text:
José Sarney

José Sarney de Araújo Costa (born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa; 24 April 1930) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st president of Brazil from 1985 to 1990. He briefly served as the 20th vice president of Brazil for a month between March and April 1985.

Sarney was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1955 until 1966 and of the Senate from 1971 until 1985. He was also the Governor of Maranhão from 1966 until 1970. During the Brazilian military dictatorship, Sarney affiliated himself with the government party, ARENA, becoming the president of the party in 1979. Sarney joined the dissenters, and was instrumental in the creation of the Liberal Front Party.

Sarney ran for Vice-President on the ticket of Tancredo Neves of PMDB, formerly the opposition party to the military government. Neves won the presidential election, but fell ill and died before taking office, and Sarney became President. He started out his term with great popularity, but public opinion shifted with the Brazilian debt crisis and the failure of Plano Cruzado to abate chronic inflation. His government is seen today as disastrous and clientelism was widespread having longlasting consequences for the Brazilian Republic post military dictatorship.

Following his presidency, Sarney resumed his senate career elected again in 1991 and serving until 2015. He also held the position of President of the Federal Senate three times following his presidency. At age 94, he is the oldest living former Brazilian president, and at the time of his retirement in 2015, had one of the longest congressional careers in Brazilian history.

Early life
Born in Pinheiro, Maranhão, as José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa, he was the son of Sarney de Araújo Costa, a wealthy land-owner and sugarcane producer, and Kiola Ferreira. His family has origins in Viseu in Portugal. He attended Colégio Marista and the Licéu Maranhense before attending the Federal University of Maranhão. In 1953, he graduated from the federal university receiving his bachelor's degree in law. After his graduation, he launched a postmodernist literary journal titled A Ilha.

In 1965 he legally adopted the name José Sarney de Araújo Costa, usually shortened to José Sarney, for electoral purposes. He was known as "Zé do Sarney", as in "José, son of Sarney". Sarney's father acquired the name after being born on a land owned by an Englishman named "Sir Ney".

Early activities
Sarney started his political career in the 1950s after becoming a replacement deputy and later as a federal deputy in 1955. He was a member of the centre-right National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional—UDN), aligned with the progressive wing of the party. He strongly supported so-called "Revolution of 1964", a military coup that overthrew leftist President João Goulart in 1964. After the military coup, Sarney followed most of the UDN into the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), the political party of the military government. He was elected governor of the state of Maranhão in 1966, serving until 1971. He was then elected to the Brazilian Senate and became ARENA's president.

Vice presidency
Despite his support for the government's heavy-handed measures against dissent, Sarney had never been quite accepted by the military establishment, which tried to block his career. In 1979 ARENA reorganized as the Democratic Social Party (PDS), and Sarney remained the party's president. In 1984, the junta was under pressure due to popular protests to reinstate direct elections for president (Diretas Já movement). PDS was divided but launched Paulo Maluf as its candidate for the presidency in indirect elections.

Sarney disagreed with this decision and left PDS to form the Liberal Front Party, which then allied with the PMDB. As part of the deal, Sarney became Tancredo Neves' running mate on the opposition ticket. Neves won the election of 15 January 1985, but became gravely ill the night before his inauguration. Sarney assumed office as vice-president and acting president until Neves died on 21 April, and he formally became the first civilian president in 21 years.

Presidency
His succession raised some question because as Neves could not attend the inauguration ceremony on 15 March, several politicians contended at the time that Sarney should not have been inaugurated as vice-president and allowed to become acting president. They believed that Sarney had been elected vice-president only by virtue of the election of his running mate as president. Each member of the Electoral College cast one vote, for president, and the choice of president carried with it the automatic selection of the ticket's running mate as vice-president, Sarney could take office only as vice-president together with Neves. Some critics argued that in the event of the head of the presidential ticket not being able to assume office, the presidential powers and duties should pass to the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ulysses Guimarães. There was some partisanship in this line of thought since both Neves and Guimarães were members of the same party, and Sarney was not. He had been a supporter of the military, and only recently had joined the coalition to defeat the military's candidate in the electoral college. The challenge to Sarney's inauguration was short-lived, however, because in the early hours of inauguration day, Guimarães himself stated that he believed that Sarney had the right to be inaugurated even without Neves, as the role of the vice-president was precisely that of replacing the president when needed.

Sarney and the president of Argentina, Raúl Alfonsín, started the process of creating a common market between the two nations in 1985. As first steps, they agreed to subsidize regional trade with a special currency for the purpose (the Gaucho). The agreement led to the formation of the Mercosur in 1991. He also oversaw constitutional amendments that purged the remaining vestiges of authoritarianism from the 1967/1969 Constitution.

Sarney faced many problems: enormous foreign debt, rampant inflation and corruption as well as the transition to democracy. During his presidency, the country had a 934% inflation rate and was overshadowed with union strikes and corruption scandals. Sarney launched an economic plan to stabilize the economy, called "Plano Cruzado", successful at first. The inflation worsened however under Sarney's Plano Cruzado. A new, fully democratic constitution was promulgated in 1988, and in the following year, the first direct elections since 1960 were held. Sarney was barred from running for president in his own right in that election. In Brazil, whenever the vice president ascends as president, it counts as a full term. At the time, Brazilian presidents were barred from immediate re-election.

Post-presidency
Sarney supported Fernando Henrique Cardoso as presidential candidate in 1994 and 1998 and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002. He returned to the Senate after his presidency, this time representing Amapá, and served as President of the Senate from 1995 to 1997, 2003 to 2005, 2009 to 2011, and 2011 to 2013. He retired from politics in 2015 and was the longest-serving member of the Brazilian Congress at the time of his retirement. His retirement was noted by The New York Times as a "decline of a political dynasty" which would cause a political shift in the country. All told, he spent all but 23 months in elected office from his first election as deputy in 1955 until his retirement from the Senate in 2015.

Sarney is regarded as the foremost of Brazil's oligarchs. Sarney owns the most important newspapers and television stations in Maranhão. Sarney has also faced multiple allegations of nepotism and corruption in his career. In 2009, the British weekly The Economist called his election as President of the Senate "a victory for semi-feudalism" and "a throwback to an era of semi-feudal politics that still prevails in corners of Brazil and holds the rest of it back." Veja columnist Roberto Pompeu de Toledo deemed him "the perfect oligarch".

Sérgio Machado, former president of Transpetro, said in his plea agreement within the Operation Car Wash that Sarney received R$18.5 million of the bribe money from a Petrobras subsidiary, in the PMDB account during the period in which he directed the company (2003–2015).

Personal life
In 1952, Sarney married Marly Macieira. Their children are Congressman José Sarney Filho, Governor Roseana Sarney, and the businessman Fernando Sarney.

As a writer, his best known work is the poetry book Os Marimbondos de Fogo ("The Fire Wasps"). Sarney was elected to a chair in the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1980.

In April 2012, Sarney was hospitalized and underwent an angioplasty. In July 2021, he was hospitalized for pleural effusion and had a procedure to remove fluid from his lungs.

In July 2023, Sarney was hospitalized after a fall and was diagnosed with cerebral ischemia.

Awards and decorations
Below is a selected list of awards Sarney has received:

title: José Sarney


text:
Mallee

Mallee may refer to:
 * Mallee (habit), the habit of woody plants that grow with multiple stems from underground lignotubers

Places

 * Mallee (biogeographic region), a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia
 * Mallee (Victoria), an informally defined region of north-western Victoria, Australia
 * Division of Mallee, an electoral district that includes this region
 * Murray Mallee, a region in South Australia

Flora

 * Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands, a vegetation group which occurs in semi-arid areas of southern Australia
 * One of several eucalyptus species, including:
 * Bell-fruited mallee, Eucalyptus preissiana
 * Blackbutt mallee, Eucalyptus zopherophloia
 * Blue mallee (disambiguation), multiple species
 * Blue Mountains mallee, Eucalyptus stricta
 * Blue-leaved mallee, Eucalyptus polybractea
 * Book-leaf mallee, Eucalyptus kruseana
 * Cliff mallee ash, Eucalyptus cunninghamii - a tiny and rare mallee from a high rainfall region
 * Darke Peak mallee, Eucalyptus cretata
 * Deua gum, Eucalyptus wilcoxii
 * Faulconbridge mallee ash, Eucalyptus burgessiana - a mallee from a high rainfall region
 * Forrest's mallee, Eucalyptus forrestiana
 * Four-winged mallee, Eucalyptus tetraptera
 * Kybean mallee ash, Eucalyptus kybeanensis
 * Lemon-flowered mallee, Eucalyptus woodwardii
 * Mallee wattle, Acacia montana
 * Mangarlowe mallee, Eucalyptus recurva
 * Narrow-leaved mallee, Eucalyptus angustissima
 * Pear-fruited mallee, Eucalyptus pyriformis
 * Plunkett mallee, Eucalyptus curtisii
 * Red-flowered mallee box, Eucalyptus lansdowneana
 * Round-leaved mallee, Eucalyptus orbifolia
 * Sand mallee, Eucalyptus eremophila
 * Square-fruited mallee, Eucalyptus tetraptera
 * Thick-leaf mallee, Eucalyptus grossa
 * Wabling Hill mallee, Eucalyptus argutifolia
 * White mallee (disambiguation), multiple species
 * Yellow top mallee ash, Eucalyptus luehmanniana - a mallee from a high rainfall region

Fauna

 * Malleefowl, a bird that lives in mallee scrub
 * Mallee dragon, a species of lizard that lives in mallee scrub

People

 * John Mallee, American baseball coach

Other

 * Mallee Highway, a highway that runs from Tailem Bend, South Australia to Piangil, Victoria

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Mallee


text:
Norma (opera)

Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma, ou L'infanticide (Norma, or The Infanticide) by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831.

The opera is regarded as a leading example of the bel canto genre, and the soprano prayer "Casta diva" in Act 1 is a famous piece. Among the well known singers of Norma of the first half of the 20th century was Rosa Ponselle who played the role in New York and London. Notable exponents of the title role in the post-war period have been Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballé.

Composition history
Crivelli and Company were managing both La Scala and La Fenice in Venice, and as a result, in April–May 1830 Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with them for two operas, one at each theatre. The opera for December 1831 at La Scala became Norma, while the one for the 1832 Carnival season at La Fenice became Beatrice di Tenda.

With Bellini's La sonnambula successfully staged in March 1831 and Giuditta Pasta having demonstrated her extensive vocal and dramatic ranges in creating the role of Amina, the Swiss village maiden, she had been engaged by La Scala for her debut during the following season. Bellini and Romani then began to consider the subject of the coming autumn's opera. By the summer, they had decided to base it on Alexandre Soumet's play which was being performed in Paris at around that time and which Pasta would have seen.

For the forthcoming autumn/winter season, La Scala had engaged Giulia Grisi (the sister of Giuditta Grisi) and the well-known tenor Domenico Donzelli, who had made a name for himself with Rossini roles, especially that of Otello. They would fill the roles of Adalgisa and Pollione. Donzelli provided Bellini with precise details of his vocal capabilities which were confirmed by a report which the Neapolitan composer Saverio Mercadante also provided. By the end of August it appears that Romani had completed a considerable amount of the libretto, enough at least to allow Bellini to begin work, which he certainly did in the first weeks of September as the verses were supplied. He reported in a letter to Pasta on 1 September:

"I hope that you will find this subject to your liking. Romani believes it to be very effective, and precisely because of the all-inclusive character for you, which is that of Norma. He will manipulate the situations so that they will not resemble other subjects at all, and he will retouch, even change, the characters to produce more effect, if need be."

Norma was completed by about the end of November. While, for Romani, it became "the most beautiful rose in the garland" of all his work with Bellini, it was not achieved without some struggles. Bellini, now at the height of his powers, was very demanding of his librettist and required many re-writes before he was satisfied enough to set it to music.

Premiere performances
After rehearsals began on 5 December, Pasta balked at singing the "Casta diva" in act 1, now one of the most famous arias of the nineteenth century. She felt that it was "ill adapted to her vocal abilities", but Bellini was able to persuade her to keep trying for a week, after which she adapted to it and confessed her earlier error. At the opening night, the opera was received with what Weinstock describes as "chill indifference". To his friend Francesco Florimo, on the night of the premiere, Bellini wrote "Fiasco! Fiasco! Solemn fiasco!" and proceeded to tell him of the indifference of the audience and how it affected him.

In addition, in a letter to his uncle on 28 December, Bellini tried to explain the reasons for the reactions. As other commentators have also noted, some problems were innate to the structure and content of the opera, while others were external to it. Bellini discusses the tiredness of the singers (after rehearsing the entire second act on the day of the premiere) as well as noting how certain numbers failed to please—and failed to please the composer as well! But then he explains that most of the second act was very effective. It appears from the letter that the second evening's performance was more successful and Weinstock reports it was from this performance forward that it "was recognised as a successful and important opera" with 208 performances given at La Scala alone by the end of the 19th century.

Among the external reasons, Bellini cited the adverse reaction caused by "hostile factions in the audience" consisting of both the owner of a journal (and his claque) and also of "a very rich woman", who is identified by Weinstock as Contessa Giulia Samoyloff, the mistress of the composer Giovanni Pacini. On Bellini's part, there had long been a feeling of rivalry with Pacini ever since the failure of his own Zaira in Parma and his return to Milan in June 1829. With no firm contract for a new opera for Bellini, Pacini's success with his Il Talismano at La Scala—where it received 16 performances—fueled this rivalry, at least in Bellini's head. It was only when he staged a triumphant revival of his own with Il pirata with the original cast that he felt vindicated. Pirata received 24 consecutive performances between 16 July and 23 August 1829, thus outnumbering those for Pacini's opera.

However, Bellini also noted that on the second performance evening of Norma, the theatre was full. In all, Norma was given 34 performances in its first season at La Scala, and reports from elsewhere, especially those from Bergamo, when it was staged in late 1832, suggested that it was becoming more and more popular. Between 1831 and 1850 Weinstock provides details of the dozens of performances given in numerous cities outside of Italy, and then he gives details of those beyond.

Bellini left Milan for Naples, and then Sicily, on 5 January 1832 and, for the first time since 1827, 1832 became a year in which he did not write an opera. Norma quickly "[conquered] the whole of Europe in the space of a few years".

Later revivals
Richard Wagner conducted Norma at Riga in 1837. Following the common nineteenth-century practice of adding interpolated arias, he wrote an aria for the bass and men's chorus for this production. However, that aria has not entered the general repertoire. Wagner wrote at the time that Norma was "indisputably Bellini's most successful composition". "In this opera, Bellini has undoubtedly risen to the greatest heights of his talent. In these days of romantic extravaganzas and the hyper-excitement of the so-called musical attractions he presents a phenomenon which can hardly be overrated. The action, free from all theatrical coups and dazzling effects, reminds one instinctively of a Greek tragedy. Perhaps the views expressed by Schiller in his 'Bride of Messina' to the effect that he had hopes for the full revival of the tragedy of the ancients upon our stage, in the form of the opera, will receive new justification in this Norma! Let anyone name me a spiritual painting of its kind, more fully carried out, than that of this wild Gaelic prophetess...Every emotional moment stands out plastically; nothing has been vaguely swept together..."

Wagner also praised Romani's libretto:

"Here, where the poem rises to the tragic height of the ancient Greeks, this kind of form, which Bellini has certainly ennobled, serves only to increase the solemn and imposing character of the whole; all the phases of passion, which are rendered in so peculiarly clear a light by his art of song, are thereby made to rest upon a majestic soil and ground, above which they do not vaguely flutter about, but resolve themselves into a grand and manifest picture, which involuntarily calls to mind the creations of Gluck and Spontini."

The opera was given its British premiere in London on 20 June 1833 and its US premiere at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans on 1 April 1836. In the late 1840s and during the Risorgimento era, some of the music was used in demonstrations of nationalistic fervour, one such example being the 1848 celebration of the liberation of Sicily from the rule of the Bourbons held in the cathedral in Palermo. There, the "Guerra, guerra" (War, war!) chorus from act 2 was sung. Norma received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 27 February 1890 with Lilli Lehmann singing the title role in German.

Modern times
The Metropolitan Opera revived Norma in 1927 (the first performance of the opera there since 1892) with Rosa Ponselle in the title role.

During the later 20th century, with the bel canto revival, the most prolific Norma was the Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, who gave 89 stage performances (several of which exist on live recordings as well as two on studio versions made in 1954 and 1960). Callas's first appearances in the role began at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze in November/December 1948 followed by the second at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires in June 1949, both of which were conducted by Tullio Serafin. The following year, she appeared in the role at La Fenice in Venice in January 1950, this time under Antonino Votto, and in Mexico in May 1950 conducted by Guido Picco. In London in 1952, Callas sang Norma at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November (where the role of Clotilde was sung by Joan Sutherland); she made her American debut singing the role at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in November 1954 under Nicola Rescigno; and then she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York under Fausto Cleva in October/November 1956. In 1960, she performed Norma in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece with the collaboration of the Greek National Opera, in the production of Alexis Minotis.

Singers in the title role

The title role—"one of the most taxing and wide-ranging parts in the entire repertory"—is one of the most difficult in the soprano repertoire. It calls for great vocal control of range, flexibility, and dynamics as well as containing a wide range of emotions: conflict of personal and public life, romantic life, maternal love, friendship, jealousy, murderous intent, and resignation. The German soprano Lilli Lehmann once remarked that the singing of all three Brünnhilde roles of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen in one evening would be less stressful than the singing of one Norma. She also commented "When you sing Wagner, you are so carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene that you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself. But in Bellini, you must always have a care for beauty of tone and correct emission." According to the Met Opera Archives, Lehmann said this to Herald Tribune critic Henry Krehbiel.

Throughout the 20th century, many singers have tackled the role of Norma. In the early 1920s, it was Rosa Raisa, Claudia Muzio, and Rosa Ponselle who were each admired. Maria Callas emerged as a major force in the role in the post-World War II period. She made two studio recordings of the opera for EMI/HMV, and several broadcasts of her live performances have been preserved from the early 1950s through her final performances of the role in Paris in May 1965.

In the 1960s, two very different performers sang the role: the Australian Dame Joan Sutherland and the Turkish Leyla Gencer. Following Sutherland's 1963 debut as Norma, Luciano Pavarotti called her "the greatest female voice of all time."

The Dutch coloratura Cristina Deutekom tackled the role in 1970. Throughout the decade, four other bel canto specialists debuted their Normas: Radmila Bakočević, Montserrat Caballé, Beverly Sills, and Renata Scotto. Also singing Norma during this period were Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett, the American divas who began as mezzo-sopranos and eventually started singing soprano repertoire.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the role of Norma was performed by such diverse singers as Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Marisa Galvany, Dame Gwyneth Jones, and Jane Eaglen. Other Normas include Hasmik Papian, Fiorenza Cedolins, Galina Gorchakova, Maria Guleghina, Nelly Miricioiu, June Anderson, Edita Gruberová and Carmela Remigio (who performs more frequently the role of Adalgisa).

In 2008, Daniela Dessì performed as Norma at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 2010 (in Dortmund) and 2013 (at the Salzburg Festival) the role was taken by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli: this version was also recorded with coloratura soprano Sumi Jo as Adalgisa. In 2011, Sondra Radvanovsky also added the role to her repertory, one to which she returned in the autumn 2014 at the San Francisco Opera and in the autumn of 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On 13 April 2013, the Italian bel canto soprano, Mariella Devia, after a career of 40 years and one day after turning 65, successfully made her debut as Norma at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Angela Meade has played the role often, including in 2013 and 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Summary
The action takes place in Gaul under the Roman occupation, and is centered on the love triangle between Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, Norma, his former companion, and the young Adalgisa. The background is the uprising of the Gallic people against the Roman occupiers, led by the Druid Oroveso.

Norma, the high priestess of the Druid temple, who had two children by Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, breaking her Druid chastity vows, discovers that her lover is now in love with her friend, the young Druid priestess Adalgisa. Norma tries to convince Pollione to give up Adalgisa and return to her, but he refuses. Norma publicly confesses her fault and is sentenced to death by fire. Pollione is moved by Norma's self-sacrifice and joins her at the stake.

Synopsis

 * Place: Gaul
 * Time: c. 100-50 BC (Roman occupation)

Act 1

 * Sinfonia

Scene 1: The grove of the druids
Oroveso leads the druids in a procession in the forest to pray for victory against the invading Romans: (Oroveso and druids: "Ite sul colle, o druidi" / "Go into the hills, Druids"). The druids pray that Norma will come and have the courage to broker peace with the Romans: (Druids and Oroveso: "Dell'aura tua profetica" / "With thy prophetic aura, imbue her, O terrible God".) All leave to go to the temple.

Pollione and Flavio enter. Although Norma has secretly broken her vows in order to love him and has borne him two children, Pollione tells Flavio that he no longer loves Norma, having fallen in love with the priestess Adalgisa. But he expresses some remorse, describing his dream in which Adalgisa was beside him at the altar of Venus and a huge storm arose: (Pollione, aria: "Meco all'altar di Venere" / "With me at the altar in Rome was Adalgisa dressed in white, veiled all in white.") The storm presaged disaster for both Norma and himself: "Thus does Norma punish her faithless lover," he declares. They hear the trumpets sounding to announce Norma's arrival. Flavio urges his friend to leave, but Pollione stands firm, proclaiming that he will confront Norma and the druids with a superior power and overthrow their altars: (Cabaletta: "Me protegge, me difende" / "I am protected and defended")

As Norma leads the druids and priestesses, the crowd proclaims: "Norma viene" / "Norma is coming" and, as Oroveso awaits her, they describe her dress and manner. All kneel as she approaches. "The time is not ripe for our revenge", she declares, stating that Rome will perish one day by being worn down. Then, with the mistletoe in hand, she approaches the altar with a plea to the moon (the "Chaste Goddess"): (cavatina: "Casta diva" / "Chaste goddess"). She pleads that the goddess shed upon earth the peace that she has created in heaven. She calls for all to complete the rites and then clear the uninitiated from the grove. To herself, she declares that she cannot hurt Pollione, but desires that things return to where they used to be: (Cabaletta: "Ah! bello a me ritorna" / "Return to me, O beautiful one"). The assembled crowd accepts her cautious approach, and all leave the grove.

Later that night: The Temple of Irminsul in the grove

Adalgisa prays at the temple, remembering with some sorrow how she became involved with Pollione. He enters, telling her that she prays to a cruel god and is not trying to invoke the god of love. As she appears to reject him, he declares (Aria: "Va crudele" /"Go, O cruel one") but he is convinced that he cannot leave her. He is distraught, and she doesn't show she is equally torn, until the moment he declares that he must return to Rome the following day. He begs Adalgisa to go with him: (Duet: Pollione, then Adalgisa, then together: "Vieni in Roma" / "Come to Rome"). She resists him, but finally agrees that they will leave together the following day.

Scene 2: Norma's dwelling
Norma appears to be upset and orders her maid, Clotilde, to take the two children away from her, expressing very ambivalent feelings about them. She tells Clotilde that Pollione has been recalled to Rome, but does not know if he will take her or how he feels about leaving his children. As Adalgisa approaches, the children are taken away.

Adalgisa tells Norma she has fallen in love with a Roman, whom she does not name. As she describes how she fell in love while waiting at the temple and seeing "his handsome face" appear, Norma recalls (as an aside) her own feelings for Pollione ("my passions, too, burned like this"), and more and more, their experiences of falling in love run parallel: (Norma and Adalgisa, duet: "Sola, furtiva al tempio" / "Often I would wait for him"). Adalgisa pleads for help and forgiveness, and Norma pledges that she will do that and will also free her from her vows as a priestess: (Norma: "Ah! sì, fa core, abbracciami" / "Yes, take heart, embrace me". Adalgisa: "Ripeti, o ciel, ripetimi" / "Say that again, heavens, say again")

Norma asks Adalgisa to describe the man whom she loves. Responding, she tells her that he is a Roman, and, at that moment, turns to indicate that it is Pollione who is just then entering the room. As Norma furiously turns to confront Pollione, Adalgisa is confused: Norma: "Oh! non tremare, o perfido" / "O faithless man, do not tremble".

Forcing the priestess to realise that she is the victim of a huge deception, Norma addresses Adalgisa. (Trio: each sings in succession, beginning with Norma: "Oh! di qual sei tu vittima" / "Oh, you are the victim"; then Adalgisa: "Oh! qual traspare orribile" / "What horror has been revealed"; then the two women together, followed by Pollione alone: "Norma! de' tuoi rimproveri" / "Norma, do not reproach me now", continuing with "Please give this wretched girl some respite"; after which all three repeat their words, singing at first individually, then together.)

There are angry exchanges among the three: Norma declaring Pollione to be a traitor, he trying to persuade Adalgisa to leave with him, and Adalgisa angrily telling him to go away. When he declares that it is his fate to leave Norma, she encourages the young priestess to go with him, but Adalgisa declares that she would rather die. Norma then demands that her lover go, leaving behind his children — and his honor. (Finale: brief duet, Adalgisa and Pollione: he declares his love, and she her desire for Norma not to be a source of guilt to her. Trio: Norma continues to rage at Pollione, Adalgisa repeats her desire to make him return to Norma, and Pollione curses the day when he met Norma.) Then the sound of the druids calling Norma to the temple is heard. They report that the angry god, Irminsul, has spoken. Pollione storms out.

Act 2

 * Orchestral introduction

Scene 1: Norma's dwelling
Norma looks at both of her sons, who are asleep. She considers killing them. Advancing towards them with knife upraised, she hesitates. (Recitative: "Dormono entrambi ... non vedran la mano che li percuote" / "They are both asleep ... they shall not see the hand which strikes them.") But she cannot bring herself to do it: (Aria: "Teneri, teneri figli" / "My dear, dear sons") The children wake up and she calls for Clotilde, demanding that Adalgisa be brought to her.

The young priestess enters, concerned at how pale Norma looks. Norma makes her swear to do everything she asks and, upon her agreement, tells her that she is entrusting the two children to her care and states that they should be taken to the Roman camp to their father Pollione, a man who she hopes will make a better lover for Adalgisa than he was for her. Adalgisa is aghast. Norma: "I beg you for his children's sake." (Duet, first Norma: "Deh! con te, con te li prendi" / "Please, take them with you") Adalgisa tells her that she will never leave Gaul and only agreed to the request in order to do what was good for Norma. (Duet, Adalgisa: "Vado al campo"/"I'll go to the camp") In the duet, Adalgisa agrees to go to the Roman camp and tell Pollione of Norma's grief; her hope is to persuade him to return to Norma. She then renounces Pollione: (Duet: "Mira, o Norma" / "Look, o Norma") They sing together, each expressing her own thoughts and feelings until Norma realizes that Adalgisa will give up Pollione and remain with her: (Cabaletta; Duet, Norma and Adalgisa: "Si fino all'ore estreme" / "Until the last hour")

Scene 2: The grove
The druid warriors gather and prepare themselves to attack the Romans. Oroveso enters with news from the gods: the time has not arrived to strike. Somewhat frustrated, the soldiers accept the decision.

Scene 3: The temple of Irminsul
Norma enters. (Aria: "Ei tornerà" / "He will come back") Then Clotilde arrives with news that Adalgisa has failed to persuade Pollione to return. Although Norma questions whether she should have trusted her, she then learns from her servant that Adalgisa is returning and wishes to take her vows at the altar and that the Roman has sworn to abduct her from the temple. In anger, Norma strikes a gong-like shield as a summons to war. Trumpets sound and Oroveso and the druids all rush in, demanding to know what is happening. They hear Norma's answer and the soldiers take up the refrain: "Guerra, guerra!" / "War, war!", while Norma proclaims "Blood, blood! Revenge!"

In order for Norma to complete the rites to authorise going to war, Oroveso demands to know who will be the sacrificial victim. At that moment, Clotilde rushes in to announce that a Roman has desecrated the temple, but that he has been apprehended. It is Pollione who is led in, and Norma is urged to take the sacrificial knife to stab him but, approaching him, she is unable to perform the deed. The assembled crowd demands to know why, but she dismisses them, stating that she needs to question her victim.

The crowd departs: (Duet, Norma and Pollione: "In mia man alfin tu sei" / "At last you are in my hands"). Norma demands that he forever shun Adalgisa; only then will she release him and never see him again. He refuses, and she vents her anger by telling him that she will then kill her children. "Strike me instead", he demands, "so that only I alone will die", but she quickly asserts that not only will all the Romans die, but so will Adalgisa, who has broken her vows as a priestess. This prompts him to plead for her life. (Cabaletta: Norma and Pollione: "Già mi pasco ne' tuoi sguardi" / "Already I take pleasure in the looks you give me".) When Pollione demands the knife, she calls the priests to assemble. Norma announces that it would be better to sacrifice a priestess who has broken her vows, and orders the pyre to be lit. Oroveso demands to know who is to be sacrificed while Pollione begs that she stays silent. Norma then wonders if she is not in fact the guilty one, then reveals that it is she who is to be the victim: a high priestess who has broken her vows, has become involved with the enemy, and has borne his children. (Aria, Norma to Pollione: "Qual cor tradisti" / "The heart you betrayed"; Duet: Norma and Pollione; ensemble, Norma, Oroveso, Pollione, druids, priests: each expresses his/her sorrow, anger, pleas to Norma, with Oroveso learning for the first time that Norma is a mother.)

In the concerted finale, Norma pleads with Oroveso to spare her children, reminding her father that they are of his own blood. ("Deh! non volerli vittime" / "Please don't make them victims"). After he promises to take care of them, she prepares to leap into the flames, and the re-enamoured Pollione joins her, declaring "your pyre is mine as well. There, a holier and everlasting love will begin".

Music
It was Giuseppe Verdi who—late in his life—made some perceptive comments in a letter of May 1898 to Camille Belaigue, who had recently published a book on Bellini. In the letter, Verdi states:

"Bellini is poor, it is true, in harmony and instrumentation; but rich in feeling and in an individual melancholy of his own! Even in the least well-known of his operas, in La straniera, in Il pirata, there are long, long, long melodies such as no-one before him had produced. And what truth and power of declamation, as for example in the duet between Pollione and Norma! [See act 2, scene 3 above. Norma: 'In mia man alfin tu sei' / 'At last you are in my hands'] And what elation of thought in the first phrase of the introduction [to the duet] ... no-one ever has created another more beautiful and heavenly."

Commenting on the overall quality of the music in Norma, David Kimbell states that "Bellini's most astonishing achievement in Norma is, amid all the more obvious excitements of musical Romanticism, to have asserted his belief that the true magic of opera depended on a kind of incantation in which dramatic poetry and song are perfectly fused." Additionally, Kimbell provides examples of how the composer's art is revealed in this opera, but also noting that the ability to achieve a "fusion of music and dramatic meaning is to be found elsewhere in Bellini's work".

Schopenhauer's praise
Schopenhauer claimed that tragedy causes the spectator to lose the will to live. "The horrors on the stage hold up to him the bitterness and worthlessness of life, and so the vanity of all its efforts and endeavors. The effect of this impression must be that he becomes aware, although only in an obscure feeling, that it is better to tear his heart away from life, to turn his willing away from it, not to love the world and life." He praised Norma for its artistic excellence in producing this effect. "…[T]he genuinely tragic effect of the catastrophe, the hero's resignation and spiritual exaltation produced by it, seldom appear so purely motivated and distinctly expressed as in the opera Norma, where it comes in the duet "Qual cor tradisti, qual cor perdesti" [What a heart you betrayed, what a heart you lost]. Here the conversion of the will is clearly indicated by the quietness suddenly introduced into the music. Quite apart from its excellent music, and from the diction that can only be that of a libretto, and considered only according to its motives and to its interior economy, this piece is in general a tragedy of extreme perfection, a true model of the tragic disposition of the motives, of the tragic progress of the action, and of tragic development, together with the effect of these on the frame of mind of the heroes, which surmounts the world. This effect then passes on to the spectator."

Ibsen parody
Norma, or A Politician's Love (Norwegian: Norma eller En Politikers Kjærlighed) is an eight-page drama written as an opera parody by Henrik Ibsen. It is influenced by Bellini's Norma, which Ibsen saw in 1851, but the characters are contemporary politicians. The play was first printed anonymously in the satirical magazine Andhrimner in 1851. The first book edition came in 1909, and the first performance of the play was at a student theatre in Trondheim 1994.

Marion Zimmer Bradley
Writer Marion Zimmer Bradley acknowledged that the plot of her 1993 historical novel/fantasy book The Forest House was based on that of Norma – relocated from Gaul to Britain, but sharing the basic plot outline of a love affair between a druidic priestess and a Roman officer. Bradley further stated that, in homage to Bellini, the hymns in chapter five and twenty-two of her book are adapted from the libretto of the opera's act 1, scene 1, and those in chapter thirty from act 2, scene 2.

title: Norma (opera)


text:
Talk:Norma (opera)

Comments
Synopsis from Melitz, 1921 (http://www.intac.com/~rfrone/operas/Books/Melitz_Complete/OGCG-06.htm#Norma) -- Dreamword 23:43 Feb 4, 2003 (UTC)

Should a link or something to Pasta alla Norma be added or is it too far off topic? I found some explanation at http://pow.neomedia.it/gpg/cucina/ix-8-it.html and http://www.eat-online.net/art/english/music/pasta_norma.htm buon appetito --Evanovka 21:39, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

"Norma, his daughter": WHOSE daughter? Adam Cuerden 20:22, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

This doesn't make sense
From the article:

"The title role is generally considered one of the most difficult in the soprano repertoire. German soprano Lilli Lehmann once famously remarked on how the singing of three Götterdämmerung Brünnhildes was more stressful than the singing of one Norma. [1]"

I think its kind of obvious what that should say, but I don't want to touch it because I don't have access to the source info

71.172.121.7 (talk) 08:48, 21 November 2007 (UTC)anon

Infobox
Is the infobox completed? Dare I ask how it functions here? I am not how useful it is to duplicate the basic info in the first sentences. I hope i am not offending anyone but personally I don't think it is an asset to the page. Sorry about that. - Kleinzach 13:39, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Adalgisa is a Soprano, not a Mezzo
You can verify this on the score, on the libretto, on the cast of the first performance. I know that in the past some Mezzo-Soprano were casted in this role (modifying the music) but this is just a wrong "tradition". --Al Pereira(talk) 19:21, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The score really describes Adalgisa as a soprano, but the score of La Favorite presents Leonore as a soprano as well (a role sang only by mezzos). I think that mezzo-soprano wasn't a distinguished voice-type at that time, and mezzos were included either in the soprano category or in the alto (like Rosina and Angelina). Moreover, the only modified music, as far as I know, is the duet Mira o Norma which is transposed a tone down, but not all the mezzos do that. Actually, Cossotto sang it in the original key next to Callas ('65) and in the studio next to Caballe ('72), and more recently Zajick gave a performance singing as written. It fine to describe Adalgisa as a soprano, but it will not be totally wrong to put mezzo-soprano. AdamChapman 16:21, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

 * The role was written for Giulia Grisi, who was a soprano. --Al Pereira(talk) 10:20, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Adalgisa was originally sung by a soprano, but is generally performed by a mezzo today, like Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte. LM103 (talk) 14:12, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Trivia removed and put where it belongs (if anywhere)
This stuff has no place in this article, so one goes to (i) Norma (disambiguation) and (ii) Simpsons. Viva-Verdi 03:20, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Libonati
I didn't know him but see this link. However, the quote doesn't work at that point of the article. --Al Pereira(talk) 00:15, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

19th Century Examples of Sopranos who performed Norma
I wondered why there was not any past examples of sopranos who had performed the role of Norma listed? Since there is already a list of modern examples. Would it hurt the article to include them as well? --EmilyGreene1984 (talk) 10:00, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The eclipse of Norma ca 1920s-ca 1950s should be touched on. --Wetman (talk) 18:45, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Awkward phrasing
It's too bad that Wikipedia's POV rules require tortured phrasing such as "it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the Bel canto tradition." 'Norma' IS the supreme height of the Bel canto tradition. CharlesTheBold (talk) 04:31, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Casta Diva is not adequetly covered.
The fact that this page redirects from that of Casta Diva is strange because there is very little information on the aria itself. I have the beginning of an article on the piece in my sandbox, but I am not sure its notable enough. An alternative would be to include a section on the aria in this article, in which case my stuff would have to be edited. LM103 (talk) 16:10, 23 June 2012 (UTC)
 * There's no reason why you shouldn't convert the redirect into an article, provided that you can include some refs which assert its notability. Maybe you could improve Norma, too, while you're at it.  Have a look at what's in Category:arias and Category:opera excerpts to see what others have done.  (Hmm, there seems to be a bit of overlap there, but anyway...) --GuillaumeTell 21:43, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

"Standard repertory"
The article mentions that Norma is not part of the "standard repertory" and supports that with a footnote that one would expect would be to an article discussing what the "standard repertory" and that Norma isn't part of it, but instead the footnote just mentions how many times it has been performed since 2012 "and going forward to 2016". I have no idea if the number of performances is a lot or a little. Anyway, I have suggested elsewhere that an article about the "standard repertory" might be a good thing. I am not an expert on this topic whatsoever. :-) Thomas144 (talk) 15:29, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

 * You raise an interesting point, and it is possible that many of us regard the term somewhat differently, although, generally, in my opinion it consists of operas which are performed virtually everywhere by every opera company from time to time.

 * One way of describing them might be as "bread and butter operas": i.e. those performed as general audience-pleasers (the A-B-Cs of opera: Aida / Boheme / Carmen) which have remained in the repertoire for many years and re-appear frequently. Now, that does not mean that the standard rep. cannot change and that certain opera can achieve a degree of popularity which causes them to continue to re-appear throughout the opera world......

 * When the WP:Opera group created List of important operas and developed some firm criteria for inclusion, they were addressing the issue of "Important" operas which, of course, is somewhat different. Norma appears on that list, but it is certainly not performed as often as (say) La traviata.  Therefore, I've done a search for Trav and added the following to the reference: "in contrast, the same database reveals the following over the same time period in regard to La traviata:  "2282 performances of 431 productions, in 266 cities".

 * However, there still may be a point in someone creating an article on the standard rep. Viva-Verdi (talk) 20:14, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

 * Yes, Thomas144, you raise an interesting point. In the mid-20th century when there were divas who could sing this, e.g. Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé, it was performed much more often. However, Callas was such a legend in the role that many modern sopranos confess they are reluctant to take it on. In the 20 years I've been going to the Royal Opera House, I think they've only put it one once, and that was a (very)semi-staged performance. And of course, it was hugely popular in its day. So standard repertory can be a shifting term. I think Viva-Verdi's edits in response to your query are a big improvement. Voceditenore (talk) 16:59, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Added info box for this opera
Any comments? Viva-Verdi (talk) 15:00, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Errors in Modern Times chapter of Norma (opera)
It has come to my attention that in the chapter "Modern Times" of the above entry, the first three performances of this opera with Maria Callas in the lead role are listed as 1)Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1952), Lyric Opera of Chicago(1954) and Metropolitan Opera of New York(1956). However, the correct listing of the three first performances with Callas is as follows: 1)Teatro Comunale in Florence (1948), Teatro Cólon, Buenos Aires (1949) and 3)La Fenice, Venice (1950). The first two were with maestro Tullio Serafin and the third with Antonino Votto of La Scala of Milan.

I would like to correct these errors for the improvement of the entry and would appreciate it if any wikipedians would like to differ. Of course, I will add all the necessary bibliography of reliable sources. --Bastias (talk) 17:24, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

mis-copied
I can only think that the following is mis-copied from the unnamed source. Oh yeah that means "after rehearing the entire second on the day of the premiere" 108.18.136.147 (talk) 17:33, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Norma (opera). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051217182514/http://www.motopera.org/operas/norma.html to http://www.motopera.org/operas/norma.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 00:29, 7 December 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Norma (opera)


text:
Disembowelment

Disembowelment, disemboweling, evisceration, eviscerating or gutting is the removal of organs from the gastrointestinal tract (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment is a standard routine operation during animal slaughter. In ancient Rome, disembowelment of animals was practiced for divination, and was known as haruspicy. Disembowelment of humans may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture, execution, or suicide. In such practices, disembowelment may be accompanied by various forms of torture or the removal of other vital organs.

Dressing of animals
The removal of internal organs is a typical operation in meat processing also known as dressing. Land animals and birds are typically killed and bled before the dressing. The process of dressing includes the removal of heart, liver and lungs (pluck) as well as disembowelment by an abdominal cut. Disembowelment is typically accompanied by bung dropping or bunging. Bung dropping is the circumcision of the rectum from the carcass and is the first step of the gutting. Puncturing of bowels are avoided during the evisceration. Otherwise, bacteria from the intestinal contents might spread over the carcass. In case of birds, the abdominal cut extends up to the cloaca separating it from the rest of the skin.

Industrial dressing line
A bung dropper is a device used in slaughterhouses for fast bung dropping in a dressing line. The probe of a bung dropper is inserted into the rectum to loosen it from the carcass by circumcising with a sharp rotating cylinder. Belly opener is a device for performing the abdominal cut.

Mummification and embalming
Some types of animal mummification include evisceration. The process of embalming sometimes includes removing the internal organs. Mummification, especially as practiced by the ancient Egyptians, entailed the removal of internal organs prior to the preservation of the remainder of the body. The removed organs were embalmed, stored in canopic jars and then placed in the tomb with the body.

James Cook, on his second voyage, noted an embalming custom on some of the Pacific islands his crew visited, a custom utilizing transanal evisceration: "We found the body not only entire in every part; but, what surprised us much more, was, that putrefaction had scarcely begun (...); though the climate is one of the hottest, and Tee had been dead above five months.(...) Such were Mr. Anderson's remarks to me, who also told me, on his enquiring into the method of effecting this preservation of their dead bodies, he had been informed, that, soon after their death, they are disemboweled, by drawing their intestines, and other viscera, out at the anus; and the whole cavity is then filled or stuffed with cloth; introduced through the same part(...)"

Transanal evisceration of humans
When a portion of the intestinal tract is forcefully pulled from or expelled from the body through the anus, it is referred to as transanal evisceration. Following the first report of transanal evisceration by Brodie in 1827, more than 70 cases have been reported to date, the majority occurring spontaneously in elderly individuals. Straining, chronic constipation, and rectal ulcerations predispose to spontaneous perforation in elderly individuals.

Cases of transanal evisceration of children whilst sitting over uncovered swimming pool drains have been reported; notable cases include Valerie Lakey (1993) and Abigail Taylor (2007). In Taylor's case, the suction dislodged and damaged her liver and pancreas; several meters of her small intestine were forcefully pulled through her anus. In both these cases, the victims were left with short bowel syndrome and required feeding by total parenteral nutrition. After multiple operations, Taylor later died from transplant-related cancer.

A person, usually a child, can suffer a similar injury if a heavy weight is applied directly over the abdomen. Large intestine (rectosigmoid) rupture with transanal evisceration has been reported from blunt abdominal trauma and suction injuries. A direct blow or impingement of intestine between the vertebrae and anterior abdominal wall results in sudden increase in the intra-abdominal or intraluminal pressure of the intestine and rupture. The downward pressure forces a portion of the intestine to burst from the anus.

Disembowelment of humans as torture
If a living person is disemboweled, it is invariably fatal without major medical intervention. Historically, disembowelment has been used as a severe form of capital punishment. If the intestinal tract alone is removed, death follows after several hours of gruesome pain. The victim will often be fully conscious while the torture is performed if the vital organs aren't damaged, and will be able to see their intestine being removed, but will eventually lose consciousness due to blood loss. However, in some forms of intentional disembowelment, decapitation or the removal of the heart and lungs would hasten the victim's death.

Vietnam
Various accounts have asserted that during the Vietnam War, members of the Viet Cong sometimes made calculated use of disembowelment as a means of psychological warfare, to coerce and intimidate rural peasants. Peer De Silva, former head of the Saigon department of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), wrote that from as early as 1963, Viet Cong units were using disembowelment and other methods of mutilation as psychological warfare. The extent, however, to which this punishment was perpetrated may be impossible to gauge and while detailed accounts survive regarding how civilians were disemboweled by Viet Cong, the use of this torture appears to have been quite arbitrary and there is no record that such actions were sanctioned by the North Vietnamese government in Hanoi. Disembowelment and other methods of intimidation and torture were intended to frighten civilian peasants at a local level into cooperating with the Viet Cong or discourage them from cooperating with the South Vietnamese Army or its allies.

Romania
In early 1941, during the Bucharest pogrom in which 125 Jewish civilians were killed, multiple cases of torture including disembowelment were recorded.

Netherlands
On 10 July 1584, Balthasar Gérard shot and killed William of Orange, who had advocated for Dutch independence from the King of Spain. The assassin was interrogated and condemned to death almost immediately. On 14 July, after suffering various tortures during each of the five days since the assassination, Gérard was disemboweled and dismembered while still alive, after which his heart was torn out and then he was beheaded by his Dutch executioners.

Roman Empire
Christian tradition states that Erasmus of Formiae, also known as Saint Elmo, was finally executed by disembowelment in about A.D. 303, after he had suffered extreme forms of torture during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian and Maximian.

England
In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn and quartered" was typically used for men convicted of high treason. This referred to the practice of dragging a man by a hurdle (similar to a fence) through the streets, removing him from the hurdle and (1) hanging him from the neck (but removing him before death), (2) drawing (i.e. disembowelling) him slowly on a wooden block by slitting open his abdomen, removing his entrails and his other organs (which were frequently thrown on a fire), and then decapitating him and (3) quartering, i.e. dividing the body into four pieces. The man's head and quarters would often be parboiled and displayed as a warning to others. As part of the disembowelment, the man was also typically emasculated and his genitals and entrails would be burned.

William Harrington, Hugh le Despenser the Younger and William Parry are examples of men who were hanged, drawn and quartered – tortured on the rack, hanged until not quite dead, subjected to emasculation, disembowelment and then chopped into quarters.

Germany
From the 15th century, ordinances are retained that threaten with a terrible punishment those who stripped off the bark of a standing tree in the common woods. A typical wording is found in the 1401 ordinance from Oberursel: "'...and whoever is caught stripping off a standing tree, mercy would have been more beneficial to him than the law is; for when law is to be fulfilled, then one is to cut up his stomach at the navel, and pull out a length of the gut. The gut is to be nailed to the tree, and one is keep going around that tree with the person, so long as he still has any part of the gut left in his body.'" Jacob Grimm observes that no case of the punishment being carried out has been found in records from that period (15th century), but 300 to 500 years earlier, the Western Slavic tribes like the Wends are said to have revenged themselves upon Christians by binding the guts to an erect pole and driving them around until the person was fully eviscerated. In the 13th century, members of the now extinct Baltic ethnic group of Old Prussians in one of the battles against the Teutonic Knights, are said to have captured one such knight in 1248 and made him undergo this punishment.

Americas
Nezahualcoyotl, a 15th-century Acolhuan ruler of Texcoco, a member of the Aztec Triple Alliance (now Mexico), promulgated a law code that was partially preserved. Those who had engaged in the passive role of homosexual anal intercourse had their intestines pulled out, then their bodies were filled with ash, and finally, were burnt. The active or penetrating partner was simply suffocated in a heap of ash.

Suicide
In Japan, disembowelment played a central part as a method of execution or the ritualized suicide of a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (or, colloquially, hara-kiri), literally "stomach cutting," involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own viscera.

The act of decapitation by a second (kaishaku-nin) was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. Even later the knife was just a simple formality and the swordsman would decapitate before the subject could reach for it. The commission of a crime or dishonorable act was only one of many reasons for the performance of seppuku; others included the atonement of cowardice, as a means of apology, or following the loss of a battle or the surrender of a castle.

The Japanese tradition of seppuku is a well known example of highly ritualized suicide, within a wider cultural world of norms and symbolism. However, reported examples of suicides exist, in which a person performed disembowelment on himself or herself, without any ambient culture of approved, or expected, suicide.

The Spartan king Cleomenes I is reported, in a fit of madness, to have slit his stomach open, and ripped his own bowels out.

Roman statesman Cato the Younger committed suicide in Utica, after his side lost to Caesar, by plunging a knife in his own gut, in the dead of night. According to Plutarch, Cato's son heard the commotion from a nearby room, and called a doctor who stitched the wound close; after his son and the doctor left, Cato tore the stitching open with his hand and died. On account of his tragic, highly symbolic suicide, Cato is often termed Uticensis ("of Utica"), in order to differentiate him from his homonymous ancestor, Cato "the Elder" or "the Censor".

In 1593, a suicide occurred in Wimpfen. A young, pregnant woman, who had become a widow a few weeks before, was lying in her bed. She took a large knife, opened her belly in a cross, and threw out the fetus, her own intestines, and dug out her spleen and flung that out as well. She lived for 10 hours after the act, and when the priests sought to bring her a final consolation and blessing, she said it would all be in vain, because she was a daughter of the devil, and was beyond any sort of redemption. Then, she died, was put in a sack, and was thrown in the river. She was affluent, so it was clear that poverty had not driven her to this act.

In 1617, a merchant in the municipality Grossglockau slit up his abdomen so that the intestines fell out; he then pulled out his stomach and threw it on the bed. The chronicler notes he lived long enough to regret his action.

title: Disembowelment


text:
Lignotuber

A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response to coppicing or other environmental stressors. However, lignotubers are specifically part of the normal course of development of the plants that possess them, and often develop early on in growth. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, as well as stores of starch that can support a period of growth in the absence of photosynthesis. The term "lignotuber" was coined in 1924 by Australian botanist Leslie R. Kerr.

Plants possessing lignotubers include many species in Australia: Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah), Eucalyptus brevifolia (snappy gum) and Eucalyptus ficifolia (scarlet gum) all of which can have lignotubers 10 ft wide and 3 ft deep, as well as most mallees (where it is also known as a mallee root ) and many Banksia species.

Plants possessing lignotubers on the western coast of the USA include California buckeye, coast redwood, California bay laurel (aka Oregon myrtle), and multiple species of manzanita and Ceanothus.

At least 14 species in the Mediterranean region have been identified as having lignotubers (as of 1993). Lignotubers develop from the cotyledonary bud in seedlings of several oak species including cork oak Quercus suber, but do not develop in several other oak species, and are not apparent in mature cork oak trees.

The fire-resistant lignotubers of Erica arborea, known as "briar root", are commonly used to make smoking pipes.

The largest known lignotubers (also called "root collar burls") are those of the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) of central and northern California and extreme southwestern Oregon. A lignotuber washed into Big Lagoon, California, by the full gale storm of 1977 was 41 ft in diameter and about half as tall and estimated to weigh 525 ST. The largest dicot lignotubers are those of the Chinese Camphor Tree, or Kusu (Cinnamomum camphora) of Japan, China and the Koreas. Ones at the Vergelegen Estate in Cape Town, South Africa, which were planted in the late 1600s have muffin-shaped lignotubers up to 6 ft high and about 30 ft in diameter. Perhaps the largest lignotuber in Australia would be that of "Old Bottle Butt", a Red Bloodwood Tree (Corymbia gummifera) near Wauchope, New South Wales, that has a lignotuber about 8 ft in height and 16.3 m in circumference at breast height.

Many plants with lignotubers grow in a shrubby habit, but with multiple stems arising from the lignotuber. The term lignotuberous shrub is used to describe this habit.

title: Lignotuber


text:
User:Mattzog

A philosopher/composer with an over active imagination.

http://micromatic.org

title: User:Mattzog


text:
Eastphalian language

Eastphalian, or Eastfalian (Ostfälisch), is a dialect of Low German, spoken in southeastern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

Geographical extent
The language area between the Weser and Elbe rivers stretches from the Lüneburg Heath in the north to the Harz mountain range and Weser Uplands in the south. It comprises Hanover Region, Brunswick and Calenberg Land as well as the Magdeburg Börde, including the cities of Hanover, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Göttingen and Magdeburg. It roughly corresponds with the historic region of Eastphalia.

Classification
Eastphalian as a separate dialect was determined by 19th century linguistics, tracing it back to Old Saxon variants spoken in eastern parts of the medieval stem duchy of Saxony. Towards the Elbe region in the southeast, the language area is increasingly influenced by the High German consonant shift.

Features
The most prominent characteristic in Eastphalian are the object pronouns mek and dek in contrast to mi and di in Northern Lower Saxon, respectively for High German mir and mich resp. dir and dich), as well as öhne, ösch/össek and jöck (Northern Low German em, u[n]s, jo [ju], High German ihm/ihn, uns, euch). Although Eastphalian agrees with many Low German dialects (with exceptions, e.g., in southern Westphalian) in that the dative has coincided with the accusative in the forms mentioned, its peculiarity is shown by the fact that the accusative has prevailed over the dative in all of these forms (in Northern Low Saxon it is the other way around). In Eastphalian, an accusative of the first person plural has been preserved with the form üsch and southern Eastphalian össek (cf. Old High German unsih, Old English ūsic [besides ūs], also High Alemannic üs, südbairisch ins in Upper German).

The e-apocope, i.e. the omission of the -e at the end of the word, as took place in North Lower Saxon, was entirely absent in Eastphalian. Thus, the ablaut -e in words like Sprake (language, speech) and Wiele (while) remains and is not dropped. Furthermore, the -e is also preserved in nouns in the nominative case, where High German no longer has them either, such as in Harte (heart), Frue (woman), Herre (man), Bäre (bear). The same is true for many adjectives, such as dicke (fat, thick) and wisse (clear, fast; cf. German gewiss) and substantivizing endings such as -unge and -nisse, as well as for the older form -ig(e) /, which developed from Middle Low German -inge. The -e ending has also survived for nouns in the dative case. Thus, for example, uppen Felle (on the field).

Another feature of Eastphalian is the residual preservation of the prefix ge- as e- in the participle II (past participle) of verbs; since this prefix has also been lost in the very Northern regions of Eastphalia, e. g., for example, in Celle its wään ("been") is opposed to southern ewää(se)n, or ewest. However, this prefix is dropped if the previous word already ends in a schwa like -e or -er.

Another striking difference between Eastphalian and all other Low German dialects is the absence (or undoing) of sound expansion in open syllable before -el, -en, -er in the following syllable, e. g. Eastphalian Löppel, betten , Pepper ("spoon, bit, pepper") versus Northern Low Saxon Läpel , bäten , Päper.

Eastphalian also takes its own position in equalizing Old Saxon phonetic positions, especially in reducing vowels distinguished in open syllables, by simplifying more than Westphalian (which has no reduction in its southern dialects), but not going as far as the core area of Northern Lower Saxon (where only three of the original eight vowel phonemes remain). Despite the diversity of the sounds in detail, most of the Eastphalian dialects thus have a common sound system. (In this case, besides the Heide-Eastphalian also the Göttingisch-Grubenhagen-Eastphalian - which in this case is in the same position as the East-Westphalian - is left out).

Another thing to mention is that prepositions in most of Eastphalian do not contain an umlaut. These include for, unner and over , as opposed to Northern Lower Saxon för, ünner and över.

Subdivisions

 * Elbe Eastphalian (around Oschersleben and Haldensleben in the Magdeburg Börde between Helmstedt and Magdeburg)
 * Göttingisch-Grubenhagensch (around Göttingen, Northeim and Osterode am Harz
 * Heide Eastphalian (around Celle, with Northern Low Saxon elements)
 * Central Eastphalian is the Eastphalian subdialect spoken in a large area surrounding Braunschweig and Hanover.
 * Hildesheimsch (from around Hildesheim and Peine up to Braunschweig)
 * Hannoversch (in the city of Hannover)
 * Calenbergsch (west of Hannover)
 * Einbecksch (around Einbeck)
 * Bronswieksch (in the city of Braunschweig)

title: Eastphalian language


text:
Future Shock

Future Shock is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler, written together with his spouse Adelaide Farrell, in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. The shortest definition for the term in the book is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The book, which became an international bestseller, has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.

The book grew out of an article "The Future as a Way of Life" in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue.

Future shock
Alvin Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change overwhelms people. He argues that the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaves people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation"—future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term "information overload."

This analysis of the phenomenon of information overload is continued in later publications, especially The Third Wave and Powershift.

In the introduction to an essay titled "Future Shock" in his book, Conscientious Objections, Neil Postman wrote: "Sometime about the middle of 1963, my colleague Charles Weingartner and I delivered in tandem an address to the National Council of Teachers of English. In that address we used the phrase 'future shock' as a way of describing the social paralysis induced by rapid technological change. To my knowledge, Weingartner and I were the first people ever to use it in a public forum. Of course, neither Weingartner nor I had the brains to write a book called Future Shock, and all due credit goes to Alvin Toffler for having recognized a good phrase when one came along. (p. 162)"

Development of society and production
Alvin Toffler distinguished three stages in development of society and production: agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.

Each of these waves develops its own "super-ideology” in order to explain reality. This ideology affects all the spheres which make up a civilization phase: technology, social patterns, information patterns, and power patterns.

The first stage began in the period of the Neolithic Era with the advent of agriculture, thereby passing from barbarity to a civilization. A large number of people acted as prosumers (eating their grown food, hunting animals, building their own houses, making clothes,....). People traded by exchanging their own goods for commodities of others. The second stage began in England with the Industrial Revolution with the invention of the machine tool and the steam engine. People worked in factories to make money they could spend on goods they needed (it means they produced for exchange, not for use). Countries also created new social systems. The third stage began in the second half of the 20th century in the West when people invented automatic production, robotics and the computer. The services sector attained great value.

Toffler proposed one criterion for distinguishing between industrial society and post-industrial society: the share of the population occupied in agriculture versus the share of city labor occupied in the services sector. In a post-industrial society, the share of the people occupied in agriculture does not exceed 15%, and the share of city laborers occupied in the services sector exceeds 50%. Thus, the share of the people occupied with brainwork greatly exceeds the share of the people occupied with physical work in post-industrial society.

The third wave led to the Information Era (now). Homes are the dominant institutions. Most people carry on their own production and consumption in their homes or electronic cottages, they produce more of their own products and services and markets become less important for them. People consider each other to be equally free as vendors of prosumer-generated commodities.

Fear of the future
Alvin Toffler's main thought centers on the idea that modern humans feel shock from rapid changes. For example, Toffler's daughter went to shop in New York City and she couldn't find a shop in its previous location. Thus New York has become a city without a history. The overall production of goods and services doubles each 50 years in developed countries. Society experiences an increasing number of changes with an increasing rapidity, while people are losing the familiarity that old institutions (religion, family, national identity, profession) once provided. The so-called "brain drain" – the emigration of European scientists to the United States – is both an indicator of the changes in society and also one of their causes.

Features of post-industrial society

 * Many goods have become disposable as the cost of manual repair or cleaning has become greater than the cost of making new goods due to mass production. Examples of disposable goods include ballpoint pens, lighters, plastic bottles, and paper towels.
 * The design of goods becomes outdated quickly. (And so, for example, a second generation of computers appears before the end of the expected period of usability of the first generation). It is possible to rent almost everything (from a ladder to a wedding dress), thus eliminating the need for ownership.
 * Whole branches of industry die off and new branches of industry arise. This affects unskilled workers who are compelled to change their residence to find new jobs. The constant change in the market also poses a problem for advertisers who must deal with moving targets.
 * People of post-industrial society change their profession and their workplace often. People have to change professions because professions quickly become outdated. People of post-industrial society thus have many careers in a lifetime. The knowledge of an engineer becomes outdated in ten years. People look more and more for temporary jobs.
 * To follow transient jobs, people have become nomads. For example, immigrants from Algeria, Turkey and other countries go to Europe to find work. Transient people are forced to change residence, phone number, school, friends, car license, and contact with family often. As a result, relationships tend to be superficial with a large number of people, instead of being intimate or close relationships that are more stable. Evidence for this is tourist travel and holiday romances.
 * The driver's license, received at age 16, has become the teenager's admission to the world of adults, because it symbolizes the ability to move independently.
 * Death of Permanence. The post industrial society will be marked by a transient culture where everything ranging from goods to human relationships will be temporary.

Significance and reception
The book sold over 6 million copies within five years and has been widely translated (it had translations into twenty foreign languages as of 2003). It has been described as "an international bestseller within weeks of publication".

A documentary film based on the book was released in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.

title: Future Shock


text:
List of British blues musicians

This is an incomplete list of British blues bands and musicians.

Individuals

 * Ian A. Anderson
 * Elles Bailey
 * Ginger Baker
 * Long John Baldry
 * Chris Barber
 * Norman Beaker
 * Jeff Beck
 * Duster Bennett
 * Graham Bond
 * Marcus Bonfanti
 * John Bonham
 * Geoff Bradford
 * Jack Broadbent
 * Jack Bruce
 * Danny Bryant
 * Eric Burdon
 * Eric Clapton
 * Joe Cocker
 * Mike Cooper
 * Cyril Davies
 * John Dummer
 * Aynsley Dunbar
 * Chris Farlowe
 * Mick Fleetwood
 * Peter Green
 * Nicky Hopkins
 * Mick Jagger
 * Brian Jones
 * Laurence Jones
 * Paul Jones
 * Wizz Jones
 * Jo Ann Kelly
 * Dave Kelly
 * Danny Kirwan
 * Alexis Korner
 * Paul Kossoff
 * Hugh Laurie
 * Alvin Lee
 * Aynsley Lister
 * Bernie Marsden
 * John Mayall
 * Chantel McGregor
 * Scott McKeon
 * Tony McPhee
 * Christine McVie
 * John McVie
 * Micky Moody
 * Gary Moore
 * Billy Nicholls
 * Jimmy Page
 * Robert Palmer
 * Ottilie Patterson
 * Ben Poole
 * Duffy Power
 * Rod Price
 * Chris Rea
 * Keith Relf
 * Keith Richards
 * Paul Rodgers
 * Matt Schofield
 * Todd Sharpville
 * Innes Sibun
 * Kim Simmonds
 * Jeremy Spencer
 * Chris Stainton
 * Trevor Babajack Steger
 * Rod Stewart
 * Mick Taylor
 * Joanne Shaw Taylor
 * Top Topham
 * Snowy White
 * Dani Wilde

Bands

 * The Animals
 * Back Door Slam
 * The Birds
 * Black Cat Bones
 * The Blues Band
 * Blues Incorporated
 * Bluesology
 * Chicken Shack
 * Climax Blues Band
 * Cream
 * Downliners Sect
 * Dr. Feelgood
 * Fleetwood Mac
 * Foghat
 * Free
 * The Groundhogs
 * The Hamsters
 * Jeff Beck Group
 * The Jimi Hendrix Experience
 * John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
 * Juicy Lucy
 * Keef Hartley Band
 * King King
 * Led Zeppelin
 * Love Sculpture
 * Manfred Mann
 * Medicine Head
 * The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band
 * Peter Green Splinter Group
 * The Poets
 * The Pretty Things
 * The Rolling Stones
 * Savoy Brown
 * Spencer Davis Group
 * Starlite Campbell Band
 * Steamhammer
 * The Steampacket
 * Taste
 * Ten Years After
 * Them
 * Tramp
 * Twice as Much
 * The Yardbirds
 * When Rivers Meet
 * Whitesnake
 * Wishbone Ash

title: List of British blues musicians


text:
Der Freischütz

Der Freischütz (J. 277, Op. 77 The Marksman or The Freeshooter) is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 collection Gespensterbuch. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera.

The opera's plot is mainly based on August Apel's tale "Der Freischütz" from the Gespensterbuch though the hermit, Kaspar and Ännchen are new to Kind's libretto. That Weber's tunes were just German folk music is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf's Glen scene has been described as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score".

Performance history
The reception of Der Freischütz surpassed Weber's own hopes and it quickly became an international success, with productions in Vienna the same year followed by Dresden, Leipzig, Hamburg, Munich, Karlsruhe, Königsberg, Prague, other German centres, Riga and Copenhagen. 1824 saw productions in four London theatres in four different adaptations, as well as an inadequate adaptation by François Castil-Blaze in French, named Robin des Bois at the Théâtre de l'Odéon.

In order to get round the Paris Opera's ban on spoken text, a version in French with recitatives was prepared in 1841 by Hector Berlioz – who greatly admired the opera and feared other arrangers might do worse – which incorporated his orchestration of Weber's Invitation to the Dance to serve as a ballet, another Paris Opera requirement. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky criticised Berlioz's arrangement in the Bolshoi Theatre production of 1873 as "utterly incongruous", "tasteless" and "silly" because it inserted into the rustic opera an urban piece of music. In 1879 he again criticised a performance in Paris: "Der Freischütz afforded me great pleasure; in many places in the first act my eyes were moist with tears. In the second act Krauss pleased me greatly by her wonderful rendition of Agathe's aria. The Wolf's Glen was staged not at all as splendidly as I had expected. The third act was curious because of the French brazenness with which they took the liberty, on the one hand, of inserting Invitation à la valse with the most stupid dances, and, on the other, of cutting out the role of the hermit who appears at the end for the dénouement."

Berlioz's arrangement again underlay the production at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 2011. His orchestration of Invitation à la valse soon became a concert piece in its own right.

Weber's overture and the "Huntsmen's Chorus" from act 3 ("With princely enjoyment and manly employment") are often performed as concert pieces.

Synopsis

 * Place: Bohemia
 * Time: shortly after the end of the Thirty Years' War

Act 1
At a shooting contest, the second assistant forester, Max, loses to a peasant, Kilian, who is proclaimed "King of marksmen" (Chorus: Viktoria! Der Meister soll leben—"Victory! Long live the master"). Kilian mocks him good-naturedly (Schau der Herr mich an als König—"Let him gaze on me as king").

Max wants to marry Agathe, daughter of the head forester Kuno. In order to marry her and succeed her father as head forester, he has to prove his marksmanship and score in a shooting trial before Ottokar, the sovereign prince, on the following day.

As Max has had ill luck for several days, he muses upon his prospects of losing Agathe by failing the shooting test (Trio of Kuno, Kaspar, and Max; chorus: O diese Sonne—"O this sun"). Left alone in deep melancholy, he recalls happy days (Aria: Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen—"Through the forests, through the meadows").

Kaspar, the first assistant forester, falsely tries to imbue Max with wine and courage (Hier im ird'schen Jammerthal—"Here in this vale of tears"). He had hoped to marry Agathe himself but she had rejected him and chosen Max. The marriage would make Max the heir of Kuno who would see Max as a son. Kaspar seeks revenge upon all three—his rival, his former sweetheart and her father. He hands Max his gun and Max, to his own astonishment, hits an eagle soaring at a great height. Kaspar explains that the gun had been loaded with his last magic bullet.

He persuades Max to meet him at midnight in the terrible Wolf's Glen to cast seven more of the magic bullets. (Six hit, but the seventh belongs to the Evil One who can guide it wherever he pleases.) He warns Max not to tell a soul about their purpose so as not to endanger them. Left alone, Kaspar triumphs and boasts of his insidiousness (Aria: Schweig’! damit dich niemand warnt—"Silence! So that nobody warns you.").

Act 2
Agathe's chamber

At the moment when Max shoots the magic bullet, a picture of Agathe's ancestor hanging on the wall falls to the floor, slightly wounding her. Agathe's cousin and companion Ännchen refastens the hook (Duet: Schelm, halt fest!—"Rogue, hold fast!"). She endeavours to cheer Agathe with jests (Ännchen: Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen—"Comes a pretty boy this path"). Agathe, still disturbed, tells of her meeting with the hermit. He had indicated a danger from which his white consecrated roses would protect her.

Left alone, Agathe awaits Max with the news of his success (Recitative and aria: Wie nahte mir der Schlummer...Leise, leise—"How did slumber approach me...Low, low"). Max arrives, acknowledging that while he has not been the victor, he has killed an eagle. Though the night is falling, he has to leave again to bring in a stag which he had shot in the Wolf's Glen (Trio: Wie? Was? Entsetzen!—"What? What? Oh, horror!").

The Wolf's Glen at night

As the bell chimes twelve Kaspar calls upon Samiel, the Black Huntsman, for assistance in casting the magic bullets. Having already sold his own soul, which is due the next day, Kaspar offers Max’s soul in exchange for a prolongation of his soul of three years. Agathe is to be killed by Max's magic bullet, despair will then make Max and Kuno the Devil's. Samiel agrees ambiguously: "So be it—By the gates of hell! Tomorrow he or you!"

As Max arrives, the spirit of his mother warns him to abandon the project. But Samiel conjures up Agathe, seemingly drowning herself in despair, whereupon Max plunges into the glen. With demoniacal noise, the casting of the bullets begins.

Act 3
The meeting of the marksmen

Having split the seven bullets between them, Max has used three during the hunt in the morning. Kaspar spoils his three on a fox. Thus Max's remaining bullet is the seventh, the Devil's bullet.

Agathe's chamber Agathe is praying (Aria: Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle—"Through clouds obscure"), her doubts having returned owing to a dream of ill omen where she was a white dove which Max shot. Ännchen tries to cheer her with a ghost tale (Aria: Einst träumte meiner sel'gen Base—"My deceased cousin had a dream"). The bridesmaids bring the box with the bridal wreath (Song: Wir winden dir den Jungfern-Kranz—"We wind round thee the bridal wreath"). But as they open it they find a funeral wreath. Recalling the hermit's promise that the white roses will protect her, Agathe proposes to twine them to the bridal wreath.

The marksmanship trial

Prince Ottokar awaits Max at his tent (Chorus of foresters: Was gleicht wohl auf Erden—"What excels the pleasures of the chase"). As a test, Max is ordered to shoot the dove pointed out to him. Max takes aim, fires and Agathe, who has just entered the scene, falls as if hit (Finale: Schaut, o schaut—"See, oh see"). But her bridal wreath and the hermit behind her have deflected the bullet. It strikes Kaspar. Agathe revives from her faint and Kaspar, seeing a holy hermit by her side, realizes that he has failed. Samiel grasps him instead of Max, whereupon Kaspar expires, cursing hell and heaven.

Prince Ottokar orders the corpse to be thrown into the Wolf's Glen. Then he demands an explanation from Max, who confesses to shooting with magic bullets. Regardless of pleas from Kuno, Agathe, peasants, and huntsmen, the infuriated Prince forbids the marriage and banishes Max from the country.

The hermit seeks to appease the Prince (Aria: Wer legt auf ihn so strengen Bann! Ein Fehltritt, ist er solcher Büssung wert?—"Who lays so strict a sentence upon him? An error, is it worthy of such atonement?"). Only love of Agathe and fear of losing her had caused Max to stray from a life that was formerly without fault. Who is to raise the first stone? Who does not look into his own heart? Once he has completed a faultless probationary year, Max should be allowed to marry Agathe. To the exuberant joy of all the Prince accepts this judgement. After the probation, he himself will place the hand of Agathe in that of Max.

In the end, all join in a prayer of thanks.

Instrumentation
The opera is scored for a standard-sized orchestra composed of:

 * In the orchestra pit: 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings (violin I and II, viola, cello, double bass);
 * Onstage: 1 clarinet, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, violins, cellos.

Classical music

 * Franz Liszt wrote a piano transcription of the overture in 1846 (S.575).
 * Carolus Arnoldus Craeyvanger wrote an introduction and variations on a theme from Der Freischütz for guitar in c. 1851.
 * Stephen Heller composed 4 piano études on the Freischütz themes (Op. 127)
 * Sigismond Thalberg included an arrangement of the duet "Schelm, halt fest!" (Ännchen and Agathe) in his L'art du chant appliqué au piano (Op.70).

Fine arts

 * Austrian artist Matthias Laurenz Gräff painted a triptych "Garser Wein 2014 - Der Freischütz - Eros, Pathos, Agape" about Gars wine 2014 with the theme Der Freischütz in combination with a female nude

title: Der Freischütz


text:
Flag of Hawaii

The flag of Hawaii (Ka Hae Hawaii) was first adopted in the early 19th century by the Hawaiian Kingdom and continued to be used after its overthrow in 1893. It is the only U.S. state flag to feature a foreign country's national flag—that of the UK's Union Jack—which commemorates the British Royal Navy's historical relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii, and in particular the pro-British sentiment of its first ruler, King Kamehameha I.

The Hawaiian flag is among the most iconic and recognizable in the U.S., being noted by vexillologists for its design and aesthetics. Its eight stripes represent the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago; while the colors do not have any official symbolism, it is speculated that they reflected the symbols of other Polynesian kingdoms as well as the flags of the foreign powers that first visited Hawaii: the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France.

Current flag (1816-present)

In 1793, Captain George Vancouver, of the British Royal Navy, having previously visited the islands in 1778–1779 with Captain James Cook, returned in command of HMS Discovery. During the visit, Vancouver met with Kamehameha I and presented him with a Red Ensign, used by the Royal Navy at the time. The Kingdom of Ireland was not a formal part of the United Kingdom before 1801, which meant that, at this time, the British flag did not contain the Saint Patrick's Cross of Ireland. This version of the Red Ensign, as well as the current version which added the cross in 1801, served as the unofficial flag of the Kingdom of Hawaii until 1816.

Scottish Captain Alexander Adams' journals mention the British East India Company flag when Kamehameha had originally purchased Adams' brig named the Forester and renamed Kaahumanu. As part of the ship's transfer, the ensign of the East India Company, which consisted of the Union Jack on a field of red-and-white stripes, was taken by Adams during a ceremony with an 11-gun salute. Many older Native Hawaiians prior to 1921 believed that the current flag of Hawaii was created by Adams during his trip to China in 1817. At that time Adams was Commander of the Hawaiian Kingdom Navy, captaining the Kaahumanu under King Kamehameha I. While there is no indication that the flag was either made or flown during that period, Adams did note that on his way to China, while stopping at Waimea, Kauai for supplies, he did give Kaumualiʻi his own ensign to raise at the port, as the king only had a Russian flag left from the Russian colony in Hawaii.

There may have been different versions of the flag with different numbers of stripes and colors. The number of stripes also changed: originally, the flag was designed with either seven or nine horizontal stripes, and in 1845 it was officially changed to eight stripes. The latter arrangement is used today.

Kānaka Maoli flag
The Kānaka Maoli ('true people' in the Hawaiian language) design is purported by some to be the original flag of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, though this claim is unverified and widely disputed. It was introduced to the public by Gene Simeona in 2001. It has nine alternating stripes of green, red, and yellow defaced with a green shield with a puela (strip of kapa bark cloth insignia flown atop the double hulled canoe of the chief) crossed by two paddles.

Gene Simeona claims to have unearthed the Kānaka Maoli flag in 1999. Simeona said he encountered a descendant of Lord George Paulet who told him about an earlier flag. Simeona claims to have found evidence of the Kanaka Maoli flag in the state archives, though any sources he may have used have not been identified. Subsequent efforts to verify Simeona's claim have been unsuccessful. Critics of the claim have pointed to evidence of the widely accepted Hawaiian flag being in existence before the Kanaka Maoli flag. Louis "Buzzy" Agard had proposed a Hawaiian flag design in 1993 which featured nine alternating stripes and the same charge as on the Kanaka Maoli flag, leading many to believe it is where Simeona drew his inspiration.

Despite the lack of verification about its historic use, the design is popular among those who prefer its lack of apparent colonial imagery.

Design
The canton of the flag of Hawaii contains the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, prominent over the top quarter closest to the flag mast. The field of the flag is composed of eight horizontal stripes, symbolizing the eight major islands (Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lānai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau). Other versions of the flag have only seven stripes, probably representing the islands with the exception of Kahoolawe or Niihau. The color of the stripes, from the top down, follows the sequence: white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. The colors were standardized in 1843, although other combinations have been seen and are occasionally still used.

In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Hawaii's flag 11th in design quality, out of the 72 U.S. and Canadian provincial, state, and territorial flags ranked.

Despite superficially resembling the flags of British Overseas Territories, the Hawaiian flag is proportioned differently – the Union Jack in the canton is in a 4:7 ratio, and a differing standard is used to define the colors.

Lā Hae Hawaiʻi
In 1990, Governor of Hawaii John Waihee proclaimed July 31 to be Lā Hae Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian Flag Day. It has been celebrated each year since then. It is the same date as Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, Sovereignty Restoration Day, a holiday of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi that is celebrated by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Flag of the Governor
The flag used by the governor of Hawaii is a red and blue bi-color. In the middle of the eight white stars appears the name of the state in all capital letters. During the time Hawaii was a United States territory, the letters in the middle of the flag were "TH", which stood for "Territory of Hawaii".

Chronology

 * {| class="wikitable"

! Date ! Flag ! Image
 * 1793–1800
 * British Red Ensign
 * style="text-align:center;"|Red Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg
 * 1801–1816
 * British Red Ensign following the Acts of Union with Ireland
 * style="text-align:center;"|Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg
 * 1816–1845
 * Early version of the present flag (1:2 canton)
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of Hawaii (1816).svg
 * February 1843 – July 1843
 * Union Flag (during the Paulet Affair)
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * 1845–1898
 * The current Hawaiian flag introduced in 1845 (4:7 canton)
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of Hawaii (1896).svg
 * February 1893 – April 1893
 * US flag (after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii)
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of the United States (1891-1896).svg
 * 1898–present
 * Hawaiian flag used by the US territory and state of Hawaii
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of Hawaii.svg
 * }
 * US flag (after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii)
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of the United States (1891-1896).svg
 * 1898–present
 * Hawaiian flag used by the US territory and state of Hawaii
 * style="text-align:center;"|Flag of Hawaii.svg
 * }
 * }

title: Flag of Hawaii