Oscar (opera)

Oscar is an American opera in two acts, with music by composer Theodore Morrison and a libretto by Morrison and English opera director John Cox. The opera, Morrison's first, is based on the life of Oscar Wilde, focused on his trial and imprisonment in Reading Gaol. It was a co-commission and co-production between The Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia (formerly the Opera Company of Philadelphia). This work received its world premiere at The Santa Fe Opera on 27 July 2013. Opera Philadelphia first presented the revised version of the opera on 6 February 2015.

The genesis of the opera resulted from a 2004 meeting in London between Morrison and Cox, after the premiere of Morrison's James Joyce song cycle, Chamber Music, which he wrote for countertenor David Daniels, a former student of his. Upon learning that Morrison had never composed an opera, but wished to write one for Daniels, Cox encouraged that idea. This led to correspondence between Cox and Morrison, and an agreement to collaborate on an opera based on the subject of Oscar Wilde. Cox and Morrison had each read the biography of Wilde by Richard Ellmann, and settled on a plan for co-authorship of an opera libretto based on the writings of Oscar Wilde and his contemporaries, with Walt Whitman serving as a chorus speaking from the realm of immortality. The opera used Wilde's poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", documents, letters, conversations and remarks by Wilde's contemporaries as source material for the libretto. Cox also consulted Merlin Holland, the grandson of Oscar Wilde and a scholar on Oscar Wilde.

Oscar (1967 film)

Oscar is a French comedy of errors directed by Édouard Molinaro and starring Louis de Funès. In the movie, Louis de Funès plays an industrialist named Bertrand Barnier who discovers over the course of a single day that his daughter is pregnant, he has been robbed by an employee, and various other calamities have befallen his household and his business.

An English-language version of the movie was made in 1991, by John Landis, under the same name and starring Sylvester Stallone.

Plot

Christian Martin, a modest accountant in a large firm owned by Bertrand Barnier, surprises his boss by asking him for a 100% increase in his wages. Martin is on the point of proposing to a girl and doesn't want to ask for her hand in marriage while making a lowly accountant's salary.

After Barnier refuses to give him the raise, Martin tells him that he's stolen more than sixty million francs from him by falsifying the firm's accounting records. When Barnier threatens to report this to the police, Martin points out that as a consequence of the fraud Barnier has now submitted false income statements to the tax office, a serious crime. Barnier has no choice but to give in to blackmail and he agrees to give Martin the raise and name him vice-president of the firm.

Oscar-class submarine

Project 949 (Granit) and Project 949A (Antey) are Soviet Navy/Russian Navy cruise missile submarines (NATO reporting names: Oscar-I and Oscar-II respectively).

Project 949 submarines were the largest cruise missile submarines in service, until the Ohio-class SSGN cruise missile submarine converted from SSBN and returned to service on 15 October 2007. They are the fourth largest class of submarines in terms of displacement and length. Only the Typhoon-class Soviet/Russian submarines, the American Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines and the Russian Borei-class submarines are larger.

History

The first submarine of Project 949 was laid down in the mid-1970s and was commissioned in 1980. In 1982 an updated and larger version (Project 949A) replaced the earlier version. In total thirteen submarines were constructed. The Oscar class was designed to attack NATO carrier battle groups using long-range SS-N-19 "Shipwreck" anti-ship missiles and targeting data provided by the EORSAT satellite system. In the financial problems that followed the fall of the Soviet Union the Oscar class was prioritized by the Russian navy and when many older submarine classes were retired the Oscar class remained active in both the Northern and Pacific fleets. As of 2011, five submarines are currently active with several more in reserve or waiting for repairs.

Countdown

A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the term "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and even "E-minus" for events that involve spacecraft that are already in space, where the "T" could stand for "Test" or "Time", and the "E" stands for "Encounter", as with a comet or some other space object. Other events for which countdowns are commonly used include the detonation of an explosive, the start of a race, the start of the New Year, or any anxiously anticipated event. An early use of a countdown once signaled the start of a Cambridge University rowing race. The first known association with rockets was in the 1929 German science fiction movie Die Frau im Mond (English: Woman in the Moon) written by Thea von Harbou and directed by Fritz Lang in an attempt to increase the drama of the launch sequence of the story's lunar-bound rocket.

Rocketry

A countdown is a carefully devised set of procedures ending with the ignition of a rocket's engine. Depending on the type of vehicle used, countdowns can start from 72 to 96 hours before launch time.

Countdown (comics)

Countdown, in comics, may refer to:

See also

Countdown (Hyde song)

"Countdown" is the sixth by Japanese singer Hyde, and the first single from his second solo album Faith.

It was released on 5 October 2005, and was Hyde's first solo single since 2003. This is the first single co-produced by Hyde and K.A.Z and charted at #1 on the Oricon ranking charts the week it was released.

The B-side to this single is "Evergreen (Dist.)", a rock version of Hyde's very first solo single that was also featured on his first solo album, Roentgen (released March 27, 2002). Countdown also featured in Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2, a Nintendo DS game.

Track listing

Notes

External links