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Brightlingsea

Brightlingsea is a coastal town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 8,076. The town is an active though small port.

Its traditional industries included fishery (with a renowned oyster fishery) and shipbuilding. With the decline of these industries, the town is largely a dormitory town for Colchester.

Brightlingsea is a limb of Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports. The town retains an active ceremonial connection with the Cinque Ports, electing a Deputy from a guild of Freemen.

Brightlingsea was for many years twinned with French oyster fishery port Marennes, Charente-Maritime, but the relationship fell into disuse. In the mid-1990s, the port of Brightlingsea was used for the export of live animals for slaughter, leading to a protest campaign dubbed The Battle of Brightlingsea.

Earliest remains
Brightlingsea sits on a promontory surrounded by the River Colne and its associated marshes and creeks (it was an island until the 16th century), and was settled from an early date. In 1995, an Early Neolithic pot, dated 4000 to 3100 BC, was found in a D-shaped enclosure with a ditch on a farm near Brightlingsea. Other early remains in the area date from the Bronze Age, Roman and Saxon periods.

Toponymy
The place-name ‘Brightlingsea’ is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ‘Brictriceseia’. It appears as ‘Brichtricheseye’ in the Red Book of the Exchequer in 1212, as ‘Brihtlenggesseya’ in the Pipe Rolls in 1230, and as ‘Brychtlingeseye’ in the Charter Rolls in 1253.

The name means ‘Brihtric’s island’ or ‘Beorhtric’s island’. (Cf. Eilert Ekwall, ‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names’, p.65.)

The Middle Ages
In the Domesday Book of 1086, the population of Brightlingsea was given as 24 villagers, 26 smallholders and 5 slaves. The Lord of the manor had been King Harold Godwinson, but the title had passed to King William I. The medieval town grew up around two centres: the first around the parish church and the second close to the shore where a port had developed. Trade was in oysters, fish, and copperas – a green pigment of iron (II) sulphate used locally in brick production.

The Cinque Port liberty
The Cinque Ports were a confederation of the five most important ports on the coast of the English Channel. They had obligations to provide ships and men to fight for the king in times of war for which they were compensated by lucrative exemptions from taxation. All of the Cinque Ports acquired limbs or subsidiary ports that would ease the burden of their wartime obligations and share the benefits of their privileges. Brightlingsea became a limb of the head port of Sandwich, and is the only community outside Kent and Sussex that has any connection with the Confederation of the Cinque Ports. Although these days it is a purely ceremonial affair, every year at the parish church on the first Monday after Saint Andrew's Day, known as Choosing Day, the Freemen of Brightlingsea gather to elect the Deputy of Brightlingsea who is the representative of the Mayor of Sandwich in the Liberty.

Wars against France (1793–1815)
During the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France Brightlingsea was a base for the men and boats of the Essex Sea Fencibles (1798-1810), though in 1809 they disgraced themselves by pirating oysters from the River Crouch. During the 1803-1804 invasion scare, a naval gun brig and small gunboat were based in Brightlingsea Creek. Between 1804–1808 Warren's Shipyard built 11 gun brigs for the Navy, and in 1809 the first East Coast Martello Tower was completed on The Stone opposite Brightlingsea at Point Clear which now hosts East Essex Aviation Museum.

The Church of New Jerusalem
Brightlingsea was one of the first places outside the major towns to have a chapel for the doctrines of the Swedish religious mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg. Its New Church community dates from 1808. Its first chapel was built in 1814 in what is now New Street and is now a private house. Its second dates from the 1860s and is in Queen Street. Several local oyster merchants and shopkeepers were early members of the New Church, but the most unusual among them was the former naval lieutenant George Beazeley, an illegitimate son of the Russian ambassador. He lived with his first wife, the daughter of the church's joint founder, Dr. Moses Fletcher, in Anchor Cottage also in Queen Street.

The Mignonette and cannibalism
In 1867 the yacht Mignonette was built by Aldous Successors in Brightlingsea. The Mignonette foundered on its way to Australia in 1884. In desperation, three of the four shipwrecked crew killed and ate the sickest member, the seventeen-year-old cabin boy named Richard Parker. The subsequent trial, R. v. Dudley and Stephens, established the common law principle that necessity is not a valid defence against a charge of murder.

Fishing
By the 1790s Brightlingsea was a busy fishing port, with oyster beds along the Creek and many smacks, each of about 20-30 tons. By the mid-19th century it had more advertised oyster merchants than anywhere else in England. Their boats went as far as Northern Holland and the Channel Islands. Many Brightlingsea fishermen were drowned, especially on the Dutch coast, their names are recorded in the frieze of tiles inside All Saints' Church. 100 fishing vessels were registered at Brightlingsea in 1914, and 54 in 1939. A combination of wars, changing dietary tastes, shellfish health scares, and easier employment caused the local industry to go into sharp decline. No more oysters were bred after 1963, and by the 1980s there were only 4 fishing boats based in the Creek.

Yachting
Between 1860 and 1939 Brightlingsea was the winter laying-up and repair station for many large steam yachts owned by the wealthy. In addition many local men skippered famous racing sailing yachts, such as Captains Wringe, French, and Sycamore. The wealthy owners dealt with Aldous's Shipyard, which was also the largest builder of fishing smacks on the East Coast  and did important work for all 3 armed forces in both world wars. The wealthy patrons included Lipton of the Americas Cup, authors W W Jacobs and Arnold Bennett, the musician Sullivan's heir and nephew Herbert Sullivan, and most famously the eccentric, reclusive but generous American millionaire Bayard Brown, whose yacht Valfreya lay in the Colne for almost 30 years. (J Leather: The Northseamen: Brightlingsea Museum Collection: census data: Essex County Standard)

On 8 August 1903 tragedy struck the area when 8 crew of the SY Lorena plus one local man lost their lives, drowning whilst rowing a tiny stolen owing boat back to the yacht at 11pm after an evening of heavy drinking. All are buried in the Hillside graveyard. The yacht was owned my the American millionaire Amzi L. Barber.

The Shipyards

In 1934 the shut-down Aldous Shipyard, next to the Hard, was reopened by the Wild family, as Aldous Successors Ltd, and built, repaired and laid up numerous craft, both civilian and military, until closure in 1962. The smaller James and Stone yards merged into a single concern in 1942 and closed in 1989. The yards were by far the town's biggest employers, with a total workforce of about 800 in World War 2. The Aldous site now houses boat-hire and other businesses, while James & Stone has been turned into flats and boat marina.

World Wars
During the Great War, the Royal Navy maintained a naval base in the town (HMS Wallaroo, later HMS City of Perth), from where it installed, guarded, and maintained the booms and nets protecting the Swin Anchorage. The anchorage was periodically used by a squadron of battleships, including HMS Dreadnought, and served as the launchpad for the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend in 1918. Brightingsea also provided an army engineer training facility from 1916 to 1919 when it hosted the training of all ANZAC field engineers sent to the Western Front.

Brightlingsea naval base played a significant role in the early sea war of the Second World War when it was the home port for a small group of experimental magnetic minesweepers and a mine recovery party. Following the Dunkirk evacuation, the base was commissioned as flagship HMS Nemo and its functions were expanded to include coastal patrolling duties, air-sea rescue, and a Combined Operations boat base, which for a time hosted Commando units.

From 1941, local shipyards equipped and repaired motor torpedo boats, motor gunboats, and motor launches for the Royal Navy's Coastal Forces. Between 1942 and 1944 areas of Brightlingsea Creek and Point Clear formed a large landing craft training area. Local shipyards concurrently built small craft for the Royal Navy and RAF, and thousands of pontoons for the British Army.

On 9 January 1941 at 23:00 a single German bomber dropped a single large bomb that missed Aldous Successors' shipyards by some 50 meters only to destroy four terraced houses and damage eight more in Tower Street. No one was killed but two people were seriously injured with a further twelve suffering slight injuries. A party from HMS Nemo, led by Lt.Ashton, helped rescue victims from the rubble. An elderly lady later died due to "bomb shock" after being removed from the rubble. After the war, numbers 87-105 Tower Street were rebuilt. On 22 March 1941 a raid by Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter-bombers killed two men working on the minesweeping drifter Jeannie Leask in the Aldous yard.

Local war heroes included the Merchant Navy officer Leslie Frost and the fighter pilot Roy Whitehead, who both lost their lives.

Battles of Brightlingsea
In 1984 Brightlingsea Wharf was used to import coal during the Miners' Strike, and up to a dozen ships could be seen out in the river waiting to unload at Wivenhoe. Kent miners came to picket and some were detained by Essex Police.

Brightlingsea port came to national prominence again in the 1990s with an attempt to use the port again for a controversial cargo. Dubbed the "Battle of Brightlingsea" it comprised a series of protests against the live export of animals from the town for slaughter in mainland Europe. Many people believed that the conditions in which the animals were exported were cruel and inhumane. The protest began on 16 January 1995 and ended on 25 October 1995. During this nine-month period, over 150 convoys passed through the town and 250,000 animals were exported; of these, 24 died, 28 were destroyed by the M.A.F.F., and 38 could not be exported. 598 people were arrested by the police, of whom 421 were local residents. The campaigners' claimed victory as live exports ceased, although a looming ban on the export of British beef connected to the outbreak of Mad Cow disease (BSE) in Great Britain and the related drop in demand for British beef products is a more likely cause of the cessation.

All Saints' Church
The ancient parish church of Brightlingsea stands on a hill at the northern edge of the town. The earliest surviving parts of the building, the chancel, the north and south chapels, and the eastern end of the nave and aisles, date from the 13th century. Further additions were made in the 15th century including the four-storey tower, which was completed around 1490. The church contains a number of monuments dating from the 13th to the 19th centuries. Most notable is a band of 211 square memorial tiles dating from 1872 to 1973; each tile records a Brightlingsea person who has died at sea. A marine chart dated 1590 gives Brightlingsea Church as a navigation mark. It is a Grade I listed building.

Bateman's Tower
Bateman's tower was built in 1883 by John Bateman which he used as a folly for his daughter to recuperate from consumption; however it may have been intended as a lighthouse as part of a failed plan to expand the port. The tower is sited on Westmarsh point at the entrance to Brightlingsea Creek on the River Colne, and is often mistaken for a Martello Tower. During The Second World War the original roof of the folly was removed so that the tower could be used as an observation post by the Royal Observer Corps. In 2005, a restoration project funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund took place to restore the tower to its original condition, including the fitting of a replica of the original roof, refurbishing the interior of the tower and also painting the outside. The tower is now used by the Colne Yacht Club to administer races. Bateman's Tower is leaning slightly; it is said that its foundations were laid on bundles of faggots. It is a Grade II listed building.

Brightlingsea Open Air Swimming Pool
Brightlingsea open-air swimming pool was built in 1933 and is one of the few remaining lidos (open-air swimming pools built mainly in the art-deco period) still in use in the UK. Brightlingsea Lido was originally a single saltwater pool but was converted into two, a 50m swimmers pool and a shallower baby pool c1970's. It is a non-heated freshwater facility.

Transport
The Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea railway opened in 1866 and was a branch line that operated rail services from the nearby town of Wivenhoe into the town centre of Brightlingsea.

The service fell victim to the Beeching cuts in the 1960s and was eventually axed in 1964 supposedly prompted by the high maintenance costs of the swing bridge over Alresford Creek, which was necessary to allow boat traffic to the many sand and gravel pits in the area. Subsequently, the swing bridge was removed and today (December 2020) only the stone supports survive.

Brightlingsea railway station was located on the southern side of Lower Park Road where the town's community centre now sits. It stayed in place for four years after the railway's closure until it was destroyed by fire in 1968.

Being almost totally surrounded by the Colne Estuary, Brightlingsea Creek & salt marsh, Brightlingsea's road links are unusually limited for a town of its size, with only one road linking the town with the outside. During the North Sea Flood of 1953 Brightlingsea was cut off from the outside, though the town itself was not as severely affected as some neighbouring communities.

Brightlingsea to Alresford
In 2007, one of twenty reserve schemes of Sustrans's Connect2 scheme was a new swing bridge over Alresford Creek. This could give an alternative crossing over the waters around Brightlingsea but by December 2020 no further plans or funding were apparent, whilst Alresford Creek is mooring for fifty pleasure yachts.

Education
Brightlingsea is home to the Colne Community School, a secondary school which serves an extended catchment area which includes Wivenhoe, Alresford, Great Bentley, Thorrington as well as Brightlingsea itself. Ex-principal Terry Creissen, who now resides in Qatar with his family, was honoured (whilst still in the position of headmaster at the Colne) with an OBE. The next Principal of the Colne Community School, Nardeep Sharma, was also awarded an OBE in 2016.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Essex, Heart East, Greatest Hits Radio East (formerly Dream 100), Actual Radio, and Colne Radio, a community based station. The town is served by the local newspapers, Brightlingsea Info, Colchester Gazette and Essex County Standard.

Sports
Brightlingsea Sailing Club runs a competitive sailing programme and has produced many champions at international and Olympic level. Colne Yacht Club is one of the oldest established clubs on the East Coast, with its origins stretching back to the 1870s.

Brightlingsea Regent Football Club plays its matches at North Road in the Isthmian League.

Brightlingsea Cricket Club. Cricket club playing in the Two Counties Cricket League and the North Essex Cricket League, with a thriving junior kwik cricket and colts section. All home games played at Bayard Recreation Ground

The Brightlingsea Rugby Club, play their home games at Strangers Corner.

Notable residents

 * Reginald White and John Osborn, 1976 Olympic gold medallists in the Tornado catamaran sailing class, both awarded MBEs in 1997

title: Brightlingsea


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Church of St Mark, Broomhill

Church of St Mark is a Church of England parish church in the Sheffield suburb of Broomhill, in England.

History
The church was originally built in 1868–1871 to a standard neo-Gothic design by William Henry Crossland. This building was destroyed by an incendiary bomb during the "Sheffield Blitz" of 12 December 1940; only the spire and a porch survived (they are now Grade II listed structures). The remnants of the bombed church were used as the basis for a new church designed by George Pace and constructed 1958–1963. This new building is of a Modernist design but is also sympathetic to the Gothic spire and porch. It is a rubble-faced concrete building with striking slit windows of varying numbers and locations around the building. There are also two notable stained glass windows: the Te Deum window by Harry Stammers and the west window by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens.

On 28 June 1973, the church was designated a grade II listed building.

The parish of Broomhill & Broomhall has increased in area and population size over the years. In the 1970s, the parish boundaries expanded to include the university area and the neighbouring St George's Church was closed. Later, in 2000, another neighbouring church, St Silas, Broomhall, was also closed. The present parish, has come to include a large geographical area which extends from Ranmoor to the city ring road.

Present day
The vicar is Sue Hammersley, with Shan Rush as a non-stipendiary assistant priest. Beth Keith, also a tutor at St Hild Theological College, is a priest attached to the church with the title "Liberal Theologian". Noted for its radical, inclusive theology, the church includes the organisation 'CRC' (Constructive Responsive Christianity).

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

title: Church of St Mark, Broomhill


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Talk:Phytoplankton

Misc from 2003
I've rewritten this to fit better with the plankton page, and corrected some inaccuracies: I've commented out some stuff about zooplankton and food chains - this should go in a zooplankton page. Agree? There's a lot more I can add, which I will do in time... Tonderai 20:52, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * fungi are decomposers not photosynthesisers, so are not phytoplankton.
 * plankton do not 'hover', which implies an active process, but drift passively in the water column.
 * primary production is a term for the cumulative amount of carbon fixed per area over a period of time by phytoplankton.
 * some oceanic ecosystems are supplied by chemical energy from hydrothermal vents.

Page appears to have some vandalism
Ref to "stew fish peoplee" which doesn't look very scientific... — Preceding unsigned comment added by User: (talk • contribs) Fixed it - Vsmith 12:13, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Atmosphereic Oxygen production Smackdown: Rainforest vs. Phytoplankton
This article says that phytoplankton produce approximately 98% of atmospheric oxygen. but the rainforest article says 40%. Which is right? How does the rain forests and phytoplankton relate to the carbon cycle? Can someone add to this article (or potentially the phytoplankton article) or add links to the correct source?
 * Good catch! This is a pretty common occurrence in presenting numbers and percentages and speaks directly to why we need to cite sources when writing articles that present such numerical "facts". Although we can trace by history who put that in, the point is, the contributer either pulled it out of his/her ass or got it from somewhere. It is not the kind of information that most scientists would have first-hand knowledge of.  I will delete until a source can be provided. - Marshman 04:18, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I figure it is important since I often hear the phytoplankton number tossed around by people who are more or less opposed to preserving the Rainforest. Thanks for the help!
 * Of course if a person thinks a good reason NOT to preserve the rainforewst is because phytoplankton produce all the oxygen we need, they won't be swayed by facts. But I understamnd your point - Marshman 23:54, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Phytoplankton increasing global climate
hi,I was just reading an article that suggested that Phytoplankton are helping increase global climate, because they absorb radiation from the sun. I feel this information should be added to the article.
 * Increase global climate? You'll have to be clear about what you mean (for instance, you and I absorb radiation from the sun when we're outside during the day).  I think what you mean is that they uptake carbon dioxide (from the ocean, but this exchanges with the atmosphere), so may have a role with respect to atmospheric CO2 and climate.  It is almost certainly the case, however, that the terrestrial biosphere (trees, grasses, etc.) will have much more of a role in climate change in the future.  Have a look at the carbon cycle article.  Cheers, --Plumbago 09:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
 * My understanding is that phytoplankton cause global cooling because they reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.107.166.168 (talk • contribs)
 * Nthey are plants ope. They are not responding to increased CO2 as they are not limited by its availability.  They are limited, primarily, by the availability of nutrients, which are ultimately supplied from deep water, and so may be affected by increased ocean stratification through warming.  As it happens, the situation on land is very different.  There, plants rely on the atmosphere for CO2 and generally obtain it at the expense of water.  Anthro increases in atmospheric CO2 have made it easier for land plants to get hold of it, increasing their growth.  So, while oceanic uptake of anthro CO2 is primarily via physico-chemical mechanisms, on the land uptake by biological processes is the primary mechanism.  Of course, as the world warms up, processes such as respiration, which return CO2 to the atmosphere, will increase in rate, and several model studies suggest that the uptake of CO2 by the land will actually reverse within the current century.  Some of this stuff is covered at biological pump and at primary production.  Cheers, --Plumbago 08:25, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes You Are Correct 203.192.253.49 (talk) 11:56, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Greek word
In the article Plankton it is written as πλανκτον. In this article, πλαγκτν. Which one is correct?

 * Good question. The first one seems to be a literal translation (π = pi = p; λ = lambda = l; ...; ν = nu = n), but the second seems to include γ (= gamma = g?), so seems to be wrong.  However, I'm not entirely convinced by the literal translation either.  According to a mates' PhD. thesis the name derives from the Greek for "wandering" (πλανκτος = planktos?), and was introduced by Victor Hensen in 1887.  I don't have a proper reference for this, but I thought I'd best mention it in case someone else does.  Hope this helps.  Cheers, --Plumbago 10:32, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Had a word with my mate, and he confirms that "planktos" is the root. He cites Victor Hensen via Thurman (1997, Introductory Oceanography, Prentice Hall College, New Jersey, USA, ISBN 0132620723).  I'll make the appropriate changes.  Cheers, and well spotted!  --Plumbago 08:30, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

 * In Classical Greek orthography, the the nasal obstruent is velarized before a velar, therefore it is represented with γ. So, the form with gamma is correct. I have edited the article accordingly. CRCulver 21:24, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

For Robespierrester
Before doing any more revert please address the points below.
 * The reference with liink you provided is not responding when clicking on it.
 * The reference you are giving does not provide anything besides the general definition and quoting from a volatile web site is not what Wikipedia calls a valid source (please read Wikipedia litterature about that)
 * Why did you remove the last external link out (Plankton*Net) which is a real scientific resource ?

--Daniel Vaulot 19:46, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

 * The link works perfectly for me... what do you mean by not responding?

 * Can you provide me with a link to this piece of literature that says this site would not be a valid source?

 * Also, I did not mean to delete any other source, perhaps this was a result of the reversions and put into effect someone else's edits.

 * This definition is important because it covers a common misconception and also explains how broad this term really is.
 *  The lines above have been added by Robespierrester (not signed though)

 * I have tried many times from France the link you provide and I was never able to reach the site. Second the quote is just a definition of phytoplankton and there is no need to use a quote from a commercial web site. Instead modifiying the definition and quoting from a book or from a scientific paper would be OK.  --Daniel Vaulot 16:24, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Disappearing?
Is it true that phytoplankton populations are on the decline (and thus that the Earth's future atmospheric oxygen level is at risk)? Badagnani 06:44, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

 * The simple answer is "no". While phytoplankton abundance certainly varies, and there are good reasons to expect their numbers to fall somewhat in the future as the ocean stratifies because of global warming, I've never heard anyone question the future of Earth's oxygen atmosphere (and I work as a professional oceanographer).  I'd love to know where this oxygen story comes from: the split in global primary production between land and ocean slightly favours land ecosystems (but the split is more pronounced on a per unit area basis because there's less than half as much land as there is ocean; see primary production).  Given that almost all fixed carbon is respired back to CO2 (consuming O2) it's not at all obvious where the idea that that ocean's are "responsible" for our oxygen comes from.  Further (and I'm treading well outside my expertise here), as I understand it (see this graphic), the majority of fossil fuel carbon has a terrestrial source, suggesting that geologically net primary production (that is, the extremely long-term balance between primary production and respiration) has been dominated by terrestrial production.  Anyway, I'm going off on one now, so I'll stop!  ;-)  Hope this helps.  Cheers, --Plumbago 08:32, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

See this page and do a CONTROL-F search for "phytoplankton." Badagnani 09:04, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Oh I've seen statements about this before, but not in reliable sources (this one certainly isn't reliable). I don't really keep on top of trends in phytoplankton, but I'm aware that there is some evidence for a recent decline.  My understanding is that natural (i.e. non-anthropogenically forced) variability is not well-quantified, so that any declines observed may simply be part of a multi-year cycle.  It's not something I work on myself, but I don't see fellow scientists rushing to study declining phytoplankton numbers, and I interpret that to mean it's not "interesting" (i.e. is most likely boring variability).  Cheers, --Plumbago 09:14, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

As a nutritional supplement
This page mentions a nutritional supplement called "Marine Phytoplankton"]. Is this for real? If so, human consumption of phytoplankton for medicinal purposes should be added to the article. Badagnani (talk) 08:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

This website is selling it as powder or capsules. Badagnani (talk) 08:27, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

A number of companies market it as a nutritional supplement.211.225.33.104 (talk) 11:21, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

 * While this might be the case, unless there are solid sources supporting such medicinal use, we shouldn't be an advertising forum for potentially questionable products. Companies selling those already have their own marketing budgets.  --P LUMBAGO  06:43, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Ocean acidification
The effects on phytoplankton of increasing ocean acidification should be mentioned in the article. Badagnani (talk) 16:27, 28 January 2008 (UTC)!

hi olivia loyde love jace coby —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.16.32.135 (talk) 02:16, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Why you insist to change the name of Persian Gulf?!
With all respect to the author of this article and those who have helped through the project,I should say you have done something bad and insulted geography science!By the way,the right name for what you have called "Arabian Sea" is "Persian Gulf". Please make it correct. regards Ehsan Amozegar — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.176.178.33 (talk) 07:17, 11 October 2011 (UTC) Is the picture in the gallery the one that you are reffering to? I do believe that it shows both the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ARandomFilipino (talk • contribs) 08:05, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

 * I've removed the offending photo. --Epipelagic (talk) 08:55, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

"As a side note ..."
In the section Ecology, first paragraph:

"As a side note, one of the more remarkable food chains in the ocean – remarkable because of the small number of links – is that of phytoplankton-feeding krill (a crustacean similar to a tiny shrimp) feeding baleen whales."

This sentence seems a bit awkward. Also: this seems more like a subjective statement.

Bhoya (talk) 21:56, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I've made some modifications to this sentence. Does it read better now? HOWEVER... I agree that the statement is subjective. Who finds it remarkable? Citation needed. And are there so few chains like this in existence? Additionally, I doubt the truth of the statement overall. Krill can't be the only things feeding on phytoplankton. In a freshwater ecosystem, the phytoplankton population supports the entire lake's food web, with at least two or three predators. I doubt the ocean is so simplified that only the krill predate phytoplankton. Okay, after a quick look online, apparently there are indeed zooplankton in the ocean (I wasn't sure), which eat phytoplankton. Krill apparently eat both. There's another connection in this chain, and I'm sure further research could find more. I'd support just deleting it. But if anyone can find a way to make this statement less questionable, be my guest. Cheers Sailor7sakura (talk) 13:01, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for working on it. This may be of interest, to people of all ages. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 13:10, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Reference 4 is a dead link
Can someone who knows how to do this please update this dead link? 96.237.28.183 (talk) 20:18, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Atmospheric oxygen
I've just removed the assertion "Thus phytoplankton are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere – half of the total amount produced by all plant life", and wanted to briefly expand on my reasoning. Basically, the source does not (strictly) support this statement. It says "Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen generated by plants on Earth", but does not say anything about the source of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. For instance, if all of the oxygen produced by oceanic phytoplankton is consumed in short order by oceanic heterotrophs (and there are still uncertainty about whether the oceans are net heterotrophic or autotrophic), then it's arguable that they contribute little to the atmosphere. Contributions of oxygen to the atmosphere are driven by an imbalance between its production (through photosynthesis) and its consumption (through respiration), where a consistent bias in production over consumption would result in net oxygen accumulation - as well as organic carbon retention. And as the article on fossil fuel notes, most of the proven reserves are derived from terrestrial plants (in the form of coal), which is suggestive of land plants being more important over the long term than phytoplankton. All that said, it's not unlikely that my reasoning is wrong here, but before my change is reversed I'd suggest that we need a stronger source than a NASA publicity piece only tangentially related to this point. Cheers, --P LUMBAGO 10:03, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

 * This issue is still a problem for the page. The sources used to support the statements in the article are either too flimsy to support the text (e.g. a pop-sci piece makes a passing reference to oxygen) or are rather old academically. If a good case can be made for having this text in here that doesn't overblow the role of phytoplankton for atmospheric oxygen, then dig up the sources and add them. In the meantime, this subsection is getting deleted. —P LUMBAGO 08:05, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Oceanography vs Limnology
I think perhaps there should be some sort of division between ocean phytoplankton and freshwater phytoplankton. While they're certainly all important, this article seems to focus on the oceans more than freshwater (there's only one mention of blue-green algae, even). Thus, someone searching for phytoplankton with an involvement in limnology is likely not to find the answers they need. Could someone correct this? Maybe divide the ecology section into two, and add to the freshwater explanation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sailor7sakura (talk • contribs) 20:34, 26 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Perhaps a freshwater section would suffice? It could explain what the key differences are between marine and freshwater phytoplankton.  But it needs to be done carefully as (IMHO) they have more in common with each other than they have differences.  Anyway, you seem to know what you're talking about, so have a go at writing something.  Cheers, --P LUMBAGO  11:21, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Ecology section
Consider adding sub-headers in the "Ecology" section, since it is quite long. This would help readers find the info they want to know! Cold water kid (talk) 19:12, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

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News article on decline
Has this news article been evaluated for inclusion in the article? --Leitmotiv (talk) 22:39, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Update with: "Changes in phytoplankton concentration now drive increased Arctic Ocean primary production"
Should information on the study, featured in 2020 in science as below, be added to the article – most likely to section Phytoplankton?:

Scientists report that phytoplankton primary production in the Arctic Ocean increased by 57% between 1998 and 2018 due to higher concentrations, suggesting the ocean may be able to support higher trophic level production and additional carbon fixation in the future.

How does it relate to the apparent global phytoplankton decline?

--Prototyperspective (talk) 12:33, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Climate change - phytoplankton - potetional deoxygenation of earth's atmosphere
Apparently an open area of inquiry is the potential for warming to turn off phytoplankton's production of oxygen leading to potential anoxia and mass extinction of aerobes (including people). In the researcher's own words it isn't firmly established, but this area of inquiry merits neutral balanced inclusion here. See for example the recent discussion starting at this thread (That's to a version diff, which will probably be archived eventually, so look for the full thread in later versions) NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 12:40, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

"Coastal Phytoplankton on the Rise"
Interesting new article at NASA's Earth Observatory page: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151374/coastal-phytoplankton-on-the-rise Image of the Day for May 30, 2023 "Blooms of the plant-like organisms near coastal areas have become more frequent in the 21st century." Multiple possible causes. Interesting topic with ongoing work. Pete Tillman (talk) 08:02, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Phytoplankton


text:
Rinaldo (opera)

Rinaldo (HWV 7) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, composed in 1711, and was the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage. The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill, and the work was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in London's Haymarket on 24 February 1711. The story of love, war and redemption, set at the time of the First Crusade, is loosely based on Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata ("Jerusalem Delivered"), and its staging involved many original and vivid effects. It was a great success with the public, despite negative reactions from literary critics hostile to the contemporary trend towards Italian entertainment in English theatres.

Handel composed Rinaldo quickly, borrowing and adapting music from operas and other works that he had composed during a long stay in Italy in the years 1706–10, during which he established a considerable reputation. In the years following the premiere, he made numerous amendments to the score. Rinaldo is regarded by critics as one of Handel's greatest operas. Of its individual numbers, the soprano aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" has become a particular favourite, and is a popular concert piece.

Handel went on to dominate opera in England for several decades. Rinaldo was revived in London regularly up to 1717, and in a revised version in 1731; of all Handel's operas, Rinaldo was the most frequently performed during his lifetime. After 1731, however, the opera was not staged for more than 200 years. Renewed interest in baroque opera during the 20th century led to the first modern professional production in Handel's birthplace, Halle, Germany, in 1954. The opera was mounted sporadically over the following thirty years; after a successful run at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1984, performances and recordings of the work have become more frequent worldwide. Rinaldo was the first Handel opera to have found its way to the Metropolitan. The opera's tercentenary in 2011 brought a modernized production at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Background
Handel began to compose operas at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg, where he spent the years 1703 to 1706; his principal influences were Johann Mattheson and Reinhard Keiser. At that time, German opera as a genre was still not clearly defined; in Hamburg the term Singspiel ("song-play") rather than opera described music dramas that combined elements of French and Italian opera, often with passages of spoken German dialogue. The music was, in the words of historian Donald Jay Grout, "tinged with the serious, heavy formality of Lutheran Germany". The first of Handel's early works in the German style was Almira, a considerable success when it was premiered on 8 January 1705. Over the next three years Handel composed three more operas in the German style, but all of these are now lost. However, fragments of the music from these works have been identified in later operas.

In autumn 1706 Handel went to Italy. He stayed for long periods in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice, making frequent visits to the opera houses and concert halls. He obtained introductions to leading musicians, among them Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, and Agostino Steffani, and met numerous singers and performers. From these acquaintances Handel learned the essential characteristics of Italian music, in particular (according to Dean and Knapp) "fluency in the treatment of Italian verse, accurate declamation and flexible harmonic rhythm in recitative, ... drawing the necessary distinction between vocal and instrumental material and, above all, the release of [his] wonderful melodic gift". Handel's first Italian opera, Rodrigo, showed an incomplete grasp of Italian style, with much of Keiser's Hamburg influence still evident; it was not a success when premiered in Florence, in late November or early December 1707. He followed this by a lengthy visit to Rome, where opera performances were then forbidden by papal decree, and honed his skills through the composition of cantatas and oratorios. In Rome, Handel met Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, a diplomat and spare-time librettist; the result of this meeting was a collaboration which produced Handel's second Italian opera, Agrippina. After this work's triumphant premiere at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice, on 26 December 1709, Handel became, says biographer P. H. Lang, "world famous and the idol of a spoiled and knowledgeable audience". This sudden recognition led to eager competition for Handel's services. Among those most keen to employ him was Prince Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover and future King George I of Great Britain. In June 1710 Handel accepted the appointment of Kapellmeister to Georg's Hanover court, under terms that gave him considerable scope to pursue his own interests. On the basis of this freedom, in late 1710 Handel left Hanover for London, possibly in response to an earlier invitation from members of the English nobility. By 1711, informed London audiences had become familiar with the nature of Italian opera through the numerous pastiches and adaptations that had been staged. The former Royal Academy of Music Principal, Curtis Price, writes that the popularity of these pieces was the result of a deliberate strategy aimed at the suppression of English opera. Handel's music was relatively unknown in England, though his reputation from Agrippina was considerable elsewhere. A short "Italian Dialogue" he had written in honour of Queen Anne's birthday was well received when performed at St James's Palace on 6 February 1711.

In London, by means which are not documented, Handel secured a commission to write an Italian opera for the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket (it became the "King's Theatre" after King George I's accession in 1714). This theatre, designed and built by Sir John Vanbrugh, had become London's main opera house; its manager, Aaron Hill, intended to mount the first Italian opera written specifically for London and had engaged an all-Italian company for the 1710–11 opera season. Hill employed an Italian poet and language teacher, Giacomo Rossi, to write a libretto based on a scenario that Hill prepared himself. As his subject Hill chose Gerusalemme liberata, an epic of the First Crusade by the 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso; the opera was called Rinaldo, after its main protagonist. Hill was determined to exploit to the full the opportunities for lavish spectacle afforded by the theatre's machinery; his aim, according to Dean and Knapp, was "to combine the virtuosity of Italian singing with the extravagance of the 17th century masque".

Synopsis

 * Place: in and around the city of Jerusalem during the First Crusade
 * Time: 1099

Act 1
The Crusader army under Goffredo is laying siege to Jerusalem, where the Saracen king Argante is confined with his troops. With Goffredo are his brother Eustazio, his daughter Almirena, and the knight Rinaldo. As Goffredo sings of the coming victory, Rinaldo declares his love for Almirena, and Goffredo confirms that she will be Rinaldo's bride when Jerusalem falls. Almirena urges Rinaldo to fight boldly and assure victory. As she departs, a herald announces the approach of Argante from the city. Eustazio surmises that the king fears defeat; this seems to be confirmed when Argante, after a grandiose entrance, requests a three-day truce to which Goffredo graciously assents. After Goffredo leaves, Argante ponders his love for Armida, the Queen of Damascus who is also a powerful sorceress, and considers the help her powers might bring him. As he muses, Armida arrives from the sky in a fiery chariot. She has divined that the Saracens' only chance of victory lies in vanquishing Rinaldo, and has the power, she claims, to achieve this.

The scene changes to a garden, with fountains and birds, where Rinaldo and Almirena are celebrating their love. They are interrupted as Armida appears, and wrests Almirena from Rinaldo's embrace. Rinaldo draws his sword to defend his lover, but a black cloud descends to envelop Armida and Almirena, and they are borne away. Rinaldo mourns the loss of his loved one. When Goffredo and Eustazio arrive they comfort Rinaldo, and propose they visit a Christian magician who may have the power to save Almirena. Rinaldo, left alone, prays for strength.

Act 2
A sea shore. As Goffredo, Eustazio and Rinaldo near the magician's lair, a beautiful woman calls from her boat, promising Rinaldo that she can take him to Almirena. Two mermaids sing of love's delights, and urge Rinaldo to go in the boat. He hesitates, unsure what to do, and his companions attempt to restrain him. Angry at the abduction of his loved one, Rinaldo enters the boat, which immediately sails off. Goffredo and Eustazio are shocked at Rinaldo's impulsiveness and believe that he has deserted their cause.

In Armida's palace garden, Almirena mourns her captivity. Argante joins her and, overcome by her beauty, confesses that he now loves her. He promises that as proof of his feelings he will defy Armida's wrath and secure Almirena's freedom. Meanwhile, Rinaldo is brought before the triumphant Armida. As he demands that Almirena be set free, Armida finds herself drawn to his noble spirit, and declares her love. When he angrily rejects her she uses her powers to assume Almirena's form, but Rinaldo suspects trickery, and departs. Armida, resuming her own appearance, is furious at her rejection yet retains feelings of tender love. She decides on another attempt to ensnare Rinaldo, and transforms herself back into Almirena's shape, but then encounters Argante. Believing her to be Almirena, Argante repeats his earlier promises of love and freedom. Swiftly resuming her own form, Armida denounces his infidelity and vows vengeance. Argante defiantly confirms his love for Almirena and declares that he no longer needs Armida's help. She departs in a fury.

Act 3
A mountainside, at the magician's cavern. Goffredo and Eustazio are told by the Magician that Almirena is being held captive in Armida's palace at the mountain-top. Ignoring the magician's warning that they will need special powers, the pair set off for the palace but are quickly driven back by Armida's monsters. The magician then gives them magic wands that transcend Armida's power, and they set off again. This time they overcome the monsters, but as they reach the gates of the palace it disappears, leaving them clinging to a rock in the midst of a stormy sea. They climb the rock and descend out of sight.

In the palace garden Armida prepares to kill Almirena. Rinaldo draws his sword, but Armida is protected from his wrath by spirits. Suddenly Goffredo and Eustazio arrive, but as they touch the garden with their wands it disappears, leaving them all on an empty plain with the city of Jerusalem visible in the distance. Armida, after a last attempt to kill Almirena, also disappears as Rinaldo strikes her with his sword. The remaining four celebrate their reunion, while Goffredo announces that the attack on Jerusalem will begin the next day.

In the city, Argante and Armida, in danger from a common enemy, become reconciled and prepare their troops for battle. Goffredo's army advances, and battle finally commences. After a struggle for supremacy, Jerusalem falls to Goffredo; Argante is overcome and captured by Rinaldo, while Armida is taken by Eustazio. Rinaldo and Almirena celebrate their love and forthcoming marriage. Armida, accepting her defeat, breaks the wand which is the source of her evil power and together with Argante embraces Christianity. Goffredo expresses his forgiveness to his beaten foes and sets them free, before victors and vanquished join in a chorus of reconciliation.

Revisions, 1717 and 1731
The opera was frequently revised, most particularly in 1717 and in 1731; modern performances are usually a conflation of the versions available. Up to and including 1717, these changes had no significant effect on the plot. In the 1731 version, however, in act 2 Armida imitates Almirena's voice rather than assuming her appearance, and Argante declares his love to Almirena's portrait rather than to her face. In act 3 the marches and the battle scene are cut; Armida and Argante remain unrepentant and vanish in a chariot drawn by dragons before the conclusion.

Compositional history
In a letter dedicating the new opera to Queen Anne, Hill wrote of his choice of story: "I could not chuse a finer Subject than the celebrated story of Rinaldo and Armida". He had, however, exercised "a Poet's Privilege", to render Tasso's work suitable for the stage. This "privilege" moved the opera's story a long way from Tasso's original. Hill invented a new heroine, Almirena, to provide the main love interest with the hero Rinaldo, and the relationship between Rinaldo and Armida scarcely figures in the opera. Likewise, the affair between Argante and Armida is Hill's creation, as are the conversions to Christianity, the latter possibly a sop to English susceptibilities. Rossi was required to turn the elaborate scenario into verses, a relatively light task which, he said, was "the delivery of a few evenings". Nevertheless, Rossi complained that Handel hardly gave him time to write: "To my great wonder I saw an entire Opera set to music by that surprising genius, with the greatest degree of perfection, in two weeks". Price argues that Rossi's role was beyond that of a mere versifier, quoting Hill's words of praise for Rossi in the preface to the libretto, which suggest that Rossi was the senior partner in the birth of the libretto. Price also points to the likely influences on the structure of Rinaldo from two British semi-operas—George Granville's The British Enchanters, and Purcell's King Arthur. The transformations of characters to others' shapes, Price contends, is likely derived from John Dryden's play Amphitryon.

Handel's speed of composition was assisted by his inclusion of arias and other numbers from his earlier Italian works, among them "Bel piacere" and "Basta che sol" from Agrippina, "Sibillar gli angui" from the dramatic cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, and the mermaids' song "Il vostro maggio" from the cantata Arresta il passo. Almirena's aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" had appeared in the oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. The suitability of some of these insertions has been questioned by later commentators; Dean and Knapp cite Argante's "Sibillar gli angui", with its references to the hissing snakes of Alecto and the howls of Scylla, as "ludicrously inappropriate" to accompany the king's grand act 1 entrance. Many other numbers—Dean and Knapp estimate two-thirds of the arias—were adapted and partly recomposed from earlier sources.

In the years between the 1711 premiere and the 1717 revival, Handel made various adjustments to the score and the vocal parts, often to accommodate the requirements of new singers. Details of these changes are difficult to establish since the performing librettos and scores for these years no longer exist. For 1717, more significant revisions were made; the role of Eustazio was merged with that of Goffredo, and Argante's part was rewritten to accommodate an alto voice. Thus in this revival all the principal parts were sung in high voice ranges. Handel's revisions for the 1731 revival were even more radical, since they not only affected individual musical numbers but involved alterations in the plot. The production was advertised "With New Scenes and Cloathes", but many of the changes involved reducing or eliminating the pyrotechnics and special effects that had characterised the original production. The only significant new music in the 1731 production is a long accompanied recitative for Rinaldo, though other numbers are changed or cut. Goffredo becomes a tenor, Armida a contralto, the Herald and the Magician become basses. Dean and Knapp summarise the 1731 revisions as "a striking illustration of the seeming vandalism with which Handel could treat his works in revival".

Early performances
The 19th-century music critic George Hogarth wrote of Rinaldo that "[t]he romantic interest of the subject, the charms of the music, and the splendour of the spectacle, made it an object of general attraction". Its premiere at the Queen's Theatre on 24 February 1711, possibly under Handel's direction, was a triumphant success. A further 12 performances were immediately scheduled; at the end of the run, popular demand was such that two more were added. Notwithstanding this enthusiasm, the financial strains of such a grand production led to legal actions against Hill from unpaid craftsmen. Nine days after the premiere the Lord Chamberlain's Office revoked the impresario's licence. Under Hill's successors the opera was played at the theatre in most seasons until 1716–17, by which time it had totalled 47 performances, far more than any other opera at the Queen's.

The public's general enthusiasm for the opera was not shared by the writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, who used the pages of their new journal, The Spectator, to pour scorn and ridicule on the work. Addison may have been motivated by his own failure, a few years previously, to establish a school of English opera with Rosamund, on which he had collaborated with the composer Thomas Clayton. It was absurd, he wrote, that theatre audiences should be exposed to entire evenings of entertainment in a foreign tongue: "We no longer understand the language of our own stage". Addison did, however, praise the singing of Nicolò Grimaldi, the celebrated alto castrato known as "Nicolini", in the title role. Steele compared the production unfavourably to a Punch and Judy show, particularly criticising certain bungled scene changes and the poor quality of effects such as thunder and lightning. Hogarth made light of such comments: "Notwithstanding the influence which the Spectator influenced over the taste and manners of the age, its attacks ... seem to have had little effect in turning people from the entertainment".

Some sources have suggested that the opera was performed in Dublin in March or April 1711, though according to Dean and Knapp there is no record of such an occasion. In November 1715 a version mainly in German was performed in Hamburg. This production, based on a translation by the playwright Barthold Feind, proved to be very popular and was revived in the city on numerous occasions during the 1720s. A pastiche of the opera, with additional numbers by Leonardo Leo, was presented by Leo at the Royal Court in Naples in 1718, with Nicolini singing his original role.

After 1716–17, Rinaldo was not seen on the London stage until 1731, when it was revived in its revised form at the King's Theatre. During these years Handel's industry was such that he was producing a new opera for this theatre every nine months. The 1731 production of Rinaldo received six performances, bringing the London total for the work to 53 in Handel's lifetime, the most for any of his operas. After 1731 Handel had fewer stage successes, and performances of his operas became rarer. Changes in taste and style combined, as Grout concludes, to "thrust [the operas] into ill-deserved oblivion", as a result of which Rinaldo was not staged anywhere for two hundred years.

Modern revivals
The first 20th-century production of Rinaldo which can be specifically verified was a performance in London, in February 1933, by pupils of the Hammersmith Day Continuation School, though Dean and Knapp mention a shortened version, in Czech, at the Prague Conservatory in 1923. The first modern professional performance was at the Halle Opera House in June 1954, under Horst-Tanu Margraf, as part of the Handel Festival. On 17 May 1961 the Handel Opera Society, directed by Charles Farncombe, staged the work at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, a production that was revived four years later. The first American performance was a concert version at Carnegie Hall on 27 March 1972, given by the Handel Society of New York, with Stephen Simon conducting and Beverly Wolff as Rinaldo. The first staging of the opera in America was at the Houston Grand Opera under Lawrence Foster, in October 1975, with Marilyn Horne in the title role, a part with which she would become particularly associated on American stages.

In July 1982 Horne sang the part alongside John Alexander's Goffredo and Samuel Ramey's Argante, in a National Arts Centre (NAC) production in Ottawa directed by Frank Corsaro. The performance, with Mario Bernardi conducting the NAC Orchestra, was applauded by Montreal Gazette critic Eric McLean for its fine music making and its displays of "architectural and sartorial splendour". Eighteen months later, on 19 January 1984 Bernardi and Corsaro, with Horne, Ramey and Benita Valente from the Ottawa cast, brought the production to New York for the work's debut at the Metropolitan Opera. The production was loaned to the Met for its centennial season by the National Arts Centre of Canada "in deep appreciation of the many years during which Canadians have enjoyed opera from the Met – on tour, on radio and in New York". Donal Henahan in The New York Times praised all the singers in turn, with a special mention for Valente's "plaintive and affecting" rendering of the popular aria "Lascia ch'io pianga". But, says Henahan, "the loudest cheers of the night went at last to the choreographer, Eugene Collins, and an incredibly nimble corps of tumbling warriors". After ten performances at the Metropolitan Opera House the production was taken in May to Washington, D.C., and toured in the US before returning to New York in June for several outdoor performances.

From the mid-1980s onwards, performances of Rinaldo became more frequent worldwide. In June 1989 it was staged at La Fenice in Venice, under John Fisher, again with Marilyn Horne. This production was criticised by critic and music scholar Stanley Sadie, in his review of the live recording, for straying too far from the composer's original intentions, particularly in the rearrangement of material and the extent of cuts. Singers were, Sadie says, allowed too much freedom to ornament their vocal lines; some of the cadenzas were "preposterous". The opera reached Australia in 1999, at the Sydney Opera House under Patrick Summers, and was performed there again in July–August 2005 under Trevor Pinnock, with Michael Chance as Rinaldo. The new century saw a number of performances across Europe, including an appearance at the Göttingen International Handel Festival in 2004, with Nicholas McGegan conducting Concerto Köln. This production was well received by the public, but was criticised by Jochen Breiholz of Opera News for poor staging, indifferent singing and a substandard performance from the orchestra.

Zürich Opera's 2008 production, directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog and conducted by William Christie, threw aside all convention by representing the action in a 21st-century airport lounge and conference centre, with Rinaldo dressed in a double-breasted navy blazer and needing a drink. "Characters go up and down on-stage escalators, and the set spins to show various areas of the lounge and terminal. There is a dissection of a small, white furry animal, a large snake, some allusions to Bond girls and character transformations. The Christians pull guns on the Muslims at a signing ceremony". It was, wrote Associated Press critic Ronald Blum, "outrageous – and entertaining". A concert version of Rinaldo was given at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, by the Bach Collegium Japan conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, with the Japanese soprano Maki Mori as Almirena.

During the opera's tercentenary year in 2011, the Glyndebourne Festival mounted a new production directed by Robert Carsen, designed by Gideon Davey, and conducted by Ottavio Dantone with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the pit. The production is set in a school where Rinaldo is a student, initially the victim of bullying, who enters into the world of the Crusades. The Glyndebourne Festival Opera brought a semi-staged version of this production to the 2011 BBC Proms.

Music
The amount of recycled music in Rinaldo is such that Dean and Knapp call it an "anthology" of the best works from Handel's Italian period. Sadie raises the question of whether the opera's dramaturgy is affected by the small amount of music written for its particular situations. He also comments on the problems raised for scholars by the extensive revisions to the music that took place during Handel's lifetime, but suggests that the available admixture creates interesting opportunities in the preparation of modern performing versions. The initial popular success of Rinaldo was assisted by the employment of virtuoso singers, in particular Nicolini in the title role. This part has remained in its original pitch, though in his various revisions Handel transposed the music of other leading roles to different voice types. Thus Goffredo had originally been an alto part, but in the 1717 revisions became a tenor; the Magician was transposed from alto castrato to bass, and Armida from soprano to contralto.

The music, Lang says, flows "beguilingly" from the spacious overture; the quieter, emotional passages are illustrated evocatively, while in the more spectacular moments Handel's innovative use of brass is exciting and inspiring. The sudden blast of trumpets which announces the march in act 3 provides, say Dean and Knapp, "an effect of splendour and exhilaration that time has not dimmed". The harpsichord solos which decorate "Vo' far guerra" in act 2 were originally improvised on the keyboard by Handel during performances, and were extremely popular. They were remembered and written down by William Babell, and published later as separate pieces. Lang believes that in spite of the borrowings, and the hasty manner in which the work was put together, Rinaldo is one of Handel's great operas. According to Dean and Knapp, no Italian opera heard in London to that point had been supported by such "majestic" orchestral forces. Critic Anthony Hicks describes the music, overall, as both "varied and excellent". Dean and Knapp's verdict is more equivocal. The music for the war and pageantry scenes, they say, is "brilliantly successful", but in depicting the scenes concerned with magic, Handel misses the mark; they suggest it was not until over 15 years later, with Admeto and Orlando, that he was able to represent the supernatural convincingly in music.

The opera begins in the key of F, and switches to G at the beginning of the grove scene in act 1. Act 2 starts in E minor and ends in G. The final act begins and ends in B minor. According to Hicks the dominant character musically, except in act 3 in which she barely sings, is Armida. Her entry cavatina "Furie terribili" gives, says Hicks, "an immediate impression of fiery passion", an energy and intensity demonstrated in her act 2 "Ah crudel", and in her later vengeance aria which is the occasion of Handel's harpsichord cadenzas. Armida's act 3 duet with Argante was the last duet with bass part that Handel wrote for 30 years. Of the other set pieces, Dean and Knapp highlight Rinaldo's "Cara sposa" as an example of Handel's growing confidence with aria forms. "Or la tromba" is praised for the brilliance of its orchestration: 4 trumpets, drums, strings & oboes—the only aria Handel ever wrote for this combination. The melody for Almirena's "Lascia ch'io pianga" began its life as an Asian dance in Almira before appearing as an aria in the oratorio Il trionfo. From this simple tune and plain accompaniment Handel achieves an "intensely moving effect" in this, the best-known of all the arias.

1717 libretto and subsequent amendments
The main musical numbers from the 1711 libretto are listed, together with changes and replacements from the two major revisions of 1717 and 1731. Minor changes, transpositions, and alterations to recitative sections are not shown. New numbers introduced in 1717 and 1731 are listed separately. Other arias not listed may have been sung in Rinaldo during the years 1711–17, but in the absence of contemporary evidence from scores or librettos the extent of such changes cannot be accurately ascertained.

Act 1

 * Sinfonia (overture)
 * "Sovra balze scoscesi e pungenti" (Goffredo)
 * "Combatti da forte" (Almirena) (1731: replaced with "Quel cor che mi donasti")
 * "Ogni indugio d'un amante" (Rinaldo)
 * "Sulla ruota di fortuna" (Eustazio) (1717: cut; 1731: revived, amended and allocated to Argante)
 * "Sibillar gli angui d'Aletto" (Argante) (1717: replaced with "Sorte amor vuol che quest'alma", which was cut in 1731)
 * "No, no, che quest'alma" (Goffredo) (1731: replaced with "D'instabile fortuna")
 * "Vieni o cara, a consolarmi" (Argante) (1731: replaced with amended "Sulla ruota di fortuna")
 * "Furie terribili!" (Armida)
 * "Molto voglio, molto spero" (Armida) (1731: replaced with a modified version of "Combatti da forte")
 * "Augelletti, che cantate" (Almirena)
 * "Scherzano sul tuo volto" (Duet: Almirena and Rinaldo)
 * Sinfonia
 * "Cara sposa, amante cara" (Rinaldo)
 * "Cor ingrato, ti rammembri" (Rinaldo)
 * "Col valor, colla virtù" (Eustazio) (1717: cut)
 * Venti, turbini, prestate (Rinaldo)

Act 2

 * "Siam prossimi al porto" (Eustazio) (1717: cut; 1731: partly restored, sung by Goffredo)
 * "Il vostro maggio" (Sirene)
 * "Il tricerbero umiliato" (Rinaldo)
 * "Mio cor, che mi sai dir?" (Goffredo)
 * "Lascia ch'io pianga" (Almirena)
 * "Basta che sol tu chieda" (Argante) (1717: replaced with "Ogni tua bella stilla" and in 1731 with "Per salvarti, idolo mio")
 * "Fermati!/No, crudel!" (Duet, Armida and Rinaldo)
 * "Abbrugio, avampo e fremo" (Rinaldo)
 * "Dunque i lacci d'un volto" (Accompanied recitative, Armida)
 * "Ah! crudel, Il pianto mio" (Armida)
 * "Vo' far guerra, e vincer voglio" (Armida)

Act 3

 * Sinfonia
 * "Andate, o forti" (Mago) (1717: cut; 1731: altered and restored)
 * "Sorge nel petto" (Goffredo) (1717: cut)
 * "È un incendio fra due venti" (Rinaldo)
 * Marcia (Pagan march) (1731: cut)
 * "Al trionfo del nostro furore" (Duet, Armida and Argante) (1731: repositioned, and sung by Goffredo and Almirena)
 * "Bel piacere e godere" (Almirena)
 * "Di Sion nell'alta sede" (Eustazio) (1717: sung by Goffredo; 1731: sung by Argante)
 * Marcia (Christian march) (1731: cut)
 * "Or la tromba in suon festante" (Rinaldo) (1731: cut)
 * Battaglia (battle) (1731: cut)
 * "Solo dal brando" (Goffredo) (1731; cut)
 * Vinto è sol della virtù (Coro)

Additions and replacements, 1717

 * Act 1: "Sorte amor vuol che quest'alma" (Argante)
 * Act 2: "Vieni, o caro, che senza il suo core" (Almirena)
 * Act 2: "Ogni tua bella stilla" (Argante)
 * Act 3: "Pregio è sol d'un alma forte" (Argante) (1731: cut)
 * Act 3: "Si t'amo" (Almirena)

Additions and replacements, 1731

 * Act 1: "Quel cor che mi donasti" (Almirena)
 * Act 1: "D'instabile fortuna" (Goffredo)
 * Act 2: "Arma lo sguardo" (Armida)
 * Act 2: "Per salvarti, idolo mio" (Argante)
 * Act 3: "Orrori menzogneri" (accompanied recitative, Rinaldo)

Editions
No complete autograph score exists; fragments representing about three-quarters of the 1711 score are held by the Royal Music Library (a subdivision of the British Library in London) and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The oldest complete score, dating from about 1716, is an error-strewn manuscript that may be a copy from one or more of the performing scores from that period. The manuscript bears numerous notes and corrections in Handel's hand, and was possibly the basis for the substantial revisions which he effected in 1731. It was also used by the copyist John Christopher Smith to produce two performing scores for the 1720s Hamburg performances. Further complete manuscript copies were produced by Smith and others in 1725–28 (the "Malmesbury" score), 1740 ("Lennard") and 1745 ("Granville"). These provide many variations of individual numbers.

During the initial run at the Queen's Theatre the publisher John Walsh printed Songs in the Opera of Rinaldo, in mainly short score form. Apart from the overture, instrumental numbers were omitted, as were the recitatives. In June 1711 Walsh published a fuller version, which included instrumental parts; he continued to publish versions of individual numbers, with a variety of orchestrations, until the 1730s. In 1717 William Babell issued an arrangement for harpsichord of the overture and seven of the arias. Friedrich Chrysander published editions of the whole opera in 1874 and in 1894, based on a study of the existing published and manuscript material. In 1993 David Kimbell, for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe (HHA), produced a full score of the 1711 version, together with rejected draft material and the additional numbers introduced in revivals up to 1717. HHA has also produced a complete score of the 1731 version.

The libretto was published in London by the Queen's Theatre in February 1711, to coincide with the premiere, with Hill's English translation. Revised versions followed in 1717 and 1731 to reflect the changes introduced in those years; Rossi is believed to have prepared the Italian additions and revisions, with the 1731 English credited to "Mr. Humphreys". Feind's German versions of the libretto were published in Hamburg in 1715, 1723 and 1727.

Recordings
The first full recording of Rinaldo (an "excerpts" disc had preceded it by two years) was made in 1977 by CBS, with Carolyn Watkinson in the title role, Ileana Cotrubaș as Almirena, and Jean-Claude Malgoire conducting La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy. The work, recorded in a Paris church, was based on the 1711 score; Alan Blyth in Gramophone praised the standard of the singing, and despite reservations about the sound quality, called it one of the most enjoyable of available Handel opera recordings. There was no further recording of Rinaldo available until 1990, when John Fisher's heavily cut version from La Fenice was issued. Another decade passed before the appearance of Christopher Hogwood's 1999 Decca recording, again based on the original score, with the countertenor David Daniels as Rinaldo, Cecilia Bartoli as Almirena and Catherine Bott in the small part of First Mermaid. Gramophone's reviewer called this issue "a treat for Handel lovers – a rare recording of one of the composer's richest operas, with a strong and starry cast". Since then several more versions have been made available: Harry Bicket's 2001 recording for Arthaus, which was later issued as a DVD; René Jacobs with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra for Harmonia Mundi in 2001; and a performance by the Aradia Ensemble under Kevin Mallon, recorded in 2004 and issued under the Naxos label in 2005.

title: Rinaldo (opera)


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Wizard of Oz (character)

Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (also known as the "Wizard of Oz" and, during his reign, as "Oz the Great and Terrible" or the "Great and Powerful Oz") is a fictional character in the Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. The character was further popularized by a stage play and several films, including the classic 1939 film and the 2013 prequel adaptation.

In his first appearance in Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard rules the Land of Oz from his palace in the Emerald City. He is exposed at the end of the novel as a conman and circus magician, but in further books of the series, he becomes a trusted and valued friend to the Oz characters.

Oz books
The Wizard is one of the characters in the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Unseen for most of the book, he is the ruler of the Land of Oz and highly venerated by his subjects. Believing he is the only man capable of solving their problems, Dorothy and her friends travel to the Emerald City, the capital of Oz, to meet him. Oz is very reluctant to meet them, but eventually each is granted an audience, one by one. In each of these occasions, the Wizard appears in a different form, once as a giant head, once as a beautiful fairy, once as a horrible monster, and once as a ball of fire. When, at last, he grants an audience to all of them at once, he seems to be a disembodied voice.

Eventually, it is revealed that Oz is actually none of these things, but rather an ordinary conman from Omaha, Nebraska, who has been using elaborate magic tricks and props to make himself seem "great and powerful". Working as a magician for a circus, he wrote OZ (the initials of his first two forenames, Oscar being his first, and Zoroaster being the first of his seven middle names) on the side of his hot air balloon for promotional purposes. One day his balloon sailed into the Land of Oz and he found himself worshipped as a great sorcerer. As Oz had no leadership at the time, he became Supreme Ruler of the kingdom and did his best to sustain the myth.

He leaves Oz at the end of the novel, again in a hot air balloon. After the Wizard's departure, the Scarecrow is briefly enthroned, until Princess Ozma (the rightful hereditary ruler of Oz) is freed from the witch Mombi at the end of The Marvelous Land of Oz.

In The Marvelous Land of Oz, the Wizard is described as having usurped the throne of King Pastoria and handed over the baby princess to Mombi. This did not please the readers, and in Ozma of Oz, although the character did not appear, Baum described Ozma's abduction without including the Wizard as part of it.

The Wizard returns in the novel Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. With Dorothy and the boy Zeb, he falls through a crack in the earth; in their underground journey, he acts as their guide and protector. Oz explains that his real name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. To shorten this name, he used only his initials (O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D.), but since they spell out the word pinhead, he shortened his name further and called himself "Oz". When Ozma rescues them from the underground kingdoms, he recounts his story of becoming the ruler of Oz, and Ozma explains that before the witches usurped her grandfather's throne (an occurrence happening long before the wizard arrived), the ruler of Oz had always been known as Oz or (if female) Ozma. Ozma then permits him to live in Oz permanently. He becomes an apprentice to Glinda (the most powerful magic-worker in Oz). Ozma decrees that, besides herself, only The Wizard and Glinda are allowed to use magic unless the other magic users have permits.

In later books, he proves himself quite an inventor, providing devices that aid in various characters’ journeys. Some of his most elaborate devices are the balloon-powered Ozoplanes in Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, and intelligent taxis called Scalawagons in The Scalawagons of Oz.

Possible inspiration
In The Annotated Wizard of Oz, Michael Patrick Hearn suggests that L. Frank Baum may have derived elements of the character and backstory of the Wizard from Washington Harrison Donaldson, a balloonist, ventriloquist and stage magician who worked for P. T. Barnum. On 15 July 1875, Donaldson made an ascent near Chicago and disappeared in a storm; neither he nor his balloon was ever seen again.

Silent films (1908–1925)
The Wizard has appeared in nearly every silent Oz film, portrayed by different actors each time.

 * The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908): Sam 'Smiling' Jones
 * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910): Hobart Bosworth
 * The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914): Todd Wright
 * His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914): J. Charles Haydon
 * Wizard of Oz (1925): Charles Murray

The Wizard of Oz (1939)
In The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard's character is similar to that found in the earlier books; a bumbling "humbug". He was played by actor Frank Morgan who also played several other roles in the movie including Professor Marvel (the mysterious traveling fortune-teller who Dorothy meets in Kansas with a horse named Sylvester), the Doorman at the Emerald City, the Guard at the Gates to the Wizard's Castle, and the Coachman whose transport is drawn by "The Horse of a Different Color". His face was also presumably used as the projected image of the Wizard. Like Dorothy, the Wizard himself hails from Kansas, proudly stating that he is "an old Kansas man myself, born and bred in the heart of the Western Wilderness". However, the balloon says "Omaha State Fair" on it and Omaha is in Nebraska, not Kansas. In the film, the Wizard is seen only as a floating head and as a human, not in any of the other shapes that he appears in the book.

Screenwriters Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf created Professor Marvel for the Kansas sepia tone sequences. The Wizard's hot air balloon in the movie has the name Omaha on it, reflecting that the Wizard originated from Omaha, Nebraska, just as in the book.

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Oz the Great and Powerful serves as an unofficial prequel to the Oz series. The film centers on Oscar Diggs (portrayed by James Franco) and follows his journey from small-time magician to the ruler of the Land of Oz. In it, he is portrayed as an overly flirtatious and overconfident con artist and stage magician who upon meeting Theodora (the future Wicked Witch of the West) and inadvertently sparking her obsession with him, is keen on fulfilling his role as the legendary Wizard destined to restore order to Oz (primarily due to the promise of the Oz Treasury). However, throughout his journey and seeing the impact of his actions both good and bad, he comes to realize how much the people of Oz need him and devises a way to use his skill in illusions to free them, using his balloon to create the idea that he has been physically killed while hiding in a caravan so that he can use smoke and a makeshift cinema to project the illusion of his face, subsequently claiming that his "death" has simply allowed him to shed his mortal form. He also forms a makeshift "family" in the form of himself, Glinda the Good Witch, Finley (a winged monkey he rescued from a lion) and the China Girl (a living glass china doll and the sole survivor of an attack on China Town whose legs he repaired with glue).

Once Upon a Time (2014)
The Wizard of Oz appears in the Once Upon a Time episodes "New York City Serenade", "A Curious Thing" and "Kansas" portrayed by Christopher Gorham.

Originally, Walsh is from Kansas, but finds himself in the Land of Oz. Giving himself the name "Oz the Great and Terrible", he masquerades as an all-knowing wizard. This hoax upsets Glinda the Witch of the South, as she knows he only gives false hope to those who seek out his help. From behind a curtain, Walsh projects a shadow image and speaks with a booming voice to anyone who approaches his palace to seek an audience with him. He also asks for genuine magical items in exchange for help which he uses to further his deception. A woman named Zelena wants his help in finding her birth family, so he gifts a pair of silver heels to take her anywhere she desires. Zelena leaves for the Enchanted Forest to seek out family, and she returns asking to go to the past so that she can change her own fate of being abandoned by her mother. The wizard states that, even with the most powerful magic, this is not possible. Angrily, she rips off the curtain and discovers his true persona is nothing but a simple man who likes orchestrating a false image to put on a good show. Deciding to make use of him, she turns Walsh into a flying monkey as her loyal pet. Sometime later, his transformation into a flying monkey alerts Glinda to Zelena's presence. Glinda thanks Zelena for exposing him and believes time as her pet is fitting punishment for his trickery. Zelena is welcomed into Glinda's sisterhood of witches as the Witch of the West, but is "defeated" by a young girl named Dorothy Gale. Rather than become the new Witch of the West, Dorothy only wishes to go home; a desire Glinda grants by taking her back to see the Wizard, who is presumed to have reverted to his old form, since Zelena's magic has been undone. From behind the green curtain, Zelena impersonates the Wizard's voice and gives Dorothy the silver slippers to send her home.

Walsh meets Emma Swan and they begin dating. Over the course of eight months, he gets to know her as well as her son, Henry. Walsh has dishonest motives in getting close to Emma, but the nature of it is not known. During one romantic evening dinner, Walsh surprises Emma by hiding a ring on the platter of an ice cream sundae and then proposes to her. She reacts in shock by walking out of the restaurant and stating that marriage is too soon for them. Walsh agrees to be patient, as she is the one he wants to spend his life with, and promises to give her all the time to think it over. The next day, he receives a text from Henry asking him to come over to the apartment to have dinner with Emma. Walsh promptly shows up, to which Emma leads him onto the rooftop where she rejects his marriage proposal. Emma reluctantly explains the necessity for herself to go home and leave him behind because "a ghost" from her past has showed up. Walsh does his best to convince her that the life she has now is worth staying for, but Emma cannot, though she wishes it could be so. Unable to sway her otherwise, Walsh's demeanor changes and he expresses knowledge of the potion Emma previously drank, which is what restored her memories. After throwing aside a table, he charges at her, but she dodges, sending him hurling down the roof. He soars up in the form of Flying Monkey to attack her, though Emma violently shoves him away with a metal pipe. Physically wounded, he falls from the building, nearly hitting the ground, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Emerald City (2017)
The Wizard of Oz appears in the Emerald City series, portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio. He is the ruler of Emerald City and, effectively, Oz, and as such has banished magic from the land. His real name is revealed to be Frank Morgan. Having travelled to Oz through an early experiment, he remained there as he felt that he could be a greater success in Oz than he was in Kansas. Despite establishing his authority over Oz and banishing magic, he attempts to use the witches to maintain his authority over areas such as a mystical prison. He seeks to prove his superiority over magic by vanquishing the Beast Forever through duplicating Dorothy's gun after she uses it to trick the Witch of the East into killing herself, but he is undermined by Dorothy's own refusal to go along with his orders. Although he is able to mass-produce more guns to use against the witches, proclaiming them to be the Beast Forever in an attempted propaganda coup, his plans fail as it is revealed that only witches can kill witches, the series ending with the assembled witches confronting the Wizard as the Beast Forever approaches Oz.

Other adaptations

 * In the 1902 musical extravaganza, The Wizard was portrayed by a series of "ethnic" comedians.
 * The extended network television version of the animated feature Journey Back to Oz (1964/1972) contains live-action segments with Bill Cosby as The Wizard (a character otherwise not seen in the original theatrical version) trying to bring two children back to Kansas for Christmas.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in Off to See the Wizard, voiced by Daws Butler. He serves as the host of the show where he presents the movie of the episode.
 * In the musical The Wiz, the titular "Wiz" was originally played on Broadway by Andre De Shields. This version is a balloonist from Omaha named Herman Smith who traveled to Oz by accident when his hot air balloon drifted off course.
 * In the 1978 film version, The Wiz, the Wiz was played by Richard Pryor. This adaption of Herman Smith is a failed politician from Atlantic City, New Jersey who was transported to Oz when a balloon he was flying to promote his campaign to become the city dogcatcher was lost in a storm.
 * The 2015 TV special The Wiz Live! features the first female Wiz, played by Queen Latifah.
 * In the 1980 television special Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz, the Wizard is voiced by Sid Caesar.
 * In author Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (a 1995 revisionist novel based on the inhabitants of Oz) and in the 2003 Broadway musical Wicked (based on Maguire's novel), the Wizard is a dictator who uses deceit and trickery to hide his own shortcomings. It also revealed, in both the book and musical, that the Wizard is in fact Elphaba's biological father. In the original stage production, the Wizard was played by Joel Grey, who performed that same role in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, a 1995 television concert stage production of the 1939 musical film which was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund.
 * Jeff Goldblum has been confirmed to play the character in the two-part film adaptation of the musical.
 * Caliber Comics' Oz comic book series, followed by Arrow Comics' Dark Oz and The Land of Oz featured the Wizard, affectionately known as "Oscar," particularly to Ozma, as a tall, bald, mustachioed man, brooding, powerful, and not at all bumbling.
 * The Wizard is featured in the 1990 The Wizard of Oz animated series, voiced by Alan Oppenheimer.
 * In the animated series The Oz Kids (1996), he has a son named Frank. He is voiced by Steve Stoliar.
 * In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), the Wizard of Oz is portrayed by Jeffrey Tambor. This version is a former tour bus driver named Francis Cornfine from Hollywood, CA who came to the Land of Oz where the residents assumed he was an all-powerful figure. Cornfine's talent at manipulating his fingers impressed the populace. Feeling a need to "give the public what they want", he developed a number of devices and tricks to maintain the illusion of "Oz, the great and powerful". Using special effects, he appeared as a dragon to the Lion (Fozzie Bear), a flaming entity to the Scarecrow (Kermit the Frog), a hot woman turning into a hen to Tin Thing (Gonzo the Great), and a big green monstrous head to Dorothy (Ashanti) and Toto (Pepe the King Prawn).
 * In the 2007 Sci Fi television miniseries Tin Man, a character called the "Mystic Man" (played by Richard Dreyfuss) is one of the former rulers of Central City, the capital of the Outer Zone (O.Z.), and like his counterpart from the book, uses technology to make himself seem more impressive. He is also referred to as "the wizard" and styles himself similarly to the Wizard of Oz, but has been relegated to the main performer of a Central City magic show rather than the "humbug" overlord of the Emerald City.
 * In the VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, the Wizard is portrayed by Archibald Asparagus as the "Wonderful Land of Ha's" amusement park owner who later reveals himself as a promotional showman to Darby (Junior Asparagus).
 * In June 2008 the Japanese video game publisher D3 Publisher announced The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, a new video game adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, developed for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. The game was developed by Media.Vision and shows a Japanese anime style for the graphics. "Riz-Zoawd" (the game's name in Japan) is actually the anagram for "Wizard Oz". The game was published in Japan in late 2008 and North America in 2009 by Xseed Games.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, portrayed by Christopher Lloyd. When the Emerald City is attacked by the Wicked Witch of the West's forces who are after the Book of Mini Airu which contains the Changing Word, the Wizard of Oz holds a ceasefire where he will give the Book of Mini Airu to her in exchange that the Wicked Witch and her allies don't attack, bother, or annoy the Emerald City, the Munchkin Country, and the territories west of Winkie Country. This leads to a pinky swear where the Wizard of Oz is forbidden to try and fetch it back. When it was discovered that the Wizard of Oz entrusted the key to the Book of Mini Airu to Dorothy, this leads the Wicked Witch of the West to invade Earth years later to get her to give it up. When the Wicked Witch of the West gets the key, a holographic message is played by the Wizard of Oz who reveals some of his backstory and states that the key is a fake which thwarts the Wicked Witch of the West's plans to take over the worlds. By the end of the movie, Dorothy and Nick Chopper see someone that resembles the Wizard playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the saxophone.
 * In the 2011 direct-to-DVD animated film Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard is voiced by Joe Alaskey.
 * In the Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige that details an alternate version of the stories, after Dorothy and her friends have been corrupted by the magic of Oz and the wizard's gifts, it is revealed that the Wizard has returned to Oz, acting as a 'neutral' party in the conflict between Dorothy's forces and the Order of the Wicked that acts against her, allowing him to live in the Emerald City while passing on some information to the Order of the Wicked. After he tells new protagonist Amy Gumm about how she might defeat Dorothy, she is able to take the Tin Woodman's heart and the Cowardly Lion's courage- 'manifested' as his tail- but when she next confronts the Wizard, he has taken the Scarecrow's brains. His true agenda is revealed to be a complex plan to bring Kansas and Oz together, having concluded that the two countries are essentially the same place across two different dimensions, requiring the gifts he gave Dorothy's companions as they represent a blend of the magics of Oz and Kansas (Kansas having been deprived of magic by Oz's existence). He attempts to use Dorothy as the final sacrifice for this spell, but she is able to disrupt the spell so that the Wizard is destroyed instead, creating a temporary portal that send the Order of the Wicked and Amy back to Kansas until they can find Dorothy's silver shoes.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in the Supernatural season 10 episode There's No Place Like Home portrayed by Carter Kinsella. In this show, he was originally Man of Letters member Clive Dylan who got sent into the Land of Oz and split himself. L. Frank Baum was able to rescue Clive who then retired at the cost of Baum's daughter Dorothy being left behind. Sometime after the Wicked Witch's death, Charlie Bradbury reveals she made a deal with the Wizard to split herself into her good and dark sides using the Inner Key of Oz in order to win a rebellion to free Oz from evil. The Wizard of Oz turned out to be the personification of Clive Dylan's dark side who wanted to rule the Land of Oz. Years later, Sam Winchester and Good Charlie track down the good side of the elderly Clive Dylan (portrayed by Duncan Fraser) who is using the alias of Michael Carter. To draw out the Wizard of Oz, Charlie wounded Clive. The Wizard of Oz appeared to confront Clive as he used his magic to restrain Sam. Despite Dean Winchester beating up Dark Charlie, Good Charlie was goaded by Clive to kill him. Once Good Charlie shot Clive in the face, the Wizard of Oz fell dead as Sam uses his Inner Key of Oz to merge both Charlies back into one body.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, voiced by Tom Kenny. He appears in "The Wizard, The Witch, and The Crystal Ball" where another tornado brings his balloon back to the Land of Oz where he plans to become an actual wizard. When he finds out about the Wicked Witch of the West's spirit being trapped in her crystal ball, he decides to help resurrect her in exchange for powers (not knowing that it takes years to get powers), but it backfired and Dorothy accidentally resurrects the Wicked Witch without her powers.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in the play The Wonderful Winter of Oz, portrayed by Kermit the Frog.

Cultural references

 * The season 3 episode of the serial drama Lost titled "The Man Behind the Curtain" is a reference to the Wizard of Oz. His name is also mentioned in the dialogue of the show, with John Locke comparing Ben Linus to the Wizard and saying that he is the one orchestrating events and is "The Man Behind the Curtain".
 * In the episode "It's Christmas in Canada" of the television series South Park, the main characters visit the new Prime Minister of Canada, who takes the shape of a floating head. This turns out to be a projection operated by Saddam Hussein, who was hiding in a hole in the wall.
 * An entire episode of Scrubs, "My Way Home", pays homage to The Wizard of Oz.
 * The television show Futurama aired "Anthology of Interest II" which parodied the 1939 movie version of the story where Professor Hubert Farnsworth played the wizard and appearing as a giant-headed version of himself standing behind a curtain.
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Two Weeks Without Food", voiced by Breckin Meyer.
 * The Wizard of Oz is the titular subject of the Spock's Beard song, "The Man Behind the Curtain" from their 2010 album, X.
 * The Fall Out Boy song "Alpha Dog" features the lyric "I can almost see the wizard through the curtains" - meaning he can see through the deception of something.
 * In the anime-inspired 3D web series RWBY, the character of "Headmaster Ozpin" alludes to the Wizard of Oz. This is further expanded on with the character "Oscar", Ozpin's next incarnation. In fact, Ozpin's name is even derived from the fact that the initials of the wizard's full name spells out "ozpinhead".
 * In the video game Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, a boss level parodies The Wizard of Oz. The main character is dressed as the Tin Man and fights a holographic projected head known as the Brain of Oz.
 * The Wizard of Oz makes a brief appearance in the crossover video game Lego Dimensions as the "In Peril" character for the first level of the story mode "Follow the LEGO Brick Road". He also appears as a Gold Brick puzzle in The Wizard of Oz World if you collect all ten Minikits in Follow the LEGO Brick Road where he flies in his hot air balloon and you need to stop the Winged Monkeys from destroying the balloon so he can make it to Emerald City.
 * In the Indigo Girls song, "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars", Verse 4 includes the line "Watch the Wizard behind the curtain".
 * The Wizard of Oz appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary", voiced by Eric Bauza.

title: Wizard of Oz (character)