Vanessa (opera)

Vanessa is an American opera in three (originally four) acts by Samuel Barber, opus 32, with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by Cecil Beaton and directed by Menotti. Barber revised the opera in 1964, reducing the four acts to the three-act version most commonly performed today.

Performance history

For the Met premiere, Sena Jurinac was contracted to sing the title role. However, she cancelled six weeks before the opening night and Eleanor Steber replaced her, making it her own for a long time. In the role of Erika, Vanessa's niece, was Rosalind Elias, then a young mezzo-soprano. Nicolai Gedda sang the lover Anatol, mezzo Regina Resnik sang the Baroness, Vanessa's mother, while bass, Giorgio Tozzi, sang the old doctor.

The premiere "was an unqualified success with the audience and with many of the critics as well although they were somewhat qualified in their judgment. Of the final quintet, however, New York Times critic Howard Taubman said it is '...a full-blown set-piece that packs an emotional charge and that would be a credit to any composer anywhere today.' ". Other reports substantiate this and it won Barber the Pulitzer Prize. In Europe, however, it met with a chillier reception.

Vanessa (Millais painting)

Vanessa (1868) is a painting by John Everett Millais in Sudley House, Liverpool. It is a fancy portrait depicting Jonathan Swift's correspondent Esther Vanhomrigh (1688-1723), who was known by that pseudonym.

Vanessa represents a major departure in Millais's art because he abandons fully for the first time the detailed finish that was still to be seen in Waking and Sleeping, exhibited in the previous year. Influenced by the work of Diego Velázquez and Joshua Reynolds, Millais paints with dramatic, visible brush strokes in vivid colours, creating what has been described as an "almost violently modern" handling of paint.

Esther Vanhomrigh is known as "Swift's Vanessa" because of the fictional name he gave her when he published their correspondence. The portrait is wholly imaginary. No actual image of Esther Vanhomrigh exists. She is holding a letter, presumably written to or from Swift. Her sad expression is related to the fraught nature of the relationship, which was broken up by Swift's relationship to another woman, Esther Johnson whom he called "Stella". Millais also painted a companion piece depicting Stella.

Darkbloom

Darkbloom is a split EP by Canadian musicians Grimes and d'Eon. It was released on April 18, 2011 as a joint release through Grimes' and d'Eon's respective labels, Arbutus Records and Hippos in Tanks. Darkbloom was conceived together by Grimes and d'Eon but recorded separately. Grimes directed the video for "Vanessa" herself after reportedly being unhappy with the video made for "Crystal Ball".

Track listing

Tracks 1–5 performed, written and produced by Grimes. Tracks 6–9 performed, written and produced by d'Eon.

Credits

Credits adapted from Darkbloom album liner notes.

Release history

References

External links

Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance

Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance is a collection of three novellas by Irvine Welsh.

Stories

Lorraine Goes To Livingston

After suffering a stroke, Rebecca Navarro, a best-selling romance novelist, discovers the truth about her corrupt, pornography-loving husband. With the help of Lorraine, her sexually confused nurse, she plots her revenge.

Another nurse at the hospital, Glen, has been secretly admiring Lorraine but after a night at a club, decides to pursue her friend Yvonne instead. Meanwhile, Glen has been accepting money from Freddy Royle, a necrophiliac TV personality. The hospital trustees turn a blind eye to Freddy's nefarious pastime but have to do some fast talking when the new coroner begins asking questions.

Fortune's Always Hiding

Samantha Worthington, an angry and bitter 'Tenazedrine' (Thalidomide) victim, enlists a football hooligan, Dave, to help her seek revenge on the last man left alive who pushed the drug who caused her deformed arms, the drug's marketing director.

Ecstasy (philosophy)

Ecstasy (or ekstasis; from the Ancient Greek ἔκστασις, "to be or stand outside oneself, a removal to elsewhere" from ek- "out," and stasis "a stand, or a standoff of forces") is a term used in Ancient Greek, Christian and Existential philosophy. The different traditions using the concept have radically different perspectives.

Ancient Greek philosophy

According to Plotinus, ecstasy is the culmination of human possibility. He contrasted emanation (πρόοδος, prohodos) from the One—on the one hand—with ecstasy or reversion (ἐπιστροφή, epistrophe) back to the One—on the other.

This is a form of ecstasy described as the vision of, or union with, some otherworldly entity (see religious ecstasy)—a form of ecstasy that pertains to an individual trancelike experience of the sacred or of God.

Christian mysticism

Among the Christian mystics, Bernard of Clairvaux, Meister Eckhart and Teresa of Ávila had mystical experiences of ecstasy, or talked about ecstatic visions of God.

Existential philosophy

Ecstasy (play)

Ecstasy is a 1979 play by British playwright Mike Leigh with a six-character cast. It covers the life of four blue-collar friends living in a ratty area of London near Kilburn High Road and the drunken frustration in their lives, particularly that of the lead character Jean.

Jean is a suicidal garage attendant who sleeps with unsuitable men, like Roy, drinks heavily and has abortions. Her friend from Birmingham, Dawn, who has had three children, brings back her husband Mick, an Irish labourer, and his quiet friend, Len, to Jean's bleak Kilburn bedsitter, - 'their second act ensemble trumpets the dark night of the soul, in what is at once one of the best and gloomiest party scenes in contemporary drama.'

The play opened at the Hampstead Theatre on 26 September 1979. The production was designed by Alison Chitty, and the cast comprised Sheila Kelley as Jean, Ron Cook as Roy, Rachel Davies as Val, Julie Walters as Dawn, Stephen Rea as Mick, and Jim Broadbent as Len. For both Broadbent and Rea, this was the first of several collaborations with Leigh. A new production directed by Leigh, and starring Sian Brooke, Daniel Coonan, Claire Louise Cordwell, Allen Leech, Sinead Matthews, and Craig Parkinson opened on 10 March 2011 at the Hampstead Theatre, and transferred to the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden on 12 April 2011.

Queen (soundtrack)

Queen is the soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi, to the 2014 Hindi film of the same name directed by Vikas Bahl and starring Kangana Ranaut in lead role. The album features eight tracks in a different array of genres. It was released digitally on 30 January 2014, and physically on 2 February 2014 at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, attended by the cast and crew of the film and preceded by Trivedi's performance.

Trivedi travelled to European cities like Amsterdam and Paris in search of inspiration for the album, while also working on four different film projects at the time. The album received positive reviews from critics. All the tracks are composed by Trivedi and written by Anvita Dutt, with the exception of "Ranjha" written by Raghu Nath, composed by Rupesh Kumar Ram and the producer of the film Anurag Kashyap.

Development

Amit Trivedi composed the music soundtrack simultaneously working on four other ones like Ghanchakkar, Lootera, Bombay Talkies and Kusar Prasad Ka Bhoot in a time span of 5 months. The film based on a woman's self-discovery while travelling; Trivedi also travelled to Europe in Amsterdam, the film's shooting location so that he could understand the vibe and musical demand of the place in accordance with the local philosophy of "free living [..] especially in their [European] nightclubs". During the visit he also spent time in Paris and bonded with the locals there while working over music. Trivedi completed Ghanchakkar and Lootera before Queen.