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...)
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May 15: Feast day of Saint Carthage (Irish Catholicism); Nakba Day in Palestinian communities; Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo (2020) Baily's beads observed during a solar eclipse in 1999
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The Kerala State Film Award for Best Director is an honour presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India since 1969. It is given to a film director who has exhibited outstanding direction while working in the Malayalam film industry. Until 1997, the awards were managed directly by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Government of Kerala. Since 1998, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, an autonomous non-profit organisation functioning under the Department of Cultural Affairs, has been exercising control over the awards. The first Kerala State Film Awards ceremony was held in 1970, with cinematographer-director A. Vincent receiving the Best Director award for his work in Nadhi (1969). Filmmaker G. Aravindan is the most frequent winner in this category, with seven awards, followed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan (pictured), with six awards, Shyamaprasad (five awards) and K. S. Sethumadhavan (four awards). (Full list...)
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Paul Delaroche, completed in 1850. The work depicts Napoleon Bonaparte leading his army through the Alps on a mule, a journey they made during the War of the Second Coalition in the spring of 1800. Napoleon is portrayed as downcast, gaunt and chilled, his expressionless face evidencing his weariness resulting from the long, arduous trek. This representation is in marked contrast to Jacques-Louis David's idealistic depiction of the same historical event in Napoleon Crossing the Alps, where the protagonist wears a pristine uniform, rides a fiery steed and is depicted as a hero. This painting is now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England. Painting credit: Paul Delaroche
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