Mentre el temporal fa moure galls i trincoles com en un viàtic d'apareguts, un noi covard mira com s'atansa el Capità Holandès i diu, amb una veu clarament esgarrifosa:
―Només un rostre en la tenebra.
A tots els ports on fujo ―nau contra vent― m'espera aquest poder vastíssim que no té nom.
Un ull sense parpella sotjant-me en nit dintre tenebra.
Esguard de glaç, lluita del fi de l'ànima muda, subtil: dolor en la tenebra senyorejada per l'esglai del rostre únic, innúmer.
Quan faràs orb, al fons de la tenebra, el sotjador immòbil?
Els rellotges del mar, com tocarien pel vell company de l'odi!
Lentes hores del mar ressonarien pels morts de les fondàries.
Les campanes del mar saludarien el retorn de la barca.
Ai, alba, tan llunyana cançó, inassolible repòs, quan sempre sotja el rostre d'ull innúmer, únic, immens, parat, sense parpella!
Un rostre etern, un ull, només un rostre en nit dintre tenebra.
Diversos són els homes i diverses les parles, i han convingut molts noms a un sol amor.
La vella i fràgil plata esdevé tarda parada en la claror damunt els camps. La terra, amb paranys de mil fines orelles, ha captivat els ocells de les cançons de l'aire.
Sí, comprèn-la i fes-la teva, també, des de les oliveres, l'alta i senzilla veritat de la presa veu del vent: "Diverses són les parles i diversos els homes, i convindran molts noms a un sol amor."
[XXXVIII]
No convé que diguem el nom del qui ens pensa enllà de la nostra por.
Si topem a les palpentes amb aquest estrany cec, on sinó en el buit i en el no-res fonamentarem la nostra vida?
Provarem d'alçar en la sorra el palau perillós dels nostres somnis i aprendrem aquesta lliçó humil al llarg de tot el temps del cansament, car sols així som lliures de combatre per l'última victòria damunt l'esglai.
Escolta, Sepharad: els homes no poden ser si no són lliures.
Que sàpiga Sepharad que no podrem mai ser si no som lliures.
I cridi la veu de tot el poble: "Amén."
[XLVI]
A vegades és necessari i forçós que un home mori per un poble, però mai no ha de morir tot un poble per un home sol: recorda sempre això, Sepharad.
Fes que siguin segurs els ponts del diàleg i mira de comprendre i estimar les raons i les parles diverses dels teus fills.
Que la pluja caigui a poc a poc en els sembrats i l'aire passi com una estesa mà suau i molt benigna damunt els amples camps.
Que Sepharad visqui eternament en l'ordre i en la pau, en el treball, en la difícil i merescuda llibertat.
Que no sigui, però, la cançó de l'odi, nascuda de la injusta i llarga humiliació.
Ara em despengen uns dits piadosos de les forques senyorials de la paraula, i cau a poc a poc la clara pluja en aquesta terra nostra de pobres sembrats.
Oblido dolçament les ones i les hores, i la por de morir m'esdevé una tranquil.la mirada de caminant molt cansat a la porta de l'hostal silenciós i càlid de la nit.
Enllà quedava la remor de les amples aigües, em criden al repòs del profund desert, el meu maligne nombre se salva en la unitat.
Nosaltres sabíem d'un únic senyor i vèiem com esdevenia gos.
Envilit pel ventre, per l'afalac al ventre, per la por, s'ajup sota el fuet amb foll oblit de la raó que té.
Arnat, menjat de plagues, aquest trist número de baratilli, saldo al circ de la mort, sense parar llepava l'aspra mà que l'ha fermat des de tant temps al fang.
Li hauria estat senzill de fer del seu silenci mur impenetrable, altíssim: va triar la gran vergonya mansa dels lladrucs.
Mai no hem pogut, però, desesperar del vell vençut i elevem en la nit un cant a crits, car les paraules vessen de sentit.
L'aigua, la terra, l'aire, el foc són seus, si s'arrisca d'un cop a ser qui és.
Caldrà que digui de seguida prou, que vulgui ara caminar de nou, alçat, sense repòs, per sempre més home salvat en poble, contra el vent.
Salvat en poble, ja l'amo de tot, no gos mesell, sinó l'únic senyor.
Claire, Joseph & The Grandma visit Gardeny, Lleida
Today, The Grandma has visited Lleida, one of the four main Catalan cities. TheGrandma has joined ClaireFontaine and Joseph de Ca'th Lon. They have visited three important places: laSeu, el Convent del Roser and Gardeny (a Templar site).
The Grandma loves KnightTemplars history and they have visited these places that have a direct relationship with this medieval order that was very important in Catalonia, an order that suffered a terrible attack on a day like today in 1307 when agents of King Philip IV of France launched a raid on them at dawn, arresting many of them, subsequently torturing them into giving false confessions and burning them at the stake.
The Grandma uses to visit Templar sites to know more things about this interesting medieval order. She has just visited Puig-Reig in Barcelona, Aiguaviva in Girona and Miravet and Tortosa in Tarragona.
A day after the commemoration of another tragic event, Claire Fontaine has also wanted to remember and homage all people who were killed on October 12, 1707 in the Roser Convent during the Siege of Lleida of the War of the Spanish Succession when the Convent was burned down by Bourbon troops led by Philip V. People were refuged inside the Convent and all of them died, burned by the flames provoked by the Bourbon troops.
During the travel from Barcelona to Lleida, The Grandma has been reading a new chapter of Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, in Latin Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici, also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar or simply the Templars, were a Catholic military order founded in 1119 and recognised in 1139 by the papal bull Omne datum optimum. The order was active until 1312 when it was perpetually suppressed by Pope Clement V by the bull Vox in excelso.
The Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. They were prominent in Christian finance. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.
Non-combatant members of the order, who formed as much as 90% of the order's members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, developing innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking, building its own network of nearly 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land, and arguably forming the world's first multinational corporation.
Knight Templars & Jerusalem
The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and KingPhilip IV of France -deeply in debt to the order- took advantage of this distrust to destroy them and erase his debt.
In 1307, he had many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and burned at the stake. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip. The abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages.
After Europeans in the First Crusade captured Jerusalem in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the rest of Outremer was not. Bandits and marauding highwaymen preyed upon these Christian pilgrims, who were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa through to the interior of the Holy Land.
In 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. King Baldwin and Patriarch Warmund agreed to the request, probably at the Council of Nablus in January 1120, and the king granted the Templars a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Templar knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive. Their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the order's poverty.
Knight Templars
The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long. They had a powerful advocate in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a leading Church figure, the French abbot primarily responsible for the founding of the CistercianOrder of monks and a nephew of André de Montbard, one of the founding knights.
Bernard put his weight behind them and wrote persuasively on their behalf in the letter In Praise of the New Knighthood, and in 1129, at the Council of Troyes, he led a group of leading churchmen to officially approve and endorse the order on behalf of the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom, receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, and were exempt from all authority except that of the pope.
With its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. Templars were often the advance shock troops in key battles of the Crusades, as the heavily armoured knights on their warhorses would set out to charge at the enemy, ahead of the main army bodies, in an attempt to break opposition lines. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, where some 500 Templar knights helped several thousand infantry to defeat Saladin's army of more than 26,000 soldiers.
Although the primary mission of the order was militaristic, relatively few members were combatants. The others acted in support positions to assist the knights and to manage the financial infrastructure. The Templar Order, though its members were sworn to individual poverty, was given control of wealth beyond direct donations. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was away.
Accumulating wealth in this manner throughout Christendom and the Outremer, the order in 1150 began generating letters of credit for pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land: pilgrims deposited their valuables with a local Templarpreceptory before embarking, received a document indicating the value of their deposit, then used that document upon arrival in the Holy Land to retrieve their funds in an amount of treasure of equal value.
This innovative arrangement was an early form of banking and may have been the first formal system to support the use of cheques; it improved the safety of pilgrims by making them less attractive targets for thieves, and also contributed to the Templar coffers.
The Grandma visited Aiguaviva, Gironès
Based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks across the whole of Christendom. They acquired large tracts of land, both in Europe and the Middle East; they bought and managed farms and vineyards; they built massive stone cathedrals and castles; they were involved in manufacturing, import and export; they had their own fleet of ships; and at one point they even owned the entire island of Cyprus. The Order of the Knights Templar arguably qualifies as the world's first multinational corporation.
In the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become more united under effective leaders such as Saladin. Dissension arose among Christian factions in and concerning the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other Christian military orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights, and decades of internecine feuds weakened Christian positions, both politically and militarily.
After the Templars were involved in several unsuccessful campaigns, including the pivotal Battle of Hattin, Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim forces under Saladin in 1187. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II reclaimed the city for Christians in the Sixth Crusade of 1229, without Templar aid, but only held it briefly for a little more than a decade.
In 1244, the Ayyubid dynasty together with Khwarezmi mercenaries recaptured Jerusalem, and the city did not return to Western control until 1917 when, during World War I, the British captured it from the Ottoman Empire.
The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of Acre, which they held for the next century. It was lost in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa (Tartus in what is now Syria) and Atlit in present-day Israel. Their headquarters then moved to Limassol on the island of Cyprus, and they also attempted to maintain a garrison on tiny Arwad Island, just off the coast from Tortosa.
In 1300, there was some attempt to engage in coordinated military efforts with the Mongols via a new invasion force at Arwad. In 1302 or 1303, however, the Templars lost the island to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate in the Siege of Arwad. With the island gone, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in the HolyLand.
The Grandma & Claire visited Miravet, Ribera d'Ebre
With the order's military mission now less important, support for the organization began to dwindle. The situation was complex, however, since during the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of daily life throughout Christendom.
The organisation's TemplarHouses, hundreds of which were dotted throughout Europe and the Near East, gave them a widespread presence at the local level. The Templars still managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or vineyard, or using the order as a bank in which to store personal valuables.
The order was still not subject to local government, making it everywhere a state within a state -its standing army, though it no longer had a well-defined mission, could pass freely through all borders. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia and the Knights Hospitaller were doing in Rhodes.
In 1305, the new Pope Clement V, based in Avignon, France, sent letters to both the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Hospitaller Grand Master Fulk de Villaret to discuss the possibility of merging the two orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both Grand Masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first in early 1307, but de Villaret was delayed for several months.
While waiting, De Molay and Clement discussed criminal charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar and were being discussed by KingPhilip IV of France and his ministers. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement sent the king a written request for assistance in the investigation.
According to some historians, King Philip, who was already deeply in debt tothe Templars from his war with the English, decided to seize upon the rumours for his own purposes. He began pressuring the church to take action against the order, as a way of freeing himself from his debts.
The Grandma visited Tortosa, Baix Ebre
At dawn on Friday, 13October1307 (a date sometimes linked with the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition) King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested.
The arrest warrant started with the phrase: Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume, God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom. Claims were made that during Templar admissions ceremonies, recruits were forced to spit on the Cross, deny Christ, and engage in indecent kissing; brethren were also accused of worshipping idols, and the order was said to have encouraged homosexual practices.
The Templars were charged with numerous other offences such as financial corruption, fraud, and secrecy. Many of the accused confessed to these charges under torture, even though the Templars denied being tortured in their written confessions, and their confessions, even though obtained under duress, caused a scandal in Paris.
The prisoners were coerced to confess that they had spat on the Cross: Moi, Raymond de La Fère, 21 ans, reconnais que [j'ai] craché trois fois sur la Croix, mais de bouche et pas de cœur, I, Raymond de La Fère, 21 years old, admit that I have spat three times on the Cross, but only from my mouth and not from my heart.
The Templars were accused of idolatry and were suspected of worshiping either a figure known as Baphomet or a mummified severed head they recovered, amongst other artifacts, at their original headquarters on the Temple Mount that many scholars theorize might have been that of John the Baptist, among other things.
Relenting to Phillip's demands, Pope Clement then issued the papal bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae on 22 November 1307, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
Pope Clement called for papal hearings to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence, and once freed of the Inquisitors' torture, many Templars recanted their confessions.
Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310, having appointed the archbishop of Sens, Philippe de Marigny, to lead the investigation, Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris.
Knight Templars
With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including Vox in excelso, which officially dissolved the order, and Ad providam, which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers. As for the leaders of the order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession. Geoffroi de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, also retracted his confession and insisted on his innocence. Both men were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics, and they were sentenced to burn alive at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame Cathedral and hold his hands together in prayer.
According to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. His actual words were recorded on the parchment as follows: Dieu sait qui a tort et a péché. Il va bientot arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort, God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death. Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year.
The remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation, with virtually none convicted, absorbed into other Catholic military orders, or pensioned off and allowed to live out their days peacefully. By papal decree, the property of the Templars was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller except in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Portugalwas the first country in Europe where they had settled, occurring only two or three years after the order's foundation in Jerusalem and even having presence during Portugal's conception.
The Portuguese king, Denis I, refused to pursue and persecute the former knights, as had occurred in all other sovereign states under the influence of the Catholic Church. Under his protection, Templar organizations simply changed their name, from Knights Templar to the reconstituted Order of Christ and also a parallel Supreme Order of Christ of the Holy See; both are considered successors to the Knights Templar.
Knight Templars
The Templars were organized as a monastic order similar to Bernard's Cistercian Order, which was considered the first effective international organization in Europe.
The organizational structure had a strong chain of authority. Each country with a major Templar presence (France, Poitou, Anjou, Jerusalem, England, Aragon, Portugal, Italy, Tripoli, Antioch, Hungary, and Croatia) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region.
All of them were subject to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who oversaw both the order's military efforts in the East and their financial holdings in the West. The Grand Master exercised his authority via the visitors-general of the order, who were knights specially appointed by the Grand Master and convent of Jerusalem to visit the different provinces, correct malpractices, introduce new regulations, and resolve important disputes. The visitors-general had the power to remove knights from office and to suspend the Master of the province concerned.
No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the order's peak there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about a tenth were actual knights.
The Knights Templar have become associated with legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Rumours circulated even during the time of the Templars themselves. Masonic writers added their own speculations in the 18th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in popular novels such as Ivanhoe, Foucault's Pendulum, and the Da Vinci Code, modern movies such as National Treasure, the Last Templar, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Knightfall, as well as video games such as Broken Sword and Assassin's Creed.
Beginning in the 1960s, there have been speculative popular publications surrounding the order's early occupation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and speculation about what relics the Templars may have found there, such as the quest for the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, or the historical accusation of idol worship (Baphomet) transformed into a context of witchcraft.
The association of the Holy Grail with the Templars has precedents even in 12th-century fiction; Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival calls the knights guarding the Grail Kingdom templeisen, apparently a conscious fictionalisation of the templarii.
Templar is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly armed and need fear neither demons nor men.
Today, The Grandma is at home. There are some days in which is difficult to go out and enjoy the city because it receives unpleasant visits of people who only want to create disturbs and confrontation. Today is one of these days.
The Grandma has relaxed listening to some classic music. She loves this genre and she likes listening to Luciano Pavarotti, her favourite tenor, the Italian artist who was born on a day like today in 1935.
Before listening to Pavarotti'ssongs, The Grandma has read a new chapter of KatherineMansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.
Luciano Pavarotti (12 October 1935-6 September 2007) was an Italianoperatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, achieving the honorific title king of the high C's.
Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of Nessun dorma at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles, and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Madama Butterfly.
He sold over 100 million records, and the first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others. He died from pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.
Luciano Pavarotti was born in 1935 on the outskirts of Modena in NorthernItaly, the son of Fernando Pavarotti, a baker and amateur tenor, and Adele Venturi, a cigar factory worker.
Luciano Pavarotti
Although he spoke fondly of his childhood, the family had little money; its four members were crowded into a two-room apartment. According to Pavarotti, his father had a fine tenor voice but rejected the possibility of a singing career because of nervousness. World War II forced the family out of the city in 1943. For the following year they rented a single room from a farmer in the neighbouring countryside, where the young Pavarottideveloped an interest in farming.After abandoning the dream of becoming a football goalkeeper, Pavarotti spent seven years in vocal training.
Pavarotti's earliest musical influences were his father's recordings, most of them featuring the popular tenors of the day -Beniamino Gigli, Giovanni Martinelli, Tito Schipa, and Enrico Caruso.
Pavarotti's favourite tenor and idol was Giuseppe Di Stefano and he was also deeply influenced by Mario Lanza, saying: In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror. At around the age of nine he began singing with his father in a small local church choir.
After what appears to have been a normal childhood with a typical interest in sports -in Pavarotti's case football above all, he graduated from the Scuola Magistrale and faced the dilemma of a career choice. He was interested in pursuing a career as a professional football goalkeeper, but his mother convinced him to train as a teacher. He subsequently taught in an elementary school for two years but finally allowed his interest in music to win out. Recognising the risk involved, his father gave his consent only reluctantly.
Pavarotti began the serious study of music in 1954 at the age of 19 with Arrigo Pola, a respected teacher and professional tenor in Modena who offered to teach him without remuneration. According to conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti never learned to read music.
In 1955, he experienced his first singing success when he was a member of the Corale Rossini, a male voice choir from Modena that also included his father, which won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales. He later said that this was the most important experience of his life, and that it inspired him to become a professional singer. At about this time Pavarotti first met Adua Veroni. They married in 1961.
Luciano Pavarotti
When his teacher Arrigo Pola moved to Japan, Pavarotti became a student of Ettore Campogalliani, who at that time was also teaching Pavarotti's childhood friend, Mirella Freni, whose mother worked with Luciano's mother in the cigar factory.
Like Pavarotti, Freni went on to become a successful opera singer; they would go on to collaborate in various stage performances and recordings together. During his years of musical study, Pavarotti held part-time jobs in order to sustain himself -first as an elementary school teacher and then as an insurance salesman. The first six years of study resulted in only a few recitals, all in small towns and without pay. When a nodule developed on his vocal cords, causing a disastrous concert in Ferrara, he decided to give up singing.
Pavarotti attributed his immediate improvement to the psychological release connected with this decision. Whatever the reason, the nodule not only disappeared but, as he related in his autobiography: Everything I had learned came together with my natural voice to make the sound I had been struggling so hard to achieve.
Pavarotti began his career as a tenor in smaller regional Italian opera houses, making his debut as Rodolfo in La bohème at the Teatro Municipale inReggio Emilia in April 1961.
He made his first international appearance in La traviata in Belgrade,Yugoslavia. Very early in his career, on 23 February 1963, he debuted at the Vienna State Opera in the same role. In March and April 1963 Vienna saw Pavarotti again as Rodolfo and as Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto. The same year saw his first concert outside Italy when he sang in Dundalk, Ireland for the St Cecilia's Gramophone Society and his Royal Opera House debut, where he replaced an indisposed Giuseppe Di Stefano as Rodolfo.
At the beginning of the 1980s, he set up The Pavarotti International Voice Competition for young singers, performing with the winners in 1982 in excerpts of La bohème and L'elisir d'amore. The second competition, in 1986, staged excerpts of La bohème and Un ballo in maschera.
Luciano Pavarotti
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of his career, he brought the winners of the competition to Italy for gala performances of La bohèmeinModena and Genoa, and then to China where they staged performances of La bohèmeinBeijing (Peking).
To conclude the visit, Pavarotti performed the inaugural concert in the Great Hall of the People before 10,000 people, receiving a standing ovation for nine effortless high Cs. The third competition in 1989 again staged performances of L'elisir d'amore and Un ballo in maschera. The winners of the fifth competition accompanied Pavarotti in performances in Philadelphia in 1997.
Pavarotti became even better known throughout the world in 1990 when his rendition of the aria Nessun dorma from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot was taken as the theme song of BBC's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. The aria achieved pop status, became the World Cup soundtrack, and it remained his trademark song.
Pavarotti's rise to stardom was not without occasional difficulties, however. He earned a reputation as The King of Cancellations by frequently backing out of performances, and his unreliable nature led to poor relationships with some opera houses.
Over an eight-year period, Pavarotti had cancelled 26 out of 41 scheduled appearances at the Lyric, and the decisive move by Krainik to ban him for life was well noted throughout the opera world, after the performer walked away from a season premiere less than two weeks before rehearsals began, saying pain from a sciatic nerve required two months of treatment.
Pavarotti began his farewell tour in 2004, at the age of 69, performing one last time in old and new locations, after more than four decades on the stage. On 13 March 2004, Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera at the New York Metropolitan Opera, for which he received a long standing ovation for his role as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca.
On 1 December 2004, he announced a 40-city farewell tour. Pavarotti and his manager, Terri Robson, commissioned impresario Harvey Goldsmith to produce the Worldwide Farewell Tour. His last full-scale performance was at the end of a two-month Australasian tour in Taiwan in December 2005.
Luciano Pavarotti
In March 2005, Pavarotti underwent neck surgery to repair two vertebrae. In early 2006, he underwent further back surgery and contracted an infection while in the hospital in New York, forcing cancellation of concerts in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
On 10 February 2006, Pavarotti sang Nessun dorma at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy, at his final performance. In the last act of the opening ceremony, his performance received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd.
Pavarotti annually hosted the Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts in his home town of Modena, joining with singers from all parts of the music industry to raise money for several UN causes. Concerts were held for War Child, and victims of war and civil unrest in Bosnia, Guatemala, Kosovo and Iraq.
After the war in Bosnia, he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Centre in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia's artists the opportunity to develop their skills. For these contributions, the city of Sarajevo named him an honorary citizen in 2006.
He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as the Spitak earthquake that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia in December 1988, and sang Gounod's Ave Maria with legendary French pop music star and ethnic Armenian Charles Aznavour.
He was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales. They raised money for the elimination of land mines worldwide. He was invited to sing at her funeral service, but declined to sing, as he felt he could not sing well with his grief in his throat. Nonetheless, he attended the service.
In 1998, he was appointed the United Nations Messenger of Peace, using his fame to raise awareness of UN issues, including the Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS, child rights, urban slums and poverty.
Luciano Pavarotti
In 1999, Pavarotti performed a charity benefit concert in Beirut, to mark Lebanon's re-emergence on the world stage after a brutal 15 year civil war. The largest concert held in Beirut since the end of the war, it was attended by 20,000 people who travelled from countries as distant as Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.
In 1999 he also hosted a charity benefit concert to build a school in Guatemala, for Guatemalan civil war orphans. It was named after him Centro Educativo Pavarotti. Now the foundation of nobel prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum is running the school.
In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UN High Commission for Refugees for his efforts raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide. Through benefit concerts and volunteer work, he has raised more than any other individual.
Also in 2001, Pavarotti was chosen one of that year's five recipients by the President and First Lady as an honoree for their lifetime achievements in the arts at the White House, followed by the Kennedy Center; the Kennedy Center Honors, He was surprised by the appearance of Secretary-General of the United Nations and that year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kofi Annan, who lauded him for his contribution to humankind. Six months prior, Pavarotti had held a large charity concert for Afghan refugees, particularly children in his home town of Modena.
Other honours he received include the Freedom of London Award and The Red Cross Award for Services to Humanity, for his work in raising money for that organisation, and the 1998 MusiCares Person of the Year, given to humanitarian heroes by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
While proceeding with an international farewell tour, Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006. The tenor fought back against the implications of this diagnosis, undergoing major abdominal surgery and making plans for the resumption and conclusion of his singing commitments, but he died at his home in Modena on 6 September 2007.
Today, The Grandma has been rewatching some of her old video tapes. She has found lots and lots of football matches recorded because she loves this sport and she used to record important matches like finals or world championships. TheGrandma is a great fan of F.C.Barcelona and F.C. Andorra but she has got a lot of information about Manchester United because it is her favourite Premier's team. Some people think in Wayne Rooney or Ryan Giggs; other in Eric Cantona, but The Grandma, who is older thinks in Bobby Charlton, the English player who played as a midfielder, who is considered one of the greatest legends of Manchester United and who was born on a day like today in 1937.
Before watching her football tapes, The Grandma has read a new chapter of Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.
Sir Robert Charlton (born 11 October 1937) is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the year he also won the Ballon d'Or.
He played almost all of his club football at Manchester United, where he became renowned for his attacking instincts, his passing abilities from midfield and his ferocious long-range shot, as well as his fitness and stamina.
He was cautioned only twice in his career; once against Argentina in the 1966 World Cup, and once in a league match against Chelsea. His elder brother Jack, who was also in the World Cup-winning team, is a former defender for Leeds United and international manager.
Born in Ashington, Northumberland, Charlton made his debut for the Manchester United first-team in 1956, and over the next two seasons gained a regular place in the team, during which time he survived the Munich air disaster of 1958 after being rescued by Harry Gregg.
After helping United to win the Football League First Division in 1965, he won another First Division title with United in 1967.
Bobby Charlton
In 1968, he captained the Manchester United team that won the European Cup, scoring two goals in the final to help them become the first English club to win the competition.
He is United's second all-time leading goal scorer (249), being surpassed by Wayne Rooney, and held the distinction of being England's all-time top goal scorer (49) from May 1968 to September 2015, when again Rooney surpassed his record. Charlton held the record for most appearances for Manchester United (758), before being surpassed by Ryan Giggs in the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final.
He was named in the England squad for four World Cups (1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970), though did not play in the first. At the time of his retirement from the England team in 1970, he was the nation's most capped player, having turned out 106 times at the highest level. This record has since been surpassed by Bobby Moore, Peter Shilton and David Beckham.
He left Manchester United to become manager of Preston North End for the 1973–74 season. He changed to player-manager the following season. He next accepted a post as a director with Wigan Athletic, then became a member of Manchester United's board of directors in 1984 and remains one as of the 2018–19 season.
Charlton was born in Ashington, Northumberland, England on 11 October 1937 to coal mining worker Robert Wallace "Bob" Charlton and teacher Elizabeth Ellen "Cissie" Charlton (née Milburn). He is related to several professional footballers on his mother's side of the family: his uncles were Jack Milburn (Leeds United and Bradford City), George Milburn (Leeds United and Chesterfield), Jim Milburn (Leeds United and Bradford City) and Stan Milburn (Chesterfield, Leicester City and Rochdale), and legendary Newcastle United and England footballer Jackie Milburn, was his mother's cousin.
However, Charlton credits much of the early development of his career to his grandfather Tanner and his mother Cissie. His elder brother, Jack, initially worked as a miner before applying to the police, only to also become a professional footballer with Leeds United.
On 9 February 1953, then a Bedlington Grammar School pupil, Charlton was spotted playing for East Northumberland schools by Manchester United chief scout Joe Armstrong. Charlton went on to play for England Schoolboys and the 15-year-old signed with United on 1 January 1953, along with Wilf McGuinness, also aged 15. Initially his mother was reluctant to let him commit to an insecure football career, so he began an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer; however, he went on to turn professional in October 1954.
Bobby Charlton
Charlton became one of the famed Busby Babes, the collection of talented footballers who emerged through the system at OldTrafford in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as Matt Busby set about a long-term plan of rebuilding the club after the Second World War.
He worked his way through the pecking order of teams, scoring regularly for the youth and reserve sides before he was handed his first team debut against Charlton Athletic in October 1956. At the same time, he was doing his National service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Shrewsbury, where Busby had advised him to apply as it meant he could still play for Manchester United at the weekend. Also doing his army service in Shrewsbury at the same time was his United teammate Duncan Edwards.
Charlton played 14 times for United in that first season, scoring twice on his debut and managing a total of 12 goals in all competitions, and including a hat-trick in a 5–1 away win over Charlton Athletic in the February. United won the league championship but were denied the 20th century's first double when they controversially lost the 1957 FA Cup Final to Aston Villa.
Charlton, still only 19,
was selected for the game, which saw United goalkeeper Ray Wood carried
off with a broken cheekbone after a clash with Villa centre forward
Peter McParland. Though Charlton was a candidate to go in goal to
replace Wood, in the days before substitutes, and certainly before
goalkeeping substitutes, it was teammate Jackie Blanchflower who ended
up between the posts.
Charlton was an established player by the time the next season was fully underway, which saw United, as current League champions, become the firstEnglish team to compete in the European Cup.
The aeroplane which took the United players and staff home from Zemun Airport needed to stop in Munich to refuel. This was carried out in worsening weather, and by the time the refuelling was complete and the call was made for the passengers to re-board the aircraft, the wintry showers had taken hold and snow had settled heavily on the runway and around the airport. There were two aborted take-offs which led to concern on board, and the passengers were advised by a stewardess to disembark again while a minor technical error was fixed.
The team was back in the airport terminal barely ten minutes when the call to reconvene on the plane came, and a number of passengers began to feel nervous. Charlton and teammate Dennis Viollet swapped places with Tommy Taylor and David Pegg, who had decided they would be safer at the back of the plane.
Bobby Charlton
The plane clipped the fence at the end of the runway on its next take-off attempt and a wing tore through a nearby house, setting it alight. The wing and part of the tail came off and hit a tree and a wooden hut, the plane spinning along the snow until coming to a halt. It had been cut in half.
Charlton, strapped into his seat, had fallen out of the cabin and when United goalkeeper Harry Gregg, who had somehow got through a hole in the plane unscathed and begun a one-man rescue mission, found him, he thought he was dead. That said, he grabbed both Charlton and Viollet by their trouser waistbands and dragged them away from the plane in constant fear that it would explode.
Gregg returned to the plane to try to help the appallingly injured Busby and Blanchflower, and when he turned around again, he was relieved to see that Charlton and Viollet, both of whom he had presumed to be dead, had got out of their detached seats and were looking into the wreckage.
Charlton suffered cuts to his head and severe shock and was in hospital for a week. Seven of his teammates had perished at the scene, including Taylor and Pegg, with whom he and Viollet had swapped seats prior to the fatal take-off attempt. Club captain Roger Byrne was also killed, along with Mark Jones, Billy Whelan, Eddie Colman and Geoff Bent. Duncan Edwards died a fortnight later from the injuries he had sustained. In total, the crash claimed 23 lives. Initially, ice on the wings was blamed, but a later inquiry declared that slush on the runway had made a safe take-off almost impossible.
Of the 44 passengers and crew (including the 17-strong Manchester United squad), 23 people (eight of them Manchester United players) died as a result of their injuries in the crash. Charlton survived with minor injuries. Of the eight other players who survived, two of them were injured so badly that they never played again.
Charlton was the first injured survivor to leave hospital. Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes were not hospitalized since they escaped uninjured. He arrived back in England on 14 February 1958, eight days after the crash. As he convalesced with family in Ashington, he spent some time kicking a ball around with local youths, and a famous photograph of him was taken.
He was still only 20
years old, yet now there was an expectation that he would help with the
rebuilding of the club as Busby's aides tried to piece together what
remained of the season.
Bobby Charlton
Charlton returned to playing in an FA cup tie against West Bromwich Albion on 1 March; the game was a draw and United won the replay 1–0. Not unexpectedly, United went out of the European Cup to Milan in the semi-finals to a 5–2 aggregate defeat and fell behind in the League.
Yet somehow they reached their second consecutive FA Cup final, and the big day at Wembley coincided with Busby's return to work. However, his words could not inspire a side which was playing on a nation's goodwill and sentiment, and Nat Lofthouse scored twice to give Bolton Wanderers a 2–0 win.
Further success with Manchester United came at last when they beat Leicester City 3–1 in the FA Cup final of 1963, with Charlton finally earning a winners' medal in his third final. Busby's post-Munich rebuilding programme continued to progress with two League championships within three seasons, with United taking the title in 1965 and 1967. A successful, though trophyless, season with Manchester United had seen him take the honours of Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year into the competition.
In 1968, Manchester
United reached the European Cup final, ten seasons after Munich. Even
though other clubs had taken part in the competition in the intervening
decade, the team which got to this final was still the first English
side to do so. On a highly emotional night at Wembley, Charlton scored
twice in a 4–1 win after extra time against Benfica and, as United
captain, lifted the trophy.
During the early 1970s, Manchester United were no longer competing among the top teams in England, and at several stages were battling against relegation.
Charlton left Manchester United at the end of the 1972–73 season, havingscored 249 goals and set a club record of 758 appearances.
Charlton's emergence as the country's leading young football talent was completed when he was called up to join the England squad for a British Home Championship game against Scotland at Hampden Park on 19 April 1958, just over two months after he had survived the Munich air disaster.
Charlton became the manager of Preston North End in 1973, signing his former United and England teammate Nobby Stiles as player-coach.
He was appointed a CBE that year and began a casual association with BBC for punditry on matches, which continued for many years.
In January 2011, Charlton was voted the fourth greatest Manchester United player of all time by the readers of Inside United and ManUtd.com, behind Ryan Giggs (who topped the poll), Eric Cantona and George Best.
On 15 February 2016, Manchester United announced the South Stand of Old Trafford would be renamed in honour of Sir Bobby Charlton. The unveiling took place at the home game against Everton on 3 April 2016.
