November 3 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1801 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer known for his long-flowing melodic lines, famous for operas Norma and La Sonnambula/The Sleepwalker.  He was the quintessential composer of the Italian bel canto era of the early 19th century. (A biography of Bellini from Encyclopaedia Britannica - here.)  Bellini was admired by fellow composers like Verdi as he was by the public. A large amount of what is known about him comes from surviving letters written over his lifetime to his friend Francesco Florimo, whom he had met as a fellow student in Naples and with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. Other sources of information come from correspondence saved by other friends and business acquaintances. (Listen to "Casta Diva" from Norma, famously sung by Maria Callas, with the depth and richness of her feelings. YouTube, uploaded by Th Paw. Accessed November 3, 2011. Featuring Bellini's opera Norma, performed by The Australian Opera & The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, with Dame Joan Sutherland, Norma, conducted by Richard Bonynge. Sydney Opera House, 1978)

1841 - Isabella MacDonald Alden (pseudonym: Pansy), author. She wrote more than 120 books focusing on private religious commitment, Bible study and a moral duty to improve lives of the poor.

1921 - Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky), American actor who was often cast in roles of police officers, gunfighters, or vigilantes in revenge-oriented plot lines. He had long-term collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson and appeared in 15 films with his second wife, Jill Ireland. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's No. 1 box office attraction, commanding $1 million per film.

1933 - John Barry, OBE, English composer and conductor of film music (Here's Top 10 John Barry Scores, including 'Out of Africa', 'Somewhere in Time' and 'Dances with Wolves' aside from the famous James Bond movies soundtracks. Barry composed the scores for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the "James Bond Theme" to the first film in the series, 1962's Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as the theme for the British television cult series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999, he was appointed OBE for services to music. 

 
1933 - Jeremy Brett (Peter Jeremy William Huggins), English actor. He played fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series from 1984 to 1994 in all 41 episodes. His career spanned from stage, to television and film, to Shakespeare and musical theatre.

Leftie:
English actor Jeremy Brett, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 3 - On This Day

 

Recommended Listening:

In memory of John Barry:  Here's his Academy Award-Winning for music score, "Out of Africa" movie soundtrack (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985). Composed and Conducted by John Barry.)

Historical Events

1871 - After six months in Africa searching for missionary Dr. David Livingstone, Henry Stanley finds him living in Lake Tanganyika. Dr. Livingstone had not seen another white man for six and a half years. He refused returning to England and died two years later.

1899 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tsar's Bride opens in Moscow. 

November 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1734 - Daniel Boone, American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Although he also became a businessman, soldier and politician who represented three different counties in the Virginia General Assembly following the American Revolutionary War, Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, that remained part of Virginia until it became a state in 1791.

1739 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian violinist and composer. His German-language two-act singspiel Doktor und Apotheker (Doctor and Apothecary), uploaded by Musikacademie Rheinsberb, is considered the his masterpiece.  Accessed November 2, 2018)

1755 - Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna), the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.

1868 - Yokoyama Taikan (pseudonym Sakai Hidemaro), Japanese painter, a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of Nihonga. Among Yokoyama’s works are “Mountain Path,” “Vicissitudes,” and “Cherry Blossoms.” (Y. Taikan brief profile from Britannica.com. Accessed October 27, 2019)

1906 -  Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, also a screenwriter. He is best known for his films Ossessione (1943), Senso (1954), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971). He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan. In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: he studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.(The Films of Luchino Visconte. Uploaded by Eddie Lensweiger. Accessed November 2, 2017.  Visconti's Actors / Visconte Y Sus Actores. Uploaded by  pereznuix. Accessed November 2, 2014.)

1913 - Burt Stephen Lancaster,  American actor and producer. Initially known for playing "tough guys" with a tender streak, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in film and, later, television. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor (winning once), and also winning two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. His breakthrough role was the film noir The Killers alongside Ava Gardner.  He played the illicit lover of Deborah Kerr in the military drama From Here to Eternity. A box office smash, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and landed a Best Actor nomination for Lancaster. In 1956, he starred in The Rainmaker, earning a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 2 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1899 - The Boers begin their siege of British-occupied Ladysmith in South Africa. The siege lasts 118 days before the Gordon Highlanders arrive, driving off the Boers.

1950 - Italian-French pianist Aldo Ciccolini makes his American debut playing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Below's performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B flat minor was recorded July 25 July, 1951, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.  The uploader recorded this track from the LP, "Tchaikovsky - Concerto No. 1," issued by RCA Victor on the Bluebird Classics label (LBC 1020).