Question: What is the name of the opera that was an immense success and was quickly taken up by the opera houses of eight Italian cities? Answer the above question based on the context below: Massenet was a prolific composer; he put this down to his way of working, rising early and composing from four o'clock in the morning until midday, a practice he maintained all his life. In general he worked fluently, seldom revising, although Le roi de Lahore, his nearest approach to a traditional grand opera, took him several years to complete to his own satisfaction. It was finished in 1877 and was one of the first new works to be staged at the Palais Garnier, opened two years previously. The opera, with a story taken from the Mahabharata, was an immense success and was quickly taken up by the opera houses of eight Italian cities. It was also performed at the Hungarian State Opera House, the Bavarian State Opera, the Semperoper, Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. After the first Covent Garden performance, The Times summed the piece up in a way that was frequently to be applied to the composer's operas: "M. Massenet's opera, although not a work of genius proper, is one of more than common merit, and contains all the elements of at least temporary success."This period was an early high point in Massenet's career. He had been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1876, and in 1878 he was appointed professor of counterpoint, fugue and composition at the Conservatoire under Thomas, who was now the director. In the same year he was elected to the Institut de France, a prestigious honour, rare for a man in his thirties. Camille Saint-Saens, whom Massenet beat in the election for the vacancy, was resentful at being passed over for a younger composer. When the result of the election was announced, Massenet sent Saint-Saens a courteous telegram: "My dear colleague: the Institut has just committed a great injustice". Saint-Saens cabled back, "I quite agree." He was elected three years later, but his relations with Massenet remained cool.Massenet was a popular and respected teacher at the Conservatoire. His pupils included Bruneau, Charpentier, Chausson,...
Answer: Le roi de Lahore
[Q]: What is the first name of the person who insisted that they should put more adult songs on her album? Answer the above question based on the context below: Connie Talbot entered the public eye appearing, aged six, on the first series of the reality programme Britain's Got Talent, reaching the final. After briefly recording with Sony BMG, Talbot was signed to Rainbow Recording Company, an offshoot of the label Rhythm Riders made specifically for her. To produce Over the Rainbow, Talbot worked with John Arnison, then-manager to Gabrielle and Billy Ocean, and Marc Marot, a former managing director of Island Records. It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May. A recording schedule was worked out so that Talbot could continue with her normal school activities while recording the album in her aunt Vicky's spare bedroom, which her mother described as "a better solution" than the one offered by Sony BMG, "which has not robbed her of her childhood". Talbot said that "it was just amazing that we could do it in my auntie's house". Arnison and Marot asked the Talbot family to "write down a list of the songs that Connie would sing at her birthday party" to help choose the track listing, and then "thought long and hard" about including more adult songs on the album. Talbot herself insisted that they should.The final version of Over the Rainbow was recorded at Olympic Studios, on 12 October 2007. Arnison described the recording process by saying that Talbot "hadn't sung nursery rhymes; she'd always sung classic tracks. So it was actually quite an easy task to make the record". The album was released on 26 November 2007, with an initial pressing of 50,000 copies. However, an additional 120,000 had to be created after the album sold out in a matter of days.Over the Rainbow was re-released on 18 June 2008, with the new version being made available for pre-order in May. The re-release featured three new tracks to replace the Christmas-themed songs on the original album. The new tracks were made available from Talbot's official website so that those who bought the original need not buy the re-release. Talbot's cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" was released as a...
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[A]: Connie
input: Please answer the following: What is the name of the vehicle that had a definitive landing that appears to have been gentle? Answer the above question based on the context below: The newspaper Aftonbladet had supplied the pigeons, bred in northern Norway with the optimistic hope that they would manage to return there, and their message cylinders contained pre-printed instructions in Norwegian asking the finder to pass the messages on to the newspaper's address in Stockholm. Andree released at least four pigeons, but only one was ever retrieved, by a Norwegian steamer where the pigeon had alighted and been promptly shot. Its message is dated 13 July and gives the travel direction at that point as East by 10 South. The message reads: "The Andree Polar Expedition to the "Aftonbladet", Stockholm. 13 July, 12.30 p.m., 82 deg. north latitude, 15 deg. 5 min. east longitude. Good journey eastwards, 10 deg. south. All goes well on board. This is the third message sent by pigeon. Andree." Lundstrom and others note that all three messages fail to mention the accident at takeoff, or the increasingly desperate situation, which Andree described fully in his main diary. The balloon was out of equilibrium, sailing much too high and thereby losing hydrogen faster than even Nils Ekholm had feared, then repeatedly threatening to crash on the ice. It was weighed down by being rain-soaked ("dripping wet", writes Andree in the diary), and the men were throwing all the sand and some of the payload overboard to keep it airborne. Free flight lasted for 10 hours and 29 minutes and was followed by another 41 hours of bumpy riding with frequent ground contact before the inevitable final crash. The Eagle traveled for two days and three-and-a-half hours altogether, during which time, according to Andree, none of the three men got any sleep. The definitive landing appears to have been gentle. Neither the men nor the homing pigeons in their wicker cages were hurt, and none of the equipment was damaged, not even the delicate optical instruments and Strindberg's two cameras.
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output:
The Eagle