Nina Bocharova

Nina Antonovna Bocharova (Russian: Нина Антоновна Бочарова) (born September 24, 1924) is a former Soviet/Ukrainian gymnast, who won five medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics. She was born in Suprunovka, Poltava Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

Bocharova competed for Budivelnyk Kyiv (Stroitel Kiev), debuting at the Nationals in 1948, where she placed fourth on the uneven bars and balance beam. These two were her best events throughout the career. She won the all-around titles at the USSR Championships in 1949 and 1951, with Maria Gorokhovskaya being her main rival. In 1952 Bocharova competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics, the first Olympics for Soviet athletes. Placing 2nd to Gorokhovskaya in the all-around, she won the gold on the beam and contributed to the team's gold. She also earned another silver medal in the team exercise with hand apparatus event. At age 30 she competed in the 1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, winning the gold medal in the team competition, and finished her career afterwards.

Nina (opera)

Nina, o sia La pazza per amore (Nina, or the Girl Driven Mad by Love) is an opera, described as a commedia in prosa ed in verso per musica, in two acts by Giovanni Paisiello to an Italian libretto by Giambattista (also Giovanni Battista) Lorenzi after Giuseppe Carpani's translation of Benoît-Joseph Marsollier's Nina, ou La folle par amour, set by Nicolas Dalayrac in 1786.

The work is a sentimental comedy with set numbers, recitative and spoken dialog. It is set in Italy in the 18th century.

Nina was first performed in a one act version at the Teatro del Reale Sito di Belvedere in Caserta, San Leucio on 25 June 1789. A revised two-act work was presented at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in the autumn of 1790.

Roles

Discography

Nina (Xiu Xiu album)

Nina is a Nina Simone tribute album recorded by Xiu Xiu. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013 to generally favorable reviews.

Recording

The idea for the album came while Jamie Stewart was on tour with Swans.Nina was recorded in a day. The album features Jamie Stewart's voice, Ches Smith on drums, Tim Berne and Tony Malaby on saxophones, Andrea Parkins on accordion, and Mary Halvorson on guitar. The latter four had experience in avant jazz. The album reimagines rather than recreates Nina Simone's songs. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013.

Reception

Nina received a "generally favorable" score of 65 (out of 100) from the ratings aggregator Metacritic. Nate Chinen from The New York Times described the album as accentuating Simone's "spooky, unsettling side". He adds that Stewart's vocals add to the "psychodrama" in "Four Women" and "the wildness" in "Wild Is the Wild". Chinen thought the art rock Nina Simone covers field was already crowded before Nina. Heather Phares of AllMusic considered Stewart's stylistic choices "provocative" and the album Stewart's "most avant-garde ... in years". She added that the album considered the "more progressive aspects" of Simone's music. Kyle Fowle of Slant Magazine thought the album to be Xiu Xiu's "most ambitious ... in years". He thought Stewart's vocal style was out of place on "Don't Explain" and "Just Say I Love Him". Billy Hamilton of Under the Radar wrote that Simone would approve of the album. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork noted a mystical connection between Xiu Xiu and Simone as artists who perform raw emotions, but described the album as a "wasted opportunity" and "weirdly conservative". For this, he blamed Stewart's vocals for being "theatrical" and insincere. Richardson praised the album's selection of songs covered.

Breath of Fire II

Breath of Fire II (Japanese: ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子, Hepburn: Buresu obu Faia Tsū: Shimei no Ko, Breath of Fire II: The Destined Child) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom. First released in 1994, the game was licensed to Laguna for European release in 1996. It is the second entry in the Breath of Fire series. It was later ported to Game Boy Advance and re-released worldwide. The game has been rated by the ESRB for release on Wii's Virtual Console and was released in North America on August 27, 2007. Nintendo of Europe's website mistakenly announced it for release on July 27, 2007, but it was in fact released two weeks later, on August 10, 2007.

Unlike later installments in the series, Breath of Fire II is a direct sequel to Breath of Fire. Set 500 years after the original game, the story centers on an orphan named Ryu Bateson, whose family vanished mysteriously long ago. After his friend is falsely accused of a crime, Ryu embarks on a journey to clear his name.