa would also commission an additional piece for the first tableau of the ballet. This was a "pas de deux" from the composer Ludwig Minkus that was added to the choreographer's 1884 revival for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova. As with Pugni's 1850 "pas de cinq" for Grisi, Gorshenkova's 1884 "pas de deux" by Minkus never became part of the performance tradition of "Giselle".


title: Giselle

text: Three solo variations were added to the ballet by Petipa during the latter half of the 19th century. The first was arranged in 1867 for the "grand pas de deux" of the second tableau for the ballerina Adèle Grantzow. The music was composed by Cesare Pugni and was based on Adolphe Adam's "he loves me, he loves me not" leitmotif. This variation has been retained in the ballet ever since.


title: Giselle

text: The second variation was added by Petipa to the first tableau for the ballerina Emma Bessone's début as Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1886, and on this occasion the composer Riccardo Drigo wrote the music for the variation. The music was never used again after Bessone's departure from Russia until Agrippina Vaganova added it to the "Peasant pas de deux" for the Kirov Ballet's production of "Giselle" in 1932. The inclusion of this variation in the "Peasant pas de deux" remains part of the Mariinsky Theatre's performance tradition of "Giselle" to the present day.


title: Giselle

text: The third variation added by Petipa was also composed by Drigo and has survived as one of the most beloved passages of "Giselle". This variation, sometimes dubbed as the "Pas seul", was arranged in 1887 for the ballerina Elena Cornalba's performance in a revival of Saint-Léon's "Fiametta". Cornalba then included it for her début in "Giselle" in December of that year, where it has remained ever since. The variation was also danced by Cornalba's successors in the role of Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre. Cornalba's variation was first performed outside of Russia by Olga Spessivtzeva in 1924 at the Paris Opéra, and from then on all productions staged outside of Russia included the variation. There was much confusion at that time as to who was responsible for composing the music, leading many ballet historians and musicologists to credit Ludwig Minkus as the author, a misconception which still persists.


title: Giselle

text: Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot choreographed the original version of "Giselle". Perrot and Carlotta Grisi were lovers and, consequently, Perrot designed all of her dances and pantomime. Everyone in the Paris dance world knew that Perrot had created Grisi's dances and Coralli admitted it, but Perrot was given no official credit in the printed materials such as posters and programs. This was most likely done to prevent Perrot from collecting royalties on the ballet. Perrot liked bold touches and planned several rapid aerial swoops on wires in Act II for Giselle. Grisi was afraid of these swoops, therefore a stage hand was brought in to test them. He crashed face-first into the scenery and the swoops were dropped.


title: Giselle

text: Cyril Beaumont writes that "Giselle" is made up of two elements: dance and mime. Act I features short mimed scenes, he points out, and episodes of dancing which are fused with mime. In Act II, mime has become fused entirely with dance. He indicates that the choreographic vocabulary is composed of a small number of simple steps:


title: Giselle

text: Beaumont speculates that the simple steps were deliberately planned to allow the "utmost expressiveness."


title: Giselle

text: Parts of "Giselle" have been cut or changed since the ballet's first night. Giselle's Act I pantomime scene in which she tells Albrecht of her strange dream is cut and the peasant "pas de deux" is also slightly cut back. The Duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde used to make their entrance on horseback, but today they walk on. In the original production they were present at Giselle's death, but now they leave the scene before she dies. The machines used to make Giselle fly and to make her disappear are no longer employed. A trapdoor is sometimes utilized to make Giselle rise from her grave and then sink into it at the end of Act II. At the end of Act II Bathilde formerly entered with the courtiers to search for Albrecht. He took a few unsteady steps toward them and then collapsed into their arms. This moment was an artistic parallel to the Act I finale when the peasants gathered about the dead Giselle. Now, Bathilde and the courtiers are cut and Albrecht slowly leaves the stage alone.


title: Giselle

text: Ethnic music, dance, and costume were a large part of romantic ballet. At the time "Giselle" was written, people thought of Germany when they heard a waltz because the waltz is of German origin. Giselle makes her first entrance to the music of a waltz, and the audience would have known at once that the ballet was set in Germany. Adam wrote three waltzes for "Giselle": two for Giselle and one for the Wilis. He said that the "Giselle Waltz" in Act I has "all the German color indicated by the locality" and people agreed. One critic wrote: "A lovely waltz ... in the Germanic spirit of the subject".


title: Giselle

text: At first, Gautier thought that some of the dancers in the waltz for the Wilis should dress in ethnic costume and dance ethnic steps. Adam put bits of French, Spanish, German, and Indian-sounding music in the waltz for this purpose. Gautier's "ethnic" idea was dropped as the ballet developed and it has not been picked up by modern producers. Today, Act II is a "ballet blanc" (a "white" ballet in which all the ballerinas and the "corps de ballet" are dressed in full, white, bell-shaped skirts and the dances have a geometric design).


title: Giselle

text: The historical period for "Giselle" is not indicated in the story. Paul Lormier, the chief costume designer at the Paris Opéra, probably consulted Gautier on this matter. It is also possible that Pillet had the ballet's budget in mind and decided to use the many Renaissance-style costumes in the Opéra's wardrobe for "Giselle". These costumes were said to have been those from Rossini's "William Tell" (1829) and Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini" (1838). Lormier certainly designed the costumes for the principal characters. His costumes were in use at the Opéra until the ballet was dropped from the repertoire in 1853.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was revived in 1863 with new costumes by Lormier's assistant, Alfred Albert. Albert's costumes are closer to those of modern productions than those of Lormier, and were in use at the opera until 1868. The ballet was revived again in 1924 with scenery and costumes by Alexandre Benois. He wanted to revive the costumes of the original production but dropped the idea, believing the critics would charge him with a lack of imaginative creativity.


title: Giselle

text: Pierre Luc Charles Ciceri was the chief set designer at the Paris Opéra from 1815 to 1847. He designed the sets for the first production of "Giselle". Gautier was not specific about the ballet's locale, but placed it in "some mysterious corner of Germany ... on the other side of the Rhine".


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was two months in rehearsal, which was a very long rehearsal time for the period. Even so, Ciceri did not have enough time to design sets for both acts and focused on the second act. The sets for the first act were actually those designed for the 1838 ballet, "La Fille du Danube" by Adam. An illustration from "Les Beautés de l'Opera" of 1845 shows Giselle's cottage with a roof of straw on the left and Albrecht's cottage on the right. The two cottages are framed by the branches of two large trees on either sides of the stage. Between the two cottages, in the distance, appears a castle and slopes covered with vineyards. Although this scene was not designed for "Giselle", it has remained the model for most modern productions. Ciceri's set was in use until the ballet was dropped from the repertoire in 1853. At that time, Gautier noticed that the sets were falling apart: "Giselle's cottage has barely three or four straws on its roof."


title: Giselle

text: The Act II illustration from "Les Beautés" shows a dark wood with a pool of water in the distance. The branches of aged trees create a tree tunnel. Beneath these branches on the left is a marble cross with 'Giselle' carved on it. From one of its arms hangs the crown of grape leaves Giselle wore as Queen of the Vintage. On the stage, thick weeds and wildflowers (200 bulrushes and 120 branches of flowers) were the undergrowth. The gas jets of the footlights and those overhead suspended in the flies were turned low to create a mood of mystery and terror.


title: Giselle

text: A circular hole was cut into the backdrop and covered with a transparent material. A strong light behind this hole represented the moon. The light was occasionally manipulated to suggest the passage of clouds. Gautier and St. Georges wanted the pool to be made of large mirrors but Pillet rejected this idea because of its cost. In the 1868 revival, however, mirrors were acquired for this scene.


title: Giselle

text: Adam thought Ciceri's backdrop for Act I was "not so good ... it is all weak and pale" but he liked the set for Act II: "[Ciceri's] second act is a delight, a dark humid forest filled with bulrushes and wild flowers, and ending with a sunrise, seen at first through the trees at the end of the piece, and very magical in its effect." The sunrise also delighted the critics.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was performed in Paris from its debut in 1841 to 1849, with Grisi always dancing the title role. In 1849, it was dropped from the repertoire. The ballet was revived in 1852 and 1853, without Grisi, then dropped from the repertoire after 1853. It was revived in 1863 for a Russian ballerina, then dropped again in 1868. It was revived almost 50 years later in 1924 for the debut of Olga Spessivtzeva. This production was revived in 1932 and 1938.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was mounted by other ballet companies in Europe and America almost immediately after its first night. The British had their first taste of "Giselle" with a drama based on the ballet called "Giselle, or The Phantom Night Dancers" by William Moncrieff, who had seen the ballet in Paris the same year. The play was performed on 23 August 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Sadler's Wells. The actual ballet was first staged in London at Her Majesty's Theatre on 12 March 1842 with Grisi as Giselle and Perrot as Albrecht. The dances were credited to Perrot and one Deshayes. This production was revived many times, once in 1884 with a Mlle. Sismondi in the role of Albrecht. This production, preceded by an operetta called "Pocahontas", met with little enthusiasm.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was first performed in Russia at the Bolshoi Theatre, St. Petersburg, on 18 December 1842. Stepan Gedeonov, the Director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, sent his ballet master Antoine Titus to Paris to find a new ballet for ballerina Yelena Andreyanova. Titus chose "Giselle". The Ballet Master then staged the work completely from memory in St. Petersburg. Perrot produced "Giselle" in St. Petersburg in 1851. He made many changes to the ballet in his years of service to the Imperial Ballet. In the 1880s, Petipa made many changes to the Perrot production.


title: Giselle

text: "Giselle" was first staged in Italy at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 17 January 1843. The music however was not Adam's but that of Niccolò Bajetti. The dances were not the original either but those of Antonio Cortesi. It is possible that the ballet was first staged in the provincial theatres. This, however, is not known with certainty.


title: Giselle

text: In 1844, American ballerina Mary Ann Lee arrived in Paris to study with Coralli for a year. She returned to the United States in 1841 with the directions for "Giselle" and other ballets. Lee was the first to present "Giselle" in the United States. She did this on 1 January 1846 in Boston at the Howard Athenæum. George Washington Smith played Albrecht. Lee danced "Giselle" (again with Smith) on 13 April 1846 at the Park Theatre in New York City.


title: Giselle

text: In January 1911 Nijinsky danced in "Giselle" at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg for the Imperial Ballet, with the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna in attendance. His costume, which had been designed by Alexandre Benois and used in Paris before, caused a scandal, as he danced in tights without the then-common trousers. He refused to apologize and was dismissed from the Imperial Ballet.


title: Giselle

text: The ballet was staged by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes later in 1911 at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, with Tamara Karsavina and Nijinsky as Giselle and Albrecht. Anna Pavlova danced Giselle with her own company in 1913. Alicia Markova danced the role with the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1934, and Margot Fonteyn took the role in 1937 when Markova left the company. The English loved "Giselle". In 1942, for example, three different companies were dancing the ballet in London.


title: Giselle

text: In a departure from the traditional "Giselle", Frederic Franklin restaged the ballet in 1984 as "Creole Giselle" for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. This adaptation set the ballet among the Creoles and African Americans in 1840s Louisiana.


title: Giselle

text: A 2012 novel by author Guy Mankowski entitled "Letters from Yelena" follows the journey of a principal dancer as she performs the role of Giselle in Saint Petersburg.


title: Kate Abdo

text: Kate Abdo (; born 8 September 1981, Manchester, England) is an English sports broadcaster who currently hosts UEFA Champions League coverage for CBS Sports and Fox Sports' FIFA World Cup Tonight. Throughout her career she has worked internationally in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and the United States.


title: Kate Abdo

text: Abdo's broadcasting career started at the German international news network Deutsche Welle in 2005, in which she completed an internship in the foreign language department. In 2006–07, she worked as a production assistant for "Goal! The Bundesliga Magazine", and at the same time was sports news presenter at Deutsche Welle until 2009, where she hosted sports coverage for their English and German-language services.


title: Kate Abdo

text: From there she moved to CNN, where she anchored the "World Sports" program daily. She also hosted the "Inside Africa" feature show. Abdo left CNN to join Sky Sport News HD in Germany, where she was head anchor and the face of the network. Abdo joined to be a public face for the launch of the network and was also heavily involved in the development of the network's coverage, formats and programming.


title: Kate Abdo

text: From Germany, Abdo moved to the UK to join Sky Sports, where she hosted the Pay Per View Boxing events, European Football, Transfer Deadline day and Sky Sports News. Sky Sports loaned Abdo to Fox Sports to host their coverage of the Women's World Cup in 2015, and Abdo later took up a permanent offer from the network to relocate to the US and host their Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, FA Cup, and Bundesliga coverage. On three occasions (2010, 2011 and 2013), she acted as presenter for the UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Monaco.


title: Kate Abdo

text: Since being at Fox, she has also now taken on the role of hosting Fox's Premier Boxing Champions, including a regular studio show "Inside PBC Boxing" and fight night coverage. After Fox lost the rights to Champions League to Turner, Abdo also signed a deal to host Champions League coverage on TNT from Turner's Atlanta studios.


title: Kate Abdo

text: Abdo is also well known for her role hosting the FIFA Ballon d'Or and Laureus World Sports Awards, both of which she hosted on numerous occasions. At the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony she spoke with contestants and guests in four languages. She was also a host for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or.


title: Kate Abdo

text: After losing major soccer rights and the cancellation of ‘’Inside PBC’’, Abdo left Fox Sports. However, she has returned to Fox to host their nightly FIFA World Cup show in Qatar.


title: Kate Abdo

text: In 2020, Abdo returned to the UK to work for CBS Sports as the host of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League.


title: Kate Abdo

text: Born in Manchester, she studied at Christ the King School, Manchester, and Withington Girls' School. She moved to Spain at the age of 17, learned Spanish, and took her high school diploma. A year later, she began a degree at the University of Málaga in 2003 where she studied "Translation and Interpreting." Abdo also took time out of her studies to live in France and Germany. She also graduated from the University of Salford with a first-class B.A. (Hons) in European Languages. Having lived in Spain, France and Germany, Abdo is fluent in all three languages.


title: Kate Abdo

text: She married Ramtin Abdo (Abdolmajid), a German businessman and investor, in 2010. She is of Guyanese descent through her maternal grandmother. She is a Manchester United fan.


title: Southern Italy

text: Southern Italy ( or ) also known as Meridione or Mezzogiorno (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half.


title: Southern Italy

text: The term "Mezzogiorno" today refers to regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity "Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum" and "ultra Pharum", i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.


title: Southern Italy

text: The island of Sardinia, which had neither been part of said region nor of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy that would eventually annex the Bourbon-led and Southern Italian Kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the "Mezzogiorno".


title: Southern Italy

text: The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term "South Italy" ("Italia meridionale" or also just "Sud") to identify one of the five statistical regions in its reportings without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region denominated "Insular Italy" ("Italia insulare" or simply "Isole"). These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament.


title: Southern Italy

text: In a similar fashion to France's "Midi" ("midday" or "noon" in French), the Italian term "Mezzogiorno" refers to the intensity and the position of sunshine at midday in the South of the Italian peninsula.


title: Southern Italy

text: The term came into vogue after the annexation of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-based Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia, and the subsequent Italian unification of 1861.


title: Southern Italy

text: Southern Italy is generally thought to comprise the administrative regions that correspond to the geopolitical extent of the historical Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, including Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, and Sicily. Some also include the southernmost and easternmost parts of Lazio, (namely the districts of Frosinone, Sora, Cassino, Gaeta, Cittaducale, Formia and Amatrice) within the "Mezzogiorno". The island of Sardinia, although being culturally, linguistically and historically less related to the aforementioned regions than any of them is to each other, is frequently included as part of the "Mezzogiorno", often for statistical and economical purposes.


title: Southern Italy

text: Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle (Campania), the toe (Calabria), the arch (Basilicata), and the heel (Apulia), Molise (north of Apulia) and Abruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrow Strait of Messina. Separating the "heel" and toe of the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto, which is at an angle between the heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea.


title: Southern Italy

text: The island of Sardinia, situated to the west of the Italian peninsula and right below the French island of Corsica, may also often be included.


title: Southern Italy

text: On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of the "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano; on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gulf of Salerno, the Gulf of Naples, the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast. Off the peninsula's tip is the isle of Capri.


title: Southern Italy

text: The climate is mainly Mediterranean (Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area.


title: Southern Italy

text: The region is geologically very active, except for Salento in Apulia, and highly seismic: the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless.


title: Southern Italy

text: In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in Southern Italy. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille). They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The first Greek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones, Oenotrians and Iapyges (these last ones were subdivided into three tribes: Daunians, Peucetians and Messapians). The relationships between the Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostile (especially with the Iapygian tribes). The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life.


title: Southern Italy

text: The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal Southern Italy "Magna Graecia" ("Great Greece") since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks; the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions.


title: Southern Italy

text: With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent "polis". An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.


title: Southern Italy

text: Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like "Neapolis" (Νεάπολις, Naples, "New City"), "Syrakousai" (Συράκουσαι, Syracuse), "Akragas" (Ἀκράγας, Agrigento), and "Sybaris" (Σύβαρις, Sibari). Other cities in Magna Graecia included "Tarentum" (Τάρας), "Metapontum" (Μεταπόντιον), "Heraclea" (Ἡράκλεια), "Epizephyrian Locri" (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι), "Rhegium" (Ῥήγιον), "Croton" (Κρότων), "Thurii" (Θούριοι), "Elea" (Ἐλέα), "Nola" (Νῶλα), "Syessa" (Σύεσσα), "Bari" (Βάριον), and others.


title: Southern Italy

text: After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position throughout the barbarian invasions (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of imperial control). It was restored to Eastern Roman control in the 530s after the fall of Rome in the West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by the Lombards by Zotto's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.


title: Southern Italy

text: Following the Gothic War (535–554), and until the arrival of the Normans, much of Southern Italy's destiny was linked to the fortunes of the Eastern Empire, even though Byzantine domination was challenged in the 9th century by the Lombards, who annexed the area of Cosenza to their Duchy of Benevento. Consequently, the Lombard and the Byzantine areas became influenced by Eastern monasticism, and much of Southern Italy experienced a slow process of orientalisation in religious life (rites, cults and liturgy), which accompanied a spread of Eastern churches and monasteries that preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition (the Cattolica monastery in Stilo is the most representative of these Byzantine monuments). From then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between the Byzantines, Lombardy, and the Aghlabid Dynasty. The latter established two Emirates in southern Italy: the Emirate of Sicily and, for 25 years, the Emirate of Bari. Amalfi, an independent republic from the 7th century until 1075, and to a lesser extent Gaeta, Molfetta and Trani, rivalled other Italian maritime republics in their domestic prosperity and maritime importance.


title: Southern Italy

text: From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied all the Lombard and Byzantine possessions in Southern Italy, ending a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy, and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony. However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign of Constance of Sicily, and was replaced by that of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage to Henry VI, member of this family.


title: Southern Italy

text: In Sicily, King Frederick II endorsed a deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as "Liber Augustalis"), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the" Liber Augustalis" remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian, that had a significant influence on what was to become the modern Italian language. During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte, and in 1224, he founded the University of Naples, now called, after him, Università Federico II.


title: Southern Italy

text: In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing the old Kingdom of Sicily in two. The island of Sicily called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily, but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy "status quo". Despite the king of Spain being able to seize both the two crowns starting from the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816 when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.


title: Southern Italy

text: In 1442, however, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of the Crown of Aragon. At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again split Ferrante, Alfonso's illegitimate son, inherited Naples. When Ferrante died in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited on the death of King René's nephew in 1481, as a pretext, thus beginning the Italian Wars. Charles VIII expelled Alfonso II of Naples from Naples in 1495. However, he was soon forced to withdraw due to the support of Ferdinand II of Aragon to his cousin, Alfonso II's son Ferrantino. Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV. The French, however, did not give up their claim and, in 1501, agreed to a partition of the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin, King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and the Crown of Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, ultimately resulting in an Aragonese victory leaving Ferdinand in control of the kingdom by 1504.


title: Southern Italy

text: The kingdom remained disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades. The French efforts to gain control of it became feebler as the decades went on, and Spanish control was never genuinely endangered. The French finally abandoned their claims to the kingdom by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the new client state of the so-called "Presidi" ("state of the garrisons") was established and governed directly by Spain, as part of the Kingdom of Naples.


title: Southern Italy

text: The administration of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, as well as the Duchy of Milan, was run by the Council of Italy. The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon the fall of the last indigenous state, was an integral part of the Council of Aragon instead and remained as such until the first years of the XVIII° century, when Sardinia was ceded to Austria and eventually handed over to the Alpine-based House of Savoy in 1720.


title: Southern Italy

text: After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Naples was given to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily were conquered by a Spanish army during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, and Charles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. When Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV. Despite the two kingdoms being in a personal union under the House of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated.


title: Southern Italy

text: Being a member of the House of Bourbon, King Ferdinand IV was a natural opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon. In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of the French Republic, captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic, a French client state, as successor to the kingdom. King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Naples. In the Edict of Bayonne of 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as King of the Two Sicilies, though this meant control only of the mainland portion of the kingdom. Throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, with Palermo as his capital.


title: Southern Italy

text: After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by the Congress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. He established a concordat with the Papal States, which previously had a claim to the land. There were several rebellions on the island of Sicily against the King Ferdinand II, but the end of the kingdom was only brought about by the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Garibaldi, an icon of the Italian unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and their Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in Northern Italy. The expedition resulted in a striking series of defeats for the Sicilian armies against the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, he disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, while in the meantime the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from the Marche. The last battles fought were that of the Volturnus in 1860 and the siege of Gaeta, where King Francis II had sought shelter, hoping for French help, which never came. The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition were Messina (which capitulated on 13 March 1861) and Civitella del Tronto (which capitulated on 20 March 1861). The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, founded in the same year.


title: Southern Italy

text: At the time of Italian unification, the gap between the former Northern states of Italy and the Southern two Sicilies was significant: Northern Italy had about 75,500 kilometers of roads and 2,316 kilometers of railroads, combined with a wide range of canals connected to rivers for freight transportation; iron and steel production was 17,000 tons per year. By contrast, in the former Bourbon Southern state, there were 14,700 kilometers of roads, 184 kilometers of railroads (only around Naples), no canals connected to rivers and iron and steel production was 1,500 tons per year.


title: Southern Italy

text: In 1860, illiteracy rates on the Italian peninsula averaged 75%, with the lowest level of 54% in the northwestern Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as "Piedmont"), and the highest in the south, where illiteracy in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies reached 87%.


title: Southern Italy

text: In 1860 the southern merchant navy amounted to 260,000 tons, whereas the northern merchant navy came to 347,000 tons, apart from the Venetian navy annexed in 1866 and assessed at 46,000 tons. In 1860 the whole Italian merchant navy was the fourth largest in Europe at about 607,000 tons.


title: Southern Italy

text: The Southern merchant navy was made up of sailing vessels mainly for fishing and coastal shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and it had very few steamships, even if one of the first steamers was built and fitted out in Naples in 1818. Both merchant and military navy were insufficient compared to the great coastal extent of Southern Italy defined by the Italian historian Raffaele De Cesare: "… a great pier towards the South".


title: Southern Italy

text: In the article "This is Not Italy! Ruling and Representing the South", it is clear how the Northern elites considered the South. The Piedmontese North felt the need to invade the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and establish a new form of governance based on the Northern system, since they viewed the South as under-developed and lacking in social capital. These views of the South can largely be attributed to the letters of correspondents in southern Italy who sent biased letters to leaders of the North, specifically Camillo Benso, urging the invasion and reformation of the South. Although these views of the South were condescending, they also came with a genuine belief that in order to create a unified Italy, help from the North was necessary. Viewing southern Italy as barbaric served as a sort of justification to allow the "civilized, Piedmontese north" (167) to intervene. Another view however was marked by disdain for Southern Italy. According to the article, "such manifestations of the south's difference threaten the glowing and gloating sense of northern superiority" (167). These viewpoints clearly indicate the divide between Northern and Southern Italy in the 1860s.


title: Southern Italy

text: In an attempt to explain the striking difference between the annexed territory of the former Two Sicilies and the economic and political powerhouse centred in the North, racist theories were postulated, suggesting that such a divide had its roots in the coexistence of two mostly incompatible races.


title: Southern Italy

text: Denis Mack Smith, British historian, describes the radical difference between Northern and the newly annexed Southern Italy in 1860, for these two halves were on quite different levels of civilization, pointing out that the Bourbon in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were staunch supporters of a feudal system and that they had feared the traffic of ideas and had tried to keep their subjects insulated from the agricultural and industrial revolutions of northern Europe.


title: Southern Italy

text: The above-mentioned study by Denis Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left wing politician Antonio Gramsci in his book "The Southern Question", by which the author emphasizes the "absolutely antithetical conditions" of Northern and Southern Italy at the time of Italian unification in 1861, when South and North were united again after more than one thousand years.


title: Southern Italy

text: Gramsci remarks that, in the North of Italy, the historical period of the Comunes had given a special boost to history and in Northern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development of capitalism and industry, whereas in Southern Italy history had been different and the fatherly Bourbon administrations produced nothing of value; the bourgeois class did not exist, agriculture was primitive and insufficient to satisfy the local market, there were no roads, no ports, the few waterways that the region had were not exploited, due to its special geographical features.


title: Southern Italy

text: The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare, who reports that the king of Naples Ferdinand II had no interest in doing useful works to improve the neglected condition of public hygiene, particularly in the provinces where scarcity of sewer systems and often water shortages were known issues.


title: Southern Italy

text: The problem of brigandage is explained in the book "Heroes and Brigands" by the southern Italian historian and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti, outlining that brigandage was endemic in Southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent.


title: Southern Italy

text: Unlike Southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of northern and central Italy, like the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States.


title: Southern Italy

text: According to the southern Italian historian Giustino Fortunato, and Italian institutional sources the problems of Southern Italy existed way before Italian unification, and Giustino Fortunato emphasizes that the Bourbons were not the only ones responsible for the problems of the South, which had ancient and deep origins also in previous centuries of poverty and isolation, caused by foreign domination and foreign governments.


title: Southern Italy

text: In literature, the period of 1860 was depicted by Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard"), set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification. In a famous final scene, Prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer "…the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect…" With these and other words the author underscores the problem Sicilians had, having to change their old lifestyle while remaining on their island. The novel was adapted by Luchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 film "The Leopard".


title: Southern Italy

text: The southern economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. Poverty and organised crime were long-standing issues in Southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. Cavour stated the basic problem was poor government, and believed the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in brigandage. Because of this, the South experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora, especially to North America, South America, Australia, and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa, Milan and Turin. A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of the "Mezzogiorno" after World War II. In the 1946 referendum after the war, the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania. Politically, it was at odds with northern Italy, which won the referendum to establish a republic. Today, the South remains less economically developed than the northern and central regions, which enjoyed an "economic miracle" in the 1950s and 1960s and became highly industrialized.


title: Southern Italy

text: Starting from the unification of Italy in 1861–1870, a growing economic divide between the northern provinces and the southern half of Italy became evident. In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the South, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made the situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921. In addition, the surge of brigandage and mafia provoked widespread violence, corruption and illegality. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti once conceded that places existed "where the law does not operate at all".


title: Southern Italy

text: After the rise of Benito Mussolini, the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori, tried to defeat the already powerful criminal organizations flowering in the South, with some degree of success. However, when connections between mafia and the Fascists emerged, Mori was removed and the Fascist propaganda declared the mafia defeated. Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an Italian Empire and Southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards the colonies. Naples enjoyed a demographic and economic rebirth, mainly due to the interest of King Victor Emmanuel III, who was born there.


title: Southern Italy

text: Starting from the 1950s, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialise the South, that aimed to do this in two ways: by land reforms creating 120,000 new small farms, and through the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the South, thus boosting the Southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and as a result the South became increasingly subsidised and state-dependent, incapable of generating private growth itself. Presently, huge regional disparities still persist. Problems still include pervasive organised crime and very high unemployment rates.


title: Southern Italy

text: Due to Southern Italy's lack of progress in bettering the area, it has had record numbers of emigration. The most prevalent issue in Southern Italy is its inability to attract businesses, and therefore create jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, 943,000 Italians were unemployed. From this figure, 70% were Italians from the South. Employment in the South is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union. Italians from the South are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into the economy of the Italy from immigrants. In Southern Italy tourism, distribution, food industries, wood furniture, whole sale, vehicle sales, sales in mineral and artisan fields are among the leading areas contributing to the projected employment growth. The economy of the South heavily relies on tourism. It attracts tourists through its rich historical background.


title: Southern Italy

text: A report published in July 2015 by the Italian organization "SVIMEZ" shows that Southern Italy has had a negative GDP growth in the last seven years, and that from the year 2000 it has been growing half as much as Greece.


title: Southern Italy

text: In 2016, Southern Italy's GDP and economy was growing twice as much as Northern Italy's. According to Eurostat figures published in 2019, Southern Italy is the European area with the lowest employment percentages: in Apulia, Sicily, Campania and Calabria, less than 50% of the people aged between 20 and 64 had a job in 2018. This is largely due to the low participation of women in the workforce, as slightly more than 30% of the women are employed, compared to a national and European average of 53.1% and 67.4%, respectively.


title: Southern Italy

text: In southern Italy, which contains eight cohesion areas (Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Abruzzo and Basilicata), a public-private partnership known as SMEI Italy serves as a catalyst for private investment and supports economic growth and employment creation.


title: Southern Italy

text: Over €1 billion in finance has been catalyzed in these eight locations to far, supporting almost 5 000 SMEs and small mid-caps.


title: Southern Italy

text: Today, Abruzzo it is the richest of the regions of Southern Italy, while Calabria appears as the poorest.


title: Southern Italy

text: The regions of Southern Italy were exposed to some different historical influences than the rest of the peninsula, starting most notably with Greek colonisation. Greek influence in the South was dominant until Latinisation was completed by the time of the Roman Principate. Greek influences returned by the late Roman Empire, especially following the reconquests of Justinian and the Byzantine Empire.


title: Southern Italy

text: Sicily, a distinctive Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture throughout the Middle Ages, was captured by Muslims and turned into an Emirate for a period, and elements of Arab culture were introduced via Sicily to Italy and Europe. The rest of the mainland was subject to a struggle of power among the Byzantines, Lombards, and Franks. In addition, the Venetians established outposts as trade with Byzantium and the Near East increased.


title: Southern Italy

text: Until the Norman conquests of the 11th and 12th centuries much of the South followed Eastern rite (Greek) Christianity. The Normans who settled in Sicily and Southern Italy in the Middle Ages significantly impacted the architecture, religion and high culture of the region. Later, Southern Italy was subjected to rule by the new European nation states, first the Crown of Aragon, then Spain, and then Austria. The Spanish had a major impact on the culture of the South, having ruled it for over three centuries.


title: Southern Italy

text: Jewish communities lived in Sicily and Southern Italy for over 15 centuries, but in 1492 King Ferdinand II of Aragon proclaimed the Edict of expulsion. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted around one tenth of the island's population. After the Edict, they partially converted to Christianity and some moved to the Ottoman Empire and other places in Italy and Europe. In the 19th century, street musicians from Basilicata began to roam worldwide to seek a fortune, most of them would become professional instrumentalists in symphonic orchestras, especially in the United States.


title: Southern Italy

text: Southern Italy has many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Sassi di Matera, Trulli di Alberobello and other archaeological sites (many of which are protected by UNESCO). There are also many ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy, such as Sybaris and Paestum, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. Some of its beaches, woodlands and mountains are preserved in several National Parks; a major example is the Pollino, between Basilicata and Calabria, that hosts the largest national park in Italy.