Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form ''Prettanike'' or ''Brettaniai'', which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including ''Albion'' or Great Britain. However, by the 1st century BC ''Britannia'' came to be used for Great Britain specifically. In AD 43 the Roman Empire began its conquest of the island, establishing a province they called ''Britannia'', which came to encompass the parts of the island south of Caledonia (roughly Scotland). The native Celtic inhabitants of the province are known as the Britons. In the 2nd century Roman Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a centurion's helmet.

The Latin name ''Britannia'' long survived the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and yielded the name for the island in most European and various other languages, including the English Britain and the modern Welsh ''Prydain''. After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during the English Renaissance as a rhetorical evocation of a British national identity. Especially following the Acts of Union in 1707, which joined the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, the personification of the martial Britannia was used as an emblem of British imperial power and unity. She has appeared consistently on British coinage ever since.

Roman period

The first writer to use a form of the name was the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred to ''Prettanike'' or ''Brettaniai'', a group of islands off the coast of North-Western Europe. In the 1st century BC Diodorus Siculus referred to ''Pretannia'', a rendering of the indigenous name for the ''Pretani'' people whom the Greeks believed to inhabit the British Isles. Following the Greek usage, the Romans referred to the ''Insulae Britannicae'' in the plural, consisting of ''Albion'' (Great Britain), ''Hibernia'' (Ireland), ''Thule'' (possibly Iceland) and many smaller islands. Over time, Albion specifically came to be known as ''Britannia'', and the name for the group was subsequently dropped. That island was first invaded by Julius Caesar in 55 BC, and the Roman conquest of the island began in AD 43, leading to the establishment of the Roman province known as ''Britannia''. The Romans never successfully conquered the whole island, building Hadrian's Wall as a boundary with ''Caledonia'', which covered roughly the territory of modern Scotland. A southern part of what is now Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-2nd century AD, keeping in place the Picts to the north of the Antonine Wall. People living in the Roman province of Britannia were called ''Britanni'', or Britons. Ireland, inhabited by the Scoti, was never invaded and was called Hibernia. Thule, an island "six days' sail north of Britain, and [...] near the frozen sea", possibly Iceland, was also never invaded by the Romans.

The Emperor Claudius paid a visit while Britain was being conquered and was honoured with the agnomen ''Britannicus'' as if he were the conqueror; a frieze discovered at Aphrodisias in 1980 shows a bare breasted and helmeted female warrior labelled BRITANNIA, writhing in agony under the heel of the emperor. She appeared on coins issued under Hadrian, as a more regal-looking female figure. Britannia was soon personified as a goddess, looking fairly similar to the goddess Minerva. Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a beautiful young woman, wearing the helmet of a centurion, and wrapped in a white garment with her right breast exposed. She is usually shown seated on a rock, holding a spear, and with a spiked shield propped beside her. Sometimes she holds a standard and leans on the shield. On another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves: Britain at the edge of the (known) world. Similar coin types were also issued under Antoninus Pius.

British revival

Medieval use

Britannia remained the Latin name for Great Britain. After the fall of the Roman Empire, variations on the term appear in the titles of the 9th-century ''Historia Britonum'' and the 12th century ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' which became tremendously popular during the High Middle Ages. At this time the term Britannia also came to be used for the Armorican peninsula in France, because of the large scale migration to the area by Britons. The modern French name for the area, "Bretagne", or Brittany in English, is a variant of "Britannia". The term "Grande Bretagne" (Greater Britannia, or Great Britain) was used to distinguish the island of Britain from the continental peninsula.

British Empire

In the Medieval period it had still been common to refer only to the Brythonic Celtic inhabitants of Britain as the "Britons", as opposed to the "English". However, increasingly the English were included ''within'' the category of the Britons. This gained new symbolic meaning with the rise of British influence, and later the British Empire, which at its height ruled over a third of the world's population and landmass.

In the Renaissance tradition, Britannia came to be viewed as the personification of Britain, in imagery that was developed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. With the death of Elizabeth in 1603 came the succession of her Scottish cousin, James VI of Scotland, to the English throne. He became James I of England, and so brought under his personal rule the Kingdoms of England (and the dominion of Wales), Ireland and Scotland. On 20 October 1604 King James proclaimed himself as "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland", a title that continued to be used by many of his successors. When James I came to the throne, some elaborate pageants were staged. One pageant performed on the streets of London in 1605 was described in Anthony Munday's ''Triumphs of Reunited Britannia'':

On a mount triangular, as the island of Britain itself is described to be, we seat in the supreme place, under the shape of a fair and beautiful nymph, Britannia herself...

During the reign of King Charles II, Britannia made her first appearance on English coins on a farthing of 1672 (see ''Depiction on British coinage and postage stamps'' below). With the constitutional unification of England with Scotland in 1707 and then with Ireland in 1800, Britannia became an increasingly important symbol and a strong rallying point among Britons.

British power, which depended on a liberal political system and the supremacy of the navy, lent these attributes to the image of Britannia. By the time of Queen Victoria, Britannia had been renewed. Still depicted as a young woman with brown or golden hair, she kept her Corinthian helmet and her white robes, but now she held Poseidon's three-pronged trident and often sat or stood before the ocean and tall-masted ships representing British naval power. She also usually held or stood beside a Greek hoplite shield, which sported the British Union Flag: also at her feet was often the British Lion, an animal found on the arms of England, Scotland and the Prince of Wales.

King Neptune is shown symbolically passing his trident to Britannia in the 1847 fresco "Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea" by William Dyce, a painting Victoria commissioned for her Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

New Zealanders adopted a similar personification of their country in Zealandia, Britannia's daughter, who appeared on postage stamps at the turn of the 20th century and still features in the New Zealand Coat of Arms.

Perhaps the best analogy is that Britannia is to the United Kingdom and the British Empire what Marianne is to France or perhaps what Columbia is to the United States. Like Columbia, Britannia became a very potent and more common figure in times of war, and represented British liberties and democracy.

Modern associations

During the 1990s the term ''Cool Britannia'' (drawn from a humorous version by the Bonzo Dog Band of the song "Rule Britannia", with words by James Thomson [1700–1748], which is often used as an unofficial national anthem), was used to describe the contemporary United Kingdom. The phrase referred to the fashionable scenes of the era, with a new generation of pop groups and style magazines, successful young fashion designers, and a surge of new restaurants and hotels. Cool Britannia represented late-1990s Britain as a fashionable place to be.

Depiction on British coinage and postage stamps

Although the archetypical image of Britannia seated on a shield first appeared on Roman bronze coins of the 1st century AD struck under Hadrian, Britannia's first appearance on British coinage was on the farthing in 1672, though earlier pattern versions had appeared in 1665, followed by the halfpenny later the same year. The figure of Britannia was said by Samuel Pepys to have been modelled on Frances Teresa Stuart, the future Duchess of Richmond, who was famous at the time for refusing to become the mistress of Charles II, despite the King's strong infatuation with her. Britannia then appeared on the British halfpenny coin throughout the rest of the 17th century and thereafter until 1936. The halfpennies issued during the reign of Queen Anne have Britannia closely resembling the queen herself. When the Bank of England was granted a charter in 1694, the directors decided within days that the device for their official seal should represent 'Brittannia sitting on looking on a Bank of Mony' (sic). Britannia also appeared on the penny coin between 1797 and 1970, occasional issues such as the fourpence under William IV between 1836 and 1837, and on the 50 pence coin between 1969 and 2008. See "External Links" below for examples of all these coins and others. In the spring of 2008, the Royal Mint unveiled new coin designs "reflecting a more modern twenty-first century Britain" which nowhere featured the image of Britannia. This decision courted some controversy, with tabloid press campaigns, in particular that of the ''Daily Mail'', launched to "save Britannia". The government has pointed out, however, that earlier-design 50p coins will remain in circulation for the foreseeable future.

Britannia also featured on the high value Great Britain definitive postage stamps issued during the reign of George V (known as 'seahorses') and is depicted on the £10 stamp first issued in 1993.

Britannia watermark in paper

The Britannia watermark has been widely used in papermaking, usually showing her seated. An example can be found at papermoulds.typepad.com

Namesakes

The name "Britannia", symbolising Britain and British patriotism, has been adopted for various purposes such as:

Britannia silver, a high-grade alloy of silver introduced in Britain in 1697.

Britannia coins, a series of British gold bullion coins issued since 1987, which have nominal values of 100, 50, 25, and 10 pounds.

HMS ''Britannia'', any of eight vessels of the Royal Navy.

Britannia Royal Naval College, the Royal Navy's officer training college.

Pugnaces Britanniae, war dog of Britain.

The former Royal Yacht ''Britannia'', the Royal Family's personal yacht, recently retired in Leith, Edinburgh Scotland.

The patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!", set to music in 1740.

Company names such as Britannia Building Society and Britannia Airways.

The ''Britannia'' Class, an alternative name for the BR Standard Class 7 series of steam locomotives produced between 1951 and 1954, the first of the BR "standard" classes. Preserved Class 7 locomotive No. 70000, built in 1951, was also named ''Britannia''.

See also

Hibernia (personification) is the younger sister of Britannia

William Camden, author of ''Britannia'', author of topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland, first published in 1586.

References

Notes

Hewitt, Virginia. "Britannia (fl. 1st–21st cent.)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' online edition 2007, accessed 28 Aug 2011

M. Dresser (ed.), 'Britannia', Patriotism: the making and unmaking of British national identity, vol. 3

R. Samuel, National fictions (1989), pp. 26–49

Britannia depicta: quality, value and security, National Postal Museum (1993)

H. Mattingly, Nerva to Hadrian, reprint (1976), vol. 3 of Coins of the Roman empire in the British Museum

J. M. C. Toynbee, The Hadrianic school: a chapter in the history of Greek art (1974)

M. Henig, 'Britannia', ''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'', 3/1 (1983), pp. 167–69

K. T. Erim, 'A new relief showing Claudius and Britannia from Aphrodisias', Britannia, 13 (1982), pp. 277–81

H. Peacham, Minerva Britannia, or, A garden of heroical devises (1612)

J. Thomson, Britannia: a poem (1729)

R. Strong, Gloriana, the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (1987)

H. A. Atherton, Political prints in the age of Hogarth. A study of the ideographic representation of politics (1974)

External links

Britannia on British coins and medals - Guy de la Bédoyère

Britannia Penny

Category:National personifications Category:National symbols of the United Kingdom

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Della Jones (13 April 1946), is a Welsh mezzo-soprano, particularly well-known for her interpretations of works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Britten.

Life and career

Della Jones was born in Tonna, near Neath, Wales. She studied at the Royal College of Music, where she won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship, and later in Geneva, where she made her professional debut in 1970, as Feodor and Olga.

She joined the English National Opera in 1977 where she created the role of Dolly in Iain Hamilton's ''Anna Karenina'' in 1981, and the Royal Opera House in 1983, and began appearing abroad notably in France, Italy, and the United States.

Her repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary works, with a specialty in the bel canto operas, notably of Rossini. In the mid 1970s. she began a long association with Opera Rara, appearing in many long forgotten bel canto works, both on stage and on recording. She can be heard in complete recordings of Donizetti's ''Ugo, conte di Parigi'', ''L'assedio di Calais'', ''Maria Padilla'', Meyerbeer's ''Il crociato in Egitto'' and Rossini's ''Ricciardo e Zoraide'' and made a solo album with the title ''Della Jones sings Donizetti'', in all of which one can appreciate her impeccable coloratura technique and strong feeling for words and music.

For Chandos records she also made albums such as ''Great Operatic Arias - Della Jones''.

Della Jones is still at home in the international opera and concert world today. She currently lives in South-East England.

References

''Le guide de l'opéra, les indispensables de la musique'', R. Mancini & J-J. Rouvereux, (Fayard, 1995), ISBN 2-213-59567-4

Category:1946 births Category:People from Neath Port Talbot Category:Living people Category:Welsh opera singers Category:Welsh female singers Category:Operatic mezzo-sopranos Category:Grammy Award winners

da:Della Jones de:Della Jones

name	Bryn Terfel CBE
background	solo_singer
birth name	Bryn Terfel Jones
born	Pant Glas, Gwynedd,Wales
occupation	Opera singer (Bass-baritone)
spouse	Lesley Terfel (1987-present)
children	3 }}

Bryn Terfel Jones CBE (; born 9 November 1965) is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner.

Biography

Bryn Terfel Jones was born in Pant Glas, North Wales, the son of a farmer. His first language is Welsh, but he became proficient in English as he grew up. He knew of another Welsh baritone named Bryn Jones, so chose Bryn Terfel as his professional name. He had an interest in and talent for music from a very young age. A family friend taught him how to sing, starting with traditional Welsh songs. After winning numerous competitions for his singing, he moved to London in 1984 and entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied under Rudolf Piernay. (He has recorded that he initially applied to the music college in Cardiff but when the reply was addressed to ‘Miss Terfel’ he was so annoyed a Welsh College did not know Bryn was a man's name that he switched to London). He graduated in 1989, winning both the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and the Gold Medal. He came in second behind Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition the same year, and won the Lieder Prize.

Career

In 1990, Terfel made his operatic début as Guglielmo in ''Così fan tutte'' at the Welsh National Opera, and later in the same season he sang the title role in ''The Marriage of Figaro'', a role with which he made his debut with the English National Opera in 1991. His international operatic career began that same year when he sang the Speaker in Mozart's ''Die Zauberflöte'' at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and he made his United States début as Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera.

In 1992, Terfel made his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden début as Masetto in ''Don Giovanni'', with Thomas Allen in the title role. That same year he made his Salzburg Easter Festival debut singing the role of the Spirit Messenger in ''Die Frau ohne Schatten''. This was followed by an international breakthrough at the main Salzburg Festival when he sang Jochanaan in Strauss's ''Salome''. He went on to make his début as Figaro at the Vienna State Opera and his debut at Covent Garden as Masetto in ''Don Giovanni''. That year, he also signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and returned to the Welsh National Opera to sing Ford in ''Falstaff''. In 1993, he recorded the role of Wilfred Shadbolt in ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', by Gilbert and Sullivan and sang Figaro to acclaim at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Terfel has said that he would like to record "an album of Gilbert and Sullivan arias".

In 1994, Terfel sang Figaro at Covent Garden, and made both his Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos débuts in the same role. He also sang Mahler's Eighth Symphony at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Levine. However, back surgery in 1994 (and again in 2000) prevented him from performing in several scheduled events. In 1996, he expanded his repertoire to include Wagner, singing Wolfram in ''Tannhäuser'' at the Metropolitan Opera, and Stravinsky, singing Nick Shadow in ''The Rake's Progress'' at the Welsh National Opera.

In 1997, Terfel made his La Scala début as Figaro. In 1998, Bryn had a recital at Carnegie Hall which included works by Wolf, Fauré, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, and others. In 1999, he performed in Paris the title role of ''Don Giovanni'' for the first time and sang his first ''Falstaff'' at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; the latter of which he reprised in the inaugural production at the newly refurbished Royal Opera House.

In 2007, Terfel performed at the opening gala concert for the re-dedication of the Salt Lake Tabernacle with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on April 6–7. Later, he performed the title role in a concert version of ''Sweeney Todd'' that had four performances from July 5 to July 7 at London's Royal Festival Hall. This idea came from Bryn and his fellow bass-baritone and friend, the Irishman Dermot Malone.

Terfel has not shied away from popular music either. He has recorded CDs of songs by Lerner and Loewe and Rodgers and Hammerstein. In 2001 he commissioned and performed Atgof o'r Ser ('The Memory of Stars') in the National Eisteddfod with the composer Robat Arwyn.

In September 2007, Terfel withdrew, to severe criticism, from Covent Garden's ''Ring Cycle'' when his six-year-old son required several operations on his finger. But he did successfully return to the Met in November 2007 to sing the role of Figaro. He told reporters in New York that he will now retire Figaro from his repertoire.

Terfel intended to take 2008 as a sabbatical from opera performances, but broke this to take the title role in WNO's revival of ''Falstaff''. He had sung in this production in 1993, when he played the role of Ford.

In 2009 Terfel sang Scarpia and the Dutchman for the Royal Opera House.

In 2010, Terfel made his debut as Hans Sachs in Wagner's ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' in a production for Welsh National Opera, in Cardiff and on tour. On 17 July 2010, the cast of this production gave a "concert staging" at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2010 BBC Proms, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on BBC Four television. On 31 July, again at the Proms, he performed in a concert from the Royal Albert Hall celebrating the works of Stephen Sondheim, in his 80th birthday year. On 27 September he led the opening of the Met's new season in New York singing Wotan in the premiere of the production of ''Das Rheingold'' that begins Robert Lepage's, and the Met's, new staging of the complete Wagner ''Ring''; he continues with ''Die Walküre'' in spring 2011.

Personal life

He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Lesley; the couple have three children: Tomos, Morgan, and Deio Sion. The family lives in Bontnewydd, near Caernarfon, Gwynedd. Terfel was a leading petitioner in the creation of Bontnewydd railway station on the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway, and in part sponsored its construction.

Honours and awards

Bryn Terfel continues to be a patron of the Welsh Language and Welsh culture, facets of his life which are largely unknown outside his native Wales. Terfel has been awarded the honour, by the National Eisteddfod, of becoming a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. Created in 1792 as celebration of Welsh heritage, Gorsedd inductees are considered to have contributed to Welsh culture.

In 2003, Terfel became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, receiving the honour from the Prince of Wales. In 2006, he became the second recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music (the previous recipient was conductor Sir Charles Mackerras). In 2008, he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford.

Terfel is also President of the Welsh homelessness charity Shelter Cymru and is Patron of Bobath Children's Therapy Centre Wales, a registered charity based in Cardiff which provides specialist Bobath therapy to children from all over Wales who have cerebral palsy.

Faenol Festival

Starting in 2000, Terfel started the Faenol Festival near Snowdonia in Wales. Billed as "Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival" (often referred to as "BrynFest" or known in Welsh as "Gŵyl y Faenol"), it turned into an annual music festival featuring internationally famous opera singers as well as popular Welsh artists. In the same year he released ''We'll Keep a Welcome - The Welsh Album'', an anthology of favourite traditional songs. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was forced to cancel the festival because of low public bookings, after having been voted a £250,000 grant by the Welsh Assembly.

Operatic repertoire

These are roles that Terfel has performed on stage

{|class="wikitable sortable" !Composer!!Opera!!Role!!In repertoire!!Recorded |- |Britten||Peter Grimes||Balstrode||1995||No |- |Donizetti||L'elisir d'amore||Dulcamara||2001||Yes (DVD) |- |Gounod||Faust||Mephistopheles||2004||Yes (DVD) |- |Mozart||Così fan tutte||Guglielmo||1991||No |- |Mozart||Don Giovanni||Masetto||1992||Yes |- |Mozart||Don Giovanni||Leporello||1991||Yes |- |Mozart||Don Giovanni||Don Giovanni||1999 –||Yes |- |Mozart||Die Zauberflöte||Speaker||1991||No |- |Mozart||Le nozze di Figaro||Figaro||1991–2007||Yes |- |Offenbach||Les contes d'Hoffmann||Four Villains||2000||Yes (DVD) |- |Puccini||Gianni Schicchi||Gianni Schicchi||2007||No |- |Puccini||Tosca||Scarpia||||Yes |- |Puccini||Madama Butterfly||Sharpless||1996||No |- |Richard Strauss||Die Frau ohne Schatten||Der Geisterbote||1992||Yes |- |Richard Strauss||Salome||Jochanaan||1993||Yes |- |Sondheim||Sweeney Todd||Sweeney Todd||2002 –||No |- |Stravinsky||The Rake's Progress||Nick Shadow||1996–2000||Yes |- |Stravinsky||Oedipus Rex||Creon||1992||Yes |- |Verdi||Falstaff||Falstaff||1999 –||Yes |- |Verdi||Falstaff||Ford||1993||No |- |Wagner||Das Rheingold||Donner||1993||No |- |Wagner||Das Rheingold||Wotan||2005 –||No |- |Wagner||Die Walküre||Wotan||2005 –||No |- |Wagner||Tannhäuser||Wolfram||1998||No |- |Wagner||Der fliegende Holländer||Holländer||2006 –||No |- |Wagner||Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg||Hans Sachs||2010||Concert staging of Welsh National Opera production broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four television as part of BBC Proms |- |-class="sortbottom" |}

References

External links

Bryn Terfel at Official Deutsche Grammophon site

Terfeliaid: Official site for followers of Terfel

www.brynfest.com Faenol Festival

Bryn Terfel biography from BBC Wales

Bryn Terfel Interview at What's on in Wales

Category:1965 births Category:Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Category:Bards of the Gorsedd Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Living people Category:People from Gwynedd Category:Operatic bass-baritones Category:Welsh Eisteddfod winners Category:Welsh male singers Category:Welsh opera singers Category:Welsh-language music Category:Welsh-speaking people Category:Welsh baritones Category:Welsh bass-baritones Category:People educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle

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