The Royal Opera is based at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden,
London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known
by that title until 1968. It brought a long annual season and consistent
management to a house that had previously operated under a series of
impresarios. When the company was formed, its policy was to perform all
works in English, but since the late 1950s most operas have been given
in the original language. From the outset, performers have comprised a
mixture of British and Commonwealth singers and international guest
stars. Among the many guest performers have been Maria Callas, Plácido
Domingo, Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Hotter, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano
Pavarotti and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Among those who have risen to
international prominence from the ranks of the company are Geraint
Evans, Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa and Jon Vickers. The company's
growth from modest beginnings to parity with the world's greatest opera
houses was recognised by the grant of the title "The Royal Opera" in
1968. The company has had six music directors since its inception: Karl
Rankl, Rafael Kubelík, Georg Solti, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink and
Antonio Pappano.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Opera>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
490 BC:
Greco-Persian Wars: Athenians and their Plataean allies
turned back the first Persian invasion of Greece in the Battle of
Marathon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marathon>
1683:
Great Turkish War: Polish troops led by John III Sobieski
joined forces with a Habsburg army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the
Battle of Vienna.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna>
1848:
Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new
constitution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland>
1910:
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral
works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in
Munich.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_(Mahler)>
1977:
South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was killed in
police custody.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
wedge:
One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood,
thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion
in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or
levering. […]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wedge>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the
universe is still running it? It is certainly perfectly conceivable that
He may have finished it and then turned it over to lesser gods to
operate. In the same way many human institutions are turned over to
grossly inferior men. This is true, for example, of most universities,
and of all great newspapers.
--H. L. Mencken
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken>