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A barnstar for you!

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The Epic Barnstar
Dear Brian,
I want to thank you for all the most excellent work you have done recently to rewrite the article on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition; it was epic in its own right! I, for one, very much appreciate the many improvements you have brought to the article. Thank you for all your contributions to our encyclopedia.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 22:54, 30 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your kindness. I've always felt that this expedition got less recognition than it deserved, particularly in the UK – perhaps this will help to redress the balance, somewhat. Brianboulton (talk) 11:22, 1 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A beer.

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For everything you done mate. All the best to you and yours. ——SN54129 16:28, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Brian

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I have just received an email from Brian's daughter to say that he died peacefully on 9 December, following a long illness. Requiescat in pace. 106 FAs, 2 FLs, gawd knows how many source and prose reviews at FA, and countless numbers of editors helped, encouraged and improved over the years. A good friend to all who met him, and this place is a little less appealing now he won't be here anymore. – SchroCat (talk) 16:49, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

  • I've never met Brian, but have followed his work here on this Wikipedia Project. I always looked forward to his next article which he felt moved to work on. His work is exemplary and worthy of recognition throughout this entire project. He will be surely missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. HJKeats (talk) 17:10, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • This is devastating news. I was fortunate to have met him and I shall cherish it always. A fabulous writer and a lovely man. Thank you for your work Brian. My very best wishes to his family at this difficult time. CassiantoTalk 17:44, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • A lovely person, funny, wise, patient and helpful. Wikipedia owes him much, and so do I: he was a mentor to me, he taught me such a lot, and I shall miss him dreadfully. The world is a better place for Brian's sixty-something years of being in it. I hope it is of some small comfort to Brian's family to know how deep the affection and respect for him were here. Bless you, dear Brian! Tim riley talk 17:56, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • My heart sank as I read this very sad news just now. I thought I’d found another wonderful, dedicated fellow editor with whom to develop a working relationship on Antarctic explorations, and I’d only just awarded him the above barnstar a week ago. I am so sad, and wish to send my condolences to his family and friends. Farewell, Brian; you will be missed by all who knew you. — Patrick. Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 19:39, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • This is sad news. I also only had the pleasure of meeting Brian once, but it was a great pleasure indeed. On Wiki, we had more encounters, in which his knowledge, his depth of understanding, his compassion and his tolerance shone through. His contribution to this place is self-evident, through his FAs and his incredible industry, but also through the spirit of collaboration he exemplified so well. KJP1 (talk) 22:14, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Remembering Brian

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Dear colleagues,
I wanted to create something by which we could all commemorate our friend Brian and, although userboxes are often used for frivolous purposes, it occurred to me that it would be meaningful simply to display the following userbox on our user pages:

This Wikipedian remembers
Brian Boulton.

To add this userbox to your page, just apply: {{User:Pdebee/UBX/Remembers}}
With kind regards;
Patrick. Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 01:46, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Brian, we miss you

Yes. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:40, 12 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

In memoriam

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  • "A candle"
  • "Flowers"
  • "The Japanese peace bell at the headquarters of the United Nations"
  • "An eternal flame"
We will remember your contributions and your service. Thank you. Requiescat in pace.
↠Pine (✉) 00:06, 13 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Impact

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Impact
Thank you for your impact
leaving us highest standards for
creative content creation,
gentle quality reviewing
and respectful attitude!

Brian Boulton has passed away

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These comments were left at FAC Talk until the thread was archived. Copied here for the sake of completeness: SchroCat (talk) 20:07, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

I received an email notice from his daughter. I assume others have as well. He was definitely one of the nice guys. I remember Ceoil once referred to him as an angel. ♦ Lingzhi2 (talk) 22:02, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I winced when I read this. A colleague in every sense of the word. - Dank (push to talk) 22:06, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This is a gut punch; I so dearly loved our Brainy Brian. May he rest in eternal peace and his family know how much he was loved and appreciated. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:10, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I owe him a great deal. And much like Browning's Grammarian, he kept at it to the end. A deeply felt loss.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:24, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I greatly appreciated his kindness and courtesy.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 22:32, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
He touched all of our lives and his articles touch the lives of so many. Still, this is devastating news. Condolences to his family and so many belated thanks to Brian for the help he offered me and apologies for the many times I was grouchy and cranky, peace be with you. Thanks Ling for posting this. Victoria (tk) 22:49, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Oy. This is sad news. And to think that this was only a month ago... Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 00:03, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Devastating. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:52, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, Brian is one of the many people around here whom I have never actually met, but has helped me become a better writer, and frankly a better person. He will be missed.Dave (talk) 02:35, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Definitely a fixture here, and definitely a great positive. He will be missed, condolences to his family and friends. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs talk 03:39, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'm deeply grateful to have worked with Brian at FAC and peer review and elsewhere. He was incredibly erudite, incredibly productive, incredibly steady: a great editor. Finetooth (talk) 03:54, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This is very sad news. His contributions here were enormous. I really appreciated his help. Moisejp (talk) 04:16, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I am so sad. Brian was so giving of his time and talent - it was such a pleasure to have worked with him. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 04:25, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Brian for all the source reviews you conducted to keep the FAC process moving. Unfortunately, those were my sole interactions with BB. Mr rnddude (talk) 05:16, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Brian was unstinting in his help to other editors, a great guy Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:15, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry to hear this. I didn't know him well, but he was extremely conscientious and helpful in any review of his that I saw. Vanamonde (Talk) 07:13, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I was shocked when I learned of it, and left a message on his talk page. Should we perhaps move the above to there, where his relatives will be more likely to look? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:40, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Very sad, FAC will not be the same. FunkMonk (talk) 08:58, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Very sorry to hear this. Brian was a thorough and knowledgeable editor who helped me out at FAC on more than one occasion. Kosack (talk) 10:59, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I am very sorry to hear about this. It is a very sad loss. Dudley Miles (talk) 11:28, 11 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
There ought to be a fitting epitaph borrowed from some Antarctic explorer but (to quote Brian instead), most of them are "Zzzzzzz" when not exploring. Yomanganitalk

Dear colleagues; please know that Brian’s family have posted a message of appreciation at his user talk page, yesterday at 13:03, also informing us of the creation of a new account: Brianboulton's Family. With kind regards;
Patrick. Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 13:53, 13 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

All of us who interacted with him can testify that he had a positive impact on this community and wikipedia at large. His legacy lives on here.Iry-Hor (talk) 21:10, 13 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This is just heartbreaking. There are very few editors (if any) who have done more for the FAC process, or Wikipedia in general, than Brian. I'd go even farther than FunkMonk and say the site won't be the same without him. Giants2008 (Talk) 22:38, 13 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sad to hear this - I didn't work closely with Brian, but he reviewed a number of my articles at FAC over the years and he was always pleasant to work with. Parsecboy (talk) 17:18, 17 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sadness has conquered my heart after I got this news. I hope he had a happy life and it's sad to hear another great editor has to go away from us. I've never known him or worked with him but I hope his soul will rest in peace amen. Cheers. CPA-5 (talk) 12:03, 23 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Holy crap! How did I miss this?! Terribly sad about this. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 10:26, 2 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Like Casliber, I missed this last month as well (I left my condolences on Brian's user talk page). A couple of suggestions: (1) the tributes and condolences being expressed here (at WT:FAC) will at some point disappear into the archives. Maybe at that point (or before?) they should be copied over to Brian's talk page where others have also left condolences (I am not sure if the family will necessarily find their way here even though there are links from there to here and pings made here). (2) While reading condolences left at another recently deceased Wikipedian's talk page (see here) I was reminded that sometimes the Wikipedia community create more lasting memorials (e.g. naming an award or process after someone - see 'The McLellan Quaich' at the aforementioned talk page). I suspect the best tribute to Brian would be to ensure that FAC and other reviewing areas remain healthy (see discussions further down the page) and to do some reviews! But am making the suggestion here in case there is any desire to do something along those lines (there is also a memorial userbox mentioned on Brian's talk page that some people have started using). (3) Could someone put something fitting at Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/2019 (the main 'deceased' page has this)? (4) Along similar lines, maybe something could be written up for The Signpost (I left a note here). Carcharoth (talk) 13:54, 10 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I just found this out now. I only saw Brian and his sources during my first successful FAC, but he was very thorough with his spotchecks and easygoing with me, and looking at other FACs he was the same. The FAC community is now worse off without him, and I send my condolences to Mr. Boulton's family, friends, and loved ones. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 00:35, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Nominating Australasian Antarctic Expedition for GA, then FA?

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Dear colleagues,
Since Brian's final contribution here was his rewrite of Australasian Antarctic Expedition, might it be a fitting tribute to his memory if one (or more) of you with the required expertise would nominate that article for GA, and possibly FA soon thereafter?
Thank you for giving this a thought, and for your consideration.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 19:52, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Skipped the GA bit though. Yomanganitalk 16:41, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much, Yomangani! Speedy Gonzalez!!! ... And with some very entertaining edit summaries, too, which I dare say Brian would have enjoyed! . (I was typing this in, but your edit beat me to it; thank you once more!)
With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 16:53, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Monteverdi on 15 May 2020

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Claudio Monteverdi c. 1630

Claudio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, string player and maestro di cappella. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history. He was a court musician in Mantua (c. 1590 – 1613), and then maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica in the Republic of Venice. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony – but also experimenting with the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque – as well as large-scale sacred works, including the Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), and three complete operas. His music enjoyed a rediscovery from the 1880s onwards, and he is now seen as a significant influence in European musical history. Seven of his operas have been lost, but his L'Orfeo (1607) is the earliest opera that is still widely performed. (Full article...)

In memory of Brian who wrote it. I boldly nominated Monteverdi's Vespers for FAC. Aza24 has plans to make his operas a featured topic. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:33, 16 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Australasian Antarctic Expedition on 27 May 2020

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The Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1914), headed by Douglas Mawson, explored the largely uncharted coast of Antarctica due south of Australia. Mawson was inspired to lead his own venture by his experiences on Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907–1909. During its time in Antarctica, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition's sledging parties covered around 2,600 miles (4,180 km) of unexplored territory. Its ship, SY Aurora (pictured), navigated 1,800 miles (2,900 km) of unmapped coastline. Scientific activities included meteorological measurements, magnetic observations, an expansive oceanographic program, and the collection of many biological and geological samples, including the discovery of the first meteorite found in Antarctica. The expedition was the first to establish and maintain wireless contact between Antarctica and Australia. Its broad exploration program laid the groundwork for Australia's later territorial claims in Antarctica.

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Wikipedia:Featured topic candidates/Operas by Claudio Monteverdi/archive1, nominated by Aza24 in memory of Brian's birthday --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:45, 4 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

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Awesome
Ten years!

Related to the operas: the nomination is still open, and the list article is scheduled to appear on the Main page on 21 August. I believe the blurb in the FTN is the better one. Thoughts welcome. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:17, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Update: Monteverdi's operas are a featured topic now!! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:00, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago, again today --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:48, 3 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) composed ten operas, a genre that emerged while he was a court musician in Mantua. His first opera, L'Orfeo, premiered in 1607 and became the first opera still in today's repertoire. The music for seven of his opera projects is mostly lost. Four of these were completed and performed, while he abandoned the others at some point. Libretti have survived for some of them, as well as fragments of the music for L'Arianna and Proserpina rapita. Monteverdi composed operas for a theatre in Venice when he was master of music at San Marco, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria in 1640 and L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1643, both of which also remain in the repertoire. (This list is part of a featured topic: Operas by Claudio Monteverdi.)

See Wikipedia:Today's featured list/August 21, 2020 and 21 August 2020. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:49, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

TFA Vespro della Beata Vergine

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Vespro della Beata Vergine
Magnificat from the alto partbook of Monteverdi's
Vespro della Beata Vergine kept in the Vatican Library

This article is about the Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, or Vespers of 1610, by Claudio Monteverdi. His opera L'Orfeo, premiered in 1607, is the first opera still widely performed, and the Vespers are similarly exceptional. Monteverdi, aspiring to a better positiom than court musician in Mantua, demonstrated the broad range of his abilities, writing with a post in Rome in mind, but instead went to San Marco, Venice, a few years later. We don't know if the music was ever performed completely during his lifetime, nor if he actually expected it to be performed that way. Certainly musicologists and musicians have been fascinated from the 20th century on. Monteverdi set much more text than the usual 5 psalms + Magnificat, and required a 10-part choir in one psalm, and a rich orchestra. He combined the ever-present Gregorian chant with dramatic and virtuoso elements from the emerging opera, and offered a great diversity in musical styles and expression. Here is a short introduction, - in the background you hear an extreme performance, a recording which renders only the music Monteverdi wrote (and no additions to make it a proper liturgical vespers service), with 10 singers, and soloists for all instruments. I heard them in concert at the Rheingau Musik Festival which will be missed this year.

The article is the work of many over many years ... The main inspiration came from Brian Boulton who wrote the articles about the composer and his operas, and who generously left me the sources he had collected, the greatest honour I received in my ten years here. (from the FAC)

(1 September 2020 - 1 September was the day of the dedication in 1610, and of our concert in 2019)

In gratitude --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:44, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

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Precious
Nine years!

Your response, Brian, was one of the nicest of by now more than 2,500. "Very much appreciated." - You are remembered with thanks. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:41, 8 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Carmen, illustration in Journal Amusant
Carmen, illustration in Journal Amusant

Carmen is an opera in four acts which Georges Bizet set to a libretto by the team of Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on Prosper Mérimée's novella. When it was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalized its first audiences. The opera was originally written with musical numbers and spoken dialogue. Set in southern Spain, it tells of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the fiery gypsy Carmen, and finally kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness broke new ground in French opera. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. Carmen has become one of the most frequently performed operas, with the "Habanera" and the "Toreador Song" among the best known of all operatic arias. The music has been acclaimed for its brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere and orchestration, and for Bizet's skill in expressing the emotions and suffering of his characters.

"... in expressing the emotions and suffering of his characters" - Brian's wording, admired --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:09, 3 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Rite of Spring

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la consagració de la primavera
Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal
Barcelona, 2008

The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. The ballet caused a near-riot in the audience when first performed, on 29 May 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, but rapidly achieved success, and later became recognised as one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century. The score has many novel features, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. The scenario is the celebration of spring by various primitive rituals, at the end of which a sacrificial victim dances herself to death. After its explosive premiere the ballet was not performed until the 1920s, when Léonide Massine's rechoreographed version was the first of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading choreographers. Providing "endless stimulation for performers and listeners" alike, The Rite is among the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.

Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, 50 years after the composer's died - Aza's idea, but Corachow found this yesterday which perhaps visualises a near-riot better ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:45, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Other work on the Main page

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DYK ... that Joe Hill, the last opera by Alan Bush, contains four songs by the real Joe Hill? (11 September 2021) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:32, 11 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

HB

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Happy birthday, Brian. You are still missed by more people than you could realise. Cheers - 2A00:23C7:2B86:9800:7468:1CEE:E24B:AEFE (talk) 11:59, 4 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I second that! Bless you, dear BB! Tim riley talk 13:46, 4 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

TFA Gianni Schicchi

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Scene of the will reading

Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico, three one-act operas with contrasting themes, following the dramatic Il tabarro and the lyric Suor Angelica. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. Set in 1299 Florence, the title character pretends to be a rich citizen who had died, dictating a new will in favour of the deceased's family members but especially of himself (scene in the premiere pictured). The comedy, a rarity in the composer's work, combines elements of Puccini's modern harmonic dissonances with lyrical passages such as the aria "O mio babbino caro". When Il trittico premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918, only Gianni Schicchi became an immediate hit. It has been performed more frequently than the other two, often combined with other short operas. - TFA today by Brian Boulton and Wehwalt

in memory --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:10, 14 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Messiah

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Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language sacred oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. Its text was compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It covers episodes related to the Messiah mostly in verses from the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. Handel structured the work in three parts, each in scenes as in Baroque opera. Part I covers prophecies, the birth of Jesus and his work, Part II focuses on his Passion, while Part III deals with the resurrection of the dead. Messiah was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 in a Lenten concert, with a small orchestra of trumpets, oboes, strings and continuo. After an initially modest reception, the oratorio became one of the most frequently performed Western choral works, often adapted to large orchestras and choirs after Handel's death. Mozart modified the instrumentation in his arrangement Der Messias to a German text. The famous Hallelujah chorus, concluding Part II, is often performed individually.

Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 April 13 - remembering with thanks that you and Tim riley included me newbie in the FAC nomination, 10 years ago. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:28, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

TFA

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We thank you today for Carsten Borchgrevink, introduced (in 2009): "Borchgrevink is an unsung hero of polar exploration. Nobody liked him much; he was pushy, lacked charm, got people's backs up. Yet he was a true pioneer, with a string of Antarctic firsts. In his clumsy way he opened doors that more celebrated figures like Scott and Amundsen later passed through, to win eternal fame and glory for themselves, though hardly anyone has heard of Bochgrevink. So, here's the chance to find out about him and draw your own conclusions." Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:41, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

in memory of your birthday --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We thank you today for Nelson's Pillar, introduced (in 2016): "Nelson's Pillar, erected in 1809 to honour the British hero of Trafalgar, was a feature of Dublin for more than 150 years until, suddenly, it wasn't. Before its sudden demise it was both loved and resented by Dubliners, and survived numerous schemes for its removal or replacement with something specifically Irish. A mixture of bureacracy, sentiment – and the sense that there were more urgent priorities – kept the "one-handled adulterer" on his pedestal for far longer than perhaps even he would have expected. Opinion is divided as to whether his eventual replacement in the city centre, the Spire of Dublin, is a worthy successor."! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:46, 24 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

... and today Benjamin Morrell, introduced: "Here is the story of an enigmatic character, largely forgotten now but who made quite a stir in his time. First American to cross the Antarctic Circle? Perhaps. First man to land on Bouvet Island? Possibly. Discoverer of New South Greenland? Definitely not. The biggest liar in the Pacific? So people said of him." --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:20, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

OTD Messiah

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"Handel's Messiah
(premiered in Dublin on 13 April 1742)
is among the most frequently performed
and best-loved works in all choral music."
(Brian Boulton, 2011)

13 April 2022

(from User:Gerda Arendt/Top list)

Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:49, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In memory of compromise

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October songs
my story today

I thought of your compromise efforts today. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:34, 29 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

TFA

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We are thankful for Handel's lost Hamburg operas, introduced (in January 2016): "In his youth, George Frideric Handel served a kind of composer's apprenticeship at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg, where he wrote several operas of inordinate length. The first of these, Almira, has survived, and is occasionally performed; the music for the other three has disappeared except for a few scraps. This article examines what remains of these lost operas, and thus has something for everybody. Handel buffs can ponder the possibility that more of the missing music might one day come to light, while those who regard Handelian opera less reverentially will hope that these works stay lost forever and that perhaps others of the opus might one day join them. The article has been charmingly and thoroughly peer-reviewed." - The lost ones are Nero, Florindo and Daphne. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:07, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Smetana born 200 years ago

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Erna Berger sang the title role
of The Bartered Bride by
Bedřich Smetana
(2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884)
in a 1955 recording with Wilhelm Schüchter
and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.

10 August 2010

Kurt Honolka's mid–20th century German translation
of Smetana's Dalibor
was still being performed in 2019
in a new Oper Frankfurt production.

5 January 2020

with thanks for the composer's article -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:57, 2 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TFA

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We thank you today Jarrow March. introduced in 2015: "There was nothing revolutionary about the 1936 Jarrow march; it was the polite, constitutional action of a town brought to destitution by 1930s economic policies. They came to London, presented their case, were fobbed off with tea and sympathy, and quietly went home. Yet the march became one of the defining images of the decade, and greatly influenced post-war policies towards full employment – at least until the 1980s. But that's another tale." -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:19, 31 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TFA Kathleen Ferrier

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story · music · places

We thank you the article about Kathleen Ferrier, introduced (in 2011): "This is the sad story of a classical singer who, for a few years after the Second World War, became one of the best-known and best-loved performers in Britain and beyond. She died of cancer at the peak of her success; at the time, cancer was never openly discussed, and her death was a stunning shock to a public quite unaware of her illness. It's her centenary next year (22 April), and I'd love to see the article on the front page then."!

Her voice is still with us, and so is yours. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:35, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

HB

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Happy birthday, Brian. You are still missed by more people than you could realise. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 04:46, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In memory

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Alexander Goehr,
who introduced compositions
of the European avant-garde to England
as.a central figure of the Manchester School,
composed the opera Arianna in 1995,
setting the libretto of Monteverdi's lost opera.
listen

2 September 2024

-- Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:20, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

== TFA

Jeremy Thorpe

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We thank you the article Jeremy Thorpe, kindly introduced (in 2015): "Thorpe was the most talked-about politician in England 40 years ago, for all the wrong reasons – see Thorpe affair for details. Last December he died, and a new biography came out – publication had been delayed for fear of libel laws. I've used this new material to expand Thorpe's biographical WP article, and provide a fuller account of his life. I suppose, however, that what will always remain most prominent in readers' minds are the sensational events that finished his career prematurely." -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:34, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tichborne case

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You introduced: "The Tichborne Claimant has been widely assumed to be a scheming London butcher who wickedly sought a title and fortune by pretending to be Roger Tichborne, the missing heir to that family's lands and wealth. He was proclaimed a fraud and a liar by the English courts, after many years of legal tussling that captivated and divided mid-Victorian England; the case had, in the short term at least, some broader consequences for radical British politics. Was the law's verdict fair and reasonable? Probably... but there will always be the possibility that he was, after all, who he said he was and thus the tragic victim of this intriguing case. The story is genuinely gripping, and I'm surprised that its filmic treatment to date has been so negligible. Please read on and draw your own conclusions."

Please read on and draw your own conclusions. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:01, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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