Question: What is the name of the person since whose death only Samson et Dalila has been regularly staged? Answer the above question based on the context below: Discounting his collaboration with Dukas in the completion of Guiraud's unfinished Fredegonde, Saint-Saens wrote twelve operas, two of which are operas comiques. During the composer's lifetime his Henry VIII became a repertory piece; since his death only Samson et Dalila has been regularly staged, although according to Schonberg, Ascanio (1890) is considered by experts to be a much finer work. The critic Ronald Crichton writes that for all his experience and musical skill, Saint-Saens "lacked the 'nose' of the theatre animal granted, for example, to Massenet who in other forms of music was his inferior". In a 2005 study, the musical scholar Steven Huebner contrasts the two composers: "Saint-Saens obviously had no time for Massenet's histrionics". Saint-Saens's biographer James Harding comments that it is regrettable that the composer did not attempt more works of a light-hearted nature, on the lines of La princesse jaune, which Harding describes as like Sullivan "with a light French touch".Although most of Saint-Saens's operas have remained neglected, Crichton rates them as important in the history of French opera, as "a bridge between Meyerbeer and the serious French operas of the early 1890s". In his view, the operatic scores of Saint-Saens have, in general, the strengths and weaknesses of the rest of his music "lucid Mozartian transparency, greater care for form than for content ... There is a certain emotional dryness; invention is sometimes thin, but the workmanship is impeccable." Stylistically, Saint-Saens drew on a range of models. From Meyerbeer he drew the effective use of the chorus in the action of a piece; for Henry VIII he included Tudor music he had researched in London; in La princesse jaune he used an oriental pentatonic scale; from Wagner he derived the use of leitmotifs, which, like Massenet, he used sparingly. Huebner observes that Saint-Saens was more conventional than Massenet so far as through composition is concerned, more often favouring discrete arias and ensembles, with less...
Answer: Saint-Saens
[Q]: What is the name of the person Nidorf heard as a member of the Pied Pipers when he was serving as a Captain with the US Army? Answer the above question based on the context below: While Stafford was still working for Dorsey, Johnny Mercer told her, "Some day I'm going to have my own record company, and you're going to record for me." She subsequently became the first solo artist signed to Capitol after leaving the Pied Pipers in 1944. A key figure in helping Stafford to develop her solo career was Mike Nidorf, an agent who first heard her as a member of the Pied Pipers while he was serving as a Captain with the United States Army. Having previously discovered artists such as Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, Nidorf was impressed by Stafford's voice, and contacted her when he was demobilized in 1944. After she agreed to let him represent her, he encouraged her to reduce her weight and arranged a string of engagements that raised her profile, and confidence.The success of Stafford's solo career led to a demand for personal appearances, and from February 1945 she embarked on a six-month residency at New York's La Martinique nightclub. Her performance was well-receivedan article in the July 1945 edition of Band Leaders magazine described it as "sensational"but Stafford did not enjoy singing before live audiences, and it was the only nightclub venue she ever played. Speaking about her discomfort with live performances, Stafford told a 1996 interview with The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin, "I'm basically a singer, period, and I think I'm really lousy up in front of an audienceit's just not me."Stafford's tenure with the United Service Organizations (USO) during World War IIwhich often saw her perform for soldiers stationed in the U.S.led to her acquiring the nickname "G.I. Jo". On returning from the Pacific theater, a veteran told Stafford that the Japanese would play her records on loudspeakers in an attempt to make the U.S. troops homesick enough to surrender. She replied personally to all the letters she received from servicemen. Stafford was a favorite of many servicemen during both World War II and the Korean War; her recordings received extensive airplay on the American...
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[A]: Stafford
input: Please answer the following: Who does Raven want to get revenge on? Answer the above question based on the context below: In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hit man Philip Raven, who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the setup and decides to get revenge. LAPD detective lieutenant Michael Crane, who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer Ellen Graham, is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him. Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his LA nightclub after an audition where she sings and performs magic tricks. Then she is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. Unknown to each other, she and Gates board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Raven's head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. From Gates's club, she tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to LA.
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output:
Willard Gates