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. (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.



Historical Events
1802 - Great Britain declares war on Napoleon's France. 

1804 - The French Senate proclaims Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France.  

1917 - Erik Satie's ballet Parade is first stage by Diaghilev's Ballet Russe, in Paris. 

1980 - Mt. St. Helens in Washington state erupts, killing 57 people and hundreds of animals died from devastating effects.This eruption is considered as the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

1991 - Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, having been selected from 13,000 applicants and blasts off on a Soviet scientific mission. She answered an advertisement on the radio for an "astronaut wanted, no experience necessary."




Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon and Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org



(c) May 2007. Latest update May 18, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.