Tosca (band)

Tosca is an electronic music project of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber formed 1994 in Vienna. It is Dorfmeister's second such project, the first being Kruder & Dorfmeister. Tosca's first album, Opera, was released in 1997 by G-Stone Recordings.

History

Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber first met in school, and began experimenting with tape machines, Indian music, and poetry lyrics, under the name of Dehli9. After school, Dorfmeister and Huber went their separate ways: Dorfmeister began producing and DJing with Peter Kruder, and Huber worked in the experimental music scene. His compositions were featured by Wiener Festwochen (Private Exile, 2004), Centre Pompidou (Sonic Process, 2002) and Ars Electronica (Radiotopia, 2002) as well as in TV series (C.S.I.: Miami, Sex and the City) and radio (signations for the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company).

In 1994, Dorfmeister and Huber released their first 12", entitled "Chocolate Elvis", on Kruder and Dorfmeister's G-Stone label. A string of critically acclaimed albums and remix collections followed - Opera (1996), Suzuki (1999), Dehli9 (2003) J.A.C. (2005) and No Hassle (2009) are considered milestones of the downtempo genre. The musical trademark of Tosca is a cheerful laid-back feel that emanate a warm, and occasionally melancholic atmosphere. The music of Tosca is played in clubs and living rooms, boutiques and wineries alike.

La Tosca

La Tosca is a five-act drama by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. Despite negative reviews from the Paris critics at the opening night, it became one of Sardou's most successful plays and was toured by Bernhardt throughout the world in the years following its premiere. The play itself is no longer performed, but its operatic adaptation, Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, has achieved enduring popularity. There have been several other adaptations of the play including two for the Japanese theatre and an English burlesque, Tra-La-La Tosca (all of which premiered in the 1890s) as well as several film versions.

La Tosca is set in Rome on 17 June 1800 following the French victory in the Battle of Marengo. The action takes place over an eighteen-hour period, ending at dawn on 18 June 1800. Its melodramatic plot centers on Floria Tosca, a celebrated opera singer; her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, an artist and Bonapartist sympathiser; and Baron Scarpia, Rome's ruthless Regent of Police. By the end of the play, all three are dead. Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi and sentences him to death in the Castel Sant'Angelo. He then offers to spare her lover if Tosca will sleep with him. She appears to acquiesce, but as soon as Scarpia gives the order for the firing squad to use blanks, she stabs him to death. On discovering that Cavaradossi's execution had in fact been a real one, Tosca commits suicide by throwing herself from the castle's parapets.

Tosca (1953 EMI recording)

The 1953 EMI recording of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca conducted by Victor de Sabata, with Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi, is considered by many opera critics to be one of the most notable opera recordings of the 1950s. It was recorded in August 1953 by the EMI subsidiary Columbia Records and released to critical acclaim. It was a commercial success from the start and continues to be one of the best-selling opera recordings.

An anecdote regarding the recording sessions relates that de Sabata, who was generally pleased with Callas's performance, was not satisfied with her reading of the line "E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma". Producer Walter Legge wrote that de Sabata put Callas through the "grinding mill" for half an hour to get it just right, though in Legge's view it was time well spent.

The work of all three lead singers, Callas as Tosca, Tito Gobbi as Scarpia and Giuseppe Di Stefano as Cavaradossi has been nearly universally praised, as has the "spaciously lyrical" conducting of de Sabata. Walter Legge's production and "superbly balanced" mono recording have also been noted as aspects that have made this Tosca one of the most celebrated of classical recordings. Soprano Leontyne Price and justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg named Callas' Tosca as their favourite recording. When Herbert von Karajan was making his own recording of Tosca in 1962, he would often ask his producer John Culshaw to play selections from the de Sabata/Callas recording to him. Culshaw reports that "One exceptionally tricky passage for the conductor is the entry of Tosca in act 3, where Puccini's tempo directions can best be described as elastic. Karajan listened to de Sabata several times over during that passage and then said, 'No, he's right but I can't do that. That's his secret.'"

Film (band)

Film was a Yugoslav rock group founded in 1978 in Zagreb. Film was one of the most popular rock groups of the former Yugoslav new wave in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

History

New wave years (1979-1981)

During 1977 and 1978, bassist Marino Pelajić, guitarist Mladen Jurčić, and drummer Branko Hromatko were Azra members when Branimir "Johnny" Štulić brought Jura Stublić as the new vocalist. Stublić was to become Aerodrom member, but due to his deep vocals it never happened. The lineup functioned for a few months only and after a quarrel with Štulić, on early 1979, Pelajić, Jurčić, Hromatko and Stublić formed the band Šporko Šalaporko i Negove Žaluzine, naming the band after a story from the "Polet" youth magazine, which was soon after renamed to Film. The memories of the Azra lineup later inspired Štulić to write the song "Roll over Jura" released on Filigranski pločnici in 1982.

Saxophonist Jurij Novoselić, who at the time had worked under the pseudonym Kuzma Videosex, joined the band, inspiring others to use pseudonym instead of their original names: vocalist Stublić became Jura Jupiter, bassist Pelajić became Mario Baraccuda and guitarist Jurčić became Max Wilson. Before joining the band, Stublić did not have much experience as a vocalist, however, since his father had been an opera singer, he often visited the theatre and opera, and at the age of 13, he started playing the guitar, earning money as a street performer at seaside resorts.

Film (Iranian magazine)

Film (Persian:فیلم) is an Iranian film review magazine published for more than 30 years. The head-editor is Massoud Mehrabi.

References

External links

Film (film)

Film is a 1965 film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a forty-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York in July 1964.

Beckett’s original choice for the lead – referred to only as “O” – was Charlie Chaplin, but his script never reached him. Both Beckett and the director Alan Schneider were interested in Zero Mostel and Jack MacGowran. However, the former was unavailable and the latter, who accepted at first, became unavailable due to his role in a "Hollywood epic." Beckett then suggested Buster Keaton. Schneider promptly flew to Los Angeles and persuaded Keaton to accept the role along with "a handsome fee for less than three weeks' work."James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, also encouraged Schneider to contact Keaton.

The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States. The script printed in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (Faber and Faber, 1984) states: