A dress rehearsal is the last rehearsal before the performance. It is called a 'dress rehearsal' because in a theatre the actors will be wearing their costumes. When an orchestra or other music group have a 'dress rehearsal' this does not mean that they have to dress up. It simply means that it is the last rehearsal, and it will be in the hall where they are going to perform so that everything is as it will be for the performance.
Orchestras often have section rehearsals or sectionals. This means that each group of instruments rehearse separately, e.g. the string sectional will be all the string instruments rehearsing together. This can be useful because they can concentrate on the bits which are particularly difficult for them: the string instruments can talk about the bowing etc.
An open rehearsal is a rehearsal that the public can come and watch. In opera houses the dress rehearsal is often an open rehearsal. The entry may be free or the audience may have to pay, but not as much as for a ticket for a performance. The audience will have to understand that the performance may be stopped if something goes wrong and needs to be rehearsed. Singers will often save their voices by not singing as loudly as they will in the performance (this is called "marking").
A technical rehearsal in a theatre is a rehearsal for practising things such as lighting and using props.
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is one of the most famous orchestras of the world. They are based in London's Barbican Centre, but they often tour to lots of different countries.
The LSO started in 1904. Most of the players had been members of Henry Wood's Queen's Hall orchestra. They left that orchestra when Henry Wood made a rule that they were not allowed to send deputies to rehearsals or concerts. The LSO was set up as a self governing organization. This means that the players themselves organize everything: they decide how much they are going to be paid, who can be in the orchestra, etc.
The LSO gave its first concert on 9 June 1904 with Hans Richter conducting. He was principal (main) conductor until 1911, when Edward Elgar took over for a year. Some of the world's most famous conductors have conducted the orchestra. Since January 2007 Valery Gergiev has been the LSO's Principal Conductor. André Previn is the Conductor Laureate (Honorary conductor). In 2006, Daniel Harding became the co-principal guest conductor together with Michael Tilson Thomas. Richard Hickox is the Associate Guest Conductor of the LSO. The leader of the orchestra is Gordan Nikolitch.
The LSO was the first British orchestra to play overseas when it went to Paris in 1906. The LSO players all came close to death in 1912 because they were due to sail on the RMS "Titanic" for a concert in New York. Fortunately they had to change the booking at the last minute. They did tour the USA and Canada that year, and were the first British orchestra to do so.
In 1966 the London Symphony Chorus (LSC) was formed to join the LSO for works with choirs.
For many years the LSO refused to allow women to become members because they thought the sound would not be so good.
The LSO made their first gramophone recording in 1920. Since then they have made many recordings.
Obtuse angle
An obtuse angle is an angle of greater than 90° and less than 180°. It is bigger than an acute angle. It is smaller than a straight angle, which measures 180°. Angles are measured with a protractor obtuse angle is specifically present in hexagon and pentagon and others.
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom. It is based in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
The orchestra was formed in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham, and played its first concert on October 7 1932 at the Queen's Hall, London. The associate conductor at the time was Malcolm Sargent.
At one of the orchestra's early concerts in November 1932 the sixteen-year old Yehudi Menuhin played a programme of violin concertos including the concerto by Elgar which the composer himself conducted.
In the 1930s, when Beecham conducted at the Royal Opera House, the orchestra played for operas there. Beecham made many recordings with the orchestra.
In 1939 the orchestra's sponsors stopped giving money to the orchestra. The orchestra became a self-governing body, which meant that, like the London Symphony Orchestra, the players organized the orchestra themselves, deciding on their pay, their members, what music they should play etc.
During the Second World War they went round the country playing in places where people would not otherwise hear music.
Many of the players' instruments were destroyed when the Queen's Hall was bombed in May 1941, but lots of people gave money for them to buy new instruments.
After the war, Beecham returned to the LPO for eighteen months, but left to start a new orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic. The orchestra continued to play with several guest conductors until Eduard van Beinum was appointed. When he became ill they appointed Sir Adrian Boult who stayed until 1956, although he continued to work with the orchestra and became its President in 1965.
Through the late 1950s the orchestra did not have much money and had to stop paying the players regular salaries. They only got paid for the work they did. In 1958 the LPO appointed William Steinberg as chief conductor. He helped the orchestra to become better again.
In 1964 the LPO became the resident orchestra for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the summer. They continue to do this today.
In 1967 the LPO appointed Bernard Haitink as its principal conductor. He stayed with the orchestra for 12 years and was followed by Sir Georg Solti.
Vladimir Jurowski is now the principal conductor.
Vladimir Jurowski
Vladimir Jurowski (born 4 April 1972 in Moscow) is a Russian conductor. He is one of the most important young conductors of today. Jurowski studied at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990, he moved with his family to Germany, where he continued to study music in Dresden and Berlin.
In 1995 he conducted at the Wexford Festival and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House. He continued conducting in Berlin and Bologna.
In August 2000, Jurowski was named the Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He is now the Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In May 2007, Jurowski received the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Conductor of the Year.
Surrealism
Surrealism was an art and cultural movement which began in the early 1920s.
The name was first used in 1917. Guillaume Apollinaire wrote the program notes for the ballet "Parade", which was created for the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev. This was a collaborative work by Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Pablo Picasso and Léonide Massine. The program notes ran:
The movement grew out of Dadaism. This was, amid the horrors of World War I, a protest at the meaninglessness of civilised life.
At the same time, the work of Sigmund Freud began to filter through, and affect the literary and art worlds. André Breton was trained in psychiatry, and during the war, he worked in a hospital where he used Freud's methods on shell-shock patients. Not surprisingly, Breton influenced many writers and artists after the war.
Freud's work placed emphasis on the subconscious mind, and its role in steering behaviour and emotion. His way of using free association, and dream analysis to get a clue to the subconscious was picked up by the surrealists. They painted dreamlike fantasies, and practised automatic drawing without sight: 'automatism'.
In 1924, Breton wrote a "Surrealist Manifesto", which defined surrealism as: