| Thursday, October 22, 2009 |
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The Last Night at the Old Met |
Answer of the DayWho founded the Metropolitan Opera House? Stung by their inability to acquire box seats at NY's Academy of Music, a group of nouveaux riches decided to build their own opera house on the corner of Manhattan's Broadway and 39th St. On this date in 1883, New York City's Metropolitan Opera House opened with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust. Very quickly, the new opera house became the standard bearer. In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera Company moved to a new location at Lincoln Center. It premiered with Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, which was written especially for the occasion. This week sees performances of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi's Aïda and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust.
Quote"Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process."
Word of the dayventripotent
taking a greedy delight in eating
And now, for your descriptive needs, two weeks of useful adjectives.
Previous words: ultracrepidarian, scabrous
Today's History
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| Andre-Jacques Garnerin |
- Andre-Jacques Garnerin: made the first parachute jump; he went up in a hot-air balloon and down in a parachute (1797)
- the Great Disappointment: adherents of Millerism found that Jesus had not returned; most left the movement, while the rest figured out that it was the beginning of investigative judgment in heaven (1844)
- Toastmasters International: public speaking educational organization was founded in Santa Ana, California (1924)
- Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK imposed an air and naval blockade on Cuba after learning of Soviet missile bases there (1962)
- Chandrayaan-1: India launched its first unmanned lunar probe (2008)
Today's Birthdays
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| Tony Roberts |
- Franz Liszt (1811-1886): pianist/composer
- John Reed (1887-1920): radical journalist who was subject of Warren Beatty's Reds; he is the only US citizen to be buried in the Kremlin
- Doris Lessing (90): author of The Golden Notebook
- Timothy Leary (1920-1996): psychedelic drug-taking psychologist
- Tony Roberts (70): stage and screen actor, on Broadway now in The Royal Family; also, actors Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lloyd (both 71), Annette Funicello (67), Catherine Deneuve (66), Jeff Goldblum (57) and Valeria Golino (43)
- Ichiro Suzuki (36): MLB record-holder for single-season hits; plus, tennis pro Amanda Coetzer (38)
- Zac Hanson (24): singer/songwriter/instrumentalist, Hanson
