David is preparing a song for the midsummer festival. Then Walther arrives and tells Hans that a song came to him in a dream. Hans helps him to prepare the song for the contest. When they have left the workshop Beckmesser comes in and sees the piece of paper with the song. He picks it up when Hans returns and says that it is obvious that he, Hans, wants to enter the contest. Hans tells Beckmesser that he can have the song. Beckmesser is delighted and thinks he can now win Eva in marriage.
At the song contest Beckmesser tries to sing the song, but he sings it to his own tune which does not fit the words, and he gets the words all muddled up. Everyone laughs and he leaves the stage angrily, saying that Sachs wrote the song. Walther now sings his prize song. This time people realize how beautiful it is although it does not obey the usual rules. Walther can marry Eva.
Wagner’s operas have continuous music which develops is very logical ways using leitmotifs. In the prelude we hear several tunes which are leitmotifs that are to be important during the opera: a theme that represents the dignity of the mastersingers, a theme for passion which later becomes Walther’s prize song, the chattering of the apprentices etc. The music at the beginning of Act Three is also often played separately in the concert hall.
There are many beautiful moments in the opera. Wagner cleverly changes the style to suit the action, for example when Eva’s father is talking about the Mastersingers’ reputation in Germany we hear an old-fashioned recitative. Beckmesser is made to look stupid through his music which contrasts with Walther’s romantic music.
People have explained the meanings behind this opera in several ways. The basic story is
about the wonderful German art of singing. It is also about the fact that composers should be able to write music which is beautiful without having to obey rules that were made up long ago and have become old-fashioned. Wagner was trying to bring lots of changes to opera, making the drama the most important thing. Some people found his new ideas quite difficult to follow, and this may be why he chose, for once, to write a comic opera instead of a serious one based on mythology. The character of Beckmesser is a caricature of Eduard Hanslick, a famous music critic who did not like the music of Wagner and Bruckner but preferred the more traditional music of Brahms and Antonín Dvořák.
The opera has been criticized because Wagner may have meant the story to have an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) meaning. This is certainly the way that Hitler understood it. It was his favourite opera, and the idea of praising German art and song fitted in nicely with his racist views. The character of Beckmesser is also a caricature of a stereotype Jew.
Takbir
Allahu Akbar is a Muslim saying. The exact words in Arabic mean "God is greater", but people know that saying "God is great" in the right time and place means the same as "God is Greater." "Allahu Akbar" is the first part of the Adhan, which people hear 5 times a day where Muslim people live together. Saying "God is Great" tells people in a few words what Islam believes and teaches.
This Arabic phrase was added to the Iraqi flag, in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, in 2001. Muslims say it before changing positions during their prayers. Allahu Akbar was the anthem of Libya during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.
Shire
A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain (also county) and Australia. It is a kind of local government.
The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in central and southern England. Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff. In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts.
Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland, the word is pronounced (to rhyme with "fire"). As a suffix in an English or Welsh place name it is pronounced (rhymes with "fir").
In England and Wales, the term "shire county" is used to refer to counties which are not metropolitan counties.
It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire". These counties are typically (though not always) named after their county town.
Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire.
Of these, all but Huntingdonshire and Yorkshire are also administrative counties (but with different boundaries). Huntingdonshire is now administered as a district of Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire is split between East, North, South and West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria and County Durham.
Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire
In Wales, the counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix. The only traditional Welsh county that never takes "shire" is Anglesey.
Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, Fifeshire, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Morayshire, Nairnshire, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Stirlingshire, Wigtownshire
Shire is the most common word in Australia for the smallest local government areas by population. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use shire for this unit. South Australia and Tasmania use district. A shire has the same powers as the next largest units, the town and city. In NSW, the expression 'The Shire' commonly refers to the Sutherland shire.
Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is a shonen manga published in the "Weekly Shônen Magazine" from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017. It was created by Hiro Mashima. It has 545 chapters and 63 tankōbon volumes. The series is also aired. Some video games are released by Konami. In August 2012 The Phoenix Priestess, a Fairy Tail movie, was released.
The story of Fairy Tail focuses around the adventures of main characters Natsu and Lucy, who are sometimes with the members of the Fairy Tail Guild.
In the beginning, Lucy is a young sorceress (a "mage"), who wants to join Fairy Tail Guild. On her trip, she meets Natsu, a young boy, who is looking for Igneel the Salamander. She offers Natsu and Happy (his partner) a lunch and Natsu explains that Igneel is a dragon. Lucy talks about her dream to join a famous guild, which she later told him was the Fairy Tail Guild. Later, she is tricked and taken by Bora of Prominence to be sold as a slave. She is rescued by Natsu, who is the real Salamander, and a true member of Fairy Tail Guild. He offers her to be a member of Fairy Tail. Lucy says yes and joins the guild. Since then, Natsu and Lucy formed a team. This is the beginning of the adventures that the two have while carrying out missions from the guild.
According to Oricon, "Fairy Tail" was the eighth best-selling manga series in Japan for 2009. It became the fourth best in 2010 and 2011 and the fifth best of 2012. It also won the 2009 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga.
In 2012, the anime series won the "Meilleur Anime Japonais" (best Japanese anime) award and the best French dubbing award at the 19th Anime & Manga Grand Prix in Paris, France.
Viol