:''This article is about the daughter of Herodias. For other uses, see Salome (disambiguation).''

Salome (, ''Salōmē''), the Daughter of Herodias (c AD 14 - between 62 and 71), is known from the New Testament (Mark 6:17-29 and Matt 14:3-11, where, however, her name is not given). Another source from Antiquity, Flavius Josephus's ''Jewish Antiquities'', gives her name and some detail about her family relations.

Her name in Hebrew is ''שלומית'' (Shlomiẗ, IPA: ) and is derived from the root word ''ŠLM'' (''שלם''), meaning "peace".

Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, for instance depicting as erotic her dance mentioned in the New Testament (in some later transformations further iconised to the ''dance of the seven veils''), or concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John the Baptist's death.

A new ramification was added by Oscar Wilde, who in his play ''Salome'' portrayed her as something of a femme fatale. This last interpretation, made even more memorable by Richard Strauss's opera based on Wilde, is not consistent with Josephus's account; according to the Romanized Jewish historian, she lived long enough to marry twice and raise several children. Few literary accounts elaborate the biographical data given by Josephus.

Asteroid 562 Salome is named after her.

Biblical character

According to Mark 6:21-29 (Salome is not mentioned by name in this passage so reference is incomplete), Salome was the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. Salome danced before Herod and her mother Herodias at the occasion of his birthday, and in doing so gave her mother the opportunity to obtain the head of John the Baptist. According to Mark's gospel Herodias bore a grudge against John for stating that Herod's marriage to Herodias was unlawful; Herodias encouraged Salome to demand that John be executed.

:And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

:And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. (Mark 6:21-29, KJV)

A parallel passage to Mark 6:21-29 is in the Gospel of Matthew 14:6-11:

:But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.

:And his head was brought in a dish: and it was given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body, and buried it, and came and told Jesus. (Matt 14:6-11, D-R)

Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read "Herod's daughter Herodias" (rather than "daughter of the said Herodias"). To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and western Church Fathers therefore tended to refer to Salome as "Herodias's daughter" or just "the girl". Nevertheless, because she is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe.

This Salome is not considered to be the same person as Salome the disciple, who is a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40.

Apocryphal

According to "''Letter of Herod To Pilate the Governor''", Herod's daughter was playing in the pool with ice on the surface until it broke under and decapitated her. With Herod's wife holding her daughters head.

In the passage Herod to Pontius Pilate the Governor of Jerusalem, Peace: :"I am in great anxiety. I write these things to you, that when you have heard them you may be grieved for me. For as my daughter Herodias, who is dear to me, was playing upon a pool of water that had ice upon it, it broke under her and all her body went down, and her head was cut off and remained on the surface of the ice. And behold, her mother is holding her head upon her knees in her lap, and my whole house is in great sorrow."

The preceding passage was printed in an 18th century text entitled ''The Apocryphal Books of the New Testament''. An edition published in Philadelphia in 1901 by David McKay (later a publisher of comic books) contains what is listed as a preface to the second edition of the work stating, "Concerning any genuineness of any portion of the work, the Editor has not offered an opinion, nor is it necessary that he should."

Account by Flavius Josephus

The name "Salome" is given to the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas (unnamed in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark) in Josephus's ''Jewish Antiquities'' (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):

Herodias, [...], was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest, who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod, her husband's brother by the father's side, he was tetrarch of Galilee; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus;

Salome in the arts

Salome has become a symbol for dangerous female seductiveness. Her dance before Herod, or with the head of John the Baptist on a charger have provided inspiration for Christian artists.

Despite Josephus's account, she was not consistently called Salome until the nineteenth century, when Gustave Flaubert (following Josephus) referred to her as Salome in his short story "Herodias".

Painting and sculpture

This Biblical story has long been a favourite of painters. Painters who have done notable representations of Salome include Titian, Henri Regnault, Georges Rochegrosse, Gustave Moreau, Federico Beltran-Masses and Alexander Voytovych. Titian's version (''illustration'' c.1515) emphasizes the contrast between the innocent girlish face and the brutally severed head. Because of the maid by her side, this Titian painting is also considered to be Judith with the Head of Holofernes. Unlike Salome who goes nameless in the Christian bible, Judith is a Judeo-Christian mythical patriot whose story is perhaps less psychological and being a widow, may not be particularly girlish nor innocent in representations. In Moreau's version (''illustration, left'') the figure of Salome is emblematic of the femme fatale, a fashionable trope of fin-de-siecle decadence. In his 1884 novel ''À rebours'' Frenchman Joris-Karl Huysmans describes, in somewhat fevered terms, the depiction of Salome in Moreau's painting:

No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.

Theatre and literature

In 1877 Gustave Flaubert's ''Three Tales'' were published, including "Herodias". In this story full responsibility for John's death is given to Salome's mother Herodias and the priests who fear his religious power. Salome herself is shown as a young girl who forgets the name of the man whose head she requests as she is asking for it. Jules Massenet's 1881 opera ''Hérodiade'' was based on Flaubert's short story.

Oscar Wilde's play

Salomé's story was made the subject of a play by Oscar Wilde that premiered in Paris in 1896, under the French name ''Salomé''. In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for John the Baptist, and causes him to be executed when John spurns her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up John's severed head and kisses it.

Because at the time British law forbade the depiction of Biblical characters on stage, Wilde wrote the play originally in French, and then produced an English translation (titled ''Salome''). To this Granville Bantock composed incidental music, which was premiered at the Court Theatre, London, on 19 April 1918.

Richard Strauss opera

The Wilde play (in a German translation of Hedwig Lachmann) was edited down to a one-act opera by Richard Strauss. The opera Salome, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, is famous for the Dance of the Seven veils. As with the Wilde play, it turns the action to Salome herself, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the opera is less centered on Herod's motivations than the play.

Antoine Mariotte opera

Shortly after the success of Strauss's opera, Antoine Mariotte created another opera based on Wilde's original French script. It was premiered on 30 October 1908 at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon. This opera was revived only in 2005 at the Montpellier Festival.

Ballet

In 1907 Florent Schmitt received a commission from Jacques Rouché to compose a ballet, ''La tragédie de Salomé'', for Loie Fuller to perform at the Théâtre des Arts. Another ''Salome'' ballet was composed by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube in 1948. Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt's ballet ''Salome'' with music by Peter Maxwell Davies premiered in 1978.

Poetry

In "Salome" (1896) by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy, characterised by some critics as "neo-Pagan", Salome instigated the death of John the Baptist as part of a futile effort to get the interest of "a young sophist who was indifferent to the charms of love". When Salome presents to him the Baptist's head, the sophist rejects it, remarking in jest "Dear Salome, I would have liked better to get your own head". Taking the jest seriously, the hopelessly infatuated Salome lets herself be beheaded and her head is duly brought to the sophist, who however rejects it in disgust and turns back to studying the Dialogues of Plato.

Other Salome poetry has been written by among others including Ai (1986), Nick Cave (1988), and Carol Ann Duffy (1999).

Other literature

The Song of Salome by ''Deborah Mann (aka Ursula Bloom)'' 1967 ISBN 552081108

In a Conan the Barbarian story by Robert E. Howard titled "A Witch Shall be Born" the main antagonist is called Salome. Upon making her appearance, she states: "'Every century a witch shall be born.' So ran the ancient curse. And so it has come to pass. Some were slain at birth, as they sought to slay me. Some walked the earth as witches, proud daughters of Khauran, with the moon of hell burning upon their ivory bosoms. Each was named Salome. I too am Salome. It was always Salome, the witch. It will always be Salome, the witch, even when the mountains of ice have roared down from the pole and ground the civilizations to ruin, and a new world has risen from the ashes and dust--even then there shall be Salomes to walk the earth, to trap men's hearts by their sorcery, to dance before the kings of the world, to see the heads of the wise men fall at their pleasure."

Songs

Songs about Salome were written by, among others, Tommy Duncan (1952), Karel Kryl (1965), Drs. P (1974), John Cale (1978), Kim Wilde (1984), U2 (1990), Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993), Liz Phair (1993), Kurt Elling (1995), Susan McKeown (1995), Mark St. John Ellis as Elijah's Mantle (1995), Old 97's (1997), The Changelings (1997), The Residents (1998), Enrique Bunbury (1998), Chayanne (1999), Patti Smith (2000), Killing Miranda (2001), Gary Jules's "Pills" (2001), The Booda Velvets (2001), Xandria (2007), Pete Doherty (2009), Os Pontos Negros (2009).

Film

Depictions

Wilde's ''Salome'' has often been made into a film, notably a 1923 silent film, ''Salome'', starring Alla Nazimova in the title role and a 1988 Ken Russell play-within-a-film treatment, ''Salome's Last Dance'', which also includes Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as characters. Steven Berkoff filmed his stage version of the play in 1988.

In the 1950 film ''Sunset Boulevard'', the principal character Norma Desmond is portrayed as writing a screenplay for a silent film treatment of the legend of Salome, attempting to get the screenplay produced, and performing one of the scenes from her screenplay after going mad.

IMDB lists at the very least 25 ''Salome''/''Salomé'' films, and numerous resettings of the ''Salome'' story to modern times. These films include:

''Forgotten Silver'' (1995), a mockumentary directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, is about the career of a fictional New Zealand film director named Colin McKenzie. McKenzie's most ambitious project was a silent Biblical epic entitled 'Salome.'

''Salomé'' (1918), starring Theda Bara in the title role. Flavius Josephus was credited for the story.

''Salomé'' (1953), starring Rita Hayworth in the title role.

''King of Kings'' (1961), a biblical epic film with Brigid Bazlen as Salomé.

''The Nativity'' (1978), with Kate O'Mara playing Salome.

''Salome'' (1981), a Filipino film, directed by Laurice Guillen. Salome is played by Gina Alajar

''Salome'' (1986), a French-Italian production

''Salomé'' (2002), directed by Carlos Saura, using flamenco dance.

''Salomé in Low Land'' (2006), an animated short film by Christian Zagler using low-tech videogame style combined with opera music.

''Visage'', a film based on the myth of Salomé at the Louvre starring Fanny Ardant and Laetitia Casta

''Jesus'', a film which features Salome, played by Gabriella Pession.

Video game

The 2009 art game Fatale, by developer Tale of Tales, is a depiction of Salome in the context of an interactive vignette. The player begins by controlling John the Baptist prior to and during his execution. The second section is a courtyard scene, where Salome stands in silence, next to the head. The player is invited to examine the scene. When they have examined it sufficiently, their view is changed again, this time to that of Herod during the dance.

See also

Dance of the seven veils

List of names for the Biblical nameless.

References

Gillman, Florence Morgan. ''Herodias: At Home in the Fox's Den''. Interfaces. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2003. ISBN 0814651089

External links

"Salome's Slow Drag" by Brun Campbell, c.1900-1908. (Ragtime piano with bones accompaniment)

Salome II entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith

Salome complete text of the play by Oscar Wilde, in English and in French

FATALE, the computer game by Tale of Tales about Salome

Category:1st-century births Category:1st-century deaths Category:New Testament people Category:Christian folklore Category:Herodian dynasty Category:1st-century women Category:Gospel of Mark Category:Women in the Bible

ar:سالومة br:Salome merc'h Herodiadez ca:Salomé III cs:Salome (biblická postava) de:Salome (Tochter der Herodias) el:Σαλώμη es:Salomé (princesa) fr:Salomé (fille d'Hérodiade) ko:살로메 id:Salome anak Herodias it:Salomè (figlia di Erodiade) la:Salome (filia Herodiadis) nl:Salomé II ja:サロメ (ヘロディアの娘) pl:Salome III pt:Salomé ru:Саломея simple:Salome fi:Salome sv:Salome th:ซาโลเม zh:莎乐美

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Oscar Wilde
birth date	October 16, 1854
birth place	Dublin, Ireland
death date	November 30, 1900
death place	Paris, France
occupation	Writer
nationality	Irish
relatives	Sir William Wilde, Jane, Lady Wilde
spouse	Constance Lloyd (1859–1898)
children	Cyril Holland, Vyvyan Holland
alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin
genre	Drama, short story, dialogue, journalism
language	English, French
movement	Aestheticism
notableworks	''The Importance of Being Earnest'', ''The Picture of Dorian Gray''
period	Victorian era
influences	Plato, Aristotle, Greek literature, William Shakespeare, Théophile Gautier, French literature, Joris-Karl Huysmans, John Keats, Victor Hugo, Peter Kropotkin, Walter Pater, John Ruskin, James McNeill Whistler, John Pentland Mahaffy, Dante
influenced	Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Paul Merton, James Morrow, Enchi Fumiko, Erico Verissimo, Irène Némirovsky, André Gide, Max Beerbohm, Stephen Fry, Lawrence Durrell, Camille Paglia, Dave Sim, Mateiu Caragiale, Tom Stoppard, Saki, Amanda Filipacchi, W. H. Pugmire, Ronald Firbank, Christopher Hitchens, Morrissey, Peter Doherty, Benjamin Tucker, Renzo Novatore
signature	Oscar Wilde Signature.svg }}

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.

Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. He also profoundly explored Roman Catholicism, to which he would later convert on his deathbed. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day.

At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into his only novel, ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote ''Salome'' (1891) in French in Paris but it was refused a licence. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.

At the height of his fame and success, whilst his masterpiece, ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde sued the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency with other men and imprisoned for two years, held to hard labour. In prison he wrote ''De Profundis'' (written in 1897 & published in 1905), a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'' (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six.

Early life

Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College, Dublin) the second of three children born to Sir William Wilde and Jane Francesca Wilde, two years behind William ("Willie"). Jane Wilde, under the pseudonym ''"Speranza"'' (the Italian word for 'Hope'), wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848 and was a life-long Irish nationalist. She read the Young Irelanders' poetry to Oscar and Willie, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Lady Wilde's interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece and Rome in her home. William Wilde was Ireland's leading oto-ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the city's poor at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road.

In addition to his children with his wife, Sir William Wilde was the father of three children born out of wedlock before his marriage: Henry Wilson, born in 1838, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, of different parentage to Henry. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his illegitimate children and provided for their education, but they were reared by his relatives rather than with his wife and legitimate children.

In 1855, the family moved to No. 1 Merrion Square, where Wilde's sister, Isola, was born in 1857. The Wildes' new home was larger and, with both his parents' sociality and success soon became a "unique medical and cultural milieu"; guests at their salon included Sheridan le Fanu, Charles Lever, George Petrie, Isaac Butt, William Rowan Hamilton and Samuel Ferguson.

Until he was nine, Oscar Wilde was educated at home, where a French bonne and a German governess taught him their languages. He then attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Until his early twenties, Wilde summered at the villa his father built in Moytura, County Mayo. There the young Wilde and his brother Willie played with George Moore.

Isola died aged nine of meningitis. Wilde's poem "Requiescat" is dedicated to her memory:

"Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow Speak gently, she can hear the daisies grow"

University education: 1870s

Trinity College, Dublin

Wilde left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College, Dublin, from 1871 to 1874, sharing rooms with his older brother Willie Wilde. Trinity, one of the leading classical schools, set him with scholars such as R.Y. Tyrell, Arthur Palmer, Edward Dowden and his tutor, J.P. Mahaffy who inspired his interest in Greek literature. As a student Wilde worked with Mahaffy on the latter's book ''Social Life in Greece''. Wilde, despite later reservations, called Mahaffy "my first and best teacher" and "the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things". For his part Mahaffy boasted of having created Wilde; later, he would name him "the only blot on my tutorship".

The University Philosophical Society also provided an education, discussing intellectual and artistic subjects such as Rosetti and Swinburne weekly. Wilde quickly became an established member – the members' suggestion book for 1874 contains two pages of banter (sportingly) mocking Wilde's emergent aestheticism. He presented a paper entitled "Aesthetic Morality". At Trinity, Wilde established himself as an outstanding student: he came first in his class in his first year, won a scholarship by competitive examination in his second, and then, in his finals, won the Berkeley Gold Medal, the University's highest academic award in Greek. He was encouraged to compete for a demyship to Magdalen College, Oxford – which he won easily, having already studied Greek for over nine years.

Magdalen College, Oxford

At Magdalen he read Greats from 1874 to 1878, and from there he applied to join the Oxford Union, but failed to be elected.

Attracted by its dress, secrecy, and ritual, Wilde petitioned the Apollo Masonic Lodge at Oxford, and was soon raised to the "Sublime Degree of Master Mason". During a resurgent interest in Freemasonry in his third year, he commented he "would be awfully sorry to give it up if I secede from the Protestant Heresy". He was deeply considering converting to Catholicism, discussing the possibility with clergy several times. In 1877, Wilde was left speechless after an audience with Pope Pius IX in Rome. He eagerly read Cardinal Newman's books, and became more serious in 1878, when he met the Reverend Sebastian Bowden, a priest in the Brompton Oratory who had received some high profile converts. Neither his father, who threatened to cut off his funds, nor Mahaffy thought much of the plan; but mostly Wilde, the supreme individualist, balked at the last minute from pledging himself to any formal creed. On the appointed day of his baptism, Father Bowden received a bunch of altar lilies instead. Wilde retained a lifelong interest in Catholic theology and liturgy.

While at Magdalen College, Wilde became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements. He wore his hair long, openly scorned "manly" sports though he occasionally boxed, The line quickly became famous, accepted as a slogan by aesthetes but used against them by critics who sensed in it a terrible vacuousness. Wilde was once physically attacked by a group of four fellow students, and dealt with them single-handedly, surprising critics. By his third year Wilde had truly begun to create himself and his myth, and saw his learning developing in much larger ways than merely the prescribed texts. This attitude resulted in him being rusticated for one term, when he nonchalantly returned to college late from a trip to Greece with Prof. Mahaffy.

Wilde did not meet Walter Pater until his third year, but had been enthralled by his ''Studies in the History of the Renaissance'', published during Wilde's final year in Trinity. Pater argued that man's sensibility to beauty should be refined above all else, and that each moment should be felt to its fullest extent. Years later in ''De Profundis'', Wilde called Pater's ''Studies...'' "that book that has had such a strange influence over my life". He learned tracts of the book by heart, and carried it with him on travels in later years. Pater gave Wilde his sense of almost flippant devotion to art, though it was John Ruskin who gave him a purpose for it. Ruskin despaired at the self-validating aestheticism of Pater, arguing that the importance of art lies in its potential for the betterment of society. Ruskin admired beauty, but believed it must be allied with, and applied to, moral good. When Wilde eagerly attended Ruskin's lecture series ''The Aesthetic and Mathematic Schools of Art in Florence'', he learned about aesthetics as simply the non-mathematical elements of painting. Despite being given to neither early rising nor manual labour, Wilde volunteered for Ruskin's project to convert a swampy country lane into a smart road neatly edged with flowers.

Wilde won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna", which reflected on his visit there the year before, and he duly read it at Encaenia. In November 1878, he graduated with a rare double first in his B.A. of Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores (Greats). Wilde wrote a friend, "The dons are '' beyond words – the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!"

Apprenticeship of an aesthete: 1880s

Debut in society

After graduation from Oxford, Wilde returned to Dublin, where he met again Florence Balcombe, a childhood sweetheart. She, however, became engaged to Bram Stoker and they married in 1878. Wilde was disappointed but stoic: he wrote to her, remembering "the two sweet years – the sweetest years of all my youth" they had spent together. He also stated his intention to "return to England, probably for good". This he did in 1878, only briefly visiting Ireland twice.

Unsure of his next step, he wrote to various acquaintances enquiring about Classics positions at Oxbridge. ''The Rise of Historical Criticism'' was his submission for the Chancellor's Essay prize of 1879, which, though no longer a student, he was still eligible to enter. Its subject, "Historical Criticism among the Ancients" seemed ready-made for Wilde – with both his skill in composition and ancient learning – but he struggled to find his voice with the long, flat, scholarly style. Unusually, no prize was awarded that year. With the last of his inheritance from the sale of his father's houses, he set himself up as a bachelor in London. The 1881 British Census listed Wilde as a boarder at 1 Tite Street, Chelsea, where Frank Miles, a society painter, was the head of the household. Wilde would spend the next six years in London and Paris, and in the United States where he travelled to deliver lectures.

He had been publishing lyrics and poems in magazines since his entering Trinity College, especially in ''Kottabos'' and the ''Dublin University Magazine''. In mid-1881, at 27 years old, ''Poems'' collected, revised and expanded his poetic efforts. The book was generally well received, and sold out its first print run of 750 copies, prompting further printings in 1882. Bound in a rich, enamel, parchment cover (embossed with gilt blossom) and printed on hand-made Dutch paper, Wilde would present many copies to the dignitaries and writers who received him over the next few years. The Oxford Union condemned the book for alleged plagiarism in a tight vote. The librarian, who had requested the book for the library, returned the presentation copy to Wilde with a note of apology. Richard Ellmann argues that Wilde's poem "Hélas!" was a sincere, though flamboyant, attempt to explain the dichotomies he saw in himself:

To drift with every passion till my soulIs a stringed lute on which all winds can play

Punch was less enthousiastic, "His name is Wilde, his poems are tame" was their verdict.

America: 1882

Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in ''Patience'' (1881). Richard D'Oyly Carte, an English Impressario, invited Wilde on a lecture tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the U.S. tour of ''Patience'' and selling this most charming aesthete to the American public. Wilde arrived on 3 January 1882 aboard the SS ''Arizona'' and criss-crossed the country on a gruelling schedule, lecturing in a new town every few days. Originally planned to last four months, it was continued for over a year due to the commercial success. Wilde sought to juxtapose the beauty he saw in art onto daily life. This was a practical as well as philosophical project: in Oxford he had surrounded himself with blue china and lilies, now one of his lectures was on interior design. When asked to explain reports that he had paraded down Piccadilly in London carrying a lily, long hair flowing, Wilde replied, "It's not whether I did it or not that's important, but whether people believed I did it".

Wilde and aestheticism were both mercilessly caricatured and criticised in the press, ''Springfield Republican'', for instance, commented on Wilde's behaviour during his visit to Boston to lecture on aestheticism, suggesting that Wilde's conduct was more of a bid for notoriety rather than a devotion to beauty and the aesthetic. T.W. Higginson, a cleric and abolitionist, wrote in "Unmanly Manhood" of his general concern that Wilde, "whose only distinction is that he has written a thin volume of very mediocre verse", would improperly influence the behaviour of men and women. Though his press reception was hostile, Wilde was well received in diverse settings across America; he drank whiskey with miners in Leadville, Colorado and was fêted at the most fashionable salons in every city he visited.

London life and marriage

His earnings, plus expected income from ''The Duchess of Padua'', allowed him to move to Paris between February and mid-May 1883; there he met Robert Sherard, whom he entertained constantly. "We are dining on the Duchess tonight", Wilde would declare before taking him to a fancy restaurant. In August he briefly returned to New York for the production of ''Vera'', his first play, after it was turned down in London. He reportedly entertained the other passengers with "Ave Imperatrix!, A Poem On England", about the rise and fall of empires. E.C. Stedman, in ''Victorian Poets'' describes this "lyric to England" as "manly verse – a poetic and eloquent invocation". Wilde's presence was again notable, the play was initially well received by the audience, but when the critics returned lukewarm reviews attendance fell sharply and the play closed a week after it had opened. He was left to return to England and lecturing: ''Personal Impressions of America'', ''The Value of Art in Modern Life'', and ''Dress'' were among his topics.

In London, he had been introduced to Constance Lloyd in 1881, daughter of Horace Lloyd, a wealthy Queen's Counsel. She happened to be visiting Dublin in 1884, when Wilde was lecturing at the Gaiety Theatre (W. B. Yeats, then aged eighteen, was also among the audience). He proposed to her, and they married on the 29 May 1884 at the Anglican St. James Church in Paddington in London. Constance's annual allowance of £250 was generous for a young woman (it would be equivalent to about £}} in current value), but the Wildes' tastes were relatively luxurious and, after preaching to others for so long, their home was expected to set new standards of design. No. 16, Tite Street was duly renovated in seven months at considerable expense. The couple had two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). Wilde was the sole literary signatory of George Bernard Shaw's petition for a pardon of the anarchists arrested (and later executed) after the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886.

Robert Ross had read Wilde's poems before they met, and he was unrestrained by the Victorian prohibition against homosexuality, even to the extent of estranging himself from his family. A precocious seventeen year old, by Richard Ellmann's account, he was "...so young and yet so knowing, was determined to seduce Wilde". Wilde, who had long alluded to Greek love, and – though an adoring father – was put off by the carnality of his wife's second pregnancy, succumbed to Ross in Oxford in 1886.

Prose writing: 1886–91

Journalism and editorship: 1886–89

Criticism over artistic matters in the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' provoked a letter in self-defence, and soon Wilde was a contributor to that and other journals during the years 1885–87. He enjoyed reviewing and journalism; the form suited his style. He could organise and share his views on art, literature and life, yet in a format less tedious than lecturing. Buoyed up, his reviews were largely chatty and positive. Wilde, like his parents before him, also supported the cause of Irish Nationalism. When Charles Stewart Parnell was falsely accused of inciting murder Wilde wrote a series of astute columns defending him in the ''Daily Chronicle''. He promptly renamed it ''The Woman's World'' and raised its tone, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, keeping discussions of fashion and arts. Two pieces of fiction were usually included, one to be read to children, the other for the ladies themselves. Wilde worked hard to solicit good contributions from his wide artistic acquaintance, including those of Lady Wilde and his wife Constance, while his own "Literary and Other Notes" were themselves popular and amusing. The initial vigour and excitement he brought to the job began to fade as administration, commuting and office life became tedious. At the same time as Wilde's interest lagged, the publishers became concerned anew about circulation: sales, at the relatively high price of one shilling, remained low. Increasingly sending instructions by letter, he began a new period of creative work and his own column appeared less regularly. In October 1889, Wilde had finally found his voice in prose and, at the end of the second volume, Wilde left ''The Woman's World''. The magazine outlasted him by one volume.

Shorter fiction

Wilde published ''The Happy Prince and Other Tales'' in 1888, and had been regularly writing fairy stories for magazines. In 1891 published two more collections, ''Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories'', and in September ''The House of Pomegranates'' was dedicated "To Constance Mary Wilde". "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", which Wilde had begun in 1887, was first published in ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'' in July 1889. It is a short story, which reports a conversation, in which the theory that Shakespeare's sonnets were written out of the poet's love of the boy actor "Willie Hughes", is advanced, retracted, and then propounded again. The only evidence for this is two supposed puns within the sonnets themselves. The anonymous narrator is at first sceptical, then believing, finally flirtatious with the reader: he concludes that "there is really a great deal to be said of the Willie Hughes theory of Shakespeare's sonnets. By the end fact and fiction have melded together. "You must believe in Willie Hughes," Wilde told an acquaintance. "I almost do, myself".

Essays and dialogues

Wilde, having tired of journalism, had been busy setting out his aesthetic ideas more fully in a series of longer prose pieces which were published in the major literary-intellectual journals of the day. In January 1889, ''The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue'' appeared in ''The Nineteenth Century'', and ''Pen, Pencil and Poison'', a satirical biography of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, in the ''Fortnightly Review'', edited by Wilde's friend Frank Harris. Two of Wilde's four writings on aesthetics are dialogues, though Wilde had evolved professionally from lecturer to writer, he remained with an oral tradition of sorts. Having always excelled as a wit and raconteur, he often composed by assembling phrases, ''bons mots'' and witticisms into a longer, cohesive work.

Wilde was concerned about the effect of moralising on art, he believed in its redemptive, developmental powers: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine." In his only political text, ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism'', he argued political conditions should establish this primacy, and concluded that the government most amenable to artists was none at all. Wilde envisions a society where mechanisation has freed human effort from the burden of necessity, effort which can instead be expended on artistic creation. George Orwell summarised, "In effect, the world will be populated by artists, each striving after perfection in the way that seems best to him."

This point of view did not align him with the Fabians, intellectual socialists who advocated using state apparatus to change social conditions, nor did it endear him to the monied classes whom he had previously entertained. Hesketh Pearson, introducing a collection of Wilde's essays in 1950, remarked how ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism'' had been an inspirational text for Tsarist revolutionaries in Russia but laments that in in the Stalinist era "it is doubtful whether there are any uninspected places in which it could now be hidden". For Pearson the biographer, the essays and dialogues exhibit every aspect of Wilde's genius and character: wit, romancer, talker, lecturer, humanist and scholar and concludes that"no other productions of his have as varied an appeal". 1891 turned out to be Wilde's ''annus mirabilis'', apart from his three collections he also produced his only novel.

''The Picture of Dorian Gray''

The first version of ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' was published as the lead story in the July 1890 edition of ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'', along with five others. The story begins with a man painting a picture of Gray. When Gray, who has a "face like ivory and rose leaves" sees his finished portrait he breaks down, distraught that his beauty will fade, but the portrait stay beautiful, inadvertently making a faustian bargain. For Wilde, the purpose of art would guide life if beauty alone were its object. Thus Gray's portrait allows him to escape the corporeal ravages of his hedonism, (and Miss Prism mistakes a baby for a book in ''The Importance of Being Earnest''), Wilde sought to juxtapose the beauty he saw in art onto daily life.

Reviewers immediately criticised the novel's decadence and homosexual allusion, one in the ''The Daily Chronicle'' for example, called it “unclean,” “poisonous,” and “heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction.” Wilde vigorously responded, writing to the Editor of the ''Scots Observer'', he clarified his stance on ethics and aesthetics in art "If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly will see its moral lesson." He nevertheless revised it extensively for book publication in 1891: six new chapters were added, some overt decadence passages and homo-eroticism excised, and a preface consisting of twenty two epigrams, such as "Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. " was included. Contemporary reviewers and modern critics have postulated numerous possible sources of the story, a search Jershua McCormack argues is futile because Wilde "has tapped a root of Western folklore so deep and ubiquitous that the story has escaped its origins and returned to the oral tradition." Wilde claimed the plot was "an idea that is as old as the history of literature but to which I have given a new form". Modern critics have considered the novel to be technically mediocre: the conceit of the plot has guaranteed its fame, but the device is never pushed to its full.

Theatrical career: 1892–95

''Salome''

The 1891 census records the Wildes' residence at 16 Tite Street, where he lived with his wife Constance and sons. Wilde though, not content with being more well-known than ever in London, returned to Paris in October 1891, this time as a respected writer. He was received at the ''salons littéraires'', including the famous ''mardis'' of Stéphane Mallarmé, a renowned symbolist poet of the time. Wilde's two plays during the 1880s, ''Vera; or, The Nihilists'' and ''The Duchess of Padua'', had not met with much success. He had continued his interest in the theatre and now, after finding his voice in prose, his thoughts turned again to the dramatic form as the biblical iconography of Salome filled his head. One evening, after discussing depicitions of Salome throughout history, he returned to his hotel to notice a blank copybook lying on the desk, and it occurred to him to write down what he had been saying. He wrote a new play, ''Salome'', rapidly and in French.

A tragedy, it tells the story of Salome, the stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but mother's delight, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils. When Wilde returned to London just before Christmas the ''Paris Echo'', a newspaper, referred to him as "le great event" of the season. Rehearsals of the play, including Sarah Bernhardt, began but the play was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain, since it depicted biblical characters. ''Salome'' was published jointly in Paris and London in 1893, but was not performed until 1896 in Paris, during Wilde's later incarceration.

Comedies of society

Wilde, who had first set out to irritate Victorian society with his dress and talking points, then outrage it with ''Dorian Gray'', his novel of vice hidden beneath art, finally found a way to critique society on its own terms. ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' was first performed on 20 February 1892 at St James Theatre, packed with the cream of society. On the surface a witty comedy, there is subtle subversion underneath: "it concludes with collusive concealment rather than collective disclosure". The audience, like Lady Windermere, are forced to soften harsh social codes in favour of a more nuanced view. The play was enormously popular, touring the country for months, but largely thrashed by conservative critics. It was followed by ''A Woman of No Importance'' in 1893, another Victorian comedy: revolving around the spectre of illegitimate births, mistaken identities and late revelations. Wilde was commissioned to write two more plays and ''An Ideal Husband'', written in 1894, followed in January 1895.

Peter Raby said these essentially English plays were well-pitched, "Wilde, with one eye on the dramatic genius of Ibsen, and the other on the commercial competition in London's West End, targeted his audience with adroit precision".

Queensberry family

In mid-1891 Lionel Johnson introduced Wilde to Alfred Douglas, an undergraduate at Oxford at the time. Known to his family and friends as "Bosie", he was a handsome and spoilt young man. An intimate friendship sprang up between Wilde and Douglas and by 1893 Wilde was infatuated with Douglas and they consorted together regularly in a tempestuous affair. If Wilde was relatively indiscreet, even flamboyant, in the way he acted, Douglas was reckless in public. Wilde, who was earning up to £100 a week from his plays (his salary at ''The Woman's World'' had been £6), indulged Douglas's every whim: material, artistic or sexual.

Douglas soon dragged Wilde into the Victorian underground of gay prostitution and Wilde was introduced to a series of young, working class, male prostitutes from 1892 onwards by Alfred Taylor. These infrequent rendez-vous usually took the same form: Wilde would meet the boy, offer him gifts, dine him privately and then take him to a hotel room. Unlike Wilde's idealised, pederastic relations with John Gray, Ross, and Douglas, all of whom remained part of his aesthetic circle, these consorts were uneducated and knew nothing of literature. Soon his public and private lives had become sharply divided; in ''De Profundis'' he wrote to Douglas that "It was like feasting with panthers; the danger was half the excitement… I did not know that when they were to strike at me it was to be at another's piping and at another's pay."

Douglas and some Oxford friends founded an Oxford journal, ''The Chameleon'', to which Wilde "sent a page of paradoxes originally destined for the ''Saturday Review''". "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" was to come under attack six months later at Wilde's trial, where he was forced to defend the magazine to which he had sent his work. In any case, it became unique: ''The Chameleon'' was not published again.

Lord Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, was known for his outspoken atheism, brutish manner and creation of the modern rules of boxing. Queensberry, who feuded regularly with his son, confronted Wilde and Lord Alfred about the nature of their relationship several times, but Wilde was able to mollify him. In June 1894, he called on Wilde at 16 Tite Street, without an appointment, and clarified his stance: "I do not say that you are it, but you look it, and pose at it, which is just as bad. And if I catch you and my son again in any public restaurant I will thrash you" to which Wilde responded: "I don't know what the Queensberry rules are, but the Oscar Wilde rule is to shoot on sight". His account in ''De Profundis'' was less triumphant: "It was when, in my library at Tite Street, waving his small hands in the air in epileptic fury, your father… stood uttering every foul word his foul mind could think of, and screaming the loathsome threats he afterwords with such cunning carried out". Queensberry only described the scene once, saying Wilde had "shown him the white feather", meaning he had acted in a cowardly way. Though trying to remain calm, Wilde saw that he was becoming ensnared in a brutal family quarrel. He did not wish to bear Queensberry's insults, but he knew to confront him could lead to disaster were his liaisons disclosed publicly.

''The Importance of Being Earnest''

Wilde's final play again returns to the theme of switched identities: the play's two protagonists engage in "bunburying" (the maintenance of alternate personas in the town and country) which allows them to escape Victorian social mores. ''Earnest'' is even lighter in tone than Wilde's earlier comedies. While their characters often rose to serious themes in moments of crisis, ''Earnest'' lacks the by-now stock Wildean characters: there is no "woman with a past", the protagonists are neither villainous or cunning, simply idle cultivés, and the idealistic young women are not that innocent. Although mostly set in drawing rooms and almost completely lacking in action or violence, ''Earnest'' lacks the self-conscious decadence found in ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' and ''Salome''.

The play, now considered Wilde's masterpiece, was rapidly written in Wilde's artistic maturity in late 1894. It was first performed on 14 February 1895, at St James's Theatre in London, Wilde's second collaboration with George Alexander, the actor-manager. Both author and producer assiduously revised, prepared and rehearsed every line, scene and setting in the months before the premiere, creating a carefully constructed representation of late-Victorian society, yet simultaneously mocking it. During rehearsal Alexander requested that Wilde shorten the play from four acts to three, which the author did. Premieres at St. James's seemed like "brilliant parties", and the opening of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' was no exception. Allan Aynesworth (who played Algy) recalled to Hesketh Pearson, "In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than [that] first night." ''Earnest's'' immediate reception as Wilde's best work to-date finally crystallised his fame into a solid artistic reputation. Save for the dramas of his fellow Irishman George Bernard Shaw, Wilde's work is the only theatre of this period that is regularly revived today, and ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' remains his most popular play.

Wilde's professional success was mirrored by an escalation in his feud with Queensberry. Queensberry had planned to publicly insult Wilde by throwing a bouquet of rotting vegetables onto the stage; Wilde was tipped off and had Queensberry barred from entering the theatre. Fifteen weeks later Wilde would be in prison.

Trials

''Wilde vs Queensberry''

On 18 February 1895, the Marquess left his calling card at Wilde's club, the Albemarle, inscribed: "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite". Wilde, egged on by Douglas and against the advice of his friends, initiated a private prosecution against Queensberry, who was arrested on a charge of criminal libel: as sodomy was then a crime, Queensberry's note amounted to a public accusation that Wilde had committed a felony. Queensberry could avoid conviction for libel only by demonstrating that his accusation was in fact true.

The libel trial became a ''cause célèbre'' as salacious details of Wilde's private life with Taylor and Douglas began to appear in the press. A team of private detectives had directed Queensberry's lawyers, led by Edward Carson QC, to the world of the Victorian underground. Wilde's association with blackmailers and male prostitutes, cross-dressers and homosexual brothels was recorded, and various persons involved were interviewed, some being coerced to appear as witnesses, since they too were accomplices to the crimes Wilde was accused of. The trial opened on 3 April 1895 amongst scenes of near hysteria both in the press and the public galleries. The extent of the evidence massed against Wilde forced him to declare meekly, "I am the prosecutor in this case". Wilde's lawyer, Sir Edward George Clarke, opened the case by pre-emptively asking Wilde about two suggestive letters Wilde had written to Douglas, which the defence had in its possession. He characterised the first as a "prose sonnet" and admitted that the "poetical language" might seem strange to the court but claimed its intent was innocent. Wilde stated that the letters had been obtained by blackmailers who had attempted to extort money from him, but he had refused, suggesting they should take the £60 offered, "unusual for a prose piece of that length". He claimed to regard the letters as works of art rather than as something to be ashamed of.

Carson cross-examined Wilde on how he perceived the moral content of his works. Wilde replied with characteristic wit and flippancy, claiming that works of art are not capable of being moral or immoral but only well or poorly made, and that only "brutes and illiterates," whose views on art "are incalculably stupid", would make such judgements about art. Carson, a leading barrister at the time, diverged from the normal practice of asking closed questions. Carson pressed Wilde on each topic from every angle, squeezing out nuances of meaning from Wilde's answers, removing them from their aesthetic context and portraying Wilde as evasive and decadent. While Wilde won the most laughs from the court, Carson scored the most legal points. To undermine Wilde's credibility, and to justify Queensberry's description of Wilde as a "posing…somdomite", Carson drew from the witness an admission of his capacity for "posing", by demonstrating that he had lied about his age on oath. Playing on this, he returned to the topic throughout his cross-examination.

Carson then moved to the factual evidence and questioned Wilde about his acquaintances with younger, lower-class men. Wilde admitted being on a first-name basis and lavishing gifts upon them, but insisted that nothing untoward had occurred and that the men were merely good friends of his. Carson repeatedly pointed out the unusual nature of these relationships and insinuated that the men were prostitutes. Wilde replied that he did not believe in social barriers, and simply enjoyed the society of young men. Then Carson asked Wilde directly whether he had ever kissed a certain servant boy, Wilde responded, "Oh, dear no. He was a particularly plain boy – unfortunately ugly – I pitied him for it." Carson pressed him on the answer, repeatedly asking why the boy's ugliness was relevant. Wilde hesitated, then for the first time became flustered: "You sting me and insult me and try to unnerve me; and at times one says things flippantly when one ought to speak more seriously." Under the Libel Act 1843, Queensberry's acquittal rendered Wilde legally liable for the considerable expenses Queensberry had incurred in his defence, which left Wilde bankrupt.

''The Crown vs Wilde''

After Wilde left the court, a warrant for his arrest was applied for on charges of sodomy and gross indecency. Robbie Ross found Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel, Knightsbridge with Reginald Turner; both men advised Wilde to go at once to Dover and try to get a boat to France; his mother advised him to stay and fight like a man. Wilde, lapsing into inaction, could only say, "The train has gone. It's too late." Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, a term meaning homosexual acts not amounting to buggery (an offence under a separate statute). At Wilde's instruction, Ross and Wilde's butler forced their way into the bedroom and library of 16 Tite Street, packing some personal effects, manuscripts, and letters. Wilde was then imprisoned on remand at Holloway where he received daily visits from Douglas.

Events moved quickly and his prosecution opened on 26 April 1895. Wilde pleaded not guilty. He had already begged Douglas to leave London for Paris, but Douglas complained bitterly, even wanting to take the stand; however he was pressed to go and soon fled to the Hotel du Monde. Fearing persecution, Ross and many other gentlemen also left the United Kingdom during this time. Under cross examination Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:

Charles Gill (prosecuting): ''What is "the love that dare not speak its name?''"

Wilde: "''The love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as "the love that dare not speak its name," and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it''."

This response was, however, counter-productive in a legal sense as it only served to reinforce the charges of homosexual behaviour. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. Wilde's counsel, Sir Edward Clarke, was finally able to agree bail. The Reverend Stewart Headlam put up most of the £5,000 bail, having disagreed with Wilde's treatment by the press and the courts. Wilde was freed from Holloway and, shunning attention, went into hiding at the house of Ernest and Ada Leverson, two of his firm friends. Edward Carson approached Frank Lockwood QC, the Solicitor General and asked "Can we not let up on the fellow now?" Lockwood answered that he would like to do so, but feared that the case had become too politicised to be dropped.

The final trial was presided over by Mr Justice Wills. On 25 May 1895 Wilde and Alfred Taylor were convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. The judge described the sentence, the maximum allowed, as "totally inadequate for a case such as this," and that the case was "the worst case I have ever tried". Wilde's response "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?" was drowned out in cries of "Shame" in the courtroom.

Imprisonment

Wilde was imprisoned first in Pentonville and then Wandsworth prisons in London. The regime at the time was tough; "hard labour, hard fare and a hard bed" was the guiding philosophy. It wore particularly harshly on Wilde as a gentleman and his status provided him no special privileges. In November he was forced to attend Chapel, and there he was so weak from illness and hunger that he collapsed, bursting his right ear drum, an injury that would later contribute to his death. He spent two months in the infirmary.

Richard B. Haldane, the Liberal MP and reformer, visited him and had him transferred in November to HM's Prison, Reading, 30 miles west of London. The transfer itself was the lowest point of his incarceration, as a crowd jeered and spat at him on the platform. Now known as prisoner C. 3.3 he was not, at first, even allowed paper and pen but Haldane eventually succeeded in allowing access to books and writing materials. Wilde requested, among others: the Bible in French, Italian and German grammars, some Ancient Greek texts, Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', ''En Route'', Joris-Karl Huysmans's new French novel about Christian redemption; and essays by St Augustine, Cardinal Newman and Walter Pater.

Between January and March 1897 Wilde wrote a 50,000-word letter to Douglas, which he was not allowed to send, but was permitted to take with him upon release. In reflective mode, Wilde coldly examines his career to date, how he had been a colourful agent provocateur in Victorian society, his art, like his paradoxes, seeking to subvert as well as sparkle. His own estimation of himself was of one who "stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age". It was from these heights that his life with Douglas began, and Wilde examines that particularly closely, repudiating him for what Wilde finally sees as his arrogance and vanity: he had not forgotten Douglas's remark, when he was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." Wilde blamed himself, though, for the ethical degradation of character that he allowed Douglas to bring about on him and took responsibility for his own fall, "I am here for having tried to put your father in prison." On his release, he gave the manuscript to Ross, who may or may not have carried out Wilde's instructions to send a copy to Douglas (who later denied having received it). ''De Profundis'' was partially published in 1905, its complete and correct publication first occurred in 1962 in ''The Letters of Oscar Wilde''.

Decline: 1897–1900

Exile

Wilde was released on 19 May 1897, and though his health had suffered greatly, he had a feeling of spiritual renewal. He immediately wrote to the Society of Jesus requesting a six-month Catholic retreat; when the request was denied, Wilde wept. "I intend to be received before long", Wilde told a journalist who asked about his religious intentions. He left England the next day for the continent, to spend his last three years in penniless exile. He took the name "Sebastian Melmoth", after Saint Sebastian, and the titular character of ''Melmoth the Wanderer''; a gothic novel by Charles Maturin, Wilde's great-uncle. Wilde wrote two long letters to the editor of the ''Daily Chronicle'', describing the brutal conditions of English prisons and advocating penal reform. His discussion of the dismissal of Warder Martin, for giving biscuits to an anaemic child prisoner, repeated the themes of the corruption and degeneration of punishment that he had earlier outlined in ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism''.

Wilde spent mid-1897 with Robert Ross in Berneval-le-Grand, where he wrote ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol''. The poem narrates the execution of a man who murdered his wife for her infidelity; it moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners as a whole. No attempt is made to assess the justice of the laws which convicted them, but rather the poem highlights the brutalisation of the punishment that all convicts share. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". Wilde too was separated from his wife and sons. He adopted the proletarian ballad form, and the author was credited as "C.3.3." He suggested it be published in ''Reynold's Magazine'', "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes – to which I now belong – for once I will be read by my peers – a new experience for me". It was a commercial success, going through seven editions in less than two years, only after which "[Oscar Wilde]" was added to the title page, though many in literary circles had known Wilde to be the author. It brought him a little money.

Although Douglas had been the cause of his misfortunes, he and Wilde were reunited in August 1897 at Rouen. This meeting was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men. Constance Wilde was already refusing to meet Wilde or allow him to see their sons, though she kept him supplied with money. During the latter part of 1897, Wilde and Douglas lived together near Naples for a few months until they were separated by their respective families under the threat of a cutting-off of funds.

Wilde's final address was at the dingy Hôtel d'Alsace (now known as L'Hôtel), in Paris; "This poverty really breaks one's heart: it is so ''sale'', so utterly depressing, so hopeless. Pray do what you can" he wrote to his publisher. He corrected and published ''An Ideal Husband'' and ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', the proofs of which Ellmann argues show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play" but he refused to write anything else "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing". He spent much time wandering the Boulevards alone, and spent what little money he had on alcohol. A series of embarrassing encounters with English visitors, or Frenchmen he had known in better days, further damaged his spirit. Soon Wilde was sufficiently confined to his hotel to remark, on one of his final trips outside, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go." On 12 October 1900 he sent a telegram to Ross: "Terribly weak. Please come." His moods fluctuated; Max Beerbohm relates how their mutual friend Reginald 'Reggie' Turner had found Wilde very depressed after a nightmare. "I dreamt that I had died, and was supping with the dead!" "I am sure", Turner replied, "that you must have been the life and soul of the party." Turner was one of the very few of the old circle who remained with Wilde right to the end, and was at his bedside when he died.

Death

By 25 November Wilde had developed cerebral meningitis and was injected with morphine, his mind wandering during those periods when he regained consciousness. Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November and sent for a priest, and Wilde was conditionally baptised into the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a Passionist priest from Dublin (the sacrament being conditional because of the doctrine that one may only be baptised once – Wilde having a recollection of Catholic baptism as child, a fact later attested to by the minister of the sacrament, Fr Lawrence Fox). Fr Dunne recorded the baptism:

As the ''voiture'' rolled through the dark streets that wintry night, the sad story of Oscar Wilde was in part repeated to me....Robert Ross knelt by the bedside, assisting me as best he could while I administered conditional baptism, and afterwards answering the responses while I gave Extreme Unction to the prostrate man and recited the prayers for the dying. As the man was in a semi-comatose condition, I did not venture to administer the Holy Viaticum; still I must add that he could be roused and was roused from this state in my presence. When roused, he gave signs of being inwardly conscious… Indeed I was fully satisfied that he understood me when told that I was about to receive him into the Catholic Church and gave him the Last Sacraments… And when I repeated close to his ear the Holy Names, the Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope and Charity, with acts of humble resignation to the Will of God, he tried all through to say the words after me.

Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on 30 November 1900. Different opinions are given as to the cause of the meningitis: Richard Ellmann claimed it was syphilitic; Merlin Holland, Wilde's grandson, thought this to be a misconception, noting that Wilde's meningitis followed a surgical intervention, perhaps a mastoidectomy; Wilde's physicians, Dr. Paul Cleiss and A'Court Tucker, reported that the condition stemmed from an old suppuration of the right ear (''une ancienne suppuration de l'oreille droite d'ailleurs en traitement depuis plusieurs années'') and did not allude to syphilis.

Wilde was initially buried in the Cimetière de Bagneux outside Paris; in 1909 his remains were disinterred to Père Lachaise Cemetery, inside the city. His tomb was designed by Sir Jacob Epstein, commissioned by Robert Ross, who asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes which were duly transferred in 1950. The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitalia which have since been vandalised; their current whereabouts are unknown. In 2000, Leon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.

The epitaph is a verse from ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'':

And alien tears will fill for him Pity's long-broken urn, For his mourners will be outcast men, And outcasts always mourn.

Biographies

Wilde's life continues to fascinate and he has been the subject of numerous biographies since his death. The earliest were memoirs by those known to him: often they are personal or impressionistic accounts which can be good character sketches, but factually unreliable. Frank Harris, his friend and editor, wrote a biography, ''Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions'' (1916), though prone to exaggeration and sometimes factually inaccurate, it offers a good literary portrait of Wilde. Lord Alfred Douglas wrote two books about his relationship with Wilde: ''Oscar Wilde and Myself'' (1914), largely ghost-written by T.W.H. Crosland, vindictively reacted to Douglas's discovery that ''De Profundis'' was addressed to him and defensively tried to distance him from Wilde's scandalous reputation. Both authors later regretted their work. Later, in ''Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up'' (1939) and his ''Autobiography'' he was more sympathetic to Wilde. Of Wilde's other close friends, Robert Sherard, Robert Ross, his literary executor; and Charles Ricketts variously published biographies, reminiscences or correspondence. The first more or less objective biography of Wilde came about when Hesketh Pearson wrote ''Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit'' (1946). In 1954 Vyvyan Holland published his memoir ''Son of Oscar Wilde'', which recounts the difficulties Wilde's wife and children faced after his imprisonment. It was revised and updated by Merlin Holland in 1989.

Wilde's life was still waiting for independent, true scholarship when Richard Ellmann began researching his 1987 biography ''Oscar Wilde'', for which he posthumously won a National (USA) Book Critics Circle Award in 1988 and a Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The book was the basis for the 1997 film ''Wilde'', directed by Brian Gilbert.

Neil McKenna's 2003 biography, ''The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde,'' offers an exploration of Wilde's sexuality. Often speculative in nature, it was widely criticised for its lack of scholarly rigour and pure conjecture. Thomas Wright's ''Oscar's Books'' (2008) explores Wilde's reading from his childhood in Dublin to his death in Paris. After tracking down many books that once belonged to Wilde's Tite Street library (dispersed at the time of his trials), Wright was the first to examine Wilde's marginalia.

Wilde's charm also had a lasting effect on the Parisian literati, who have produced a number of original biographies and monographs on him. André Gide, on whom Wilde had such a strange effect, wrote, ''In Memoriam, Oscar Wilde''; Wilde also features in his journals. Thomas Louis, who had earlier translated books on Wilde into French, produced his own ''L’esprit d’Oscar Wilde'' in 1920. Modern books include Philippe Jullian's ''Oscar Wilde'', and ''L'affaire Oscar Wilde ou Du danger de laisser la justice mettre le nez dans nos draps'' (''The Oscar Wilde Affair, or, On the Danger of Allowing Justice to put its Nose in our Sheets'') by Odon Vallet, a French religious historian.

Selected works

''Poems'' (1881)

''The Happy Prince and Other Stories'' (1888, fairy stories)

''Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories'' (1891, stories)

''House of Pomegranates'' (1891, fairy stories)

''Intentions'' (1891, essays and dialogues on aesthetics)

''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (first published in ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' July 1890, in book form in 1891; novel)

''The Soul of Man under Socialism'' (1891, political essay)

''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1892, play)

''A Woman of No Importance'' (1893, play)

''An Ideal Husband'' (performed 1895, published 1898; play)

''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (performed 1895, published 1898; play)

''De Profundis'' (written 1897, published variously 1905, 1908, 1949, 1962; epistle)

''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'' (1898, poem)

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

Further reading

Reconstructed transcripts from Wilde's three trials, with a foreword by Sir John Mortimer QC and an introduction by Merlin Holland.

External links

; Historical societies

The Oscar Wilde Society (UK)

Oscar Wilde Society (U.S.) Contains a reconstructed itinerary of Wilde's lecture tour in the United States

Société Oscar Wilde en France Publishes a journal on THE OSCHOLARS website – a massive and ever growing site on Wilde and his contemporaries at www.oscholars.com

; Historical notes

Record of Wilde's indictment and conviction – official Old Bailey website.

Details including court transcriptions of the trials of Wilde

; Radio programmes ; Online texts by Wilde

Wilde texts from University College Cork, electronic texts, including a selection of his journalism

''The Oscar Wilde Collection'' – text of Wilde's poetry, plays and fiction

Online books by Oscar Wilde

; Images

Historical Image of Ruskin Street; Oscar Wilde was encouraged to carry out road improvements in this Oxfordshire village by the art critic John Ruskin

Category:1854 births Category:1900 deaths Category:19th-century Irish people Category:19th-century theatre Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Dublin Category:Anglo-Irish artists Category:Anglo-Irish people Category:Aphorists Category:Bisexual writers Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Category:Gay writers Category:Irish anarchists Category:Irish dramatists and playwrights Category:Irish expatriates in France Category:Irish fantasy writers Category:Irish horror writers Category:Irish journalists Category:Irish novelists Category:Irish pacifists Category:Irish people of Italian descent Category:Irish poets Category:Irish socialists Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT parents Category:LGBT people from Ireland Category:Old Portorans Category:People associated with Trinity College, Dublin Category:People from Dublin (city) Category:People prosecuted under anti-homosexuality laws Category:Symbolist dramatists and playwrights Category:Victorian novelists Category:Victorian pederasty Category:Victorian poets

af:Oscar Wilde ar:أوسكار وايلد an:Oscar Wilde ast:Oscar Wilde bn:অস্কার ওয়াইল্ড zh-min-nan:Oscar Wilde be:Оскар Уайльд be-x-old:Оскар Ўайлд bo:ཨོ་སི་ཀར་ཝེལ་ཌེ། bs:Oscar Wilde br:Oscar Wilde bg:Оскар Уайлд ca:Oscar Wilde cs:Oscar Wilde cy:Oscar Wilde da:Oscar Wilde de:Oscar Wilde et:Oscar Wilde el:Όσκαρ Ουάιλντ eml:Oscar Wilde es:Oscar Wilde eo:Oscar Wilde ext:Oscar Wilde eu:Oscar Wilde fa:اسکار وایلد fr:Oscar Wilde ga:Oscar Wilde gd:Oscar Wilde gl:Oscar Wilde ko:오스카 와일드 hy:Օսկար Ուայլդ hi:ऑस्कर वाइल्ड hr:Oscar Wilde io:Oscar Wilde id:Oscar Wilde is:Oscar Wilde it:Oscar Wilde he:אוסקר ויילד jv:Oscar Wilde pam:Oscar Wilde ka:ოსკარ უაილდი ku:Oscar Wilde la:Anscharius Wilde lv:Oskars Vailds lb:Oscar Wilde lt:Oscar Wilde lij:Oscar Wilde hu:Oscar Wilde mk:Оскар Вајлд ml:ഓസ്കാർ വൈൽഡ് mt:Oscar Wilde mr:ऑस्कर वाइल्ड arz:اوسكار وايلد ms:Oscar Wilde mn:Оскар Уайльд nl:Oscar Wilde nds-nl:Oscar Wilde ja:オスカー・ワイルド no:Oscar Wilde nn:Oscar Wilde oc:Oscar Wilde pms:Oscar Wilde pl:Oscar Wilde pt:Oscar Wilde ro:Oscar Wilde ru:Уайльд, Оскар sco:Oscar Wilde sq:Oscar Wilde scn:Oscar Wilde si:ඔස්කාර් වයිල්ඩ් simple:Oscar Wilde sk:Oscar Wilde sl:Oscar Wilde ckb:ئۆسکار ویڵد sr:Оскар Вајлд sh:Oscar Wilde fi:Oscar Wilde sv:Oscar Wilde tl:Oscar Wilde ta:ஆஸ்கார் வைல்டு tt:Оскар Уайлд te:ఆస్కార్ వైల్డ్ th:ออสคาร์ ไวล์ด tr:Oscar Wilde uk:Оскар Уайльд vec:Oscar Wilde vi:Oscar Wilde vo:Oscar Wilde fiu-vro:Wilde'i Oscar war:Oscar Wilde zh-yue:Oscar Wilde zh:王尔德

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Country
Fullname	Michelle Wingshan Kwan
Birth date	July 07, 1980
Residence	Torrance, California
Height
Formercoach	Rafael Arutunian, Frank Carroll, Scott Williams
Formerchoreographer	Tatiana Tarasova, Lori Nichol, Nikolai Morozov, Sarah Kawahara, Peter Oppegard, Karen Kwan, Christopher Dean
Skating club	Los Angeles FSC
Alma mater	UCLA, University of Denver, Tufts University
6.0	57
Combined total	175.20
Combined date	2005 Worlds
Sp score	61.22
Sp date	2005 Worlds
Fs score	113.98
Fs date	2005 Worlds
Medaltemplates	}}

}} Michelle Wingshan Kwan (; Jyutping: gwaan1 wing6 saan1; born July 7, 1980) is an American figure skater. She is a two-time (1998 & 2002) Olympic medalist, a five-time (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001 & 2003) World champion (a record bettered only by Sonja Henie among ladies skaters) and a nine-time (1996, 1998–2005) U.S. champion (the all-time record, as tied with Maribel Vinson-Owen).

She competed at a high level for over a decade and is the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history. Known for her consistency and expressive artistry on ice, she is widely considered one of the greatest figure skaters of all time.

For well over a decade, Kwan maintained her status not only as America's most popular figure skater but as one of America's most popular female athletes, consistently making the top ten on many such polls and lists (often as the only figure skater) even years after she had stopped competing. During the decade of her reign Kwan enjoyed unprecedented popularity and amassed numerous multi-million dollar endorsement deals, starred in multiple TV specials and was the subject of extensive media coverage.

Personal life

Born in Torrance, California, Kwan is the third child of Danny Kwan and Estella Kwan, Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. As a child, Kwan grew up speaking a mixture of Cantonese and English at home. Kwan’s interest in figure skating began at the age of five when she followed her two older siblings (hockey player Ron and figure skater Karen) onto the ice. Karen and Michelle began serious training when Michelle was about eight years old. They practiced three to four hours a day, waking up at 3 am to skate before school and going back to the rink right after school to skate again. Paying for their increased skating-rink time led to financial hardship for Kwan’s working class family. When Kwan was ten years old, her family could no longer afford a coach, but they were offered financial assistance by a fellow member of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club that allowed them to train at the Ice Castle International Training Center in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Kwan attended Soleado Elementary School in Palos Verdes, California, but left public school to be homeschooled in 1994, when she was in the 8th grade. After graduation from Rim of the World High School in 1998, she attended UCLA for one year. In the fall of 2006, she transferred to the University of Denver. In June 2009, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in international studies and a minor in political science. In 2009, she began graduate studies in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. On May 8, 2010, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Southern Vermont College.

Public life

Ambassadorship endeavors

On November 9, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Michelle Kwan as a public diplomacy ambassador. In this non-salaried position, Kwan will represent American values especially to young people and sports enthusiasts and is expected to travel widely. Kwan made her first overseas trip in the capacity of public diplomacy ambassador with a visit to China from January 17–25, 2007.

Her diplomatic position as an envoy has continued in the Barack Obama administration where she has worked with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Between 9–15 January 2011, she travelled to Singapore on behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

On April 15, 2011, it was announced that Kwan would serve as an advisor to U.S.-China Women's Leadership Exchange and Dialogue (Women-LEAD).

Filmography

Kwan has guest starred as herself in "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", an episode of ''The Simpsons'', and in the ''Family Guy'' episode "A Hero Sits Next Door". She has also made guest star appearances in the children's cartoon television series ''Arthur the PBS Series'', and has also appeared in ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''. She provided the voice of a shopkeeper in Disney's direct-to-DVD sequel ''Mulan II'', and she and fellow figure skater Brian Boitano appeared as announcers in the film ''Ice Princess''. She has performed in numerous figure skating programs, and has cameo appearances in various other television series. In 1999, she appeared in the ''Michelle Kwan Figure Skating'' computer game.

Other activities

Kwan wrote an inspirational book for children titled, ''The Winning Attitude: What it Takes to be a Champion''. She also wrote an autobiography, ''Heart of a Champion'', at 17.

In 2005, Michelle Kwan's family opened the EastWest Ice Palace in Artesia, California. The ice rink houses many of her skating medals and memorabilia.

Kwan has had numerous endorsement contracts and has appeared in television commercials for sponsors including Campbell's Soup, VISA, Coca-Cola, and Kraft. The Chevrolet/Michelle Kwan R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Scholarship program was established by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors in cooperation with Kwan. In February 2006, Kwan was named a "celebrity representative" for The Walt Disney Company.

Competitive biography

Summary

Kwan has won five World Championships (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2003), the most by anyone in the ladies' division since Carol Heiss (1956–1960), with whom she is tied for the most wins by an American. She has won nine United States Figure Skating Championships (1996, 1998–2005), tying the record for most set by Maribel Vinson-Owen (1928–1933, 1935–1937). Kwan's eight consecutive U.S. Championship titles (1998–2005) and 12 consecutive U.S. Championship medals (1994–2005) are both U.S. records. She is the only woman in figure skating history to reclaim the World title three times (1998, 2000, 2003). She also won a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and a bronze medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Among her many accolades, Kwan is a recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, which is given to America's best amateur athlete; she was the first figure skater to win the award since Dick Button won it in 1949. Kwan has received a combined total of 57 6.0s (perfect scores) from her National and World competitions throughout the years. At the U.S. Championships alone, she holds the record for most 6.0s. Because figure skating is no longer scored on a 6.0 scale, Kwan's records will stand indefinitely.

Early competition

In 1991, Michelle and her sister Karen began training with Frank Carroll. After one year of coaching by Carroll, 11-year old Michelle placed 9th at the junior level at the United States Figure Skating Championships. At the age of 12 in 1992, Kwan passed the gold test to become a senior-level figure skater despite the disapproval of her coach. In 1993, Kwan finished sixth at her first senior U.S. championships. The next season, she won the 1994 World Junior Championships.

In 1994, Kwan finished second to Tonya Harding at the U.S. Championships, which ordinarily would have earned her a spot on the U.S. team to the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. That place, however, was instead given to 1993 national champion Nancy Kerrigan, who had been sidelined by an assault and battery (eventually connected to Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly) after a practice session at those championships. The 13-year-old Kwan went to Norway as an alternate but did not compete. Kerrigan and Harding both dropped out of eligible competition before the 1994 World Championships. Because of this (and teammate Nicole Bobek not making out of the qualifying round), Kwan had the sole responsibility to ensure two spots for the U.S. at the 1995 World Championships by placing in the top ten. Kwan had an unusual mistake in the short program and placed eleventh in that portion, but came back strong to finish eighth overall.

At the 1995 U.S. Championships, Nicole Bobek won the gold medal, while Kwan again placed second after struggling with her lutz jump in both the short program and free skate. At the 1995 World Championships, she placed fifth in the short program portion of the competition with a clean performance. She landed 7 triple jumps in her free skating performance and placed third in that portion of the competition. She finished fourth overall.

Artistic development and 1998 Olympics

Following 1995, Kwan developed a more mature style. Her new, more artistically expressive programs were "Romanza" (short program) and "Salome" (free skate). She also improved her speed and her jump technique, and performed more difficult choreography. In 1996, Kwan won both the U.S. Championships and the World Championships. In the latter event, she edged out defending champion Chen Lu in a very close competition in which both competitors garnered two perfect 6.0s for Presentation in the free skate.

In the 1996–97 season, Kwan skated to "Dream of Desdemona" (short program) and "Taj Mahal" (free skate). It was during this year that Kwan debuted a change-of-edge spiral, which is still considered her signature move. However, in this season, Kwan struggled with her jumps because of a growth spurt and problems with new skating boots which she wore for an endorsement contract with the manufacturer. She fell twice and stumbled once in her free skate at 1997 U.S. Nationals, losing the title to Tara Lipinski. She also lost the Champion Series Final to Lipinski a month later. At the World Championships, Kwan made a mistake on her Triple Lutz combination and placed 4th in the Short Program portion of the competition behind Lipinski, France's Vanessa Gusmeroli, and Russia's Maria Butyrskaya. During the Free Skate, Kwan skated a six triple, mistake-free performance to win that part of the competition, but placed second to Lipinski overall.

Kwan started out the 1997–1998 Olympic season by winning Skate America (where she defeated Tara Lipinski) and then Skate Canada. However, she suffered a stress fracture on her foot and was forced to withdraw from her third Champions Series Final. Kwan regained her U.S. title from Lipinski at the 1998 National Championships, in spite of competing with a toe injury. Many people consider her performances of her Rachmaninoff short program and free skate set to William Alwyn's "Lyra Angelica" at the 1998 U.S. Championships to be the high point of her career from both a technical and artistic standpoint. The performance earned her eight perfect 6.0s and left one judge in tears.

Kwan and Lipinski were the co-favorites to win the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Kwan placed first in the Short Program portion of the competition, winning eight first place votes out of nine judges. In the Free Skate, Kwan skated a 7-triple performance but placed behind Lipinski, who also did 7 triples including a triple loop/triple loop combination and a triple toe-loop/half-loop/Triple Salchow. Kwan ended up winning the silver medal, with the gold medal being won by Lipinski and the bronze medal by Chen Lu.

Lipinski and Chen both retired from competitive skating shortly after the Olympics, while Kwan went on to win the 1998 World Championships in Minneapolis.

From 1998 to 2002 Olympics

Kwan continued to compete as an eligible skater in the 1998–99 season, although she bypassed the fall Grand Prix season and instead chose to skate in a series of made-for-television pro-am events. Her "regular" competitive programs that season were "Fate of Carmen" (short program) and "Lamento D'Ariane" (free skate). Kwan won her third national title at the 1999 U.S. Championships, competing against a weak field. At the 1999 World Championships, Kwan did not skate her best, and placed second behind Russian competitor Maria Butyrskaya.

Kwan's win at the 2000 U.S. Nationals was controversial to some. She was criticized for planning an easier jump in her short program than her competitors (a triple toe loop rather than a triple flip), and then she fell on this element in the competition. The judges nevertheless placed her third in that segment behind younger challengers Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes; however, the placement still kept her in contention for the title. Ultimately, she won the free skate with the best performance of the night, capturing 8 of the 9 first-place ordinals. At the 2000 World Championships, Kwan was again in third place after the short program, behind Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya. In her free skate, Kwan landed seven triple jumps, including a triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination, and won that segment of the competition. Butyrskaya lost her commanding lead by finishing third behind Slutskaya in the free skate, allowing Kwan to win the overall title as well.

In 2001, Kwan again won the U.S. Championships, receiving first-place ordinals from all 9 judges in both the short program and free skate. At the 2001 World Championships, Kwan was second behind Slutskaya in the short program. Kwan won the title with her "Song of the Black Swan" free skate, executing 7 triples, including a triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination.

In the fall of 2001, Kwan and Carroll decided to end their coaching relationship. In interviews, Kwan said she needed to "take responsibility" for her skating. Coachless, Kwan arrived at the 2002 U.S. Championships in Los Angeles amid the media's scrutiny over her separation with Carroll and her season's inconsistencies. Kwan won the competition with a revived "Rachmaninoff" short program and a new "Scheherazade" program for her free skate, securing a place on the 2002 Olympic team. Joining her on the team were Sasha Cohen (second) and Sarah Hughes (third). The 21-year-old Kwan and Russia's Irina Slutskaya were favorites to win the gold. Kwan led after the short program, followed by Slutskaya, Cohen, and Hughes. In the free skate, Kwan two-footed her combination and fell on her triple flip, while Sarah Hughes skated a clean program. This left Kwan with the bronze medal behind Hughes and Slutskaya. Kwan's final event of the season was the 2002 Worlds, where she won the silver medal behind Slutskaya.

2002–2006

Following the 2002 season, Kwan continued to compete on the Olympic-eligible circuit, although in a more limited way. During the fall seasons of 2002 to 2004, Kwan competed in only one Grand Prix event, Skate America in the fall of 2002, which she entered as a last-minute replacement. She won the event and qualified for the Grand Prix Final but chose not to compete in it. Kwan chose to not compete in Grand Prix events in the 2003 and 2004 seasons where the new judging system was being used.

Coached by Scott Williams, Kwan won all phases of every competition she entered in the 2002–2003 competitive season with her programs: Peter Gabriel's "The Feeling Begins" from The Last Temptation of Christ (short program) and "Concierto de Aranjuez" (free skate). She won the U.S. Championships again and regained her World title.

In 2003, she hired noted technician Rafael Arutunian as her coach, with whom she attempted to increase the technical difficulty of her programs. In the 2003–2004 competitive season, she skated again to "The Feeling Begins" for her short program, and Puccini's "Tosca" for her long program.

Again, Kwan won the U.S. Championships (where the old 6.0 system was still being used), earning 7 more 6.0s for presentation in the Free Skate. At the 2004 World Championships, after a difficult qualifying round, Kwan was penalized in her short program for going two seconds over time which caused her to placed 4th going into the Long Program behind American Sasha Cohen, Japan's Shizuka Arakawa, and Miki Ando. Just as she was about to start her free skate, there was a disruption caused by a spectator entering the ice surface and being removed by security staff. In the end, Kwan skated an inspired, if conservative, 5 triple performance and received the last 6.0 marks given at the World Championships. She placed second in the Free Skating portion (she was one judge away from winning the long program) and placed third overall at the championships behind Arakawa (who performed 7 triples including two triple-triple combinations) and Cohen.

For the 2004–2005 competitive season, Kwan skated her long program to "Boléro", choreographed by British ice dancer Christopher Dean who had famously skated to the music with Jayne Torvill two decades before, and debuted a new short program, "Adagio" from Aram Khachaturian's ballet ''Spartacus''. At the U.S. Championships, she won her 9th title, tying the all-time record previously set by Maribel Vinson-Owen. Interestingly, Vinson-Owen had coached Frank Carroll, who in turn coached Kwan. At the 2005 World Championship, Kwan competed for the first time under the new judging system. She had a rough qualifying round and placed third in the short program. In the Free Skate, Kwan fell on her triple salchow and two-footed a triple lutz. Although she finished third in both the short and long program portion of the competition, Kwan was edged by Carolina Kostner for the bronze medal and finished fourth overall, missing third place by 0.37 points. It was the first time since 1995 that Kwan had failed to medal at any international competition, and would be her final competitive event.

2006 Olympics

Kwan looked at the 2005 Worlds as a learning experience in the ISU Judging System. She continued to train and stated that she would attempt to qualify for the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. However, following a hip injury, she was forced to withdraw from her three planned competitions in the fall of 2005. Kwan skated her new short program ("Totentanz") at a made-for-TV event in December, 2005, but her performance was well below her usual standard. On January 4, 2006, Kwan withdrew from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with an abdominal injury incurred in December 2005. One week later, she filed a petition with the USFSA for a medical waiver to be placed on the 2006 Olympic figure skating team. On January 14, 2006, after the United States ladies' figure skating event, the USFSA's International Committee met and in a 20 to 3 vote approved Kwan's petition under the stipulation that she show her physical and competitive readiness to a five-member monitoring panel by January 27.

Kwan performed her long and short programs for the panel on the stipulated day, and her spot on the Olympic team was established, as the panel felt she was fit to compete. However, on February 12, 2006, the United States Olympic Committee announced that Kwan had withdrawn from the Games after suffering a new groin injury in her first practice in Turin. Kwan remarked that she "respected the Olympics too much to compete." The Turin organizing committee accepted the USOC's application for Emily Hughes (who had finished third at the U.S. Championships) to compete as Kwan's replacement.

After her withdrawal from the Olympic team, Kwan turned down an offer to stay in Turin as a figure skating commentator for NBC Sports. During an interview with Bob Costas and Scott Hamilton, Michelle Kwan said she was not retiring yet.

Kwan underwent elective arthroscopic surgery in August 2006 to repair a torn labrum in her right hip, an old injury which she traces back to 2002. According to Kwan, the surgery allowed her to skate pain-free for the first time in four years.

2006–present

Kwan did not compete during the 2006–2007 figure skating season.

Kwan told the Associated Press in October 2007 that she would decide in 2009 if she planned to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics, She has said "Representing the United States as an American Public Diplomacy Envoy the past three years has been very rewarding, and I want to do more." After graduating from the University of Denver in 2009, Kwan said "Furthering my education will bring me closer to that goal, and I don't want to wait any longer to continue the journey."

On February 17, 2010, Kwan told ABC News in an interview that she is continuing her studies as a graduate student at the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is working toward her Master's Degree focused on U.S. Foreign Policy and Pacific-Asia as well as continuing her work as a Public Diplomacy Envoy. Kwan also said she will be commentating for Good Morning America at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In August 2009, Kwan made her first on-ice appearance in several years, performing at the Ice All Stars, a show headlined by South Korean world champion Kim Yu-Na in Seoul, South Korea. Kwan appeared in Kim's All That Skate shows in South Korea and Los Angeles. She was the guest star to open the skate rink in the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in December 2010, where she performed twice to "Winter Song", a programme she self-choreographed with her sister. She returned to Singapore a month later as a Public Diplomacy Envoy to meet local students and to promote ice skating in the tropical country.

Awards and accolades

Kwan is a recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award (2001), which is given to America's best amateur athlete; she was the first figure skater to win the award since Dick Button won it in 1949. In 2003 she was named the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) "Sportswoman of the Year", and is the 5th figure skater in history to receive this honor. She has also been named USOC "Athlete of the Month" 14 times, which is more than any other athlete, male or female, as well as being named "Female Figure Skating Athlete of the Year" by the USOC multiple times. She is also the recipient of the USOC's "Citizenship Through Sports Alliance Award" (2004).

Kwan is one of the only two multiple winners of the "Readers' Choice Figure Skater of the Year" award given by ''Skating'' magazine (1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001–2003). In 2003, the United States Figure Skating Association, which publishes ''Skating'', announced that the award would be renamed the "Michelle Kwan Trophy." The USFSA stated that although Kwan may continue to skate competitively, she will no longer be eligible for this award. She also appeared on ''International Figure Skating Magazine'''s "25 Most Influential Names in Figure Skating List" seven times, and was named the most influential skater for the 2002–03 season.

In 1999, she was given the Historymakers Award by the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum.

In January 2009, she was appointed a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports by George W. Bush. On May 3, 2009, Kwan was honored by the Los Angeles Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in "Celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports". In 2011, she was added to the board of the Special Olympics.

Programs

!Season	!''Short Program''	!''Long Program''	!''Exhibition''
! 2005–2006			A Song for You by Natalie Cole
! 2004–2005
! 2003–2004	The Feeling Begins from The Last Temptation of Christ by Peter Gabriel choreographed by Scott Williams, Michelle Kwan, Karen Kwan and Nikolai Morozov	Tosca by Giacomo Puccini choreographed by Nikolai Morozov	Fallin' by Alicia Keys
! 2002–2003	The Feeling Begins from The Last Temptation of Christ by Peter Gabriel choreographed by Scott Williams, Michelle Kwan, Karen Kwan and Nikolai Morozov	Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo performed by Ikuko Kawai choreographed by Scott Williams, Michelle Kwan, Karen Kwan and Nikolai Morozov	Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy
! 2001–2002	East of Eden by Lee Holdridge choreographed by Lori Nichol Piano Concerto No. 3 Piano Trio No. 2 by Sergey Rachmaninov choreographed by Lori Nichol	Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov performed by New York Philharmonic choreographed by Sarah Kawahara	Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy
! 2000–2001	East of Eden by Lee Holdridge choreographed by Lori Nichol Rush by Eric Clapton choreographed by Christopher Dean		Beautiful World by Sumi Jo This Time Around by Linda Eder
! 1999–2000	A Day In The Life by John Lennon and Paul McCartney performed by Jeff Beck choreographed by Lori Nichol	The Red Violin by John Corigliano performed by Joshua Bell choreographed by Lori Nichol	The World Is Not Enough by Garbage Hands from Joy: A Holiday Collection by Jewel
! 1998–1999	Carmen Suite by Rodion Shchedrin [[Carmen Fantasie (Waxman)
! 1997–1998	Piano Concerto No. 3 Piano Trio No. 2 by Sergey Rachmaninov choreographed by Lori Nichol	Lyra Angelica by William Alwyn Gymnopedie #3 by Erik Satie choreographed by Lori Nichol	On My Own (Les Misérables)
! 1996–1997	Orchestral Suite No. 3 by [[Jules Massenet Final from Herodiade by Jules Massenet The Red Poppy by Reinhold Gliere choreographed by Lori Nichol
! 1995–1996	Romanza by Salvador BacarisseFiesta Flamenca by Monty Kelly choreographed by Lori Nichol	Salome (opera)
! 1994–1995	[[Yellow River Piano Concerto by Xian Xinghai performed by Yin Chengzong and Chu Wanghua	Rondo Capriccioso by Camille Saint-Saëns	Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams East of Eden by Lee Holdridge
! 1993–1994		East of Eden by Lee Holdridge
! 1992-1993		Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg
! 1991-1992

Competitive highlights

Major events for Olympic-eligible skaters include the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, World Figure Skating Championships, the Olympic Winter Games, and the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Kwan's record in these events is listed by season in the tables below.

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Event ! 1991–92 ! 1992–93 ! 1993–94 ! 1994–95 ! 1995–96 ! 1996–97 ! 1997–98 ! 1998–99 ! 1999–00 ! 2000–01 ! 2001–02 ! 2002–03 ! 2003–04 ! 2004–05 ! 2005–06 |- | Winter Olympic Games || || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || align="center" bgcolor="#cc9966" | 3rd || || || || align="center" | WD |- | World Championships || || || align="center" | 8th || align="center" | 4th || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="#cc9966" | 3rd || align="center" | 4th || |- | World Junior Championships || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || || || || || || || || |- | U.S. Championships || align="center" | 9th J. || align="center" | 6th || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st|| align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || |- | Grand Prix Final || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || |- | Skate America || || || align="center" | 7th || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || |- | Skate Canada || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || align="center" bgcolor="#cc9966" | 3rd || || || || |- | Nations Cup || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || || || || || || |- | Trophée Lalique || || || || align="center" bgcolor="#cc9966" | 3rd || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || || || || || |- | Goodwill Games || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || |- | Gardena Spring Trophy || || || || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st J. || || || || || |- |}

J = Junior level, WD = withdrew

References

External links

Category:Figure skating commentators Category:James E. Sullivan Award recipients Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States Category:Olympic figure skaters of the United States Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States Category:Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Category:Figure skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics Category:American female single skaters Category:American people of Hong Kong descent Category:American sportspeople of Chinese descent Category:Sportspeople from California Category:People from Torrance, California Category:Tufts University alumni Category:Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy alumni Category:University of Denver alumni Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:Olympic medalists in figure skating Category:Sportspeople from Los Angeles, California Category:Asian American women in sports

ang:Michelle Kwan zh-min-nan:Michelle Kwan cs:Michelle Kwan de:Michelle Kwan fr:Michelle Kwan ko:미셸 콴 it:Michelle Kwan lv:Mišela Kvana hu:Michelle Kwan nl:Michelle Kwan ja:ミシェル・クワン no:Michelle Kwan pl:Michelle Kwan pt:Michelle Kwan ru:Кван, Мишель simple:Michelle Kwan fi:Michelle Kwan sv:Michelle Kwan tr:Michelle Kwan zh:关颖珊

right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948. Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register.

Overview

Birgit Nilsson came from a rural background and had to work hard to gain acceptance in the world of music, but she made so strong an imprint on many roles that they came to be known as the "Nilsson repertory". She sang the operas of Richard Strauss and made a specialty of Puccini's "Turandot", but it was the music of Wagner that made her career; her command of his music was comparable to that of Kirsten Flagstad, who owned the Wagner repertory at the Metropolitan Opera during the years before World War II. At her peak, Nilsson astounded audiences in live performance with the unforced power of her voice, which cut through dense orchestration, and with her remarkable breath control, which allowed her to hold notes for a remarkably long time. Her interpretive powers grew as her career developed, and she became a moving artist as well as a vocal phenomenon. Among colleagues, she also became renowned for her playful sense of humor.

Biography

Early life

Born Birgit Märta Svensson, Nilsson was the only child of Nils Peter and Justine (Paulsson) Svensson on a farm at Västra Karup in Skåne (100 km/60 miles north of Malmö).

When she was three years old she began picking out melodies on a toy piano her mother bought for her. She once told an interviewer that she could sing before she could walk, adding "I even sang in my dreams". Her vocal talent was first noticed when she began to sing in her church choir. A choirmaster near her home heard her sing and advised her to take voice lessons.

She studied with Ragnar Blennow, in Båstad, and in 1941, with Joseph Hislop and Arne Sunnegard at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. However, she considered herself self-taught: "The best teacher is the stage", she told an interviewer in 1981. "You walk out onto it, and you have to learn to project." She deplored her early instruction and attributed her success to native talent. "My first voice teacher almost killed me", she said. "The second was almost as bad."

Early career

In 1946, Nilsson made her debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm with only three days' notice, replacing the ailing Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber's ''Der Freischütz''. Conductor Leo Blech wasn't very kind to her and, as she wrote in her autobiography, she even contemplated suicide after the performance.

In 1947 she claimed national attention as Verdi's ''Lady Macbeth'' under Fritz Busch. A wealth of parts followed, from Strauss and Verdi to Wagner, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky. In Stockholm she built up a steady repertoire of roles in the lyric-dramatic field, including Donna Anna, Aïda, Lisa, Tosca, Venus, Sieglinde, Senta and the Marschallin, one of her favourite roles (though she later lamented that nobody ever asked her to undertake it), all sung in Swedish.

International engagements

Under Fritz Busch's tutelage her career took wing. He was instrumental in securing her first important engagement outside Sweden, as Elettra in Mozart's ''Idomeneo'' at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1951. Her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1953 was a turning point; she would be a regular performer there for more than 25 years. It was followed by Elsa in Wagner's ''Lohengrin'' at the Bayreuth Festival in 1954, then her first Brünnhilde in a complete ''Ring'' at the Bavarian State Opera, at the Munich Festival of 1954. Later she returned as Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, and Isolde until 1969, all to universal acclaim.

She took the title role of ''Turandot'', which is brief but requires an unusually big sound, to La Scala in Milan in 1958, and then to the rest of Italy. Nilsson made her American debut as Brünnhilde in Wagner's ''Die Walküre'' in 1956 with the San Francisco Opera. She attained international stardom after a performance as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1959, which made front page news. She said that the single biggest event in her life was being asked to perform at the opening of the 181st season at La Scala as Turandot in 1958. She became the second non-Italian (after Maria Callas) ever granted the privilege of opening a season at La Scala. She performed at many major opera houses in the world including Vienna, Berlin, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Hamburg.

She sang under Charles Mackerras with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the all-Wagner concert that opened the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. You can listen to the concert on australianscreen online. She also gave the first lieder recital at the Opera House, accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons.

From the 1960s through to the 1980s

Nilsson was widely known as the leading Wagnerian soprano of her time, the successor to the great Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad, particularly in the role of Brünnhilde. However, she also sang many of the other famous soprano roles, among them Leonore, Aida, Turandot, Tosca, Elektra, and Salome. She had, according to ''The New York Times'', a "voice of impeccable trueness and impregnable stamina". Her career was long and distinguished and continued into the 1980s, when she mostly sang Elektra and the Dyer's Wife.

Nilsson was suspicious of opera's recent youth culture and often remarked on the premature destruction of young voices brought on by overambitious career planning. "Directors and managers don't care about their futures", she once said. "They will just get another young person when this one goes bad." In today's opera culture, the best managed voices tend to mature in the singer's 40s and begin to deteriorate during the 50s. Yet at 61, when most singers hang onto whatever career remains through less taxing recitals with piano and discreet downward transpositions of key, Nilsson sang a New York concert performance of Strauss and Wagner that met both composers head on. "Ms. Nilsson did not sound young", Will Crutchfield once wrote in ''The New York Times''. "Soft and low notes were often precarious; sustained tones were not always steady." He continued: "The wonderful thing is that she doesn't let this bother her. There was never a sense of distress or worry."

The conductor Erich Leinsdorf thought that her longevity, like Flagstad's, had something to do with her Scandinavian heritage, remarking that Wagner required "thoughtful, patient and methodical people." Nilsson attributed her long career to no particular lifestyle or regimen. "I do nothing special", she once said. "I don't smoke. I drink a little wine and beer. I was born with the right set of parents." In sheer power, her high notes were sometimes compared to those of the Broadway belter Ethel Merman. One high C rendered in a "Turandot" performance in the outdoor Arena di Verona in Italy led citizenry beyond the walls to think that a fire alarm had been set off. Once urged to follow Nilsson in the same role at the Metropolitan Opera, the eminent soprano Leonie Rysanek refused.

Twice at the Met, Nilsson sustained injuries that kept her from performing. In February 1971, she sprained her ankle during a performance of "Elektra" that resulted in cancellation of one performance (that was substituted by a historical performance of ''Fidelio'' starring Christa Ludwig). Nilsson recovered to sing the broadcast performance of ''Elektra'' on 27 February. More seriously, in March 1974 she fell and dislocated her shoulder during a rehearsal of ''Götterdämmerung''. Although able to sing Brünnhilde for the first two performances with her arm in a sling, her injury caused her to miss subsequent performances, including that season's ''Götterdämmerung'' broadcast. ''The New York Times''' review of the production's March 8 opening night is reprinted in the Metropolitan Opera Archives.

"Miss N."

Beginning at the summer of 1968 at the Bayreuth Festival, Nilsson was obsessively stalked by actress and model Nell Theobald until Theobald's tragic suicide nine years later in 1977. Nilsson recounted her experiences with Theobald at length in her memoir ''La Nilsson'' where she referred to Theobald solely as "Miss N.". The stalking incident was later featured in ''Opera News'' magazine and ''The New York Times''.

Nilsson's humour

Nilsson was known for her witty one-liners:

When asked what was the most important requirement for a soprano to sing Isolde, she said, "a comfortable pair of shoes."

When asked if she thought Joan Sutherland's famous bouffant hairdo was real, she answered: "I don't know. I haven't pulled it yet."

Nilsson called Turandot, one of the most punishing roles in the soprano repertory, her "vacation role."

Rudolf Bing made a ritual joke of getting on his knees every time Nilsson returned to the Met. When he did this after having been knighted by Queen Elizabeth, she said, "You do that much better since you practiced for the queen."

Bing asked Nilsson to sing the final scene from ''Salome'' at his farewell gala in 1972. As an added inducement, he said that she could have his head on a platter. Nilsson replied, "Oh, that's not necessary, Mr. Bing. I will use my imagination."

Nilsson did not get along with famous conductor Herbert von Karajan. Once when rehearsing on stage at the Vienna Staatsoper, her string of pearls broke. While helping her retrieve them, Karajan asked, "Are these real pearls bought with your fabulous Metropolitan Opera fees?" Nilsson replied, "No, these are very ordinary fake pearls bought with your lousy Vienna Staatsoper fees." When Nilsson first arrived at the Met to rehearse the production of ''Die Walkure'' conducted by Karajan, she said, "Nu, where's Herbie?" And Karajan once sent Nilsson a cable several pages long, proposing in great detail a variety of projects, different dates and operas. Nilsson cabled back: "Busy. Birgit."

There was a healthy competition between Nilsson and tenor Franco Corelli as to who could hold the high C the longest in Act II of ''Turandot.'' In one tour performance, after she outlasted him on the high C, he stormed off to Bing during the next intermission, saying that he was not going to continue the performance. Bing, who knew how to handle Corelli's tantrums, suggested that he retaliate by biting Nilsson on the neck when Calaf kisses Turandot in Act III. Corelli didn't bite her but he was so delighted with the idea that he told her about Bing's suggestion. She then cabled Bing, informing him that she had to cancel the next two tour Turandot performances because she had contracted rabies.

Once, when Nilsson was unhappy with something at the Met, she told Bing, "You know, when the birds are not happy, they do not sing."

Others got in their own quips about Nilsson. Bing was once asked if Nilsson was difficult to work with. "On the contrary," said Bing, "she's very easy to work with. You put money in, and beautiful sounds come out."

When Nilsson started singing Aida at the Met, soprano Zinka Milanov was miffed; Aida had been ''her'' role. After one performance in which Nilsson was singing, Milanov commandeered and drove off in the Rolls Royce Nilsson had hired for after the performance. When asked about this afterwards, Milanov said, "If Madame Nilsson takes ''my'' roles, I must take ''her'' Rolls."

Business

Nilsson was also famous for her ability to make money. She became one of the highest-paid singers in the field, in part because of the rarity of her skills. Being a shrewd businesswoman, she negotiated much of her own career. She never ranted or engaged in tantrums. She was also too proud to make outright demands. She would begin contract talks by refusing every offer and being evasive about her availability. This tack would continue until the impresario offered something she wanted. Nilsson's reply would be "maybe." Now in control, she would be begged to accept what she desired in the first place.

Once, asked what was her favourite role, she answered: "Isolde made me famous. Turandot made me rich". When long-time Metropolitan Opera director Sir Rudolf Bing was asked if she was difficult, he reportedly said, "Not at all. You put enough money in, and a glorious voice comes out." When Nilsson was preparing her taxes and was asked if she had any dependents, she replied, "Yes, just one, Rudolf Bing."

Interactions with conductors

Nilsson was known for standing up to conductors. In a 1967 rehearsal of ''Die Walküre'' with Herbert von Karajan conducting, Nilsson responded to the gloomy lighting of the production by wearing a miner's helmet (complete with Valkyrian wings). When on some occasion von Karajan urged a retake "and this time with our hearts - that's where your wallet has its place", Nilsson replied, "I'm glad to know that we have at least one thing in common, Maëstro von Karajan!" When Georg Solti, in ''Tristan und Isolde'', insisted on tempos too slow for Nilsson's taste, she made the first performance even slower, inducing a conductorial change of heart. After a tiff with Hans Knappertsbusch, Nilsson reported: "He called me by a name that begins with "A" and ends with 'hole'".

Self-criticism

Despite her worldwide recognition, Nilsson said she was nervous before every major performance. "Before a premiere, on the way to the opera, I'd hope for just a small, small accident, it didn't need to be much, but just so I would not have to sing", she said in a 1977 interview on Swedish TV.

Nilsson often spoke of her limits. She said her voice was not a good fit with what she described as the softer textures and refined tones of Italian operas. Nonetheless, she sang roles in Italian operas such as Donna Anna in ''Don Giovanni''.

Recordings

Nilsson recorded all of her major roles. Partly because of her availability to play Brünnhilde, Decca Records undertook the audacious and extremely expensive project of making the first studio recording of Wagner's four-opera Ring cycle, conducted by Solti and produced by John Culshaw. The effort took seven years, from 1958 to 1965. A film of the proceedings made her a familiar image for arts-conscious television viewers.

Absence from New York and Salzburg

Though a frequent visitor to the Metropolitan Opera, Nilsson did not always see eye to eye with its redoubtable general manager, Rudolf Bing (who was often said to dislike Wagner), nor with conductor Herbert von Karajan. Subsequently, she made fewer New York appearances than hoped in the early 1970s and was virtually excluded from the Salzburg Festival. Her American career was derailed in the mid-1970s by US Internal Revenue Service claims filed for back taxes. Several years later a schedule of payments was worked out, and Nilsson's hiatus from the United States ended. When she returned, Donal Henahan wrote in the ''New York Times'', "The famous shining trumpet of a voice is still far from sounding like a cornet."

Nilsson appeared at the Metropolitan Opera 223 times in 16 roles. She sang two complete ''Ring'' cycles in the 1961–62 season, and another in 1974–75. She was Isolde 33 times, and Turandot 52. She played most of the other major soprano parts: Aida, Tosca, the Dyer's Wife in Strauss's ''Die Frau ohne Schatten'', ''Salome'', ''Elektra'', as Verdi's Lady Macbeth, Leonore in Beethoven's ''Fidelio,'' and both Venus and Elisabeth in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser.'' She memorably appeared as replacement Sieglinde to Rita Hunter's Brünnhilde in the 1970s. She appeared 232 times at the Vienna State Opera from 1954–82, and the Vienna Philharmonic, the company's orchestra, made her an honorary member in 1999. "If there ever was someone that one can call a real star today and a world-famous opera singer during her time then that was Frau Nilsson", said Ioan Holender, director of the Vienna State Opera.

Later life

Nilsson's autobiography, ''Mina minnesbilder'' (My memoirs in pictures) was published in Stockholm in 1977. She retired in 1984 to her childhood home in the Skåne province of southern Sweden, where her father had been a sixth-generation farmer and she had worked to grow beets and potatoes until she was 23. In an interview in the mid-1990s, she appeared happy, serene and as unpretentious as ever. "I've always tried to remember what my mother used to tell me", she said. "Stay close to the earth. Then when you fall down, it won't hurt so much."

In 1981, Sweden issued a postage stamp showing Nilsson as Turandot. She has received the Illis Quorum gold medal, today the highest award that can be conferred upon a Swedish citizen by the Government of Sweden. In 1988, the American Scandinavian Foundation named their prize for promising young American opera singers the Birgit Nilsson Prize. Nilsson personally chaired several of the competitions.

Nilsson died aged 87, on Christmas Day, 2005 in her home at Bjärlöv, a small village near Kristianstad in Skåne in the same county where she was born. She was survived by her husband Bertil Niklasson (who died in March 2007), a veterinarian whom she had met on a train and married in 1948. They had no children.

Her legacy

Three years after Nilsson's death, in December 2008, the Birgit Nilsson Foundation announced that it would award a prize every two to three years to a concert or opera singer, a classical or opera conductor, or a specific production by an opera company. The Birgit Nilsson Prize was founded by Birgit Nilsson herself. The foundation said that Nilsson had chosen the first winner, to be announced in early 2009. On 20 February 2009, Spanish tenor Placido Domingo was announced as the inaugural recipient of the prize, which carried with it a cash award of $1,000,000. The first award ceremony took place in the Royal Swedish Opera on 13 October 2009. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden personally presented the prize to the designated winner. A jury has been set up by the foundation to make recommendations for future prizes. The second winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize was Riccardo Muti, who will receive the award in Stockholm on 13 October 2011.

On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Nilsson's portrait will feature on the 500 kronor banknote, beginning in 2014-15.

Awards

Sonning Award (1966, Denmark)

Anecdotes

As Oren Brown says in his vocal technique book, although not expected from a Wagnerian singer, Birgit Nilsson would warm up her voice by singing the Queen of the Night's arias from Mozart's ''Die Zauberflöte''.

References

Nilsson, Birgit, ''My Memoirs in Pictures'', translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal, Garden City: Doubleday, 1981. ISBN 0-385-14835-6.

Nilsson, Birgit, ''Mina minnesbilder'', Stockholm: Bonnier, 1977. ISBN 91-0-042069-7

Nilsson, Birgit, ''La Nilsson'', Stockholm: Fischer, 1995. ISBN 91-7054-756-4.

"Birgit Nilsson, Soprano Legend Who Tamed Wagner" by Bernard Holland, ''New York Times'' (January 12, 2006)

"Så höll han allt hemligt", (why Nilsson's death was kept a secret for 16 days) by Pelle Tagesson, ''Aftonbladet'' (January 13, 2006)

Blum, David, "The Farm Girl and the Stones", chapter 5 in David Blum, ''Quintet, Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment'' (Cornell University Press, 1999).

Further reading

''La Nilsson: My Life in Opera'' by Birgit Nilsson, foreword by Georg Solti, afterword by Peggy Tueller. Translated by Doris Jung Popper UPNE, 2007 ISBN 1555536700, 9781555536701

External links

Audio

Birgit Nilsson sings ''Turandot'', 1960s (video)

Birgit Nilsson sings Tosca; ''Vissi D'arte'', 1960s (video)

Birgit Nilsson sings Wagner; ''Liebestod'', 1967 (video)

Birgit Nilsson - Salome - Gala Bing, MET 1972 (video)

Birgit Nilsson as Lady Macbeth, 1970s (video)

Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde, recording at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, November 18, 1956 (audio)

Birgit Nilsson conducted by Charles Mackerras for the 'Sydney Opera House Opening Concert', 1973 on australianscreen online

TV appearances

Birgit Nilsson on Swedish talk show "På parkett", after a recent performance as Turandot in Berlin, May 15, 1971 (part 1) (in Swedish)

Birgit Nilsson on Swedish talk show "På parkett", with composer Sten Broman, May 15, 1971 (part 2) (in Swedish)

Birgit Nilsson and Zarah Leander talking about life as a celebrity, on Swedish talk show "Stjärna mot stjärna" (Star vs Star), December 25, 1977 (in Swedish)

Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli, on Swedish talk show "Här är ditt liv" (This is your life; Birgit Nilsson), Nov 1981 (in Swedish)

News report from 1984 from when Birgit Nilsson gives a Master Class in Malmö, Sweden (in Swedish)

Swedish news report from Birgit Nilsson's death with video clip together with comments from workers, fans and colleagues at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Metropolitan in New York, the Wagner Society and from Italian Opera (January 2006)

Interviews & articles

"Glänsande debut", the debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, October 10, 1946 (in Swedish)

"Det finns ingen genväg för sångare", interview, Dagens Nyheter, August 17, 1986 (in Swedish)

"Birgit Nilsson fyller 85 utan krusiduller", interview, Svenska Dagbladet, May 16, 2003 (in Swedish)

"Sjuksköterskorna mobbad mig, Operastjärnan Birgit Nilsson anmäler sjukhus för vanvård", Aftonbladet June 30, 1999 (in Swedish)

"Så höll han allt hemligt", why Nilsson's death was kept a secret for 16 days, Aftonbladet, January 13, 2006 (in Swedish)

"Birgit Nilsson: An unparalleled artist and a lovely, down-to-earth woman", by Jane Eaglen, The New York Times, January 16, 2006

"Varewell to the Valkyrie", by Peter G. Davis, Opera News, April 2006, Vol. 70, No. 10, p. 82-3

Birgit Nilsson interview by Bruce Duffie, April 20, 1988

Other

The Official Site

Wagner Operas

Decca Classics - Birgit Nilsson

Metropolitan Opera Archives

The One Million Dollar Birgit Nilsson Prize

The Birgit Nilsson Prize by the American-Scandinavian Foundation

Category:1918 births Category:2005 deaths Category:People from Båstad Municipality Category:Operatic sopranos Category:People from Scania Category:Swedish Lutherans Category:Swedish sopranos Category:Swedish female singers Category:Swedish opera singers Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music

ca:Birgit Nilsson da:Birgit Nilsson de:Birgit Nilsson et:Birgit Nilsson es:Birgit Nilsson fr:Birgit Nilsson it:Birgit Nilsson he:בירגיט נילסון hu:Birgit Nilsson nl:Birgit Nilsson ja:ビルギット・ニルソン no:Birgit Nilsson pl:Birgit Nilsson pt:Birgit Nilsson ru:Нильссон, Биргит sl:Birgit Nilsson fi:Birgit Nilsson sv:Birgit Nilsson tl:Birgit Nilsson th:เบอร์จิต นิลส์สัน zh:比尔吉特·尼尔森

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Yvonne De Carlo
birth name	Margaret Yvonne Middleton
birth date	September 01, 1922
birth place	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
death date	January 08, 2007
death place	Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
years active	1941–95
spouse	Bob Morgan (1955-74) (divorced) 2 children
children	Bruce Morgan Michael Morgan
awards	Fantafestival Award (1987) }}

Yvonne De Carlo (September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American actress of film and television. During her six-decade career, her most frequent appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best-known film roles, such as of Anna Marie in ''Salome Where She Danced'' (1945); Anna in ''Criss Cross'' (1949); Sephora the wife of Moses in ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956), starring Charlton Heston; and Amantha Starr in ''Band of Angels'' (1957) with Clark Gable. In the early 1960s, De Carlo accepted the offer to play Lily Munster for the CBS television series ''The Munsters'', alongside Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis.

Early life

The daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton, De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, and nicknamed 'Peggy'. "I was named Margaret Yvonne – Margaret because my mother was very fond of one of the derivatives of the name. She was fascinated at the time by the movie star Baby Peggy, and I suppose she wanted a Baby Peggy of her own." Her maternal grandfather, Michael de Carlo, was Sicilian-born, and her maternal grandmother, Margaret Purvis, was Scottish-born. Margaret's mother ran away from home when she was 16 to become a ballerina; after a couple of years of working as a shop girl, she was married in 1924. Little Peggy was three years old when her father abandoned the family. She lived with her grandparents. By the time she entered grade school, she found that her strong singing voice brought her the attention she longed for. Although her mother recognized Peggy's singing talent, she had already decided that her daughter would be a dancer. As a teenager Peggy was taken by her mother to Hollywood where she enrolled her in dancing school; she also attended Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood. Margaret lived in a downtown apartment with her mother, while Marie took on odd jobs such as waitressing. Mother and daughter were uprooted when their visas expired. Unable to find work, they returned to Vancouver.

She attended and dropped out of Vancouver's now-defunct King Edward High School, to focus more on her dance studies. She then attended the B.C. School of Dancing. It was there that Canadian dance instructor, June Roper, started her in a new direction, for which she was grateful and relieved. The following year at the Orpheum Theatre, Peggy appeared as a hula dancer in the famous revue ''Waikiki''. A new nightclub, the Palomar, opened in Vancouver, and she acquired a week-long booking. Hoping to present more sophisticated image, she combined her middle name with her mother's maiden name and became "Yvonne De Carlo."

The pair made several such trips until 1940, when De Carlo was first runner-up to "Miss Venice Beach" and was hired by showman Nils Granlund as a dancer at the Florentine Gardens. She had been dancing for Granlund only a short time when she was arrested by immigration officials and deported to Canada, but in January 1941, Granlund sent a telegram to Canadian immigration officials pledging his sponsorship of De Carlo in the United States, and affirmed his offer of steady employment, both requirements to reenter the country.

Before she worked at Florentine, she also got her first job at 16, working at Vancouver's Palomar, where it expanded from a ballroom to a nightclub in 1938. Her time at the nightclub ended when she allegedly was pressured to expose her breasts. . Seeking contract work in the movies, she abruptly quit the Florentine Gardens after less than a year, landing a role as a bathing beauty in the 1941 B-movie ''Harvard, Here I Come''. Other roles were slow to follow, and De Carlo took a job in the chorus line of Earl Carroll, another Hollywood showman. Her sixth film appearance was at the request of Nils Granlund, and the film ''Rhythm Parade'' was set at the Florentine Gardens nightclub in Hollywood.

In December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor signaled America's entrance into World War II. During this period she engaged in morale boosting performances for U.S. servicemen. De Carlo was a favorite leading lady in the 1940s, and a recipient of many letters from GI's.

Film career

Early successes

She was a Paramount starlet, but the studio apparently signed her mainly for her slight resemblance to Dorothy Lamour, as it was common then for studios to sign lookalikes in order to remind the stars in question that they easily could be replaced should their behavior become difficult or their box-office appeal begin to wane. When she moved to Universal Studios, she was utilized as a B-movie version of Maria Montez, one of the studio's reigning divas.

Her break came in 1945 playing the title role in ''Salome, Where She Danced''. Though not a critical success, it was a box office favorite, and De Carlo was hailed as an up-and-coming star. Of the role, she was less sure, saying of her entrance, "I came through these beaded curtains, wearing a Japanese kimono and a Japanese headpiece, and then performed a Siamese dance. Nobody seemed to know quite why." In 1947 she played her first leading role in ''Slave Girl'' and then in 1949 had her biggest success. As the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in ''Criss Cross'', she played a femme fatale, and her career began to ascend. She starred in the 1953 film ''The Captain's Paradise'', as one of two wives a ship captain (Alec Guinness) keeps in separate ports.

''The Ten Commandments''

In 1954, during the casting for Cecil B. DeMille's biblical-epic ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956), actress Audrey Hepburn was suggested for the role of "Nefretiri" and actress Anne Baxter was chosen for the part of "Sephora". After Hepburn was turned down for the role of the Egyptian throne princess for being too "flat chested", the part of "Nefretiri" was handed down to Baxter.

When DeMille saw De Carlo in ''Sombrero'' (1953), he offered her the vacant role of "Sephora". De Carlo accepted, and declined another role she was offered in a German film at the time. De Carlo quotes "working with Mr. DeMille was a learning experience that I will never forget".

With a pay of 25,000; De Carlo's performance in the film made her into a first-class actress who could play any kind of role in big-budget films. Besides filming at Paramount Studios, De Carlo accompanied DeMille and the rest of the crew to Egypt, where several exterior shots were filmed. De Carlo met stuntman Robert Morgan in Egypt, and married him on November 21, 1955 in Reno, Nevada.

''Band of Angels''

The 1957 film ''Band of Angels'' featured her opposite Clark Gable in an American Civil War story, along with Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. The actress worked steadily for the next several years, although many of the films failed to advance her career.

Character actress

Prior to becoming a full-fledged movie star, De Carlo also became a character actress, and made her debut on a 1952 episode of ''Lights Out''. The part led to other roles in ''The Ford Television Theatre'', ''Shower of Stars'', ''Schlitz Playhouse of Stars'', ''Bonanza'', ''Screen Directors Playhouse'', ''Playhouse 90'', ''Burke's Law'', ''Follow the Sun'' (2 episodes), ''Adventures in Paradise'', ''The Greatest Show on Earth'', ''The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.'', ''Custer'', ''The Name of the Game'' and ''The Virginian'' (2 episodes), among others.

Television series

''The Munsters''

The year 1964 was a rocky one for De Carlo, as she was deeply in debt. After having worked for over 30 years, her film career came to a sudden end, and she was suffering from depression. She signed a contract with Universal Studios after receiving an offer to perform the female lead role in ''The Munsters'' opposite Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster. She was also the producers' choice to play Lily Munster when Joan Marshall, who played Phoebe, was dropped from consideration for the role. When De Carlo was asked how a glamorous actress could succeed as a ghoulish matriarch of a haunted house, she replied simply, "I follow the directions I received on the first day of shooting: 'Play her just like Donna Reed.'

The short-lived cult sitcom also starred familiar actor Al Lewis as Lily's father, Grandpa Munster, and new actors Beverley Owen/Pat Priest as Marilyn Munster and Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster.

During its second season, ratings began to drop, due in part to the debut of ''Batman'', which dominated the ratings, early in 1966. Later that year, De Carlo accepted an offer to reprise her role in a color Munster movie, ''Munster, Go Home!'' (1966), partially in hopes of renewing interest in the TV series. Despite the attempt, ''The Munsters'' was cancelled after 72 episodes.

Honour

Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Yvonne De Carlo was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6124 Hollywood Blvd. and a second star at 6715 Hollywood Blvd. for her contribution to television.

Opera and Musical Theatre

Trained in opera and a former chorister at St Paul's Anglican Church, Vancouver, when she was a child, De Carlo possessed a powerful contralto voice. In 1951 she was cast in the role of Prince Orlovsky in a production of the opera ''Die Fledermaus'' at the Hollywood Bowl. De Carlo released an LP of standards called Yvonne De Carlo Sings in 1957. This album was orchestrated by the movie composer John Williams. She sang and played the harp on at least one episode of ''The Munsters''.

From 1967 onward she became increasingly active in musicals, appearing in off-broadway productions of ''Pal Joey'' and ''Catch Me If You Can''. In early 1968 she joined Donald O'Connor in a 15 week run of ''Little Me'' staged between Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas, performing 2 shows per night. But her defining stage role came with her big break on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's ''Follies'', which ran from February 1971 until July 1, 1972. As "Carlotta Campion" she introduced the song "I'm Still Here", which would become an anthem of sorts. The show opened later in Los Angeles with the original Broadway cast on July 22, 1972, and closed 11 weeks later. She was the last lead female performer from the original production to die (having been predeceased by Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, Ethel Shutta, Mary McCarty, and Fifi D'Orsay). DeCarlo received recognition for her work in various B-horror films and thrillers, such as ''The Power'', ''The Seven Minutes'', ''House of Shadows'', ''Sorority House Murders'', ''Cellar Dweller'', ''The Man with Bogart's Face'', ''Mirror, Mirror'', ''Blazing Stewardesses'', and ''American Gothic''.

She also made a cameo appearance on ''The Late Show'' which was hosted by comedian Ross Shafer in 1988, to talk about her own autobiography, she had written ''Yvonne: An Autobiography'' in 1987.

Last appearances

De Carlo's final appearance on the big-screen was as Aunt Rosa in the 1991 Sylvester Stallone comedy ''Oscar'', directed by John Landis. De Carlo also appeared on the talk show, ''Vicki'', hosted by her lifelong fan, Vicki Lawrence, on a special episode ''Sitcom Legends'', along with Dawn Wells, Jamie Farr, Dick Sargent, Donna Douglas and former co-star Butch Patrick in 1994.

She had a small cameo role on the Munsters TV movie remake ''Here Come the Munsters'' in 1995. Her last TV movie appearance was as Norma, in the 1995 Disney remake of ''The Barefoot Executive'', opposite Eddie Albert.

Her last TV interview appearance was on January 20, 2002, in a segment of ''Larry King Live'' which also featured Richard Hack, author of ''Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters''.

Quotes

Yvonne: "Men, no matter what their promises, rarely leave their spouses... the louses." (Source: Behind The Bedroom Doors of Famous Women)

Yvonne on writing her own autobiography: "If I could, I'd change a lot of things because I'm not proud of everything I've done in my life. But to those people who helped me, and there were a lot, I say, thank you. They're the reason I wrote this book." (Source: USAToday.com)

Yvonne on ''The Munsters'': "It meant security. It gave me a new, young audience I wouldn't have had otherwise. It made me 'hot' again, which I wasn't for a while." (Source: LATimes.com)

Yvonne on using a car that would be perfect for ''The Munsters'': "I thought it would be fun to drive around." (Source: LATimes.com)

Yvonne when Stephen Sondheim invited her to join the musical, ''Follies'': "He wrote it for me, just for me!" (Source: Eonline.com)

Yvonne when asked in 1972 about her affair with Howard Hughes before he turned into a legendary recluse: "Howard taught me how to land a plane and how to take off. But he never taught me anything about flying in between. He thought that I had learned the difficult parts, and that was enough." (Source: LATimes.com)

Yvonne on Howard Hughes's romance, after watching ''Salome Where She Danced'' (1945): "A man came over ... he said 'Mr. Hughes would like to meet you.' Well, I was not too much aware of Mr. Hughes at the time --- who he was or anything. So, I said, 'Oh, yes, fine!' And so, I looked and thought, 'Wow, this would be a terrific boyfriend for my aunt.'" (Source: Eonline.com)

Yvonne who told the media in 1971 about her stars, if she was really nervous about residing in New York City: "I'm from Hollywood, I'm too dumb to be nervous about New York." (Source: Eonline.com)

Yvonne: "I was on cloud nine all the time. After I made my hit in Salome, Universal sent me to New York so I could learn to be a proper movie star." (Source: Eonline.com)

Personal life

While starring in ''The Gal Who Took the West'' (1949), De Carlo not only walked away with the picture, but she walked away with Jock Mahoney, who was her boyfriend at the time. She and Jock were going to start a family, and in 1949, they were engaged. In her first trimester, she suffered a miscarriage, and De Carlo called off the engagement.

She married the stuntman Robert Morgan, whom she met on the set of ''Shotgun'', on November 21, 1955. They had two sons, Bruce and Michael. Morgan also had a daughter, Bari, from a previous marriage. Morgan's left leg had to be amputated after he was run over by a train while doing stunt work on ''How the West Was Won'' (1962). However, his contract with MGM assumed no responsibility for the accident. De Carlo and Morgan filed a $1.4 million lawsuit against the studio, claiming her husband was permanently disabled. They divorced in June 1974.

In her autobiography, published in 1987, she listed 22 intimate friends, including Prince Aly Khan, Billy Wilder, Burt Lancaster, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack and Robert Taylor.

Her mother died in 1993 from a fall. Her son Michael died in 1997; causes were unknown, although a Santa Barbara Police report contains concerns about possible foul play. De Carlo had a stroke the following year, but soon recovered.

De Carlo was a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Death

De Carlo moved to the Black Lake Retirement Community, near Solvang, California. In declining health, she then became a resident of the Motion Picture & Television Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California, where she spent her last years. Her son Bruce was her key caregiver during her last days. There, on January 8, 2007, she died of natural causes. A memorial service was held a few days later at The Woodland Hills MGM Theater; among those attending the service was television and film producer Kevin Burns. She is survived by her son, Bruce, who is filming ''ProjectLodestar'', a film featuring a cameo appearance by De Carlo. After she died she was cremated, and the ashes were either given to her family or her friend.

Filmography

''Harvard, Here I Come!'' (1941)

''This Gun for Hire'' (1942)

''Road to Morocco'' (1942)

''Youth on Parade'' (1942)

''Lucky Jordan'' (1942)

''Rhythm Parade'' (1942)

''The Crystal Ball'' (1943)

''Salute for Three'' (1943)

''So Proudly We Hail!'' (1943)

''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' (1943)

''Let's Face It'' (1943)

''Deerslayer'' (1943)

''True to Life'' (1943)

''Standing Room Only'' (1944)

''The Story of Dr. Wassell'' (1944)

''Kismet'' (1944) - Handmaiden (uncredited)

''Rainbow Island'' (1944)

''Here Come the Waves'' (1944)

''Practically Yours'' (1944)

''Bring on the Girls'' (1945)

''Salome Where She Danced'' (1945)

''Frontier Gal'' (1945)

''Song of Scheherazade'' (1947)

''Brute Force'' (1947)

''Slave Girl'' (1947)

''Black Bart'' (1948)

''Casbah'' (1948)

''River Lady (film)'' (1948)

''Criss Cross'' (1949)

''Calamity Jane and Sam Bass'' (1949)

''The Gal Who Took the West'' (1949)

''Buccaneer's Gal'' (1950)

''The Desert Hawk'' (1950)

''Tomahawk'' (1951)

''Hotel Sahara'' (1951)

''Silver City'' (1951)

''The San Francisco Story'' (1952)

''Scarlet Angel'' (1952)

''Hurricane Smith'' (1952)

''Sombrero'' (1953)

''Sea Devils'' (1953)

''The Captain's Paradise'' (1953)

''Fort Algiers'' (1953)

''Border River'' (1954)

''Happy Ever After'' (1954)

''Passion'' (1954)

''Shotgun'' (1955)

''La Contessa di Castiglione'' (1955)

''Flame of the Islands'' (1956)

''Raw Edge'' (1956)

''Magic Fire'' (1956)

''The Ten Commandments'' (1956) - Sephora

''Death of a Scoundrel'' (1956)

''Band of Angels'' (1957)

''The Sword and the Cross'' (1958)

''Timbuktu'' (1959)

''McLintock!'' (1963)

''A Global Affair'' (1964)

''Law of the Lawless'' (1964)

''Forbidden Temptations'' (1965) (documentary)

''Munster, Go Home!'' (1966)

''Hostile Guns'' (1967)

''The Power'' (1968)

''Arizona Bushwhackers'' (1968)

''The Delta Factor'' (1970)

''The Seven Minutes'' (1971)

''Black Fire'' (1975)

''Blazing Stewardesses'' (1975)

''It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time'' (1975)

''House of Shadows'' (1976)

''Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood'' (1976) (cameo)

''Satan's Cheerleaders'' (1977)

''Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula'' (1979)

''Guyana: Cult of the Damned'' (1979)

''Black Fire'' (1979) (Spanish version)

''The Man with Bogart's Face'' (1980)

''Silent Scream'' (1980)

''Liar's Moon'' (1981)

''Play Dead'' (1981)

''Vultures'' (1983)

''Flesh and Bullets'' (1985)

''American Gothic'' (1988)

''Cellar Dweller'' (1988)

''Mirror, Mirror'' (1990)

''Oscar'' (1991)

''The Naked Truth'' (1992 direct-to-video)

''Seasons of the Heart'' (1993) (voice only)

Short subjects

''I Look at You'' (1941)

''The Kink of the Campus'' (1941)

''The Lamp of Memory'' (1942)

''Fun Time'' (1944)

TV work

''Bonanza: A Rose For Lotta'' (1959) - Miss Lotta Crabtree

''The Greatest Show on Earth: The Night the Monkey Died'' (1964)

''The Munsters'' (1964–1966) - Lily Munster

''Custer'' (1 episode, 1967)

''The Girl on the Late, Late Show'' (1974)

''The Mark of Zorro'' (1974)

''Roots'' (1977) (miniseries)

''The Munsters' Revenge'' (1981)

''Murder, She Wrote: Jessica Behind Bars'' (1985) (guest star)

''A Masterpiece of Murder'' (1986)

''Tales From the Crypt'' (1995)

''Here Come the Munsters'' (1995) (cameo)

''The Barefoot Executive'' (1995)

Awards

! Year	! Ceremony	! Award	! Result
1987

Bibliography

References

External links

AP report pppat CNN.com (January 10 2007): "Yvonne De Carlo, 'Munsters' star, dead"

Media Newswire press release: 'Munsters' Television Star Yvonne De Carlo Dies at 84

Yvonne De Carlo in 'Lamp Of Memory' (1944, Soundie) at The Prelinger Archive

Photographs and literature

Category:1922 births Category:2007 deaths Category:American contraltos Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American pop singers Category:American television actors Category:American television personalities Category:Canadian dancers Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Canadian musical theatre actors Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian people of Scottish descent Category:Canadian people of Sicilian descent Category:Canadian television actors Category:Canadian television personalities Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Vancouver Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:People deported from the United States Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Imperial Records artists

de:Yvonne De Carlo el:Ιβόν ντε Κάρλο es:Yvonne De Carlo fr:Yvonne De Carlo it:Yvonne De Carlo la:Yvonne De Carlo nl:Yvonne De Carlo nov:Yvonne de Carlo pt:Yvonne De Carlo ru:Де Карло, Ивонн sr:Ивон Де Карло fi:Yvonne De Carlo sv:Yvonne De Carlo