Lorelei

The Lorelei is a 132 m (433 ft) high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge (or Middle Rhine) at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany.

Etymology

The name comes from the old German words lureln, Rhine dialect for "murmuring", and the Celtic term ley "rock". The translation of the name would therefore be: "murmur rock" or "murmuring rock". The heavy currents, and a small waterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name. The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area. Other theories attribute the name to the many accidents, by combining the German verb "lauern" (to lurk, lie in wait) with the same "ley" ending, with the translation "lurking rock".

By the German language orthographic reform of 1903, in almost all German terms letter "y" was changed for letter "i", but in some German names the letter "y" was kept, such as Speyer, Spay, (Rheinberg-)Orsoy, and including Loreley, which is thus the correct spelling in German.

Loreley (opera)

Loreley is a three-act azione romantica opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed to a libretto by Angelo Zanardini, Giuseppe Depanis, Carlo D'Ormeville and others.

The opera is an extensive reworking of Catalani's dramma fantastico Elda, originally to a text by Carlo D'Ormeville, which was first given in Turin in 1880 under Carlo Pedrotti, with Adelina Stehle, Nadina Boulicioff, Enrico Barbacini, Sante Athos and Édouard de Reszke.

Performance history

Loreley was first performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 16 February 1890 under Edoardo Mascheroni. It was subsequently given at Covent Garden in London on 12 July 1907. The first American performance was presented by the Chicago Opera Association at the Auditorium Building in Chicago on 17 January 1919 with Anna Fitziu in the title role.

Roles and role creators

Synopsis

The action takes place on the banks of the Rhine in 1500.

Act I. Feast in the castle of Count Walter on the banks of the Rhine in honor of his engagement with his niece Anna Margrave Rudolf von Rehberg. A friend, Walter, – Baron Hermann, secretly in love with Anna. He knows about the passion of Walter Lorelei – a poor orphan, in which Walter swore allegiance on the banks of the Rhine. Having learned from the engagement Herman Walter, Loreley catches the Rhine and into a nymph.

Loreley (Verbandsgemeinde)

Loreley is a Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality") in the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was historically part of the Duchy of Nassau, a sovereign state until 1866, and is currently located in the Nassau Nature Park. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, adjacent to the Nassau district and approx. 25 km southeast of Koblenz. Its seat is in Sankt Goarshausen. It was named after the Loreley Rock. On 1 July 2012, it merged with the former Verbandsgemeinde Braubach. Initially, the new Verbandsgemeinde was named "Braubach-Loreley", but it was renamed "Loreley" on 1 December 2012.

The Verbandsgemeinde Loreley consists of the following Ortsgemeinden ("local municipalities"):

External links

Coordinates: 50°10′N 7°43′E / 50.167°N 7.717°E / 50.167; 7.717

Sog

Sog or SOG may refer to:

Sog (river)

Sog is the largest freshwater river in Iceland in terms of water volume. Average flow is 110 m³/s. It runs from Lake Þingvallavatn for 21.9km to its confluence with the river Hvítá, forming the river Ölfusá which then runs for another 25 km into the Atlantic Ocean.

There are three hydroelectric power stations in the river: Ljósafossstöð (15 MW), Írafossstöð(48 MW) and Steingrímsstöð(27 MW).

Sog River runs through two lakes, Lake Úlfljótsvatn and Lake Álftavatn.

The river has a healthy stock of arctic char and Atlantic salmon. The size of the char can be anywhere from 0.5 pounds up the 5.0 pounds with an average size of 1.0 pound. The most common weight for salmon is 5.0 to 10.0 pounds with a few fish caught each year from 20.0 to 30.0 pounds. There are also sea-run brown trout in the Sog River.

Coordinates: 64°5′19.45″N 21°0′29.95″W / 64.0887361°N 21.0083194°W / 64.0887361; -21.0083194

Sogo

Sogo Co., Ltd. (株式会社そごう, Kabushiki Kaisha Sogō) is a department store chain that operates an extensive network of branches in Japan. It once owned stores in locations as diverse as Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Beijing in mainland China, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, Taipei in Taiwan, Jakarta, Medan, Bali, Bandung, Tangerang, Samarinda & Surabaya in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok in Thailand, London in United Kingdom, but most of these international branches are now operated by independent franchises.

History

Sogo was founded in 1830 in Osaka by Ihei Sogo as a retailer of used kimono.

In July 2000, the company faced financial troubles caused by the reckless real estate investment policy of the former chairman, Hiroo Mizushima, and the collapse of Japanese real estate prices since the mid-1980s. The group collapsed under a debt mountain of US$17 billion, owed principally to Industrial Bank of Japan. Sogo applied to Osaka District Court under the Civil Rehabilitation Law on July 12, 2000. It has had to divest itself of unprofitable business lines, as well as valuable assets such as several stores in Japan (e.g., Kokura and Kurosaki) and some overseas stores, including ones in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Taipei.