Lady of the Lake

Lady of the Lake is the titular name of the ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. She plays a pivotal role in many stories, including giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, enchanting Merlin, and raising Lancelot after the death of his father. Different writers and copyists give the Arthurian character the name Nimue, Viviane, Vivien, Elaine, Ninianne, Nivian, Nyneve, or Evienne, among other variations.

In medieval literature

The Lancelot-Grail Cycle provides a backstory for the Lady of the Lake, Viviane, in the prose Merlin section, which takes place before the Lancelot Proper, though it was written later. There, Viviane learns her magic from Merlin, who becomes enamored of her. She refuses to give him her love until he has taught her all his secrets, after which she uses her power to trap him either in the trunk of a tree or beneath a stone, depending on the story and author. Though Merlin, through his power of foresight knows beforehand that this will happen, he is unable to counteract Viviane because of the "truth" this ability of foresight holds. He decides to do nothing for his situation other than to continue to teach her his secrets until she takes the opportunity to entrap and entomb him in a tree, a stone or a cave.

Viviane (Chausson)

Viviane, Op. 5, is a symphonic poem by the French composer Ernest Chausson. Chausson's first true composition for orchestra, Viviane was begun in September 1882 and influenced by the music of César Franck and Richard Wagner, just after Chausson had attended the world premiere of the latter's last opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.

Named after the fairy Viviane of Arthurian legend, Chausson's piece concentrates on the episode of her affair with the wizard Merlin in the forest of Broncéliande. Chausson's ardorous interest in Arthurian legend would lead him to spend many years finishing the only opera of his career, Le roi Arthus, Op. 23 (1886-95).

Chausson completed Viviane in December 1882 and dedicated it to Jeanne Escudier, whom he was going to marry in June. The work was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique in the Salle Érard on 31 March 1883, conducted by Édouard Colonne, which also featured the premiere of Franck's Le Chasseur maudit. In 1887, Chausson made a major reorchestration of Viviane, which was first presented by Charles Lamoureux on 29 January 1888.

Fado

Fado (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈfaðu]; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today."

Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional structure. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. This is loosely captured by the Portuguese word saudade, or "longing", symbolizing a feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage). This is similar to the character of the music genre Morna from Cape Verde, which may be historically linked to fado in its earlier form but has retained its rhythmic heritage. This connection to the music of a historic Portuguese urban and maritime proletariat (sailors, dock workers, port traders, etc.) can also be found in Brazilian Modinha and Indonesian Kroncong, although all these music genres subsequently developed their own independent traditions.

Fado (disambiguation)

Fado is a genre of Portuguese song

Ireland

Film

Music

Acronym

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説 風のタクト, Hepburn: Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto), is an action-adventure game and the tenth installment in The Legend of Zelda series. Developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and published by Nintendo, it was released for the GameCube video game console in Japan on December 13, 2002; in North America on March 24, 2003; in Europe on May 2, 2003; and in Australia on May 7, 2003.

The game is set on a group of islands in a vast sea—a first for the series. The player controls Link, the central protagonist of the Zelda series. He struggles against the evil king, Ganondorf, for control of a sacred relic known as the Triforce. Link spends a large portion of the game sailing, traveling between islands, and traversing dungeons and temples to gain the power necessary to defeat Ganondorf. He also spends time trying to find his younger sister, Aryll.

The Wind Waker follows in the footsteps of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, retaining the basic gameplay and control system found in the two Nintendo 64 titles. A heavy emphasis is placed on controlling wind with a baton called the Wind Waker, which aids in sailing and floating in air. Though controversial during development for its cel-shaded art style and younger incarnation of Link, The Wind Waker was met with critical acclaim. A direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, was released for the Nintendo DS starting in June 2007; a high-definition remake, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, was released for the Wii U in 2013.

Mambo (Azúcar Moreno album)

Mambo is the fifth studio album by Spanish duo Azúcar Moreno, released on CBS-Epic in 1991.

The duo's two previous studio albums Carne De Melocotón and Bandido had resulted in the release of two remix albums, Mix in Spain and The Sugar Mix Album. Mambo was their first studio album on which the influences from contemporary dance music genres like house music, R&B and hip hop were fully integrated in the original production; the track "Feria" even saw the sisters making their debut as rappers. The album was also the first not to be entirely recorded in Spain or predominantly produced by their longtime collaborator Julio Palacios - it had no less than ten producers.

The lead single "Torero!", although as typically flamenco-flavoured as their international breakthrough single "Bandido", was in fact written and produced by Englishmen Nick Fisher and Garry Hughes and German Zeus B. Held and was recorded in London. Fisher and Hughes have since gone on to collaborate with numerous artists in the electronica/experimental/world music genres under the moniker Echo System, including Björk, The Shamen, Salif Keita, Garbage and Pop Will Eat Itself. "Torero!" was in 1992 covered in Turkish under the title "Yetti Artik" ("That's it" in Turkish) by Tarkan, one of Turkey's biggest stars both domestically and internationally. The song was included on his debut album Yine Sensiz ("Again without you" in Turkish).

Mambo (dance)

Mambo is a Latin dance of Cuba. Mambo was invented during the 1930s by the native Cuban musician and composer Arsenio Rodríguez, developed in Havana by Cachao and made popular by Dámaso Pérez Prado and Benny Moré.

History of dance form

In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo", meaning "conversation with the gods" in the Kongo language, spoken by Central Africans, After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance was adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and complicated foot-steps. Some Mexican entertainers became well known dancers like Tongolele, Adalberto Martínez, Rosa Carmina, Tin Tan and Lilia Prado. Most of these accompanied Prado in live presentations or were seen in Mexican films.

The Mambo dance that was invented by Perez Prado and was popular in the 1940s and 50s in Cuba, Mexico City, and New York is completely different from the modern dance that New Yorkers now call 'Mambo' and which is also known as Salsa "on 2". The original mambo dance contains no breaking steps or basic steps at all. The Cuban dance wasn't accepted by many professional dance teachers. Cuban dancers would describe mambo as "feeling the music" in which sound and movement were merged through the body. Professional dance teachers in the US saw this approach to dancing as "extreme," "undisciplined," and thus, deemed it necessary to standardize the dance to present it as a sell-able commodity for the social or ballroom market