THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE OPENS AT COVENT GARDEN

Today, The Grandma has visited the Royal Opera House and has watched some ballet performances. She loves classic dance and one of her favourite when she stays at London is visiting this amazing place.

The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732.

It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. 

In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.

The foundation of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden lies in the letters patent awarded by Charles II to Sir William Davenant in 1662, allowing Davenant to operate one of only two patent theatre companies, The Duke's Company, in London. The letters patent remained in the possession of the patentees' heirs until the 19th century; their whereabouts are currently unknown.

More information: Royal Opera House

In 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Duke's Company at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay. The success of this venture provided him with the capital to build the Theatre Royal, designed by Edward Shepherd, at the site of an ancient convent garden, part of which had been developed by Inigo Jones in the 1630s with a piazza and church. 

In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, a market which survived in that location until 1974. At its opening on 7 December 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreve's The Way of the World.

During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. 

Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense, often presenting the same plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing, under the stage name John Lun, as Harlequin, and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, until 1939.

In 1734, Covent Garden presented its first ballet, Pygmalion. Marie Sallé discarded tradition and her corset and danced in diaphanous robes. George Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1719, but his first season of opera, at Covent Garden, was not presented until 1734. His first opera was Il pastor fido followed by Ariodante (1735), the première of Alcina, and Atalanta the following year. There was a royal performance of Messiah in 1743, which was a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances.

From 1735 until his death in 1759 he gave regular seasons there, and many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden or had their first London performances there. He bequeathed his organ to John Rich, and it was placed in a prominent position on the stage, but was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre on 20 September 1808. In 1792 the architect Henry Holland rebuilt the auditorium, within the existing shell of the building but deeper and wider than the old auditorium, thus increasing capacity.

Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, designed by Robert Smirke, opened on 18 September 1809 with a performance of Macbeth followed by a musical entertainment called The Quaker. The actor-manager John Philip Kemble, raised seat prices to help recoup the cost of rebuilding and the cost of an increased ground rent introduced by the landowner, the Duke of Bedford, but the move was so unpopular that audiences disrupted performances by beating sticks, hissing, booing and dancing. The Old Price Riots lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audience's demands.

More information: Youtube-Royal Opera House

On 5 March 1856, the theatre was again destroyed by fire. Work on the third theatre, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, started in 1857 and the new building, which still remains as the nucleus of the present theatre, was built by Lucas Brothers and opened on 15 May 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.

The Royal English Opera company under the management of Louisa Pyne and William Harrison, made their last performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 11 December 1858 and took up residence at the theatre on 20 December 1858 with a performance of Michael Balfe's Satanella and continued at the theatre until 1864.

The theatre became the Royal Opera House (ROH) in 1892, and the number of French and German works offered increased. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet were given, and the building was also used for pantomime, recitals and political meetings.

During the First World War, the theatre was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works for use as a furniture repository.

From 1934 to 1936, Geoffrey Toye was managing director, working alongside the Artistic Director, Sir Thomas Beecham. Despite early successes, Toye and Beecham eventually fell out, and Toye resigned.

During the Second World War the ROH became a dance hall. There was a possibility that it would remain so after the war but, following lengthy negotiations, the music publishers Boosey & Hawkes acquired the lease of the building. David Webster was appointed General Administrator, and Sadler's Wells Ballet was invited to become the resident ballet company.

The Covent Garden Opera Trust was created and laid out plans to establish Covent Garden as the national centre of opera and ballet, employing British artists in all departments, wherever that is consistent with the maintenance of the best possible standards...

More information: Londonist

The Royal Opera House reopened on 20 February 1946 with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in an extravagant new production designed by Oliver Messel. Webster, with his music director Karl Rankl, immediately began to build a resident company. In December 1946, they shared their first production, Purcell's The Fairy-Queen, with the ballet company. On 14 January 1947, the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its first performance of Bizet's Carmen.

Several renovations had taken place to parts of the house in the 1960s, including improvements to the amphitheatre but the theatre clearly needed a major overhaul. In 1975 the Labour government gave land adjacent to the Royal Opera House for a long-overdue modernisation, refurbishment, and extension. In the early 1980s the first part of a major renovation included an extension to the rear of the theatre on the James Street corner. The development added two new ballet studios, offices, a Chorus Rehearsal Room and the Opera Rehearsal room. Dressing rooms were also added.

In 2014 design work, known as the Open Up Project, began with the aim of improving the entrances, lobby areas and the Linbury Theatre.

More information: Visit London

 

 

 Finding ballet gave me passion 

for the first time in my life. 

I was always very shy 

and just wanted to fit in; 

I never daydreamed about 

what I wanted to be when I grew up. 

But dancing gave me a connection 

to my personality that made me grow. 

Misty Copeland

ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, PRIDE OF LONDON SINCE 1697

Today, The Weasleys & The Grandma have visited St Paul's Cathedral, and they have said goodbye to Yamina Newton-Weasley, who has decided to follow her faith and become a new member of the Anglican Church. God guides Yamina! Before this visit, the family has studied Present Simple vs Continuous.

 

 More information: Present Simple vs Present Continuous

 

More information: Password

 

Download Crosswords & Wordsearch

 

St Paul's Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London.

It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade I listed building. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present cathedral, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London.

The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London. Its dome, framed by the spires of Wren's City churches, has dominated the skyline for over 300 years. At 111 metres high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967. The dome is among the highest in the world. St Paul's is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.

Services held at St Paul's have included the funerals of Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill and Baroness Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II. St Paul's Cathedral is the central subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke and fire of the Blitz.

A list of the 16 archbishops of London was recorded by Jocelyn of Furness in the 12th century, claiming London's Christian community was founded in the 2nd century under the legendary King Lucius and his missionary saints Fagan, Deruvian, Elvanus and Medwin. None of that is considered credible by modern historians but, although the surviving text is problematic, either Bishop Restitutus or Adelphius at the 314 Council of Arles seems to have come from Londinium. The location of Londinium's original cathedral is unknown.

More information: St Paul's Cathedral

Bede records that in AD 604 Augustine of Canterbury consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop. It is assumed, although not proved, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the same site as the later medieval and the present cathedrals.

On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his pagan sons expelled Mellitus from London, and the East Saxons reverted to paganism. The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown.

Christianity was restored among the East Saxons in the late 7th century and it is presumed that either the Anglo-Saxon cathedral was restored or a new building erected as the seat of bishops such as Cedd, Wine and Earconwald, the last of whom was buried in the cathedral in 693. 

This building, or a successor, was destroyed by fire in 962, but rebuilt in the same year. King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016; his tomb is lost. The cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

The present structure of St Peter upon Cornhill was designed by Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of London in 1666. It stands upon the highest point in the area of old Londinium, and medieval legends tie it to the city's earliest Christian community. 

In 1995, however, a large and ornate 5th-century building on Tower Hill was excavated, which might have been the city's cathedral.

On 2 December 1697, 31 years and 3 months after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul's, the new cathedral was consecrated for use. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the Lord. The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

More information: Standard

I wonder, by my troth, 

what thou and I did till we loved?

John Donne

AMERICAN HORROR STORY, NEW CONCEPT OF TV SERIES

American Horror Story

Today, The Grandma is at home. Times are changing and new ones are arriving but meanwhile this happens we are assisting to the reborn, they never died, of totalitarism, dictatorships and fascist forms of government.

It's a normal process when something better and different is going to happen and something old resists to die and to lose privileges and status. The Grandma has been remembering last events of the European history and how closer European citizens are of repeating the mistakes of the past if they aren't brave enough to stop these new forms of totalitarianism, xenophobia, racism and intolerance.

The Grandma is a great fan of American Horror Story (AMS), a TV Series that talks about all these things and helps to think about the future not forgetting the past, learning from them and fighting against the eternal arriving of The Antichrist, which has a lot of shapes, but only one objective: destruction, isolation and poverty in the name of the ignorance, stupidity and untolerance.

American Horror Story is only a mirror, a reflex of our society with all its problems and some different stories with a common idea, the great struggle between God and Devil to establish their power over a population which is everytime worrier about money and matherialistic things and forget the essence of the Humanity: respect and tolerance. AHS is not very different of Star Wars -fight against the dark forces of the Emperor- or Harry Potter -fight against the dark power of Voldemort-.

Before watching a marathon of American Horror Story, The Grandma has studied the last lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 20).

More information: Vocabulary 20-Shopping Around

American Horror Story is an American anthology horror television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a different set of characters and settings, and a storyline with its own beginning, middle, and end. Some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events.The only actors to be present in all iterations are Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson with Lily Rabe and Frances Conroy appearing in all but one of the seasons each.

The first season, retroactively subtitled Murder House, takes place in Los Angeles, California, during the year 2011, and centers on a family that moves into a house haunted by its deceased former occupants.

It centers on the Harmon family: Dr. Ben Harmon, Vivien and their daughter Violet, who move from Boston to Los Angeles after Vivien has a miscarriage and Ben has an affair. They move into a restored mansion, unaware that the house is haunted by the ghosts of its former residents and their victims.

More information: AMS-Murder House

It's hard to keep good help.

Constance Langdon, AMS, Murder House

The second season, subtitled Asylum, takes place in Massachusetts during the year 1964, and follows the stories of the patients and staff of an institution for the criminally insane.

In 1964, at Briarcliff Mental Institution in Massachusetts, Sister Jude Martin and Sister Mary Eunice McKee maintain the institution that was founded by Monsignor Timothy Howard to treat and house the mentally and criminally insane. Psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson, and scientist Dr. Arthur Arden, treat the patients within the facility, which include lesbian journalist Lana Winters, accused serial killer Kit Walker, and alleged murderer Grace Bertrand.

More information: AMS-Asylum

If you look in the face of evil, 

evil's gonna look right back at you.

Sister Jude, AMS, Asylum

 

The third season, subtitled Coven, takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the year 2013, and follows a coven of witches who face off against those who wish to destroy them.

Set in the year 2013, the season follows the dwindling descendants of the witches who survived the Salem Witch Trials and their struggle to hide their identity in the modern world. Those who share this genetic affliction are being subjected to violent attacks from outside forces, such as voodoo practitioners and witch hunters. Zoe Benson, a young teenager completely unaware of the existence of witches, discovers her identity as a Salem descendant after a violent accident that causes the death of her boyfriend. She is sent to an all-girls boarding school in New Orleans which aims to protect and house young women who carry this unique bloodline, and keep them from the dangers of the outside world.

More information: AMS-Coven

In this whole wide wicked world,

the only thing you have to be afraid of is me.

Fiona Goode, AMS, Coven

The fourth season, subtitled Freak Show, takes place in Jupiter, Florida, during the year 1952, and centers around one of the last remaining American freak shows and their struggle for survival.

In Jupiter, Florida in 1952, German expatriate Elsa Mars is the ambitious owner of one of the last struggling freak shows in the United States, entitled "Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities," and is seeking her own fame and stardom. She recruits conjoined twin sisters Bette and Dot Tattler, whose two heads share one body, as new members of her troupe after their identification by the police as fugitives since Bette's recent murder of their overprotective mother during an argument.

When the sisters arrive, they are welcomed by their fellow freaks: Elsa's subordinate and confidante Ethel Darling the bearded lady, her lobster-handed son Jimmy Darling, Paul the Illustrated Seal, the giantess Amazon Eve, the legless Suzi, pinheads Salty and Pepper, the youngest Meep, and the dwarf performers: ex-convict Toulouse and Elsa's most significant companion Ma Petite, who is the smallest of the group.

More information: AMS-Freak Show

 

People don't come to see freaks in the heat of day. 

They come in the evening. When the darkness moves 

in and speaks of mystery. The unknown. When logic loosens 

its vice grip and the imagination comes out to play. 

The night allows the stars to shine and we come alive.
 

Elsa Mars, AHS, Freak Show

The fifth season, subtitled Hotel, takes place in Los Angeles, California, during the year 2015, and focuses on the staff and guests of a supernatural hotel.

Set in the year 2015, the season follows the strange and dangerous happenings that seem to center around the retro Hotel Cortez in downtown Los Angeles, California, initially built as a secret torture chamber to fulfill the violent desires of founder James March. Detective John Lowe arrives at the hotel, based on intel from an anonymous tip, to investigate a grisly string of murders, each of which exemplify a sin in violation of one of the Ten Commandments. He has become estranged from his wife Alex, who suffers from depression, and his daughter Scarlett, after the disappearance of their son Holden five years earlier. As the season unfolds, the Lowes discover that the disappearance of Holden may be related to the strange activities at the hotel, led by March's fashionista widow Elizabeth Johnson, also known as the Countess -who was turned into a vampire by her former lovers, actor Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natacha Rambova -and her current lover Donovan.

More information: AMS-Hotel

 

We're not going for the art, dumbass. 

We're going for the hunt.

The Countess, AMS, Hotel

The sixth season, subtitled Roanoke, takes place in North Carolina during the years 2014–2016, and focuses on the paranormal events that take place at an isolated farmhouse haunted by the deceased Roanoke colony.

Set in the years 2014-2016, the season follows the supernatural events that occur in a renovated farmhouse in North Carolina, which is situated on the land where the Roanoke Colony moved after their infamous 1580s disappearance. In 2015, Shelby Miller, her husband Matt, along with Matt's sister Lee Harris recount their harrowing experience living in the farmhouse a year prior in a popular documentary series titled My Roanoke Nightmare, including their encounters with the ghosts of the house's previous residents, the violent ghosts of the Roanoke Colony, the cannibalistic Polk family who live nearby, and the beautiful, yet terrifying Celtic goddess, Scáthach.

More information: AMS-Roanoke

I want to leave.

Shelby Miller/Audrey Tindall, AMS, Roanoke

The seventh season, subtitled Cult, takes place in the fictional suburb of Brookfield Heights, Michigan, during the year 2017, and centers on a cult terrorizing the residents in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Set in the year 2017, the fictional town of Brookfield Heights, Michigan, is left divided upon the wake of Donald Trump's election as president. Local restaurant owner Ally Mayfair-Richards is left utterly distraught, along with her wife Ivy. Despite the help of her psychiatrist, Dr. Rudy Vincent Anderson, Ally becomes increasingly unstable in the following weeks, as her long repressed phobias begin to re-emerge, and they begin to affect her relationships with her wife as well as their son Oz.

Across town, misogynistic alt-righter Kai Anderson rejoices at the election results, enticing him to pursue political power by running for city council, led by radical feminist Bebe Babbitt and with the help of his reluctant, liberal sister Winter, who the Mayfair-Richards household hire as their nanny. As Ally attempts to re-adjust to regular life despite her growing anxiety and paranoia, she becomes terrorized by a group of masked assailants, donned in clown attire who are only present when she is alone, leaving those around her to wonder if she was truly attacked, or if they were merely hallucinations.

More information: AMS-Cult

You're not a conservative. You're a reactionary. 

You use fear and the fantasy of a time that never was 

when people left their doors unlocked.
 

Sally Keffler, AMS, Cult

The eighth season, subtitled Apocalypse, takes place in California during the years 2018-2021 and features the return of the witches from Coven as they battle the Antichrist from Murder House and attempt to prevent the apocalypse.

In the near future, the Antichrist, Michael Langdon brings about the apocalypse by instigating nuclear warfare. The chosen survivors of the aftermath, heiress Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, her personal assistant Mallory, hairstylist Mr. Gallant, Gallant's grandmother Evie, talk-show host Dinah Stevens, young adults Timothy Campbell and Emily, amongst others, take refuge in a fallout shelter named "Outpost 3", run with an iron fist by Wilhemina Venable and Miriam Mead.

Flashbacks to three years before the apocalypse reveal that "Outpost 3" was an all-boys warlock school led by John Henry Moore that unknowingly harbored the Antichrist, in hopes that he would rise as the first ever male Supreme. The witches' council of Cordelia Goode, Zoe Benson and Myrtle Snow are summoned and quickly discover how dangerous Michael is to their coven when faced with his evident powers, as he resurrects deceased witches Queenie and Madison Montgomery . The coven, with the aid of the warlocks, attempt to save humanity by discovering new witch Mallory's intense powers, learning more about Michael's mysterious origins and how to defeat him to prevent the apocalypse. 

More information: AMS-Apocalypse

 

 Satan has one son…

but my sisters are legion, motherfucker.

Cordelia Goode, AMS, Apocalypse

Although reception to individual seasons has varied, American Horror Story largely has been well received by television critics, with the majority of the praise going towards the cast, particularly Jessica Lange, who won two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performances. Kathy Bates and James Cromwell each won an Emmy Award for their performances, while Lady Gaga won a Golden Globe Award.

The series draws consistently high ratings for the FX network, with its first season being the most-viewed new cable series of 2011.

More information: Variety

 I think all the characters in 'American Horror Story,' 

which is why I love it, are looking for some sense of meaning, 

and also it's their form of happiness.

Denis O'Hare

ALBERT FINNEY: FROM 'THE ENTERTAINER' TO 'SKYFALL'

Albert Finney

Today, The Grandma wants to homage Albert Finney, one of the most wonderful and unforgettable English actors of the history, who died in London yesterday. 

Albert Finney is one of the greatest actors of the English theatre and cinema and his films will be remembered forever.

Before talking about Finney, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 19).

More information: Vocabulary 19-Going Out

Albert Finney Jr. (9 May 1936-7 February 2019) was an English actor, producer and director of film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began to work in the theatre as a Shakespearean actor before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.

Albert Finney & Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road

A recipient of BAFTA , Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards, Finney was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984); he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). His performance as Winston Churchill in the BBC–HBO television biographical film The Gathering Storm (2002) saw him receive a number of accolades.

Finney was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of Alice (née Hobson) and Albert Finney, a bookmaker. He was educated at Tootal Drive Primary School, Salford Grammar School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which he graduated in 1956.

More information: BBC

In February 1956 John Fernald, principal of RADA, gave Finney his first major role in the Vanbrugh Theatre's student production of Ian Dallas' play The Face of Love, as Shakespeare's Troilus. Finney graduated from RADA and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express

His career began in the theatre, and he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958, in Jane Arden's The Party, directed by Charles Laughton, who starred in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. Then, in 1959, he appeared at Stratford in the title role in Coriolanus, replacing an ill Laurence Olivier.

Finney created the title role in Luther, the 1961 play by John Osborne depicting the life of Martin Luther, one of the foremost instigators of the Protestant Reformation. He performed the role with the English Stage Company in London, Nottingham, Paris and New York.

His first film appearance was in Tony Richardson's The Entertainer (1960), with Laurence Olivier, and he made his breakthrough in the same year with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, also 1960. This led to his starring in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film Tom Jones.

More information: The Guardian

Prior to this, Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of Lawrence of Arabia after a successful, and elaborate, screen-test that took four days to shoot.

After Charlie Bubbles (1968), which he also directed, his film appearances became less frequent as he focused more on acting on stage. During this period, one of his high-profile film roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the film Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

With Jessica Lange, Big Fish & Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

He continues working with acclaimed roles in Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), and the James Bond film Skyfall (2012).

He received Tony Award nominations for Luther (1964) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1968), and also starred on stage in Love for Love, Strindberg's Miss Julie, Black Comedy, The Country Wife, Alpha Beta, Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, Tamburlaine the Great, Another Time and, his last stage appearance, in 1997, Art by Yasmina Reza, which preceded the 1998 Tony Award-winning Broadway run.

More information: Anglotopia

He won an Olivier Award for Orphans in 1986 and won three Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Actor. Finney also directed and played the lead role of Sidney Kentridge in The Biko Inquest, a 1984 dramatisation of the inquest into the death of Steve Biko which was filmed for TV following a London run. In 1994 he played a gay bus conductor in early 1960's Dublin in A Man of No Importance.

In 2002 his critically acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm won him British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Emmy and Golden Globe awards as Best Actor. He also played the title role in the television series My Uncle Silas, based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show ran for two series broadcast in 2001 and 2003.

More information: CNN

To be a character who feels a deep emotion,

one must go into the memory's vault

and mix in a sad memory from one's own life.

Albert Finney

GUSTAV KLIMT: AUSTRIAN SYMBOLISM IN PAINTING

Gustav Klimt

Today, The Grandma as received a wonderful visit. Tina Picotes, who has been travelling around Central Europe, has returned to Barcelona.

Tina has met with The Grandma to talk about her travel and one of their favourite painters, Gustav Klimt, who died on a day like today in 1918.

Before the arrival of Tina Picotes, The Grandma has studied two new and interesting lessons of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 17 & 18).

More information: Vocabulary 17-Other Countries & 18-In the Classroom

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862–February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

More information: Klim Museum

Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. As he developed a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his golden phase, many of which include gold leaf. Klimt's work was an important influence on his younger contemporary Egon Schiele.

Birch Forest by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary, the second of seven children. His mother, Anna Klimt (née Finster), had an unrealized ambition to be a musical performer. His father, Ernst Klimt the Elder, formerly from Bohemia, was a gold engraver. All three of their sons displayed artistic talent early on. Klimt's younger brothers were Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt.

Klimt lived in poverty while attending the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, a school of applied arts and crafts, now the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he studied architectural painting from 1876 until 1883. He revered Vienna's foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart.

Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother, Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend, Franz Matsch, began working together and by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team that they called the Company of Artists. They also helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße, including a successful series of Allegories and Emblems.

More information: Gustav-Klimt

In 1888 Klimt received the Golden Order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna.

In 1892 Klimt's father and brother Ernst both died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies also affected his artistic vision and soon he would move towards a new personal style. Characteristic of his style at the end of the 19th century is the inclusion of Nuda Veritas (naked truth) as a symbolic figure in some of his works, including Ancient Greece and Egypt (1891), Pallas Athene (1898) and Nuda Veritas (1899).

Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt

Historians believe that Klimt with the nuda veritas denounced both the policy of the Habsburgs and Austrian society, which ignored all political and social problems of that time. 

In the early 1890s Klimt met Austrian fashion designer Emilie Louise Flöge, a sibling of his sister-in-law, who was to be his companion until the end of his life.

His painting, The Kiss (1907–08), is thought to be an image of them as lovers. He designed many costumes that she produced and modeled in his works.

Klimt's Golden Phase was marked by positive critical reaction and financial success. Many of his paintings from this period included gold leaf. Klimt had previously used gold in his Pallas Athene (1898) and Judith I (1901), although the works most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907–08).

Klimt travelled little, but trips to Venice and Ravenna, both famous for their beautiful mosaics, most likely inspired his gold technique and his Byzantine imagery.

More information: Gustav Klimt

In 1904, he collaborated with other artists on the lavish Palais Stoclet, the home of a wealthy Belgian industrialist that was one of the grandest monuments of the Art Nouveau age. Klimt's contributions to the dining room, including both Fulfillment and Expectation, were some of his finest decorative works, and as he publicly stated, probably the ultimate stage of my development of ornament.

In 1911 his painting Death and Life received first prize in the world exhibitions in Rome. In 1915 Anna, his mother, died. Klimt died three years later in Vienna on February 6, 1918, having suffered a stroke and pneumonia due to the worldwide influenza epidemic of that year. He was buried at the Hietzinger Cemetery in Hietzing, Vienna. Numerous paintings by him were left unfinished.

More information: Austria

Whoever wants to know something about me 

-as an artist which alone is significant- 

they should look attentively at my pictures 

and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

Gustav Klimt

GARRAF REGION: SIX TOWNS SURROUNDED BY NATURE

The Grandma visits Garraf Natural Park

Claire Fontaine & The Grandma has visited El Garraf, a wonderful county near Barcelona where you can find six unforgettable towns with strong personality, old history, many cultural events, amazing natural landscapes and nice inhabitants.

Last summer, The Grandma also visited the Garraf Astronomical Observatory with Joseph de Ca'th Lon who knows this zone perfectly and who studies another kind of population which lives in this zone, the Peregrine Falcon.

Before arriving by train to Vilanova i la Geltrú, the capital of the county, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 16).

More information: Vocabulary 16-Useful Things

Vilanova i la Geltrú is a city in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia and the capital of the Garraf county. Historically a fishing port, the city has a growing population of approximately 66,000, and is situated 40 km south-west of Barcelona.

The town has a long history, and experienced an efflorescence during the Romantic period evidenced by a wealth of opulent 19th century buildings. The atmospheric town square, the Plaça de la Vila, and many of its iconic public buildings were principally financed by Josep Tomàs Ventosa Soler (1797-1874) a textile magnate who made his fortune in Cuba. A monument featuring a bronze statue of Ventosa stands in the center of the square. An identical monument stands in Matanzas, Cuba, where both statues were forged.

Claire Fontaine in Plaça de la Vila, Vilanova i la Geltrú

During the dictatorship, large numbers of people fleeing poverty in Southern Spain settled in Vilanova. They are sometimes referred to by historians as fugitives of fascism. Although they experienced prejudice they became increasingly accepted and known as els altres Vilanovins or the other Vilanovins.

By 1970, a majority of the town's population had been born elsewhere. In the first decade of the 21st century, there was another wave of immigrants, called nouvinguts or newcomers locally, this time primarily from North Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.

Located 46 km from Barcelona and 44 km from Tarragona, it has the third largest port of Catalonia and is a major fishing port. The Brotherhood of Pescadors of Vilanova derives from the powerful and ancient Brotherhood of Sant Elm, founded in 1579.

And it is through participating in local festivals that Vilanovins, whether natives or recently arrived newcomers, intensify their sense of belonging to a community dedicated to active engagement between neighbors or convivència (coexistence).

More information: Vilanova Turisme

Canyelles is a town in the northeast of the Garraf county in the south of Barcelona province, Catalonia. It is home to a 15th-century castle.

Main festivals in Canyelles include Xatonada Popula, Festa Major de Canyelles (July 22), Petit Festa Major (September 10), and Fira de Santa Llúcia (1st Sunday in December).

More information: Garraf Turisme

Cubelles is a municipality in Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona. It is situated in the county of Garraf.

Visiting Canyelles and Cubelles Castles, Garraf

Josep Andreu i Lasserre (April 23, 1896-July 26, 1983), best known as Charlie Rivel, was an internationally known Catalan circus clown who was born in Cubelles. His parents Pere Andreu Pausas (Catalan) and Marie-Louise Lasarre (Occitan) were circus artists as well.

He debuted at the age of three and formed the group Los Rivels with his brothers Polo Rivel and René Rivel. He took his artistic first name from Charlie Chaplin whom he encountered first in 1910. Each respected the other. Legend has it that Chaplin later asked him: Is it you who imitate me or I who imitate you? He later discovered his definitive routine, featuring a chair, a guitar and a long jersey.

In 1971, he appeared in Federico Fellini's film Clowns.

The Charlie Rivel Hall in Cubelles is a museum dedicated to him.

More information: Garraf Turisme

Sant Pere de Ribes is a town in the center of the Garraf county, in Barcelona province, Catalonia. The remains of a 12th-century castle once ruled by the troubadour Guillem de Ribes are in the town.

Main festivals include: Festa Major de Sant Pere (June 29), Festa Major de Sant Pau (January 25), Festa Major de Santa Eulàlia (February 12) and Festa Major de Sant Joan (June 24).

More information: Enric Sagnier

Olivella is a municipality in Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona. It is situated in the county of Garraf.

Visiting Sant Pere de Ribes and Olivella, Garraf

The first known village in the area was founded in 992 around a castle known as Castell vell.

The inhabitants lived off dryland agriculture. This initial nucleus was almost abandoned after the black plague caused numerous deaths. The area was resettled in the 14th century and gradually prospered. Nowadays there are some new housing developments in the area as well as the Sakya Tashi Ling. Buddhist monastery, located in Plana Novella.

The village is located in the Garraf Massif, in a natural park area, not far from Barcelona.

More information: Meet Up

Sitges is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. Located between the Garraf Massif and the sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspots, and historical sites. There are 17 beaches.

Visiting Sitges, Garraf

While the roots of Sitges' artistic reputation date back to the late 19th century, when Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol took up residence there during the summer, the town became a centre for the 1960s counterculture in mainland Spain, in Francoist Spain, and became known as Ibiza in miniature.

Sitges has been referred to as the Saint-Tropez of Catalonia, with property prices approaching those of the most expensive European cities, the main reason for this being the setting by the sea and the surrounding Parc Natural del Garraf.

Almost 35% of the approximately 26,000 permanent inhabitants are from the Netherlands, the UK, France and Scandinavia, whose children attend international schools in the area.

Human presence in the area dates to at least the Neolithic area, and an Iberian settlement from the 4th century. In the 1st century BC it included two separated villages, later absorbed by the Romans.

During the Middle Ages, a castle was built in Sitges, owned by the bishopric of Barcelona, which later ceded it to count Mir Geribert (1041). In the 12th century the town fell under the rule of the Sitges family. The latter held it until 1308, when Agnes of Sitges sold the town to Bernat de Fonollar, after whose death it went to the Pia Almoina, a charitable institution, to which it belonged until 1814.

More information: Visit Sitges 

A national park is not a playground.

It's a sanctuary for nature and for humans 

who will accept nature on nature's own terms.

Michael Frome