May 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1830 - Karl Goldmark (born Károly Goldmark, Keszthely), Hungarian-born Viennese  composer. His opera Die Königin von Saba ("The Queen of Sheba"), Op. 27 was celebrated during his lifetime. First performed in Vienna on 10 March 1875, the work proved so popular that it remained in the repertory of the Vienna Staatsoper continuously until 1938. He wrote six other operas. The Rustic Wedding Symphony (Ländliche Hochzeit), Op. 26 (premiered 1876), was kept in the repertory by Sir Thomas Beecham, and Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 28, was once his most frequently played piece. A very romantic work, it has a Magyar march in the first movement and passages reminiscent of Dvořák and Mendelssohn in the second and third movements.

1868 - Nicholas II (Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, was the last Emperor of All Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. During his reign the Russian Empire fell from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. He was reviled by Soviet historians as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. By contrast Anglo-Russian historian Nikolai Tolstoy, leader of the International Monarchist League, said in 2012, "There were many bad things about the Czar's regime, but he inherited an autocracy and his acts are now being seen in perspective and in comparison to the terrible crimes committed by the Soviets."

1872 - Bertrand Russell, (Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell), OM FRS, British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. Throughout his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, although he also sometimes suggested that his sceptical nature had led him to feel that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense."

1913 - Perry Como (born Pierino Ronald Como), American singer and actor. He recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. Como received five Emmys, a Christopher Award and shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990 and received a Kennedy Center Honor. Posthumously, Como received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. He has the distinction of having three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio, television, and music.

1919 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, stage name of Margaret Evelyn de Arias, was an English ballerina. (Margot Fonteyn, a Documentary. Updated by Susan Avenue. Accessed February 12, 2019.) She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells Theater Company), eventually being appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the company by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In 1961, when she was considering retirement, Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, the greatest ballet dancer of his generation, defected from the Kirov Ballet while dancing in Paris. Though reluctant to partner with him because of their 19-year age difference, Fonteyn danced with him in his début with the Royal Ballet in Giselle, on 21 February 1962. The duo immediately became an international sensation. I love their pas de deux in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet, and La Sylphide, but best of all, their Giselle ballet, Act II Pas de deux overwhelms me. Incredible artistic expression from both.  (video below: M. Fonteyn dancing with Rudolf Nureyev - Accessed May 18, 2018.)

1920 - Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła), Head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 to 2005. He was elected pope by the second papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August to succeed Pope Paul VI, died after 33 days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the third day of the conclave and adopted the name of his predecessor in tribute to him. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. He significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He upheld the Church's teachings on such matters as the right to life, artificial contraception, the ordination of women, and a celibate clergy. Although he supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was seen as generally conservative in their interpretation.

Lefties:
None known

Death: 

1911 - Composer Gustav Mahler, one of the leading composers of his generation.  It was shortly after 11 o’clock in the evening, May 18, 1911. Mahler lay with dazed eyes; one finger was conducting on the quilt. There was a smile on his lips and said: "Mozart!" "Mozart!"  

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, May 18 - On This Day. 

 

Features: 

Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev performing  Tchaikovsky's famous Swan Lake, Op. 20,  Act 4 - Pas de deux. Apology, this video is no longer available. Instead, here's Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn - SWAN LAKE - act 3 Pas de Deux. Youtube, uploaded by Rare Ballet & Opera Videos. Accessed February 8, 2023.

 

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Karl Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony (Ländliche Hochzeit) in E-flat major, Op. 26. He wrote this music in 1875, a year before his renowned Violin Concerto No. 1. The symphony was premiered in Vienna on 5 March 1876, conducted by Hans Richter. Johannes Brahms, a frequent walking companion of Goldmark's, and whose own Symphony No. 1 was not premiered until November 1876, told him: "That is the best thing you have done; clear-cut and faultless, it sprang into being a finished thing, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter." Its first American performance was at New York Philharmonic Society concert, conducted by Theodore Thomas on 13 January 1877.

May 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1866 - Erik Satie (born Eric Alfred Leslie Satie), French composer and pianist. He was an influential artist in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds"), preferring this designation to that of "musician". Aside from his music, Satie also left a set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications from the dadaist 391 to the American culture chronicle Vanity Fair. (Eric Satie's 3 Gymnopedies. YouTube, uploaded by SNR AYDN. Accessed  17 May 2018.)

1911 - Maureen Paula O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress. She was best known for playing Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. In 2020, she was listed at number 8 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. She was also the mother of actress Mia Farrow. When told Frank Sinatra wanted to marry Mia, she famously remarked "At his age, he should marry me."

1918 - Märta Birgit Nilsson, Swedish dramatic soprano. She sang a wide repertory of operatic and vocal works, but her best known performances are in the operas of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and made a specialty of Puccini's Turandot. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power, and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register. Nilsson made such strong imprints on many roles that they came to be known as the "Nilsson repertory". She once said that Isolde made her famous and Turandot made her rich. Her command of Wagner's music was comparable to that of Kirsten Flagstad, who dominated the Wagner repertory at the Metropolitan Opera during the years before World War II.

1921 -  Dennis Brain, British virtuoso horn player largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public. With the collaboration of Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra, he produced what many still consider to be the definitive recordings of Mozart's horn concerti. (Four of Mozart's Horn Concertos (complete) brilliantly played by Dennis Brain, an all-time favourite horn player and interpreter of Mozart horn music. Accessed May 17, 2016 from archive.org. Accessed Dec 9, 2023. Dennis Brain, Mozart Concerto No. 1 in D major, K.412. Uploaded by Ria Brezova. Accessed May 17, 2016.)

1936 - Dennis Hopper, American actor, filmmaker, and visual artist. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and two years after, after appeared in Giant. In the next ten years he made a name in television, and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in several films, notably Cool Hand Luke and Hang 'Em High. Hopper also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s. He made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider, which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Fonda and Southern).


Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events today, May 17 - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1845 - The rubber band is patented.

1846 - The saxophone  "sax" is patented by Adolphe Sax.