questions i keep freaking missing: final round part two

Voltaire

(1694-1778) French philosopher. He believed that freedom of speech was the best weapon against bad government. He also spoke out against the corruption of the French government, and the intolerance of the Catholic Church. His best-known histories are History of Charles XII, The Age of Louis XIV, and his Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations. He wrote two book-long epic poems, including the first ever written in French, the Henriade, and later, The Maid of Orleans, besides many other smaller pieces. La Pucelle is a burlesque on the legend of Joan of Arc. Candide attacks the passivity inspired by philosophy of optimism through the character Pangloss's frequent refrain that circumstances are the "best of all possible worlds".

Albert Camus

(1913-1960) -French existentialist who stated that in spite of the general absurdity of human life, individuals could make rational sense out of their own existence through meaningful personal decision making. a French philosopher, author, and journalist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. He tried to flee the German invasion of Paris, but finally joined the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed newspaper. Philosophically, his views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He is also considered to be an existentialist, even though he firmly rejected the term throughout his lifetime. Name this playwright of Caligula, The Misunderstanding, The State of Siege,The Just Assassins, Requiem for a Nun (adapted from William Faulkner's novel by the same name), and The Possessed (adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Demons)

Antigone

(Sophocles, c. 441 BC) Along with Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, this is one of the three surviving "Theban plays" by Sophocles that center on the family of Oedipus. The tragedy takes place in the immediate aftermath of a battle in which Oedipus's two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, killed each other while struggling to control Thebes. The current ruler of the city, Creon, has declared that Eteocles will be given an honorable funeral, but Polyneices will be treated as a rebel and left unburied. Oedipus's daughter disobeys Creon's order, and buries her brother Polyneices against the advice of her frightened sister, Ismene. Despite the intervention of Creon's son Haemon, who is betrothed to her, Creon sentences her to be entombed alive. Soon after she is imprisoned, she hangs herself. Haemon then commits suicide out of grief, and Creon's wife Eurydice kills herself when she learns that Haemon is dead. The once-proud Creon blames himself for the loss of his wife and son, and prays for death.

Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear

1889 self-portrait by Dutch, Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. The painting is now in the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art and on display in the Gallery at Somerset House. In this self-portrait, Van Gogh is shown wearing a blue cap with black fur and a green overcoat. He is in a three-quarter view, and his forward gaze falls slightly to the right, out of the frame. Behind him is an open window, assumedly letting in a winter breeze, a canvas on an easel, with a few indistinguishable marks, as well as a Japanese woodblock print. This woodblock print has been identified as a Geishas in a Landscape published by Sato Tokyo in the 1870s. This shows an important influence of Japanism and wood block print on Van Gogh's work, which also appear in the background of other portraits he had created. The painting is composed of impasto strokes, mostly in a vertical pattern. The skin tone is muted with green and yellowish tones. Van Gogh used a mirror for his self-portraits which is why some mistakenly think that he painted the wrong side of his wound The evening of December 23, 1888 during one of their arguments, Van Gogh had a seizure during which he threatened Gauguin with a razor, but then injured himself, severing part of his left ear. In a state of excitement, he then brought the dismembered lobe to a prostitute named Rachel. When Gauguin returned the following morning he discovered that the police had arrived at the house, and blood was splattered in every room. Van Gogh had severed an artery in his neck, and was in grave health after losing so much blood. He was removed to the hospital, and he confessed to having no recollection of what happened during this fit. Throughout his life, Van Gogh continued to suffer from similar fits, sometimes characterized by acute paranoia.

Lourdes

A town in France, where the Virgin Mary appeared to peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous (who was later canonized) in a series of visions, and now a place of pilgrimage, where it is claimed that miraculous healings have taken place. It is now referred to as "The Sanctuary of Our Lady"

Harlem Renaissance

Black literary and artistic movement centered in Harlem that lasted from the 1920s into the early 1930s that both celebrated and lamented black life in America; Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were two famous writers of this movement. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.

Moliere

Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, he was a French playwright, actor and poet. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than any other playwright today. Performing a classic play and a farce of his own, The Doctor in Love, he was granted the use of a spacious room appointed for performances. Later, he was granted the use of the theatre in the Palais-Royal. In both locations, he found success among Parisians with plays such as The Affected Ladies, The School for Husbands, and The School for Wives. This royal favour brought a royal pension to his troupe and the title Troupe du Roi ("The King's Troupe"). For Tartuffe's impiety, the Catholic Church denounced this study of religious hypocrisy followed by the Parliament's ban, while Don Juan was withdrawn and never restaged. In 1673, during a production of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid, he, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was seized by a coughing fit and a haemorrhage while playing the hypochondriac Argan. He finished the performance but collapsed again and died a few hours later. Name this playwright of The Misanthrope, L'Avare, and The Learned Women

Baal

Canaanite storm and fertility god, name means "lord." Chief male god of the Canaanites.

Vaclav Havel

Czech dramatist and statesman whose plays opposed totalitarianism and who served as president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and president of the Czech Republic since 1993. In works such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum, he used an absurdist style to criticize communism.

Piet Mondrian

Dutch painter theoretician whose work (intersecting lines at right angles and planes in primary colors) influenced the development of abstract art. He was a contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which he co-founded with Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neoplasticism. This was the new 'pure plastic art' which he believed was necessary in order to create 'universal beauty'. To express this, he eventually limited his work to the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow), the three primary values (black, white and gray) and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical). A number of his early paintings include Post-Impressionist influence, such as The Red Mill and Trees in Moonrise. Another painting, Evening; Red Tree, depicting a tree in a field at dusk, augurs future developments using a palette consisting entirely of red, yellow, and blue. Avond (Evening) was his first painting to use entirely primary colors. His "lozenge" paintings were square canvases tilted to a 45 degree angle, so they were a diamond shape. Name this artist of Broadway Boogie Woogie and Victory Boogie Woogie; two paintings capturing the blues music he loved and the city grid of Manhattan

Descartes

French philosopher, discovered analytical geometry. Saw Algebra and Geometry have a direct relationship. Reduced everything to spiritual or physical. One of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, an early modern treatise on emotions, he goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." His best known philosophical statement is "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"; French: Je pense, donc je suis), found in Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy. He has often been called the father of modern philosophy, and is largely seen as responsible for the increased attention given to epistemology in the 17th century. He laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Spinoza and Leibniz, and was later opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher. A pupil of Plato, the tutor of Alexander the Great, and the author of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, natural sciences, politics, and poetics, he profoundly influenced Western thought. In his philosophical system, which led him to criticize what he saw as Plato's metaphysical excesses, theory follows empirical observation and logic, based on the syllogism, is the essential method of rational inquiry. He was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and a namesake tradition. He was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher" and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher". His writings are divisible into two groups: the "exoteric", intended for the public, and the "esoteric", for use within the Lyceum school. Name this author of the Metaphysics, Organon, and Physics

Manu

Hindu first human a term found with various meanings in Hinduism. In early texts, it refers to the archetypal man, or to the first man (progenitor of humanity). In later texts, it is the title or name of fourteen mystical Kshatriya rulers of earth, or alternatively as the head of mythical dynasties that begin with each cyclic kalpa (aeon) when the universe is born anew. The title of the text smriti uses this term as a prefix, but refers to the first - Svayambhuva, the spiritual son of Brahma.

Cha Cha Cha

It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin in the early 1950s. This rhythm was developed from the danzón-mambo. The name of the dance is an onomatopoeia derived from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet when they dance two consecutive quick steps (correctly, on the fourth count of each measure) that characterize the dance.

Bernini

Italian sculptor and architect of the Baroque period in Italy. His notable works include David, Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Proserpina, and Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Name this architect of St. Peter's Square, the baldachin in St. Peter's Basilica, and a number of fountains; Fontana della Barcaccia, Fontana del Tritone, Fontana delle Api, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, and Fontana del Moro

Diego Rivera

Mexican artist of the period after the Mexican Revolution; famous for murals painted on walls of public buildings; mixed romantic images of the Indian past with Christian symbols and Marxist ideology. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; this was before he completed his 27-mural series known as Detroit Industry Murals. His fourth wife was fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a volatile relationship that continued until her death. He was married a fifth time, to his agent. As of 2018, he holds the record for highest price at auction for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1931 painting The Rivals, part of the record setting Collection of Peggy Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, sold for US$9.76 million. His mural Dreams of a Sunday in the Alameda depicted Ignacio Ramírez holding a sign which read, "God does not exist". Name this Communist artist of works such as Man, Controller of the Universe, and The History of Mexico

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Motto of the French Revolution; It is believed that Maximilien Robespierre was the first to use the phrase during a 1790 speech entitled "On the Organization of the National Guard." He wanted these words to appear on the guards' uniforms and on the tricolor flag of the nation, but his proposal was not accepted.

Doric

One of the Greek orders of architecture. It is the most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. Originating in the western region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders. The column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, dropping straight into the stylobate or platform on which the building stood. The capital was a simple circular form under a square cushion. Above a plain architrave, the complexity comes in the frieze, where the two features originally unique to the order, the triglyph and guttae, are memories of the beams and retaining pegs of the wooden constructions that preceded stone temples. In stone they are purely ornamental. The order was much used in Greek Revival architecture. The ancient architect Vitruvius associates the order with masculine proportions (the Ionic representing the feminine). It is also normally the cheapest of the orders to use. When the three orders are superposed, it is usual for this order to be at the bottom, as "strongest", is often used on the ground floor below another order in the storey above.

Pope Julius II

The "Warrior-Pope"; most involved in war and politics; personally led armies against enemies; instituted reconstruction on St. Peter's Basilica. His fighting temperament wasn't popular with many of his followers. He was described by Machiavelli in his works as the ideal prince. He allowed people seeking indulgences to donate money to the Church which would be used for the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica.

cinquecento

The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1500 to 1599 are collectively referred to as the from the Italian for the number 500, in turn from another similar word, which is Italian for the year 1500. It encompasses the styles and events of the High Italian Renaissance, Mannerism and some early exponents of the Baroque-style.

Shylock

The merciless moneylender in The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare. He demands a pound of flesh from the title character of the play after the merchant defaults on his debt. He is a Jew; there has long been controversy over whether Shakespeare's portrayal of him contributes to prejudice against Jews. He is a cruel miser, and eventually is heavily fined and disgraced, but he maintains his dignity. At one point in the play, he makes a famous, eloquent assertion that his desire for revenge is the same desire that a Christian would feel in his place. "I am a Jew", says he. "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?"

Desire Under the Elms

a 1924 play written by Eugene O'Neill. Like Mourning Becomes Electra, it signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy to a rural New England setting. It was inspired by the myth of Phaedra, Hippolytus, and Theseus. A film version was produced in 1958, and there is an operatic setting by Edward Thomas. Eben Cabot, a handsome but hard young man, lives there with his two half-brothers, Simeon and Peter. Their father, Ephraim Cabot (known as Cabot), an old but strong man, left two months ago for an unknown reason. The brothers all want the farmland and claim that it is theirs. Cabot returns with his new wife, Abbie Putnam, a 35 year old gold-digger. Abbie flirts with Eben, and eventually has a son with him. Eben and Cabot fight, Abbie confesses her love to Eben and asks how she can fix things. Eben is about to leave for California when Abbie tells him she smothered the baby to death. She tells Cabot of the baby's parentage. Eben confesses his love for Abbie and takes the blame for the baby's death.

Plautus

a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. Name this playwright of Miles Gloriosus, the braggart soldier, and other plays teaching public indifference and mockery of the gods

The Crucible

a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he attended. The production won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. A group of girls go dancing in the woods, including a black slave named Tituba. Reverend Parris's daughter Betty falls into a coma like state. Abigail, the ringleader of the group, tells the girls not to admit to anything. John Proctor, who Abigail had an affair with, talks to her in private and fends off her advances. Betty wakes up. Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she, Abigail, and Betty begin to accuse other townspeople as being witches. Elizabeth, John's wife, urges him to out Abigail as a fraud. He refuses and Elizabeth is eventually arrested as a witch. Mary, the Proctors' servant, accuses the girls as witches, who then pretend Mary is bewitching them. Proctor confesses that he had an affair with Abigail, but Elizabeth lies in court to save his honor. He is arrested as a witch. Abigail runs away with all of Parris's money. John initially agrees to confess, then retracts his statement once he realizes it will be made public. All of the witches are hanged.

The Garden Party

a 1963 play by Václav Havel. The play is meant to utilize absurdism to criticize communism. The protagonist is Hugo Pludek, an average person from a middle-class family. His parents are worried about his future, so they arrange an appointment for him with the influential Mr. Kalabis. Kalabis cannot show up because he is going to a garden party held by the Liquidation Office, so Hugo's parents send him there. Hugo does not find Kalabis, instead starting a sequence of absurd encounters. All of the functionaries of the Liquidation Office speak in a degenerate, ideological, content-free language, as is expected for their role in the bureaucratic system. Hugo is intelligent and adaptive, and is therefore able to adjust his behaviour. He learns to speak platitudinally, using clichés that do not mean anything real, and finally becomes the head of the newly created Central Inauguration and Liquidation Committee. As a result, he completely loses his identity. At the end of the play, Hugo comes home so changed that his own parents do not recognise him.

Jesus Christ Superstar

a 1970 rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It started as a rock opera album musical before its Broadway on-stage debut in 1971. The musical is sung-through, with no spoken dialogue. By 1980, the musical had grossed more than $237 million worldwide. In the week leading up to the crucifixion, Judas grows angry with Christ's claims of divinity, and Mary Magdalene laments her romantic feelings for Christ. Judas hangs himself, and Christ, though frustrated with God, accepts his fate. Among the songs in this musical are "Heaven on their Minds," "I Don't Know How to Love Him," "Gethsemane," "Trial Before Pilate," and the final song "John 19;41"

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a new patient at a mental institution, and features a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Sydney Lassick, William Redfield while being the film debut for Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito and Brad Dourif. The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934. Name this film, known for Louise Fletcher's incredible portrayal of Nurse Mildred Ratched, including other patients such as The other patients include anxious, stuttering 21-year-old Billy Bibbit; Charlie Cheswick, who is prone to childish tantrums; delusional and innocent Martini; the articulate, repressed homosexual Dale Harding; belligerent and profane Max Taber; epileptics Jim Sefelt and Bruce Fredrickson, the former of whom gives his medicine to the latter; quiet but violent-minded Scanlon; "Chief" Bromden, a very tall Native American who acts as a deaf-mute (though later in the film, he can obviously hear and speak); and several others with chronic conditions.

Chariots of Fire

a 1981 British historical drama film. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell: a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. Name the film including other characters such as Aubrey Montague, Lord Andrew Lindsay, Sam Mussabini, Jennie Liddell, and Sybil Gordon. The film was conceived and produced by David Puttnam, written by Colin Welland, and directed by Hugh Hudson. The film's title was inspired by the line from the William Blake poem adapted into the British hymn "Jerusalem"; the hymn is heard at the end of the film.

Impressionism

a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. It originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. They faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari. The development in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media such as music and literature. Name this movement which includes the likes of Mary Cassatt, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Frank Gehry

a Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles. His best-known works include the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France; MIT Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Vontz Center for Molecular Studies on the University of Cincinnati campus; Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle; New World Center in Miami Beach; Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; the Vitra Design Museum and the MARTa Herford museum in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque Française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City. His private residence in Santa Monica, California, jump-started his career. He is also the designer of the National Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial.

Vincent Van Gogh

a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, contain few signs of the vivid colour that distinguished his later work. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. He suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals, he eventually came under the care of the homeopathic Dr. Paul Gachet. He died from injuries sustained from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest

Degas

a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings, yet also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although he is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. Upon his return to France in 1859, moved into a Paris studio to begin painting The Bellelli Family—a canvas he intended for exhibition in the Salon, although it remained unfinished until 1867. He also began work on several history paintings: Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859-60; Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860; and Young Spartans around 1860. His Steeplechase—The Fallen Jockey (Salon of 1866) signaled his growing commitment to contemporary subject matter. One of his New Orleans works, A Cotton Office in New Orleans, garnered favorable attention back in France, and was his only work purchased by a museum (the Pau) during his lifetime. He began to paint café life as well, in works such as L'Absinthe and Singer with a Glove. His paintings often hinted at narrative content in a way that was highly ambiguous; for example, Interior (which has also been called The Rape) has presented an issue to art historians in search of a source. His bronze sculpture, Little Dancer Aged 14, is arguably his most well-known. Name this artist of other such works as At the Races, The Dance Class, La Toilette, and Musicians in the Orchestra, who was known in company as "old curmudgeon" for his nasty attitude

Henri Matisse

a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the Fauves (wild beasts). His notable works include Woman with a Hat, The Joy of Life, Nu bleu, La Danse, and L'Atelier Rouge

Racine

a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France. He was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young. His criticisms stem from the lack of historic veracity in plays such as Britannicus and Mithridate. Another major criticism levelled at him was the lack of incident in his tragedy Bérénice.

Corneille

a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who later placed him in Les Cinq Auteurs ("The Five Poets"), yet quarreled with him over his best-known play, Le Cid, about a medieval Spanish warrior, denounced by the newly formed Académie française for breaching the unities. During his time with the department of Forests and Rivers, he wrote his first play; the comedy Mélite. His first true tragedy is Médée, produced in 1635. His next plays were classical tragedies, Horace (1640, dedicated to Richelieu), Cinna (1643), and Polyeucte (1643). He wrote the play Oedipe, which was favored by Louis XIV. He composed the comedy Psyché in collaboration with Moliere and Philippe Quinault. He wrote his last piece Suréna in 1674; it was a complete failure.

Ajax the Great

a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea, and the half-brother of Teucer. He plays an important role, and is portrayed as a towering figure and a warrior of great courage in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. Through his uncle Peleus (Telamon's brother), he is the cousin of Achilles, and is the elder half-brother of Teucer. In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature, colossal frame and strongest of all the Achaeans. Known as the "bulwark of the Achaeans", he was trained by the centaur Chiron at the same time as Achilles.

Bela Bartok

a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. Among the pieces he played was his own first composition, written two years previously: a short piece called "The Course of the Danube". In 1911, he wrote what was to be his only opera, Bluebeard's Castle, dedicated to Márta, his wife. The outbreak of World War I forced him to stop, but he returned to composing with a ballet called The Wooden Prince and the String Quartet No. 2, both influenced by Debussy. His libretto for The Miraculous Mandarin, another ballet, was influenced by his contemporaries. He wrote 4 more String Quartets, numbered 3 through 6. Notable examples of this period are Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Divertimento for String Orchestra.

Wole Soyinka

a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. He wrote 3 novels: The Interpreters, Season of Anomy, and Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth to be published in 2021. He penned many plays, including The Lion and the Jewel, A Dance of the Forests, The Strong Breed, Kongi's Harvest, Madmen and Specialists, and Death and the King's Horseman. Name this author of the memoir Aké: The Years of Childhood, where the author describes the first 12 years of his life, before and during WWII, in the title Yoruban village

Terence

a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170-160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought him to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on, impressed by his abilities, freed him. He abruptly died, around the age of 25, likely in Greece or on his way back to Rome, due to shipwreck or disease. One famous quotation by him reads: "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto", or "I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me." This appeared in his play Heauton Timorumenos. Unlike Plautus though, his way of writing his comedies was more in a simple conversational Latin, pleasant and direct, while less visually humorous to watch with generally better plots. His 6 plays are as follows: Andria (The Girl from Andros) Hecyra (The Mother-in-Law) Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor) Phormio Eunuchus Adelphoe (The Brothers)

Anton Chekhov

a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. He is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. He practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." In 1887, a theatre manager commissioned him to write a play, the result being Ivanov, written in a fortnight, produced that November, and met with astounding popularity. Although Chekhov did not fully realise it at the time, Chekhov's plays, such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard served as a revolutionary backbone to what is common sense to the medium of acting to this day; capturing the essence of real people. Name this revolutionary playwright, also the inventor of a namesake "gun" principle in drama, which reads as follows: "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

clavichord

a Western European stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. It produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard.

Film Noir

a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish "moody" Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of the American style of this genre. It encompasses a range of plots: the central figure may be a private investigator (The Big Sleep), a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a hapless grifter (Night and the City), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy), or simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.). The private eye and the femme fatale are stock character types conventionally identified with this genre of American film. Name this genre implemented in Sunset Boulevard, Vertigo and The Maltese Falcon

Two Gentlemen of Verona

a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play.The highlight of the play is considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, and his dog Crab, to whom "the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in the canon" has been attributed. The play opens to Valentine, a young man in the title town, begging his friend Proteus to travel with him to Milan. He refuses due to his love Julia. Julia reveals she likes him to her servant Lucetta, but is embarrassed, and rips up his letter quickly regretting her mistake. Proteus eventually goes because of his father and exchanges rings with Julia. Valentine and Proteus both fall for the Duke's daughter Sylvia, but she is betrothed to Thurio. Sylvia is locked in a tower, and Proteus rats out Valentine's plans to free her, causing him to be banished. Valentine is ambushed by thugs, but lies to seem cool and is elected their leader. Julia disguises herself as a boy to go after Proteus, and acts as "Sebastian". Proteus showers Sylvia in gifts to her disgust. Sylvia goes after Valentine, is kidnapped, Proteus "saves" Sylvia and threatens to rape her if she doesn't love him, to which Valentine reveals himself. Proteus sees Julia and decides he loves her again. Thurio and he Duke are taken prisoner. Thurio is scared of Valentine and denounces his claim to Sylvia, the Duke blesses Valentine's marriage to Sylvia, both couples are married happily and pardoned to once again live in Milan.

Aristophanes

a comic playwright ,known as "The Father of Comedy" and "The Prince of Ancient Comedy," and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it. He has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. Plato singled out his play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. He caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights. Name this playwright of The Wasps, The Birds, Lysistrata, and The Frogs.

Counterculture

a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, they can trigger dramatic cultural changes. It is usually associated with "hippie" culture

armature

a framework or skeleton used to support a sculpture. Gustave Eiffel designed this portion of the Statue of Liberty.

appogiatura

a grace note performed before a note of the melody and falling on the beat, a grace note performed before a note of the melody and falling on the beat

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member group modelled in part on the Nazarene movement. The group sought a return to the detail, colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. They rejected what they regarded as the mechanistic approach by artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. The group believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the teaching of art, hence the name. They defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct name for their form of art, and published a periodical, The Germ, to promote their ideas.

Dharma

a key concept with multiple meanings in many religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. In Hinduism, it signifies the "right way of living", and follows the order of the universe. In Buddhism, it means "cosmic law and order". In Jainism, it refers to the teachings of Tirthankara and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For Sikhs, it means the path of righteousness and proper religious practice

La Sagrada Familia

a large unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed by Spanish/Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, his work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica. In 1883, when Villar resigned, Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted the remainder of his life to the project, and he is buried in the crypt. It is anticipated that the building can be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

Cantata

a medium-length narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment, typically with solos, chorus, and orchestra. typically shorter than an oratorio. Several were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as the Christmas variety. Christoph Graupner, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of church ones for the occasions of the liturgical year.

Miss Saigon

a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s during the Vietnam War, and follows a romance between a United States Marine, Christopher "Chris" Scott, and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl, Kim. Other characters include The Engineer, a.k.a. Tran Van Dinh, the owner of "Dreamland" (the bar Kim works at), Ellen (Chris's wife back home), John Thomas (aka Sharpless), Thuy (Kim's cousing and betrothed), Gigi vanh Tran, and Tam, Kim and Chris's 3 year old son

Tamburlaine the Great

a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur. Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan public drama; it marks a turning away from the clumsy language and loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in fresh and vivid language, memorable action, and intellectual complexity.

Memory Play

a play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory. The term was coined by playwright Tennessee Williams, describing his work The Glass Menagerie. In his production notes, Williams says, " The Glass Menagerie can be presented with unusual freedom of convention." In a widening of the definition, it has been argued that Harold Pinter's plays Old Times, No Man's Land and Betrayal are this type of drama, where "memory becomes a weapon". Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa is a late 20th-century example of the genre.

A Streetcar Named Desire

a play written by Tennessee Williams that was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play takes place right after World War II, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves behind her privileged background to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans that her younger married sister, Stella, and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski. After many lies and cruelty, the play ends with Blanche's grip on reality having crumbled to nothing, with a doctor leading her out the door to take her to an insane asylum

Mozart

a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. He composed more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, he was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. In January 1781, opera Idomeneo premiered with "considerable success" in Munich. He also prospered as a composer, and in 1782 completed the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"). 1786 saw the successful premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni. Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in 1790. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute. Name this composer of Symphony No. 40, 1st Movement "Allegro", Serenade No. 13 (a.k.a. Eine Kleine Nacht-Musik), "Rondo Alla Turca", Piano Concerto No. 21, 2nd Movement "Andante", Piano Concerto No. 20, 2nd Movement "Romanze", Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter," 1st Movement "Allegro Vivace", and Requiem. He is also well-known for his severe rivalry with Antonio Salieri, who he believed was out to kill him. He has both a play and movie named after him, by Schaffer and Milos Forman respectively

Voodoo

a religion practiced in Haiti. It is a creolized religion forged by descendants of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups who had been enslaved and brought to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word means "spirit" or "deity" in the Fon language of the African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin). It is a worldview encompassing philosophy, medicine, justice, and religion. Its fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Humans are spirits who inhabit the visible world. The unseen world is populated by lwa (spirits), mystè (mysteries), anvizib (the invisibles), zanj (angels), and the spirits of ancestors and the recently deceased. All these spirits are believed to live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic "Africa." The primary goal and activity is to sevi lwa ("serve the spirits")—to offer prayers and perform various devotional rites in return for health, protection, and favour. Any day celebrating a saint is considered an important day in this religion led my manbos and ounguns, priests and priestesses.

Vault

a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. The simplest kind is the barrel type (also called a wagon or tunnel), which is a continuous arch, the length being greater than its diameter. When two barrel types of the same diameter cross one another their intersection (a true ellipse) is known as a groin type of this architectural form. The rib type is formed when the intersections are not of the same diameter, representing the namesake anatomical structure. The fan type builds off of the rib, yet employs more "ribs", forming a fanned shape.

Bye Bye Birdie

a stage musical with a book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse. Originally titled Let's Go Steady, it is set in 1958. An Elvis-like rock star (Conrad Birdie) appears on the Ed Sullivan Show one last time after being drafted into the Army to the delight of his legion of teenage fans. His agent and song writer (Albert Peterson) and Albert's secretary and love interest (Rosie Alvarez) plan a farewell performance for Birdie on the Ed Sullivan television show, which they hope will provide the publicity to sell his new song "One Last Kiss" and bring Albert's company out of debt. At the conclusion of the performance, Birdie will give a real kiss to a lucky girl from his fan club. The lucky girl, randomly chosen, is Kim MacAfee from Sweet Apple, Ohio, and is a avid member of the local Conrad Birdie fan club. Albert and Rosie come to Sweet Apple to prepare for Birdie's arrival and things begin to unravel. Kim's father (Harry MacAfee) begins to get excited about the thought of being on the Ed Sullivan Show with his daughter and Kim's new steady (Hugo Peabody) starts to get jealous of the thought of Kim kissing Birdie on national television. After Birdie's arrival in Sweet Apple, things continue to come undone as Birdie's charms enrage Hugo to punch him out on national television as he embraces to kiss Kim. Later, Birdie confesses that he is tired of show business and goes out on the town with the kids to show them how to party. This leads to Birdie's arrest. Meanwhile, Rosie is getting tired of waiting for Albert to propose and figures that eight years is long enough. She is also tired of Albert's domineering mother (Mae Peterson) who is constantly interfering in their relationship. Rosie goes out on the town and stumbles into a Shriner's meeting, leading to a humorous ballet sequence. The show ends with Albert bailing Birdie out of jail prompting Birdie to ask Albert to be his agent forever as he gets on the train to New York and his induction into the army. Kim and Hugo make up as Hugo proposes to Kim and Albert finally decides to propose to Rosie to tie up the remaining romantic knot before the show's finale.

St. Augustine of Hippo

a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions. He is also called the Doctor of Grace, and converted after a life of sin.

Othello

a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano Moro ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, first published in 1565. The story revolves around its two central characters: the title character, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and his treacherous ensign, Iago. Roderigo desires Desdemona, the title character's wife, and has been paying Iago to help him. Iago is ensign to the title character and reveals he hates him, and that he has married the lady. Brabantio, Desdemona's senator father, disowns her when he finds out of her marriage. Iago convinces the title character that his wife has been cheating on him with Cassio, his most loyal captain. Iago steals Desdemona's handkerchief given to her by the title character, and gives it to Cassio to provide cement evidence. The title character orders Cassio to be killed and strangles Desdemona. Her innocence is revealed, the title character kills himself, and Iago is arrested

Macbeth

a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. James VI and I was patron of Shakespeare's playing company, and some people say that the play clearly indicates Shakespeare's relationship with him. In the play, the title character is a Scottish general under the rule of King Duncan. Three witches tell him that he will become king of Scotland. He is spurred by his ambition and his wife, murdering Duncan and acceding to the throne. His reign is bloody and tyrannical, driven mad by spirits and the witches' prophecies. It is ended by the combined forces of Scotland and England, specifically Macduff who fulfills the witches' prophecy by noting he was not "of woman born" but was instead "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb (what we now call birth by cesarean section). Shakespeare's main source for the story was Holinshed's Chronicles, but events in the play differ extensively from events involving the historical character. Events in Shakespeare's play are usually associated with Henry Garnet and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In theatre, the play has been associated with a curse. People have avoided speaking its title, calling it "The Scottish Play". Name this play featuring characters such as King Duncan, Banquo, Macduff, Malcolm, and the drunken Porter of the title character's castle.

The Persians

a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BCE, it is considered the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre, and also the only extant Greek tragedy that is based on contemporary events. It recounts the Persian response to news of their military defeat under Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, one of the decisive episodes in the ongoing Greco-Persian Wars. It was originally presented as the second part of the trilogy that won the first prize at the dramatic competitions in Athens' City Dionysia festival in 472 BCE. It came between a play called "Phineus" and another called "Glaucus", both of which have since been lost, and was followed, in traditional style, by a satyr play called "Prometheus the Fire-lighter", also lost.

Tartuffe

also known as "The Hypocrite" or "The Imposter," first performed in 1664, is one of the most famous theatrical comedies by Molière. The characters of the title character, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theatre roles. Tartuffe is a liar, staying in the house of Orgon, tricking everyone into believing he is pious. Everyone knows he is an obvious liar except Orgon. He decides to marry him to his daughter Mariane, who is already betrothed to Valere. Damis, Orgon's son, swears to reveal Tartuffe's trickery. Tartuffe confesses his love to Elmire, Orgon's wife, and Damis hears. Orgon defends Tartuffe and banishes his son. Orgon hides as his son did to resolve the situation once and for all. He hears Tartuffe's declarations of love, and orders him from the house. Unfortunately, Tartuffe is in possession of sensitive documents and the ownership of the house. Madam Pernelle is finally convinced of his trickery too. The day Tartuffe attempts to evict the family, the King sees through his trickery and imprisons him, restoring Orgon's belongings

Shirley Temple Black

an American actress, singer, dancer, businesswoman, and diplomat who was Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. As an adult, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States. She began her film career at the age of three in 1931. Two years later, she achieved international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer in motion pictures during 1934. Film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star.

Maya Lin

an American architect and sculptor. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. She also designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, the Women's Table at Yale University, Wave Field at the University of Michigan, the Museum for African Art in NYC, and her personal project 2 by 4 Landscape

James Whistler

an American artist active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His signature for his paintings took the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. He found a parallel between painting and music, and entitled many of his paintings "arrangements", "harmonies", and "nocturnes", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony. His most famous painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistler's Mother, is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood. Name this artist of Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge, Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, and Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket.

Leonard Bernstein

an American composer, conductor, pianist, music educator, author, and lifelong humanitarian. His best-known work is the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and was made into an Academy Award-winning feature film. His works include three symphonies, Chichester Psalms, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", the original score for the film On the Waterfront, and theater works including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and his MASS. He was the first American-born conductor to lead an American orchestra. He was the first conductor to share and explore music on television with a mass audience. Through dozens of national and international broadcasts, including the Emmy Award-winning Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, he made even the most rigorous elements of classical music an adventure in which everyone could join. He wrote the ballets Fancy Free! and Dybbuk, as well as the operas Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place. Name this composer of other plays such as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and The Race to Urga, with the latter left incomplete

Agnes de Mille

an American dancer and choreographer. One of her early jobs, thanks to her father's connections, was choreographing Cecil B. DeMille's film Cleopatra. One of her most overlooked but important pieces was Black Ritual or Obeah, which she began choreographing for the newly formed Ballet Theatre's first season; it was the first entirely black performance in a predominantly white company.Her first actually recognized significant work was Rodeo , whose score was by Aaron Copland. Although she continued to choreograph nearly up to the time of her death—her final ballet, The Other, was completed in 1992—most of her later works have dropped out of the ballet repertoire. Besides Rodeo, two other ballets are performed on a regular basis, Three Virgins and a Devil adapted from a tale by Giovanni Boccaccio, and Fall River Legend based on the life of Lizzie Borden.

Coppola

an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was a central figure in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. His accolades include five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a British Academy Film Award. After directing The Rain People in 1969, he co-wrote Patton. His reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of The Godfather. The Godfather Part II, which followed in 1974, became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film brought him three more Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture, and made him the second director (after Billy Wilder) to be so honored three times for the same film. The Conversation, winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His next film, Apocalypse Now, was widely acclaimed for its vivid depiction of the Vietnam War. The film won the Palme d'Or, making him one of only eight filmmakers to have won that award twice. His best-known films released since the start of the 1980s are the dramas The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, the crime dramas The Cotton Club and The Godfather Part III , and the romantic-horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula based on the novel of the same name.

Stanley Kubrick

an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. After working as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 40s and early 50s, he began making short films on a shoestring budget, and made his first major Hollywood film, The Killing, for United Artists in 1956. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas—the war picture Paths of Glory and the historical epic Spartacus. His first productions in Britain were two films with Peter Sellers, Lolita and Dr. Strangelove. The scientific realism and innovative special effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey earned him his only personal Oscar, for Best Visual Effects. With The Shining, he became one of the first directors to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized tracking shots. While many of his films were controversial and initially received mixed reviews upon release—particularly A Clockwork Orange, most were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, or BAFTA Awards, and underwent critical reevaluations. His last film, Eyes Wide Shut, was completed shortly before his death in 1999 at the age of 70.

Sidney Lanier

an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catching tuberculosis), taught, worked at a hotel where he gave musical performances, was a church organist, and worked as a lawyer. He became a flautist and sold poems to publications. He eventually became a professor of literature at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry. Many schools, other structures and two lakes are named for him, and he became hailed in the South as the "poet of the Confederacy". A 1972 US postage stamp honored him as an "American poet".

Audubon

an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827-1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. He is also known for having identified 25 new species. He is the namesake of a society dedicated to the preservation of birds and their habitats. Dozens of s cientific names first published by him are currently in use by the scientific community.

Eugene O'Neill

an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into U.S. drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, The Hairy Ape, Desire Under the Elms, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh, and A Moon for the Misbegotten name a few of his most well known tragedies.

Arthur Miller

an American playwright and essayist in the 20th-century American theater. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits. He has a namesake foundation in his honor dedicated to "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Name this author of plays, radioplays, screenplays, fiction, and non-fiction works.

William Saroyan

an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, The Human Comedy. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno. Some of his best-known works are The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Heart's in the Highlands.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. During his lifetime he published just one slim book (the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus), one article ("Some Remarks on Logical Form"), one book review and a children's dictionary. His manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. The first and best-known of this posthumous series is the 1953 book Philosophical Investigations. His teacher, Bertrand Russell, described him as "perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived"

Andrew Lloyd Webber

an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were successful outside of their parent musicals, such as "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and "Memory" from Cats. His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Name this composer who collaborated with Tim Rice and composed such notable works as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Jesus Christ Superstar Evita Cats The Phantom of the Opera School of Rock

Noel Coward

an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama In Which We Serve and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party". He also created the operetta Bitter Sweet.

Thomas Kyd

an English playwright, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, he fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins, an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy, discovered that he was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors. A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's, which is now known as the Ur-Hamlet.

George Bernard Shaw

an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra. Name this distinguished playwright of Mrs. Warren's Profession, a play about a former prostitute and brothel owner reconciling her relationship with her disapproving daughter.

Verdi

an Italian opera composer. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco, and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the Risorgimento movement. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida, with three late masterpieces: his Requiem, and the operas Otello and Falstaff. His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata.

Aeschylus

an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Known for adding the second actor to Greek drama. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia- including his plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides- is the only extant and ancient example. The Persians, is one of very few classical Greek tragedies concerned with contemporary events, and the only one extant. Name this playwright of Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, and Prometheus Bound

Medea

an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and his wife, first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. The title heroine takes vengeance on Jason by murdering Jason's new wife as well as her own children (two sons), after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.

pit

the base of the stage, there was an area called the yard where, for a penny, people (the "groundlings") would stand on the rush-strewn earthen floor to watch the performance. During the excavation of the Globe in 1989 a layer of nutshells was found, pressed into the dirt flooring so as to form a new surface layer. Name the colloquial name of this cheap Globe seating

Qibla

the direction of the Kaaba (the sacred building at Mecca), to which Muslims turn at prayer. Most mosques contain a mihrab (a wall niche) that indicates this

acropolis

an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word is from the Greek words for "highest point" and "city". Although the term is generic and there are many others in Greece, the significance of the one of Athens is such that it is commonly known as "The" without qualification. During ancient times it was known also more properly as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king. While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles (c. 495-429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the site's most important present remains including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon by the Ottomans was hit by a cannonball and exploded.

Aida

an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House in celebration of the Suez Canal. The story of takes place in ancient Egypt and centers upon a love triangle. Radames, an Egyptian military commander, is in love with Aida, an Ethiopian princess who has been captured in war and made a servant to Amneris, the daughter of the king of Egypt. Aida returns his love, but Amneris is also in love with Radames. When the opera begins, neither Radames nor Amneris knows that Aida is the daughter of the Ethiopian king, Amonasro. When a new war erupts between Egypt and Ethiopia, Radames is chosen to lead the Egyptian forces. Aida, of course, is conflicted: like the Egyptians, she wishes that Radames will triumph because she loves him, but it is her own people, the Ethiopians, against whom Radames will be waging war.Amonasro, upon learning that Radames is his daughter's lover, persuades Aida to try to obtain information from Radames about the tactics and troop movements that are planned for the next battle against the Ethiopians. Amonasro conceals himself and eavesdrops on the conversation between Aida and Radames, and once he hears Radames revealing the battle plan, he steps forward and reveals his identity, trying now to get Radames to come over to the Ethiopian side by deserting the Egyptians and fleeing with Aida and with him to Ethiopia. At that moment, the Egyptian officials, having been tipped off by the jealous Amneris, converge upon Radames and arrest him for treason. Amneris regrets having instigated the arrest of the man she loves and pleads for mercy for him, but Radames is sentenced to death by being entombed alive. When the sentence is carried out, Aida manages to slip unseen into the tomb to be with him, and the two lovers die together, singing their farewell to the world in one of the most famous duets in all of opera.

Madam Butterfly

an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story of the same name by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play of the same name, subtitled A Tragedy of Japan. Puccini wrote five versions of the opera, eventually adding an act and much improvement on vocals and orchestration. It tells the story of a doomed love of a Japanese woman, nicknamed the title insect, for a US naval officer who marries and deserts her. Pinkerton is leasing a house from Goro, who is also a marriage broker. He tells Sharpless, an American consul, that he wants to travel and doesn't really love the woman he is to marry. Cio-Cio San is betrothed to the American Pinkerton. She converts to his religion for him, angering her family, specifically Bonze, a priest. The second act picks up 3 years later, where Cio-Cio San awaits Pinkerton's return. Suzuki, San's maid, prays for the American's return. Goro looks for potential suitors. Sharpless brings San a letter from Pinkerton, with bad news that he might not return. She confesses she had a son with him, that Pinkerton doesn't know about. Pinkerton arrives with his American wife, Kate. He is embarrassed of how he treated Cio-Cio San, and won't face her. Cio-Cio San only agrees to give up her son if Pinkerton asks himself. She blindfolds her son, gives him a mini American flag, and kills herself with her father's ceremonial dagger.

Rigoletto

an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester, and the jester's daughter, Gilda. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and the jester by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has seduced with the jester's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father.

Tintoretto

born Jacopo Robusti, he was an Italian Renaissance painter and a notable exponent of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with which he painted, and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso ("The Furious"), using a fast painting technique called prestezza. His work is characterised by his muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective, in the Mannerist style. His father, Battista, was a dyer, or tintore; hence the son got the nickname of "little dyer", or "dyer's boy". In 1548 he was commissioned to paint a large decoration for the Scuola di S. Marco: the Miracle of the Slave. In about 1564, Tintoretto painted three additional works for Scuola di S. Marco: the Finding of the body of St Mark, the St Mark's Body Brought to Venice, a St Mark Rescuing a Saracen from Shipwreck. The crowning production of his life, the last picture of any considerable importance which he executed, was the vast Paradise painted for the Doge's Palace, in size 9.1 by 22.6 metres (29.9 by 74.1 feet), reputed to be the largest painting ever done upon canvas. Name this artist of Christ at the Sea of Galilee, The Last Supper, and the The Flight into Egypt, buried next to his favorite daughter, Marietta, who was an artist as well.

Maya Angelou

born Marguerite Annie Johnson, she was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published 7 autobiographies, 3 books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. The first of her 7 autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In 1993, she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. Name this woman who worked as a fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator for the Civil Rights Movement, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her name by which she was most known came from her stage name as a calypso dancer.

Valhalla

from Old Norse meaning "hall of the slain," it is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those who die in combat travel to this location upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr. In this place, the dead warriors join the masses of those who have died in combat (known as the Einherjar) and various legendary Germanic heroes and kings, as they prepare to aid Odin during the events of Ragnarök. Before the hall stands the golden tree Glasir, and the hall's ceiling is thatched with golden shields. Various creatures live around Valhalla, such as the stag Eikþyrnir and the goat Heiðrún, both described as standing atop the hall and consuming the foliage of the tree Læraðr.

Atropos

in Greek mythology, was one of the three Moirai, goddesses of fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta. She was the oldest of the Three Fates, and was known as "the Inflexible One. It was she who chose the mechanism of death and ended the life of mortals by cutting their threads. She worked along with her two sisters, Clotho, who spun the thread, and Lachesis, who measured the length.

Sophocles

one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. He wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. The most famous tragedies of his feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). He influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Daoism

philosophical system developed by of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu advocating a simple honest life and noninterference with the course of natural events. Centers around the way; the principle that is the source, pattern and substance of everything that exists. In general, it tends to emphasize wu wei (action without intention), "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity and the Three Treasures: compassion, frugality and humility. It was deeply influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the I Ching (Yi Jing). The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), a compact book containing teachings attributed to Lao Tzu, is widely considered the keystone work of the tradition.

Calliope

the Muse, whose name itself translates to "beautiful-voiced", who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses".

Realism

the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. In this sense, it is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism. Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic, Winslow Homer's The Gulf Stream and other ocean paintings, Jean-Francois Millet's The Gleaners, Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and Automat, and Gustave Courbet's A Burial at Ornans all comprise this art movement

St. Peter's Basilica

the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and the largest church in the world. Located in the Vatican City in Italy. The dome was created by Michelangelo. Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of the namesake saint, chief among Jesus's apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). His tomb is supposedly directly below the high altar of the basilica. For this reason, many popes have been interred since the Early Christian period. A church has stood on this site since the time of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. There are also a number of sculptures in niches and chapels, including Michelangelo's Pietà. The central feature is a baldachin, or canopy over the Papal Altar, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Name this landmark, surrounded by a square of the same name

Mary 1 (Bloody Mary)

was the queen of England from July 1553 until her death. She is best known for her attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was thwarted by parliament, but during her five-year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake. She was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When he became mortally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove her from the line of succession because he supposed that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had continued during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen. She speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. She was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In 1554, she married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556. After her death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I.