title: CPU cache

text: Write Coalescing Cache is a special cache that is part of L2 cache in AMD's Bulldozer microarchitecture. Stores from both L1D caches in the module go through the WCC, where they are buffered and coalesced.


title: CPU cache

text: A micro-operation cache (μop cache, uop cache or UC) is a specialized cache that stores micro-operations of decoded instructions, as received directly from the instruction decoders or from the instruction cache. When an instruction needs to be decoded, the μop cache is checked for its decoded form which is re-used if cached; if it is not available, the instruction is decoded and then cached.


title: CPU cache

text: One of the early works describing μop cache as an alternative frontend for the Intel P6 processor family is the 2001 paper ""Micro-Operation Cache: A Power Aware Frontend for Variable Instruction Length ISA"". Later, Intel included μop caches in its Sandy Bridge processors and in successive microarchitectures like Ivy Bridge and Haswell. AMD implemented a μop cache in their Zen microarchitecture.


title: CPU cache

text: Fetching complete pre-decoded instructions eliminates the need to repeatedly decode variable length complex instructions into simpler fixed-length micro-operations, and simplifies the process of predicting, fetching, rotating and aligning fetched instructions. A μop cache effectively offloads the fetch and decode hardware, thus decreasing power consumption and improving the frontend supply of decoded micro-operations. The μop cache also increases performance by more consistently delivering decoded micro-operations to the backend and eliminating various bottlenecks in the CPU's fetch and decode logic.


title: CPU cache

text: A μop cache has many similarities with a trace cache, although a μop cache is much simpler thus providing better power efficiency; this makes it better suited for implementations on battery-powered devices. The main disadvantage of the trace cache, leading to its power inefficiency, is the hardware complexity required for its heuristic deciding on caching and reusing dynamically created instruction traces.


title: CPU cache

text: A branch target cache or branch target instruction cache, the name used on ARM microprocessors, is a specialized cache which holds the first few instructions at the destination of a taken branch. This is used by low-powered processors which do not need a normal instruction cache because the memory system is capable of delivering instructions fast enough to satisfy the CPU without one. However, this only applies to consecutive instructions in sequence; it still takes several cycles of latency to restart instruction fetch at a new address, causing a few cycles of pipeline bubble after a control transfer. A branch target cache provides instructions for those few cycles avoiding a delay after most taken branches.


title: CPU cache

text: This allows full-speed operation with a much smaller cache than a traditional full-time instruction cache.


title: CPU cache

text: Smart Cache shares the actual cache memory between the cores of a multi-core processor. In comparison to a dedicated per-core cache, the overall cache miss rate decreases when not all cores need equal parts of the cache space. Consequently, a single core can use the full level 2 or level 3 cache, if the other cores are inactive. Furthermore, the shared cache makes it faster to share memory among different execution cores.


title: CPU cache

text: Another issue is the fundamental tradeoff between cache latency and hit rate. Larger caches have better hit rates but longer latency. To address this tradeoff, many computers use multiple levels of cache, with small fast caches backed up by larger, slower caches. Multi-level caches generally operate by checking the fastest cache, "level 1" (L1), first; if it hits, the processor proceeds at high speed. If that smaller cache misses, the next fastest cache, "level 2" (L2), is checked, and so on, before accessing external memory.


title: CPU cache

text: As the latency difference between main memory and the fastest cache has become larger, some processors have begun to utilize as many as three levels of on-chip cache. Price-sensitive designs used this to pull the entire cache hierarchy on-chip, but by the 2010s some of the highest-performance designs returned to having large off-chip caches, which is often implemented in eDRAM and mounted on a multi-chip module, as a fourth cache level. In rare cases, such as in the mainframe CPU IBM z15 (2019), all levels down to L1 are implemented by eDRAM, replacing SRAM entirely (for cache, SRAM is still used for registers). The ARM-based Apple M1 has a 192 KiB L1 cache for each of the four high-performance cores, an unusually large amount; however the four high-efficiency cores only have 128 KiB.


title: CPU cache

text: The benefits of L3 and L4 caches depend on the application's access patterns. Examples of products incorporating L3 and L4 caches include the following:


title: CPU cache

text: Finally, at the other end of the memory hierarchy, the CPU register file itself can be considered the smallest, fastest cache in the system, with the special characteristic that it is scheduled in software—typically by a compiler, as it allocates registers to hold values retrieved from main memory for, as an example, loop nest optimization. However, with register renaming most compiler register assignments are reallocated dynamically by hardware at runtime into a register bank, allowing the CPU to break false data dependencies and thus easing pipeline hazards.


title: CPU cache

text: Register files sometimes also have hierarchy: The Cray-1 (circa 1976) had eight address "A" and eight scalar data "S" registers that were generally usable. There was also a set of 64 address "B" and 64 scalar data "T" registers that took longer to access, but were faster than main memory. The "B" and "T" registers were provided because the Cray-1 did not have a data cache. (The Cray-1 did, however, have an instruction cache.)


title: CPU cache

text: When considering a chip with multiple cores, there is a question of whether the caches should be shared or local to each core. Implementing shared cache inevitably introduces more wiring and complexity. But then, having one cache per "chip", rather than "core", greatly reduces the amount of space needed, and thus one can include a larger cache.


title: CPU cache

text: Typically, sharing the L1 cache is undesirable because the resulting increase in latency would make each core run considerably slower than a single-core chip. However, for the highest-level cache, the last one called before accessing memory, having a global cache is desirable for several reasons, such as allowing a single core to use the whole cache, reducing data redundancy by making it possible for different processes or threads to share cached data, and reducing the complexity of utilized cache coherency protocols. For example, an eight-core chip with three levels may include an L1 cache for each core, one intermediate L2 cache for each pair of cores, and one L3 cache shared between all cores.


title: CPU cache

text: Shared highest-level cache, which is called before accessing memory, is usually referred to as the "last level cache" (LLC). Additional techniques are used for increasing the level of parallelism when LLC is shared between multiple cores, including slicing it into multiple pieces which are addressing certain ranges of memory addresses, and can be accessed independently.


title: CPU cache

text: In a separate cache structure, instructions and data are cached separately, meaning that a cache line is used to cache either instructions or data, but not both; various benefits have been demonstrated with separate data and instruction translation lookaside buffers. In a unified structure, this constraint is not present, and cache lines can be used to cache both instructions and data.


title: CPU cache

text: Multi-level caches introduce new design decisions. For instance, in some processors, all data in the L1 cache must also be somewhere in the L2 cache. These caches are called "strictly inclusive". Other processors (like the AMD Athlon) have "exclusive" caches: data is guaranteed to be in at most one of the L1 and L2 caches, never in both. Still other processors (like the Intel Pentium II, III, and 4) do not require that data in the L1 cache also reside in the L2 cache, although it may often do so. There is no universally accepted name for this intermediate policy;


title: CPU cache

text: The advantage of exclusive caches is that they store more data. This advantage is larger when the exclusive L1 cache is comparable to the L2 cache, and diminishes if the L2 cache is many times larger than the L1 cache. When the L1 misses and the L2 hits on an access, the hitting cache line in the L2 is exchanged with a line in the L1. This exchange is quite a bit more work than just copying a line from L2 to L1, which is what an inclusive cache does.


title: CPU cache

text: One advantage of strictly inclusive caches is that when external devices or other processors in a multiprocessor system wish to remove a cache line from the processor, they need only have the processor check the L2 cache. In cache hierarchies which do not enforce inclusion, the L1 cache must be checked as well. As a drawback, there is a correlation between the associativities of L1 and L2 caches: if the L2 cache does not have at least as many ways as all L1 caches together, the effective associativity of the L1 caches is restricted. Another disadvantage of inclusive cache is that whenever there is an eviction in L2 cache, the (possibly) corresponding lines in L1 also have to get evicted in order to maintain inclusiveness. This is quite a bit of work, and would result in a higher L1 miss rate.


title: CPU cache

text: Another advantage of inclusive caches is that the larger cache can use larger cache lines, which reduces the size of the secondary cache tags. (Exclusive caches require both caches to have the same size cache lines, so that cache lines can be swapped on a L1 miss, L2 hit.) If the secondary cache is an order of magnitude larger than the primary, and the cache data is an order of magnitude larger than the cache tags, this tag area saved can be comparable to the incremental area needed to store the L1 cache data in the L2.


title: CPU cache

text: Scratchpad memory (SPM), also known as scratchpad, scratchpad RAM or local store in computer terminology, is a high-speed internal memory used for temporary storage of calculations, data, and other work in progress.


title: CPU cache

text: To illustrate both specialization and multi-level caching, here is the cache hierarchy of the K8 core in the AMD Athlon 64 CPU.


title: CPU cache

text: The K8 has four specialized caches: an instruction cache, an instruction TLB, a data TLB, and a data cache. Each of these caches is specialized:


title: CPU cache

text: The K8 also has multiple-level caches. There are second-level instruction and data TLBs, which store only PTEs mapping 4 KiB. Both instruction and data caches, and the various TLBs, can fill from the large unified L2 cache. This cache is exclusive to both the L1 instruction and data caches, which means that any 8-byte line can only be in one of the L1 instruction cache, the L1 data cache, or the L2 cache. It is, however, possible for a line in the data cache to have a PTE which is also in one of the TLBs—the operating system is responsible for keeping the TLBs coherent by flushing portions of them when the page tables in memory are updated.


title: CPU cache

text: The K8 also caches information that is never stored in memory—prediction information. These caches are not shown in the above diagram. As is usual for this class of CPU, the K8 has fairly complex


title: CPU cache

text: branch prediction, with tables that help predict whether branches are taken and other tables which predict the targets of branches and jumps. Some of this information is associated with instructions, in both the level 1 instruction cache and the unified secondary cache.


title: CPU cache

text: The K8 uses an interesting trick to store prediction information with instructions in the secondary cache. Lines in the secondary cache are protected from accidental data corruption (e.g. by an alpha particle strike) by either ECC or parity, depending on whether those lines were evicted from the data or instruction primary caches. Since the parity code takes fewer bits than the ECC code, lines from the instruction cache have a few spare bits. These bits are used to cache branch prediction information associated with those instructions. The net result is that the branch predictor has a larger effective history table, and so has better accuracy.


title: CPU cache

text: Other processors have other kinds of predictors (e.g., the store-to-load bypass predictor in the DEC Alpha 21264), and various specialized predictors are likely to flourish in future processors.


title: CPU cache

text: These predictors are caches in that they store information that is costly to compute. Some of the terminology used when discussing predictors is the same as that for caches (one speaks of a hit in a branch predictor), but predictors are not generally thought of as part of the cache hierarchy.


title: CPU cache

text: The K8 keeps the instruction and data caches coherent in hardware, which means that a store into an instruction closely following the store instruction will change that following instruction. Other processors, like those in the Alpha and MIPS family, have relied on software to keep the instruction cache coherent. Stores are not guaranteed to show up in the instruction stream until a program calls an operating system facility to ensure coherency.


title: CPU cache

text: In computer engineering, a "tag RAM" is used to specify which of the possible memory locations is currently stored in a CPU cache. For a simple, direct-mapped design fast SRAM can be used. Higher associative caches usually employ content-addressable memory.


title: CPU cache

text: Cache reads are the most common CPU operation that takes more than a single cycle. Program execution time tends to be very sensitive to the latency of a level-1 data cache hit. A great deal of design effort, and often power and silicon area are expended making the caches as fast as possible.


title: CPU cache

text: The simplest cache is a virtually indexed direct-mapped cache. The virtual address is calculated with an adder, the relevant portion of the address extracted and used to index an SRAM, which returns the loaded data. The data is byte aligned in a byte shifter, and from there is bypassed to the next operation. There is no need for any tag checking in the inner loop in fact, the tags need not even be read. Later in the pipeline, but before the load instruction is retired, the tag for the loaded data must be read, and checked against the virtual address to make sure there was a cache hit. On a miss, the cache is updated with the requested cache line and the pipeline is restarted.


title: CPU cache

text: An associative cache is more complicated, because some form of tag must be read to determine which entry of the cache to select. An N-way set-associative level-1 cache usually reads all N possible tags and N data in parallel, and then chooses the data associated with the matching tag. Level-2 caches sometimes save power by reading the tags first, so that only one data element is read from the data SRAM.


title: CPU cache

text: The adjacent diagram is intended to clarify the manner in which the various fields of the address are used. Address bit 31 is most significant, bit 0 is least significant. The diagram shows the SRAMs, indexing, and multiplexing for a 4 KiB, 2-way set-associative, virtually indexed and virtually tagged cache with 64 byte (B) lines, a 32-bit read width and 32-bit virtual address.


title: CPU cache

text: Because the cache is 4 KiB and has 64 B lines, there are just 64 lines in the cache, and we read two at a time from a Tag SRAM which has 32 rows, each with a pair of 21 bit tags. Although any function of virtual address bits 31 through 6 could be used to index the tag and data SRAMs, it is simplest to use the least significant bits.


title: CPU cache

text: Similarly, because the cache is 4 KiB and has a 4 B read path, and reads two ways for each access, the Data SRAM is 512 rows by 8 bytes wide.


title: CPU cache

text: A more modern cache might be 16 KiB, 4-way set-associative, virtually indexed, virtually hinted, and physically tagged, with 32 B lines, 32-bit read width and 36-bit physical addresses. The read path recurrence for such a cache looks very similar to the path above. Instead of tags, vhints are read, and matched against a subset of the virtual address. Later on in the pipeline, the virtual address is translated into a physical address by the TLB, and the physical tag is read (just one, as the vhint supplies which way of the cache to read). Finally the physical address is compared to the physical tag to determine if a hit has occurred.


title: CPU cache

text: Some SPARC designs have improved the speed of their L1 caches by a few gate delays by collapsing the virtual address adder into the SRAM decoders. See sum-addressed decoder.


title: CPU cache

text: The early history of cache technology is closely tied to the invention and use of virtual memory. Because of scarcity and cost of semi-conductor memories, early mainframe computers in the 1960s used a complex hierarchy of physical memory, mapped onto a flat virtual memory space used by programs. The memory technologies would span semi-conductor, magnetic core, drum and disc. Virtual memory seen and used by programs would be flat and caching would be used to fetch data and instructions into the fastest memory ahead of processor access. Extensive studies were done to optimize the cache sizes. Optimal values were found to depend greatly on the programming language used with Algol needing the smallest and Fortran and Cobol needing the largest cache sizes.


title: CPU cache

text: In the early days of microcomputer technology, memory access was only slightly slower than register access. But since the 1980s the performance gap between processor and memory has been growing. Microprocessors have advanced much faster than memory, especially in terms of their operating frequency, so memory became a performance bottleneck. While it was technically possible to have all the main memory as fast as the CPU, a more economically viable path has been taken: use plenty of low-speed memory, but also introduce a small high-speed cache memory to alleviate the performance gap. This provided an order of magnitude more capacity—for the same price—with only a slightly reduced combined performance.


title: CPU cache

text: The first documented uses of a TLB were on the GE 645 and the IBM 360/67, both of which used an associative memory as a TLB.


title: CPU cache

text: The 68010, released in 1982, has a "loop mode" which can be considered a tiny and special-case instruction cache that accelerates loops that consist of only two instructions. The 68020, released in 1984, replaced that with a typical instruction cache of 256 bytes, being the first 68k series processor to feature true on-chip cache memory.


title: CPU cache

text: The 68030, released in 1987, is basically a 68020 core with an additional 256-byte data cache, an on-chip memory management unit (MMU), a process shrink, and added burst mode for the caches. The 68040, released in 1990, has split instruction and data caches of four kilobytes each. The 68060, released in 1994, has the following: 8 KiB data cache (four-way associative), 8 KiB instruction cache (four-way associative), 96-byte FIFO instruction buffer, 256-entry branch cache, and 64-entry address translation cache MMU buffer (four-way associative).


title: CPU cache

text: As the x86 microprocessors reached clock rates of 20 MHz and above in the 386, small amounts of fast cache memory began to be featured in systems to improve performance. This was because the DRAM used for main memory had significant latency, up to 120 ns, as well as refresh cycles. The cache was constructed from more expensive, but significantly faster, SRAM memory cells, which at the time had latencies around 10–25 ns. The early caches were external to the processor and typically located on the motherboard in the form of eight or nine DIP devices placed in sockets to enable the cache as an optional extra or upgrade feature.


title: CPU cache

text: With the 486 processor, an 8 KiB cache was integrated directly into the CPU die. This cache was termed Level 1 or L1 cache to differentiate it from the slower on-motherboard, or Level 2 (L2) cache. These on-motherboard caches were much larger, with the most common size being 256 KiB. The popularity of on-motherboard cache continued through the Pentium MMX era but was made obsolete by the introduction of SDRAM and the growing disparity between bus clock rates and CPU clock rates, which caused on-motherboard cache to be only slightly faster than main memory.


title: CPU cache

text: The next development in cache implementation in the x86 microprocessors began with the Pentium Pro, which brought the secondary cache onto the same package as the microprocessor, clocked at the same frequency as the microprocessor.


title: CPU cache

text: On-motherboard caches enjoyed prolonged popularity thanks to the AMD K6-2 and AMD K6-III processors that still used Socket 7, which was previously used by Intel with on-motherboard caches. K6-III included 256 KiB on-die L2 cache and took advantage of the on-board cache as a third level cache, named L3 (motherboards with up to 2 MiB of on-board cache were produced). After the Socket 7 became obsolete, on-motherboard cache disappeared from the x86 systems.


title: CPU cache

text: The three-level caches were used again first with the introduction of multiple processor cores, where the L3 cache was added to the CPU die. It became common for the total cache sizes to be increasingly larger in newer processor generations, and recently (as of 2011) it is not uncommon to find Level 3 cache sizes of tens of megabytes.


title: CPU cache

text: Intel introduced a Level 4 on-package cache with the Haswell microarchitecture. "Crystalwell" Haswell CPUs, equipped with the GT3e variant of Intel's integrated Iris Pro graphics, effectively feature 128 MiB of embedded DRAM (eDRAM) on the same package. This L4 cache is shared dynamically between the on-die GPU and CPU, and serves as a victim cache to the CPU's L3 cache.


title: CPU cache

text: Apple M1 CPU has 128 or 192 KiB instruction L1 cache for each core (important for latency/single-thread performance), depending on core type, unusually large for L1 cache of any CPU type, not just for a laptop, while the total cache memory size is not unusually large (the total is more important for throughput), for a laptop, and much larger total (e.g. L3 or L4) sizes are available in IBM's mainframes.


title: CPU cache

text: Early cache designs focused entirely on the direct cost of cache and RAM and average execution speed.


title: CPU cache

text: There are several tools available to computer architects to help explore tradeoffs between the cache cycle time, energy, and area; the CACTI cache simulator and the SimpleScalar instruction set simulator are two open-source options.


title: CPU cache

text: A multi-ported cache is a cache which can serve more than one request at a time. When accessing a traditional cache we normally use a single memory address, whereas in a multi-ported cache we may request N addresses at a time where N is the number of ports that connected through the processor and the cache. The benefit of this is that a pipelined processor may access memory from different phases in its pipeline. Another benefit is that it allows the concept of super-scalar processors through different cache levels.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The ArmaLite AR-15 is a select-fire, gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed rifle manufactured in the United States between 1959 and 1964. Designed by American gun manufacturer ArmaLite in 1956, it was based on its AR-10 rifle. The ArmaLite AR-15 was designed to be a lightweight rifle and to fire a new high-velocity, lightweight, small-caliber cartridge to allow infantrymen to carry more ammunition.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In 1959, ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR-15 to Colt due to financial difficulties and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity. After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like AR-10 to the rear of the receiver), Colt rebranded it the Colt 601, however it still carried the Armalite markings due to contractual obligations to Armalite/Fairchild Aircraft Co. Colt marketed the redesigned rifle to various military services around the world and was eventually adopted by the U.S. military in January 1962 and subsequently designated as M16 rifle in December 1963, which went into production and service in 1964.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: Colt continued to use the AR-15 trademark for its line of semi-automatic-only rifles marketed to civilian and law-enforcement customers, known as Colt AR-15. The Armalite AR-15 is the parent of a variety of Colt AR-15 and M16 rifle variants.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: After World War II, the United States military started looking for a single automatic rifle to replace the M1 Garand, M1/M2 Carbines, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, M3 "Grease Gun" and Thompson submachine gun. However, early experiments with select-fire versions of the M1 Garand proved disappointing. During the Korean War, the select-fire M2 Carbine largely replaced the submachine gun in US service and became the most widely used Carbine variant. However, combat experience suggested that the .30 Carbine round was under-powered. American weapons designers concluded that an intermediate round was necessary, and recommended a small-caliber, high-velocity cartridge.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: However, senior American commanders having faced fanatical enemies and experienced major logistical problems during WWII and the Korean War, insisted that a single powerful .30 caliber cartridge be developed, that could not only be used by the new automatic rifle, but by the new general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) in concurrent development. This culminated in the development of the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The United States Army then began testing several rifles to replace the obsolete M1 Garand. Springfield Armory's T44E4 and heavier T44E5 were essentially updated versions of the Garand chambered for the new 7.62 mm round, while Fabrique Nationale submitted their FN FAL as the T48. ArmaLite entered the competition late, hurriedly submitting several AR-10 prototype rifles in the fall of 1956 to the United States Army's Springfield Armory for testing.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The ArmaLite AR-10 featured an innovative straight-line barrel/stock design, forged aluminum alloy receivers and with phenolic composite stocks. It had rugged elevated sights, an oversized aluminum flash suppressor and recoil compensator, and an adjustable gas system. The final prototype, featured an upper and lower receiver with the now-familiar hinge and takedown pins, and the charging handle was on top of the receiver placed inside of the carry handle. For a 7.62 mm NATO rifle, the AR-10 was incredibly lightweight at only empty. Initial comments by Springfield Armory test staff were favorable, and some testers commented that the AR-10 was the best lightweight automatic rifle ever tested by the Armory.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In the end the United States Army chose the T44, which entered service as the M14 rifle, which was an improved M1 Garand with a 20-round magazine and automatic fire capability. The U.S. also adopted the M60 general purpose machine gun (GPMG). Its NATO partners adopted the FN FAL and HK G3 rifles, and the FN MAG and Rheinmetall MG3 GPMGs.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The first confrontations between the AK-47 and the M14 came in the early part of the Vietnam War. Battlefield reports indicated that the M14 was uncontrollable in full-auto and that soldiers could not carry enough ammo to maintain fire superiority over the AK-47. While the M2 Carbine offered a high rate of fire, it was under-powered and ultimately outclassed by the AK-47. A replacement was needed: a medium between the traditional preference for high-powered rifles, such as the M14, and the lightweight firepower of the M2 Carbine.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: As a result, the Army was forced to reconsider a 1957 request by General Willard G. Wyman, commander of the U.S. Continental Army Command (CONARC), to develop a .223 caliber (5.56 mm) select-fire rifle weighing 6 lb (2.7 kg) when loaded with a 20-round magazine. The 5.56mm round had to penetrate a standard U.S. M1 helmet at and retain a velocity in excess of the speed of sound, while matching or exceeding the wounding ability of the .30 Carbine cartridge. This request ultimately resulted in the development of a scaled-down version of the ArmaLite AR-10, called the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In 1958, ArmaLite submitted ten AR-15s and one hundred 25-round magazines for CONARC testing. The tests found that a five to seven man team armed with AR-15s had the same firepower as an 11 man team armed with M14s and soldiers armed with AR-15s could also carry three times more ammunition than those armed with M14s (649 rounds vs. 220 rounds). The AR-15 was found to be three times more reliable than the M14 rifle. However, General Maxwell Taylor, then Army Chief of Staff, "vetoed" the AR-15 in favor of the M14. In 1959, ArmaLite—now frustrated with the lack of results and suffering ongoing financial difficulties—sold its rights to the AR-10 and AR-15 to Colt.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: After acquiring the AR-15, Colt promptly redesigned the rifle to facilitate mass production. Based on the final ArmaLite design, most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle, like the earlier AR-10 to the rear of the receiver, like the later M16 rifle. Colt then renamed and rebranded the rifle "Colt ArmaLite AR-15 Model 01". After a Far East tour, Colt made its first sale of Colt ArmaLite AR-15 rifles to Malaya on September 30, 1959. Colt manufactured their first batch of 300 Colt ArmaLite AR-15 rifles in December 1959. Colt would go on to market the Colt ArmaLite AR-15 rifle to military services around the world.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In July 1960, General Curtis LeMay, then Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, was impressed by a demonstration of the AR-15 and ordered 8500 rifles. In the meantime, the Army would continue testing the AR-15, finding that the intermediate cartridge .223 (5.56 mm) rifle is much easier to shoot than the standard 7.62×51mm NATO M14 rifle. In 1961 marksmanship testing, the U.S. Army found that 43% of AR-15 shooters achieved Expert, while only 22% of M14 rifle shooters did so. Also, a lower recoil impulse, allows for more controllable automatic weapons fire.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In the summer of 1961, General LeMay was promoted to Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and requested an additional 80,000 AR-15s. However, General Maxwell D. Taylor, now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, (who repeatedly clashed with LeMay) advised President John F. Kennedy that having two different calibers within the military system at the same time would be problematic and the request was rejected. In October 1961, William Godel, a senior man at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, sent 10 AR-15s to South Vietnam. The reception was enthusiastic, and in 1962, another 1,000 AR-15s were sent. United States Army Special Forces personnel filed battlefield reports lavishly praising the AR-15 and the stopping-power of the 5.56 mm cartridge, and pressed for its adoption.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: By intentionally choosing a slow twist rate the 55 grain bullet used in the 5.56 Ball M193 cartridge was only just stable in flight. The damage caused by the 5.56 mm bullet was originally believed to be caused by instantaneous "tumbling" on impact and render a wide, incapacitating wound due to the slow 1 in rifling twist rate. However, any pointed lead core bullet will "tumble" after penetration in flesh, because the center of gravity is towards the rear of the bullet. The large wounds observed by soldiers in Vietnam were actually caused by bullet fragmentation, which was created by a combination of the bullet's velocity and construction. These wounds were so devastating that the photographs remained classified into the 1980s.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: However, despite overwhelming evidence that the AR-15 could bring more firepower to bear than the M14, the Army opposed the adoption of the new rifle. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara now had two conflicting views: the USAF's (General LeMay's) repeated requests for additional AR-15s and the ARPA report favoring the AR-15, versus the Army's position favoring the M14. Even President Kennedy expressed concern, so McNamara ordered Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance to test the M14, the AR-15 and the AK-47. The Army reported that only the M14 was suitable for service, but Vance wondered about the impartiality of those conducting the tests. He ordered the Army Inspector General to investigate the testing methods used; the Inspector General confirmed that the testers were biased towards the M14.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In January 1963, Secretary McNamara received reports that M14 production was insufficient to meet the needs of the armed forces and ordered a halt to M14 production. At the time, the AR-15 was the only rifle that could fulfill a requirement of a "universal" infantry weapon for issue to all services. McNamara ordered its adoption, despite receiving reports of several deficiencies, most notably the lack of a chrome-plated chamber.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: After minor modifications, the new redesigned rifle was renamed the "Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16". Meanwhile, the Army relented and recommended the adoption of the M16 for jungle warfare operations. However, the Army insisted on the inclusion of a forward assist to help push the bolt into battery in the event that a cartridge failed to seat into the chamber. The Air Force, Colt and Eugene Stoner believed that the addition of a forward assist was an unjustified expense. As a result, the design was split into two variants: the Air Force's M16 without the forward assist, and the "XM16E1 (AKA: M16A1)" with the forward assist for the other service branches.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: In November 1963, McNamara approved the U.S. Army's order of 85,000 XM16E1s; and to appease General LeMay, the Air Force was granted an order for another 19,000 M16s. In March 1964, the M16 rifle went into production and the Army accepted delivery of the first batch of 2129 rifles later that year, and an additional 57,240 rifles the following year.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The Colt ArmaLite AR-15 was discontinued with the adoption of the M16 rifle. Most AR-15 rifles in U.S. service have long ago been upgraded to M16 configuration. The Colt ArmaLite AR-15 was also used by the United States Secret Service and other U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: Shortly after the United States military adopted the M16 rifle, Colt introduced its line semi-automatic-only Colt AR-15 rifles, which it markets to civilians and law enforcement. Colt continues to use the AR-15 name for these rifles.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: Colt's first two models produced after the acquisition of the rifle from ArmaLite were the 601 and 602, and these rifles were in many ways clones of the original ArmaLite rifle (in fact, these rifles were often found stamped "Colt ArmaLite AR-15, Property of the U.S. Government caliber .223", with no reference to them being M16s).


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The 601 and 602 are virtually identical to the later M16 rifle without the forward-assist. Like the later M16 rifle their charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like AR-10 to the rear of the receiver. They were equipped with triangular fore-stocks and occasionally green or brown furniture. Their front sight had a more triangular shape. They had flat lower receivers without raised surfaces around the magazine well. Their bolt hold open device lacked a raised lower engagement surface and had a slanted and serrated surface that had to be engaged with a bare thumb, index finger, or thumb nail because of the lack of this surface. Their fire-selector was also changed from upward = safe, backward = semi-auto and forward = full-auto, to the now familiar forward = safe, upward = semi-auto, and backward = full-auto of the M16 rifle.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The only major difference between the 601 and 602 is the switch from the original four grooves, right-hand 1:14-inch (1:355.6 mm or 64 calibers) rifling twist rate to the more common four grooves, right-hand 1:12-inch (1:304.8 mm or 54.8 calibers) twist. This was done as the original 1:14-inch twist rate to just stabilize the 55 grain bullet used in the 5.56 Ball M193 cartridge under unfavorable conditions could induce too much yaw and due to the resulting excessive in flight bullet destabilization become inaccurate. The one turn in 12 inches increased accuracy and was optimized to adequately stabilize the M193 ball and longer M196 tracer bullets.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The ArmaLite AR-15 internal piston action was derived from the original ArmaLite AR-10 action and was later used in the M16 rifle action. This internal piston action system designed by Eugene Stoner is commonly called a direct impingement system, but it does not utilize a conventional direct impingement system. In , the designer states: ″This invention is a true expanding gas system instead of the conventional impinging gas system.″


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The AR-15 is a Modular Weapon System. It is easy to assemble, modify and repair using a few simple hand tools, and a flat surface to work on. The AR-15's upper receiver incorporates the fore stock, the charging handle, the gas operating system, the barrel, the bolt and bolt carrier assembly. The lower receiver incorporates the magazine well, the pistol grip and the buttstock. The lower receiver also contains the trigger, disconnector, hammer and fire selector (collectively known as the fire control group). The AR-15's "duckbill" flash suppressor had three tines or prongs and was designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash. Early AR-15's had a 25-round magazine. Later model AR-15s used a 20-round waffle-patterned magazine that was meant to be a lightweight, disposable item. As such, it is made of pressed/stamped aluminum and was not designed to be durable.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: The AR-15's most distinctive ergonomic feature is the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. This is a by-product of the design, where the carry handle serves to protect the charging handle. The AR-15 rifle has a 500 mm (19.75 inches) sight radius. The AR-15 uses an L-type flip, aperture rear sight and it is adjustable with two settings, 0 to 300 meters and 300 to 400 meters. The front sight is a post adjustable for elevation. The rear sight can be adjusted for windage. The sights can be adjusted with a bullet tip or pointed tool.


title: ArmaLite AR-15

text: "The (AR-15's) Stoner system provides a very symmetric design that allows straight line movement of the operating components. This allows recoil forces to drive straight to the rear. Instead of connecting or other mechanical parts driving the system, high pressure gas performs this function, reducing the weight of moving parts and the rifle as a whole." The AR-15's straight-line recoil design, where the recoil spring is located in the stock directly behind the action, and serves the dual function of operating spring and recoil buffer. The stock being in line with the bore also reduces muzzle rise, especially during automatic fire. Because recoil does not significantly shift the point of aim, faster follow-up shots are possible and user fatigue is reduced.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Deiveson Alcântara Figueiredo (born December 18, 1987) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Flyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the two-time and current UFC Flyweight Champion. As of November 14, 2022, he is #12 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo was born in Soure, Pará, Brazil, a small city on the isle of Marajó where buffaloes roam freely. His father was a buffalo herder who practiced "luta marajoara", a local folk wrestling style. Deiveson has a younger sister and a brother – Francisco – who also is a professional mixed martial artist signed with the UFC. He was a cowboy, working with his father at an animal farm until he was thirteen years old. Around the age of nine, he followed his father's footsteps and began wrestling. He moved to Belém to attend high school and started training in capoeira. He started training MMA under the tutelage of UFC Bantamweight Iuri "Marajó" Alcântara at the age of sixteen.<ref name="sportv.globo.com 2017/05"></ref>


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo made his professional debut in February 2012 against a fellow debutante Aluisio Ferreira. He won the fight by first-round submission. In his next six fights, Figueiredo fought in the Pará and Maranhão MMA circuits, mostly against debuting fighters, with David Silva and Joel Silva being the notable exceptions.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: In late 2014, Deiveson signed with Jungle Fight, and was scheduled to make his first appearance with the organization at Jungle Fight 75 against Rayner Silva. Figueiredo won the fight by a second-round TKO.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: He was then scheduled to fight Jefte Brilhante during Revelation FC 3, but the bout was later cancelled. He was scheduled to fight Henrique Souza during Revelation FC 4, but the fight was likewise later cancelled.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo was scheduled to fight Antônio de Miranda during Jungle Fight 87, following a seventeen-month break from the sport. He defeated de Miranda by submission mid-way through the first round. He fought again four months later, during Jungle Fight 90, against the undefeated Denis Araujo Oliveira. He defeated Araujo by a second-round TKO.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo made his promotional debut on June 3, 2017, at UFC 212, facing Marco Beltran. He won the fight via technical knockout by corner stoppage after round two.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: His next fight came on October 28, 2017, at against Jarred Brooks. He won the fight via split decision.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: On February 3, 2018, Figueiredo faced Joseph Morales at . He won the fight via technical knockout in round two.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo faced John Moraga on August 25, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 135. He won the fight via technical knockout 3:08 into the second round.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo was expected to face Joseph Benavidez on January 19, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 143. However the promotion clarified plans indicating that the pairing was off and that Figueiredo would be rescheduled for a separate event.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo faced Jussier Formiga on March 23, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 148. He lost the fight via unanimous decision, thus resulting in Figueiredo's first professional loss.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo faced Alexandre Pantoja on July 27, 2019, at UFC 240. He won the fight via unanimous decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo faced Tim Elliott on October 12, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 161. He won the fight via submission in the first round.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo faced Joseph Benavidez for the vacant UFC Flyweight Championship at UFC Fight Night 169 on February 29, 2020. At the weigh-in, Figueiredo weighed in at 127.5 pounds, 2.5 pounds over the title fight limit. As a result, Figueiredo forfeited 30 percent of his purse to Benavidez and wasn't eligible to win the UFC Flyweight championship. He won the fight via TKO in round two.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo rematched with Joseph Benavidez for the vacant UFC Flyweight Championship at UFC Fight Night 172 on July 19, 2020. On July 11, 2020, Figueiredo tested positive for COVID-19. According to his manager, the bout was not yet officially removed and Figueiredo was administered a second COVID-19 test on July 12, 2020, where the result would be back on July 13, 2020, to determined if Figueiredo was free to fight. Figueiredo passed multiple COVID-19 tests, clearing him to fight in the main event. Figueiredo won the fight via a technical submission in the first round. This win earned him the Performance of the Night award.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: As the first fight of his new six-fight contract with the UFC, Figueiredo was scheduled to make his first title defense against former UFC Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt on November 21, 2020, at UFC 255. However, it was reported on October 2, 2020, that Garbrandt had torn his bicep and was forced to pull out of the contest. Figueiredo instead made his first title defense against Alex Perez. He won the fight via guillotine choke submission in round one.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: After a successful defence of his title at UFC 255, Figueiredo faced Brandon Moreno at UFC 256. This was the UFC's fastest championship turnaround, at 21 days. After five rounds of back-and-forth fighting, the fight was declared a majority draw. Figueiredo had a point taken from him by referee Jason Herzog in the third round for a low blow: the foul proved crucial as it turned two 48-47 scorecards in his favor into even 47-47 decisions, with the third judge seeing the fight 48-46 for the champion. Both men won the" Fight of the Night" award.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo then faced Moreno in a rematch on June 12, 2021, at UFC 263. He lost the bout and the title via a rear-naked choke submission in round three.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: A trilogy bout with Moreno for the UFC Flyweight Championship was scheduled on December 11, 2021, at UFC 269 initially, but it was moved to UFC 270. Figueiredo trained with Henry Cejudo at Fight Ready to prepare for the fight. After knocking Moreno down multiple times, he won the bout via unanimous decision, becoming a two time UFC Flyweight champion in the process. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: The tetralogy bout between Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno is scheduled on January 21, 2023, at UFC 283.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Figueiredo worked as a bricklayer, hairdresser, and sushi chef before competing in MMA professionally.


title: Deiveson Figueiredo

text: Following a stint at Team Alpha Male, Deiveson returned to his native Brazil and founded Team Figueiredo gym in Belém.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Last Action Hero is a 1993 American fantasy action comedy film directed and produced by John McTiernan and co-written by Shane Black and David Arnott. It is a satire of the action genre and associated clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater, a Los Angeles police detective within the "Jack Slater" action film franchise, while Austin O'Brien co-stars as Danny Madigan, a boy magically transported into the "Slater" universe, and Charles Dance as Mr. Benedict, a ruthless assassin from the "Slater" universe who escapes to the real world. Schwarzenegger also served as the film's executive producer and plays himself as the actor portraying Jack Slater.


title: Last Action Hero

text: "Last Action Hero" failed to meet the studio's expectations at the box office, and was both a critical and commercial disappointment. The film later found commercial success with its VHS release, establishing itself as a cult classic. The film was also Art Carney's last appearance in a motion picture before his death in 2003.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Danny Madigan is a ten-year-old boy living in a crime-ridden area of New York City with his widowed mother, Irene. Following his father's death, Danny takes comfort in watching action movies, especially a series featuring the indestructible Los Angeles cop, Jack Slater, at his local movie theater owned by Nick, who also acts as the projectionist. Nick gives Danny a golden ticket once owned by Harry Houdini, to see an early screening of "Jack Slater IV" before its official release.


title: Last Action Hero

text: During the film, the ticket stub (counterfoil) magically transports Danny into the fictional world, interrupting Slater in the middle of a car chase. After escaping from their pursuers, Slater takes Danny to the LAPD headquarters, where Danny points out evidence of the fictional nature of Slater's world, such as the presence of numerous beautiful women and a cartoon cat detective named Whiskers, and says that Slater's friend John Practice should not be trusted as he "killed Mozart" (since he is played by the same actor as Antonio Salieri in "Amadeus"). Though Slater dismisses all of this as part of Danny's wild imagination, Slater's supervisor, Lieutenant Dekker, assigns Danny as his new partner, and instructs them to investigate criminal activities related to mafia boss Tony Vivaldi.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Danny guides Slater to Vivaldi's mansion, recognizing its location from the start of the movie. There, they meet Vivaldi's henchman, Mr. Benedict. Danny later claims that Vivaldi and Benedict were the ones who killed Slater's second cousin, but Slater has no evidence, and they are forced to leave; however, Benedict is curious as to how Danny knew, and he and several hired guns follow Slater and Danny back to Slater's home. There, Slater, his daughter Whitney, and Danny thwart the attack, though Benedict ends up getting the ticket stub. He discovers its ability to transport him out of the film and into the real world.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Slater deduces Vivaldi's plan to murder the rival mob by releasing a lethal gas during a funeral atop a skyscraper. He and Danny go to stop it, but are waylaid by Practice, who reveals that Danny was right: he is working for Vivaldi. Whiskers kills Practice, saving Slater and Danny, and the two manage to prevent any deaths from the gas release. Learning that Vivaldi's plan has failed, Benedict kills him, and he uses the stub to escape into the real world, pursued by Slater and Danny.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Slater becomes despondent upon learning the truth, as well as his mortality in the real world, but cheers up after spending some time with Irene. Meanwhile, Benedict devises a plan to kill the actor portraying Slater in the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, after which he can bring other villains from other movies into the real world and take over. To help, Benedict brings the Ripper, the villain of "Jack Slater III", to the premiere of "Jack Slater IV" to assassinate Schwarzenegger. Danny and Slater learn of this and race there. Slater saves Schwarzenegger and kills the Ripper. Benedict appears and shoots Slater, critically injuring him. Danny subdues and disarms Benedict, allowing Slater to grab his revolver and shoot Benedict in his explosive glass eye, killing him; however, the blast causes the stub to be lost. With Slater losing blood, Danny knows that the only way to save him is to return him to the fictional world, where he is indestructible.


title: Last Action Hero

text: The ticket stub falls in front of a theater playing the film "The Seventh Seal," where "The Figure of Death" emerges from the screen. Death appears before Danny and Slater after they arrive at the theater in a hurry. Danny holds Death at gunpoint, but Death clarifies he was simply curious: Jack Slater is missing from his lists of when people will die, and Danny is slated to die as a grandfather. Death then suggests searching for the other half of the ticket. Danny finds it and is able to take Slater back into his movie, where his wounds instantly heal. Danny returns to the real world before the portal closes. A recovered Slater then enthusiastically embraces the true nature of his reality when he talks to Dekker about his new plan, appreciating the differences between the two worlds. Danny and Nick share a heartfelt moment reminiscing their past, while Slater drives away on the screen, waving goodbye.


title: Last Action Hero

text: "Last Action Hero" was an original screenplay by Zak Penn and Adam Leff, meant to parody typical action-film screenplays of writers such as Shane Black. Penn himself noted that the studio ironically then had Black rewrite the script. The original screenplay differs heavily from the finished film and is widely available to read online. Although it was still a parody of Hollywood action films, it was set almost entirely in the film world and focused largely on the futile cycle of violence displayed by the hero and the effect it had on people around him. Due to the radical changes, Penn and Leff were eventually credited with the story of the film, but not the screenplay.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Several script doctors did uncredited work on the script, including Carrie Fisher, Larry Ferguson, and William Goldman. Penn and Leff disliked various parts of the final film, including the idea of a magic golden ticket. In their draft, the story would not explain how Danny got transported into the film world.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Some scenes were filmed in a dome adjacent to the RMS "Queen Mary" in Long Beach, California. The exterior of the film's Pandora Theater was the Empire Theater on 42nd Street in New York. The interiors were filmed at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Years after its release, the film was the subject of a scathing chapter called "How They Built The Bomb", in the Nancy Griffin book "Hit and Run" which detailed misadventures at Sony Pictures in the early to mid-1990s. Among the details presented in this chapter were:


title: Last Action Hero

text: The film was scored by composer Michael Kamen and peaked at No. 7 on The Billboard 200 chart. The album, which was positively received by active rock radio outlets, was certified platinum on August 24, 1993.


title: Last Action Hero

text: At the time of its release, the film was billed as "the next great summer action movie" and many movie insiders predicted it would be a huge blockbuster, especially following the success of Schwarzenegger's previous film, "". The film premiered in Westwood, Los Angeles on June 13, 1993, and entered general release in the United States five days later.


title: Last Action Hero

text: "Last Action Hero" was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Columbia TriStar Home Video on August 29, 1994, and on DVD on October 7, 1997. On February 3, 2009, "Last Action Hero" was reissued on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in a double-feature set with the 1986 film "Iron Eagle". It was released on the high-definition Blu-ray Disc format on January 12, 2010. The film double-featured with "Hudson Hawk" on Blu-ray and released by Umbrella Entertainment on September 4, 2019, in Australia only. An Ultra HD Blu-ray restored version was released on May 18, 2021, and featured a director's commentary track, deleted scenes, an alternative ending, and the original theatrical trailer, all in 4K. The film was re-released with "Cliffhanger" in a 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray pack on November 2, 2021.


title: Last Action Hero

text: The film grossed approximately $1.1 million in previews on the evening of Thursday, June 17, 1993, and opened at number two at the US box office, behind "Jurassic Park"s second weekend, grossing $14.2 million on its opening weekend from 2,306 theaters. It ended its run with $50,016,394 in the United States and Canada. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 30, 1993, on 266 screens and again opened at number two behind "Jurassic Park" (on 435 screens) with a gross of $1.34 million for the weekend. In France it opened at number one with a gross of 21 million French franc ($3.6 million) in its opening week. It grossed $87,202,095 overseas, for a worldwide total of $137,298,489. In an A&E biography of Schwarzenegger, the actor (who was also the film's executive producer) says that the film could have done better if not for bad timing, since it came out a week after "Jurassic Park" which went on to break box-office records as one of the top-grossing films of all time.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Schwarzenegger states that he tried to persuade his coproducers to postpone the film's June 18 release in the United States by four weeks, but they turned a deaf ear on the grounds that the film would have lost millions of dollars in revenue for every weekend of the summer it ended up missing, also fearing that delaying the release would create negative publicity. He told the authors of "Hit And Run" that while everyone involved with the production had given their best effort, their attempt to appeal to both action and comedy fans resulted in a film that appealed to neither audience and ultimately succumbed to heavy competition.


title: Last Action Hero

text: "Last Action Hero" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 39% based on 51 reviews and an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Last Action Hero" has most of the right ingredients for a big-budget action spoof, but its scattershot tone and uneven structure only add up to a confused, chaotic mess." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, writing that despite some entertaining moments, "Last Action Hero" "plays more like a bright idea than like a movie that was thought through. It doesn't evoke the mystery of the barrier between audience and screen the way Woody Allen did in "The Purple Rose of Cairo", and a lot of the time it simply seems to be standing around commenting on itself."


title: Last Action Hero

text: Vincent Canby likened the film to "a two-hour "Saturday Night Live" sketch" and called it "something of a mess, but a frequently enjoyable one".


title: Last Action Hero

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote: ""Last Action Hero" makes such a strenuous show of winking at the audience (and itself) that it seems to be celebrating nothing so much as its own awfulness. In a sense, the movie's incipient commercial failure completes it aesthetically."


title: Last Action Hero

text: "Variety" called it "a joyless, soulless machine of a movie, an $80 million-plus mishmash of fantasy, industry in-jokes, self-referential parody, film-buff gags and too-big action set-pieces." "Halliwell's Film Guide" described it as "a film that tries to have it both ways, simultaneously mocking and celebrating the conventions of action movies, which leaves audiences, as well as the actors and director, in a state of bewildered confusion". John Ferguson of "Radio Times" was more positive, awarding it four stars out of five and stating, "An Arnold Schwarzenegger backlash had been on the cards for some time and when this extravaganza was released the knives were well and truly out. It was actually all a little unfair, because this is a smart, funny blockbuster [...] Schwarzenegger has rarely been better and he is backed up by a never-ending stream of star names in cameo roles [...] And, although McTiernan has fun spoofing the conventions of the action genre, he still manages to slip in some spectacular set pieces."


title: Last Action Hero

text: About the film's failure and critical response, John McTiernan said: Initially, it was a wonderful Cinderella story with a nine-year-old boy. We had a pretty good script by Bill Goldman, charming. And this ludicrous hype machine got hold of it, and it got buried under bullshit. It was so overwhelmed with baggage. And then it was whipped out unedited, practically assembled right out of the camera. It was in the theater five or six weeks after I finished shooting. It was kamikaze, stupid, no good reason for it. And then to open the week after "Jurassic Park"--God! To get to the depth of bad judgment involved in that you'd need a snorkel. Schwarzenegger blamed the film's poor performance on bad press and the election of Democratic president Bill Clinton, which he said influenced audiences to see 1980s action film stars as lowbrow. In 2017, he said streaming services gave the film its chance to reach new audiences unencumbered by the bad press.


title: Last Action Hero

text: Shane Black was very critical of the movie: "It was a mess. There was a movie in there, struggling to emerge, which would have pleased me. But what they’d made was a jarring, random collection of scenes."


title: Last Action Hero

text: The film was nominated for six Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star (Austin O'Brien), and Worst Original Song ("Big Gun"), but it did not win any. At the 1993 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received two nominations without wins: Worst Picture and Worst Actor (Schwarzenegger).


title: Last Action Hero

text: The film was also nominated for six Saturn Awards for Best Fantasy Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Performance by a Young Actor, Best Costume, and Best Special Effects.


title: Last Action Hero

text: A video game based on the film of the same name was released in 1993 to 1994 on video game consoles, and the themed-pinball machine was also released in 1993 by Data East and re-released on "The Pinball Arcade" and its spin-off "Stern Pinball Arcade" in 2016.


title: Last Action Hero

text: In October 2019, Schwarzenegger revealed that he was willing to star in "True Lies 2" and "Last Action Hero 2", possible legacy sequels to the two films of his 90s action roles.


title: Niihau

text: Niihau (Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Niihau ( ), is the westernmost main and seventh largest inhabited island in Hawaii. It is southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is . Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland habitats for the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian duck. The island is designated as critical habitat for "Brighamia insignis", an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid. The United States Census Bureau defines Niihau and the neighboring island and State Seabird Sanctuary of Lehua as Census Tract 410 of Kauai County, Hawaii. Its 2000 census population was 160, most of whom are native Hawaiians; Its 2010 census population was 170. At the 2020 census, the population had fallen to 84.


title: Niihau

text: Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niihau in 1864 for from the Kingdom of Hawaii. The island's private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons. During World War II, the island was the site of the Niihau incident, in which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese navy fighter pilot crashed on the island and received help from the island's residents of Japanese descent.


title: Niihau

text: The island, known as "the Forbidden Isle", is off-limits to all outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. From 1987 onward, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists. The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of Niihau are noted for their gemlike "lei pūpū" (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian as a primary language.


title: Niihau

text: Niihau is located about west of Kauai, and the tiny, uninhabited island of Lehua lies north of Niihau. Niihau's dimensions are 6.2 miles by 18.6 miles (10 km × 30 km). The maximum elevation (Paniau) is . The island is about 6 million years old, making it geologically older than the 5.8-million-year-old neighboring island of Kauai to the northeast. Niihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of what was once a much larger volcano. The entire summit and other slopes collapsed into the ocean in a giant prehistoric landslide.


title: Niihau

text: The island is relatively arid because it lies in the rain shadow of Kauai and lacks the elevation needed to catch significant amounts of trade wind rainfall. Niihau, therefore, depends on winter Kona storms for its rain, when more northerly weather systems intrude into the region. As such, the island is subject to long periods of drought. Historical droughts on Niihau have been recorded several times, one in 1792 by Captain James Cook's former junior officer, George Vancouver, who had been told that the people of Niihau had abandoned the island because of a severe drought and had moved to Kauai to escape famine.


title: Niihau

text: As an arid island, Niihau was barren of trees for centuries – Captain James Cook reported it treeless in 1778. Aubrey Robinson, grandfather of current owners Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, planted 10,000 trees per year during much of his ownership of the island; Robinson's afforestation efforts increased rainfall in the dry climate. Island co-owner Keith Robinson, a noted conservationist, preserved and documented many of Niihau's natural plant resources. The island is designated as a critical habitat for the "ōlulu", an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid. "Aylmer robinsonii", a Pritchardia palm tree named for Keith Robinson's uncle Aylmer Robinson, is an endangered species native to Niihau.


title: Niihau

text: Several bird species thrive on Niʻihau. The largest lakes on the island are Hālaliʻi Lake, Halulu Lake and Nonopapa Lake. These intermittent playa lakes on the island provide wetland habitats for the "ʻalae keʻokeʻo" (Hawaiian coot), the "āeʻo" (Hawaiian subspecies of Black-necked Stilt), and the "koloa maoli" (Hawaiian duck). The critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal ("Monachus schauinslandi") is found in high numbers on Niʻihau's shores. Robinson states that Niʻihau's secluded shoreline offers them a safe haven from habitat encroachments. According to Robinson, conditions there are better than the government refuges of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. When the Robinsons originally purchased Niʻihau, no monk seals were present, because they lived in the northwestern part of the Hawaiian island chain, Necker and Midway islands. They have been relocated to the main Hawaiian island chain by NOAA fisheries over the past thirty years, and some have found homes on Niʻihau.


title: Niihau

text: Big game herds, imported from stock on Molokai Ranch in recent years, roam Niihau's forests and flatlands. Eland and aoudad are abundant, along with oryxes, wild boars and feral sheep. These big game herds provide income from hunting safari tourism.


title: Niihau

text: Prior to the unification of the Kingdom of Hawaii under Kamehameha I, Niihau was ruled by the . Kahelelani was the first of the Niihau alii. His name is now used to refer to the "Niihau kahelelani", the puka shell of the wart turbans ("Leptothyra verruca"), used to make exquisite Niihau shell jewelry. Kāʻeokūlani was a ruler of northern Niihau who unified the island after defeating his rival, a chief named Kawaihoa. A stone wall () across a quarter of the island's southern end marked the boundaries of the two chiefs: Kāeo's land was identified by black stones and Kawaihoa's by white stones. Eventually, a great battle took place, known as Pali Kamakaui. Kāeo's two brothers from the island of Maui, Kaʻiana and his half-brother Kahekili II, the King of Maui, fought for Kāeo, and Niihau was united under his rule. Kawaihoa was banished to the south end of the island and Kāeo moved to the middle of the island to govern. Kāeo married the Queen Kamakahelei, and a future king of Niihau and Kauai named Kaumualii was born in 1790. Kauai and Niihau are said to have carried the "highest blood lines" in the Hawaiian Islands.


title: Niihau

text: Kamehameha managed to unify all of the islands by 1795, except for Kauai and Niihau. Two attempts to conquer those islands had failed, and Kamehameha lost many men: bodies covered the beaches on Kauai's eastern shores. Finally, in 1810, Kamehameha amassed a great fleet, and Kaumualii, the last independent , surrendered rather than risk further bloodshed. Independence again became feasible after Kamehameha's death in 1819, but was put down when Kamehameha's widow Kaʻahumanu kidnapped Kaumualii and forced him to marry her. Thereafter Niihau remained part of the unified Hawaiian Kingdom.


title: Niihau

text: Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair (1800–1892) purchased Niihau and parts of Kauai from Kamehameha IV in 1864 for in gold. Sinclair chose Niihau over other options, including Waikīkī and Pearl Harbor. By around 1875, Niihau's population consisted of about 350 Native Hawaiians, with 20,000 sheep. This era marked the end of the art of Hawaiian mat-weaving made famous by the people of Niihau. ("Cyperus laevigatus"), a native sedge, used to grow on the edges of Niihau's three intermittent lakes. The stems were harvested and used to weave (mats), considered the "finest sleeping mats in Polynesia". The mats were valued by and foreign visitors alike, but by the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians had stopped weaving due to changes in population, culture, economics, and the environment.


title: Niihau

text: In 1915, Sinclair's grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission. Upon Aubrey's death in 1939 the island passed to his son Aylmer, and in 1968 to Aylmer's youngest brother Lester. Upon Lester's wife Helen's death, the island passed to his sons Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, the current co-owners. (See Sinclair-Robinson family tree)


title: Niihau

text: Niihau played a small role during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In what has come to be called the Niihau Incident (or the Battle of Niihau), a Japanese pilot whose Zero had been hit crash-landed on the island hoping to rendezvous with a rescue submarine. The pilot was apprehended and later escaped with the assistance of local Japanese residents, but he was killed shortly afterwards.


title: Niihau

text: Despite its self-imposed isolation, Niihau has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. military dating from 1924. There is a small Navy installation on the island. No military personnel are permanently stationed there, but the U.S. military has used the island for training special operations units, which included hiring Hawaiians who live on Niihau as "enemy" trackers.


title: Niihau

text: The island of Niihau was considered as a possible location for the United Nations headquarters in 1944 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had visited Hawaii in 1934. Under Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, the State Department seriously studied the proposal.


title: Niihau

text: In 2004 President George W. Bush received all but one of the 40 votes cast on the island. The remaining vote was cast for Green Party nominee David Cobb. Fifty-one registered voters did not cast ballots. In 2006 Dan Akaka received 60% of votes in the 2006 Senate election to Cynthia Thielen's 36%. In 2008, Niihau's precinct was one of only 3 of Hawaii's 538 precincts to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama. McCain received 35 votes, Obama received 4, and Cynthia McKinney received 1. In the 2016 presidential election, 34 votes were cast for president, of which 20 were for Donald Trump and 10 for Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Donald Trump won 43 out of the 43 ballots cast in Niihau against Joe Biden.


title: Niihau

text: The 2010 census states that there were 170 people living on the island. However, witness accounts estimate that the population actually ranges between 35 and 50 people. Some support themselves largely by subsistence fishing and farming, while others depend on welfare. All residents live rent-free, and meat is free. Niihau has no telephone services and no paved roads. Horses are the main form of transportation; bicycles are also used. There are no power lines; solar power provides all electricity. There is no plumbing or running water on the island. Water comes from rainwater catchment. The Robinson family established most of these conditions. There is no hotel, and barges deliver groceries from Kauai, often purchased by relatives, with free shipping.


title: Niihau

text: Residents generally speak the Niihau dialect of Hawaiian as their first language, in part encouraged by terms in the original purchase contract which obligated the new owners to help preserve Hawaiian culture and tradition. The Niihau dialect differs from modern standard Hawaiian in that, for example, and are the most common realizations of the phonemes and , respectively. Niihau is the only island where Hawaiian is spoken as a primary language. Oral tradition maintains that the Niihau dialect is closer to the Hawaiian register spoken during the time of contact with Europeans; there is linguistic evidence to support this claim, such as the pronunciation of k as . English is the second language.


title: Niihau

text: Some residents have radio and television sets, although limited reception effectively limits the latter to watching pre-recorded media. Niihau is subject to regular droughts that occasionally force the population to evacuate to Kauai temporarily, until rainfall replenishes their water supply. Residents commonly also commute to Kauai for work, medical care, or school, and many of them call both islands home. To avoid a long boat ride, the island's owners maintain an Agusta A109 helicopter for emergencies and for transporting Navy contractors and residents to and from Kauai. Helicopter tours and safaris help offset the costs of this service.


title: Niihau

text: A form of ipu art is known to have developed solely on the island of Niihau. In this method, after a design is carved in the skin of a fresh gourd, it is filled with dye which, after several weeks, changes the color of the uncarved portions of the surface where the skin is intact. Hawaiian music plays a central role on the island, with a cappella singers making use of only two or three tones and changing rhythms. Ukulele and guitar playing is nearly ubiquitous among the islanders, and there are three separate styles of slack-key music, with an older style originating from Kohala.


title: Niihau

text: The Hawaii Department of Education operates the Niihau School, a K-12 school. Academic subjects and computer literacy are combined with teaching students to "thrive from the land". The school is powered entirely by solar power. The number of students varies from 25 to 50 since families often travel between Niihau and Kauai. Schoolchildren may stay with relatives in west Kauai, where they attend one of two Niihau-focused public charter schools. At the Ke Kula Niihau o Kekaha school, students speak primarily the Niihau dialect through the early elementary grades, and then Hawaiian and English through grade 12. The school has a digital recording and video system, which helps to preserve and teach traditional Niihau and Hawaiian culture. At the other west Kauai school, Kula Aupuni Niihau a Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA), English is used in all grades, while still supporting the Niihau dialect. Both schools foster the culture, values, and spirituality of Niihau. Efforts to establish KANAKA began in 1993 and its current version was established in 1999.


title: Niihau

text: Approximately 80% of Niihau's income comes from a small Navy installation atop 1,300-foot-high cliffs. Remote-controlled tracking devices are used for testing and training with Kaua'i's Pacific Missile Range Facility. Modern missile defense tests are conducted at the site for the U.S. and its allies. The installation brings in millions of dollars a year, and provides the island with a stable economic base without the complexity of tourism or industrial development.


title: Niihau

text: The sale of shells and shell jewelry is an additional source of income. Its beaches are known for their "pūpū", tiny shells that wash onto shore during winter months. Species used for shell leis includes "momi" ("Euplica varians"), "laiki" or rice shells ("Mitrella margarita") and "kahelelani" ("Leptothyra verruca"). The shells and jewelry are so popular that Governor Linda Lingle signed a bill in 2004 to protect "lei pūpū o Niihau" (Niihau shell leis) from counterfeiting. A single, intricate Niihau shell lei can sell for thousands of dollars.


title: Niihau

text: Many residents of Niihau were once employees of Niihau Ranch, farming cattle and sheep until the Robinsons shut down the operation in 1999. It had not been profitable for most of the 20th century. Honey cultivation was also no longer viable by 1999. Kiawe charcoal was once a large-scale export, but aggressive Mexican price competition ended that as well. Mullet farming has been popular on Niihau, with ponds and lakes stocked with baby mullet, which reach apiece before being harvested and sold on Kauai and Oahu.


title: Niihau

text: Bruce Robinson, Niihau's co-owner, is seeking and considering new forms of non-invasive income generation. Depending on feasibility, impact, and ecological footprint on the ecosystem and culture, possibilities include: JP-8 generation by the lignocellulose process; military, including a possible runway; and windmill energy production. Robinson has declined offers to purchase sand from Niihau's beaches, because of adverse environmental effects.


title: Niihau

text: Niihau's owners have offered half-day helicopter and beach tours of the island since 1987, although contact with residents is avoided and no accommodation exists. Since 1992, hunting safaris provide income via tourists who pay to visit the island to hunt eland, aoudad, and oryx, as well as wild sheep and boars. Any meat the hunters do not take with them is given to the village.


title: La traviata

text: La traviata (; "The Fallen Woman") is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on "La Dame aux camélias" (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas "fils" adapted from his own 1848 novel. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at La Fenice opera house in Venice.


title: La traviata

text: Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, "c. 1700". It was not until the 1880s that the composer's and librettist's original wishes were carried out and "realistic" productions were staged. "La traviata" has become immensely popular and is among the most frequently performed of all operas.


title: La traviata

text: For Verdi, the years 1851 to 1853 were filled with operatic activity. First, he had agreed with the librettist Salvadore Cammarano on a subject for what would become "Il trovatore", but work on this opera could not proceed while the composer was writing "Rigoletto", which premiered in Venice in March 1851. In addition, personal affairs in his home town limited his activities that spring, but after "Rigoletto"s success in Venice, an additional commission was offered by Brenna, the secretary of La Fenice.


title: La traviata

text: Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi visited Paris from late 1851 and into March 1852. In February the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas "fils"s "The Lady of the Camellias". As a result of this, Verdi's biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz reports, the composer immediately began to compose music for what would later become "La traviata". However, Julian Budden notes that Verdi had probably read the Dumas novel some time before, and, after seeing the play and returning to Italy, "he was already setting up an ideal operatic cast for it in his mind", shown by his dealings with La Fenice.


title: La traviata

text: Francesco Maria Piave was engaged to write the new libretto and the two men tried to come up with a suitable subject, but the composer complained that his librettist "had not yet offered him an 'original' or 'provocative' idea". Writing to Piave, he added that "I don't want any of those everyday subjects that one can find by the hundreds." But at the same time, the composer expressed concern about censorship in Venice, something with which he was very familiar after his dealings with the censors concerning "Rigoletto". As the months dragged on into October, it was agreed that Piave would come to Sant'Agata (Verdi's home near Busseto) and work with the composer. One subject was chosen, Piave set to work, and then Verdi threw in another idea, which may have been "La traviata". Within a short time, a synopsis was dispatched to Venice under the title of "Amore e morte" ("Love and Death"). However, as Budden reveals, Verdi writes to his friend De Sanctis telling him that "for Venice I'm doing "La Dame aux camélias" which will probably be called "La traviata". A subject for our own age." Although still bogged down at Sant'Agata, Piave was sanguine: "Everything will turn out fine, and we'll have a new masterpiece from this true wizard of modern harmonies".


title: La traviata

text: When back at Sant'Agata in late January 1853 Verdi was reminded that his contract called for him to be in Venice within a week or two and for the premiere to be held on the "first Saturday in March 1853". However, it soon became clear that a modern-dress staging of the new opera was impossible—the requirement was that it should be set in the 17th century "in the era of Richelieu"—and reports from the opening of the season confirmed the limitations of the chosen soprano, the 38-year-old Fanny Salvini-Donatelli for taking the role of Violetta. Verdi was distraught, for he held on to the notion that the opera could be staged in modern dress—as "Stiffelio" had been done—Piave was sent back to Sant'Agata to no avail: he could not persuade the composer to back down on his insistence that another soprano be secured, yet the 15 January deadline for securing one had come and gone. Verdi was filled with premonitions of disaster upon his arrival in Venice on 21 February for rehearsals and he made his unhappiness clear to the singers.


title: La traviata

text: The audience jeered at times during the premiere, directing some of their scorn at the casting of soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli in the lead role of Violetta. Though she was an acclaimed singer, they considered her to be too old (at 38) and overweight to credibly play a young woman dying of consumption. (Verdi had previously attempted to persuade the manager of La Fenice to re-cast the role with a younger woman, but with no success.) Nevertheless, the first act was met with applause and cheering at the end; but in the second act, the audience began to turn against the performance, especially after the singing of the baritone Felice Varesi and the tenor Lodovico Graziani. The next day, Verdi wrote to his friend Emanuele Muzio in what has now become perhaps his most famous letter: ""La traviata" last night a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers'? Time will tell."


title: La traviata

text: Coincidentally, as Philips-Matz points out, an Italian translation of the play "La Dame aux camélias" was being presented just a short distance from La Fenice.


title: La traviata

text: While there were demands for productions from impresarios in various Italian cities, Verdi was loath to allow them unless he could be sure of the strength of the singers, and in spite of their pleas, the composer refused. As Budden notes, it came to be Venice "that made an honest woman of Violetta" when Verdi allowed a performance at the Teatro San Benedetto. Some revisions took place between 1853 and May 1854, mostly affecting acts 2 and 3, but the opera was performed again on 6 May 1854 and was a great success, largely due to Maria Spezia-Aldighieri's portrayal of Violetta. "Then [referring to the La Fenice performances] it was a fiasco; now it has created a furore. Draw your own conclusions!" reported Piave (who had overseen the production in Verdi's absence).


title: La traviata

text: The opera (in the revised version) was first performed in Madrid on 1 February 1855 with Spezia-Aldighieri at Teatro Real, in Vienna on 4 May 1855 in Italian and in Barcelona on 25 October at Gran Teatre del Liceu. It was first performed in England on 24 May 1856 in Italian at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, where it was considered morally questionable, and "the heads of the Church did their best to put an injunction upon performance; the Queen refrained from visiting the theatre during the performances, though the music, words and all, were not unheard at the palace". It was first performed in the United States by the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company on 3 December 1856 in Italian at the Academy of Music in New York. George Templeton Strong noted in his diary: "People say the plot's immoral, but I don't see that it's so much worse than many others, not to speak of "Don Giovanni", which as put on the stage is little but rampant lechery", while the "Evening Post" critic wrote: "Those who have quietly sat through the glaring improprieties of "Don Giovanni" will hardly blush or frown at anything in "La traviata"."


title: La traviata

text: The opera was first performed in France on 6 December 1856 in Italian by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris, and on 27 October 1864 in French as "Violetta" (an adaptation by Édouard Duprez, older brother of the tenor Gilbert Duprez) at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet with Christina Nilsson in the title role. The French adaptation of the libretto was published in 1865.


title: La traviata

text: Today, the opera has become immensely popular. It is currently the mostly frequently represented opera in the repertoire.


title: La traviata

text: Violetta Valéry, a famed courtesan, throws a lavish party at her Paris salon to celebrate her recovery from an illness. Gastone, a viscount, has brought with him a friend, Alfredo Germont, a young bourgeois from a provincial family who has long adored Violetta from afar. While walking to the salon, Gastone tells Violetta that Alfredo loves her, and that while she was ill, he came to her house every day. Alfredo joins them, admitting the truth of Gastone's remarks.


title: La traviata

text: Baron Douphol, Violetta's current lover, waits nearby to escort her to the salon. Once there, the Baron is asked to give a toast, but refuses, and the crowd turns to Alfredo, who agrees to sing a brindisi – a drinking song (Alfredo, Violetta, chorus: – "Let's drink from the joyful cups").


title: La traviata

text: From the next room, the sound of the orchestra is heard and the guests move there to dance. After a series of severe coughs and almost fainting, Violetta begins to feel dizzy and asks her guests to go ahead and to leave her to rest until she recovers. While the guests dance in the next room, Violetta looks at her pale face in her mirror. Alfredo enters and expresses his concern for her fragile health, later declaring his love for her (Alfredo, Violetta: – "One day, happy and ethereal"). At first, she rejects him because his love means nothing to her, but there is something about Alfredo that touches her heart. He is about to leave when she gives him a flower, telling him to return it when it has wilted, which will be the very next day.


title: La traviata

text: After the guests leave, Violetta wonders if Alfredo could actually be the one in her life (Violetta: – "Ah, perhaps he is the one"). But she concludes that she needs freedom to live her life (Violetta, Alfredo: – "Always free"). From off stage, Alfredo's voice is heard singing about love as he walks down the street.


title: La traviata

text: Three months later, Alfredo and Violetta are living together in a peaceful country house outside Paris. Violetta has fallen in love with Alfredo and she has completely abandoned her former life. Alfredo sings of their happy life together (Alfredo: – "The youthful ardor of my ebullient spirits"). Annina, the maid, arrives from Paris, and, when questioned by Alfredo, tells him that she went there to sell the horses, carriages and everything owned by Violetta to support their country lifestyle.


title: La traviata

text: Alfredo is shocked to learn this and leaves for Paris immediately to settle matters himself. Violetta returns home and receives an invitation from her friend, Flora, to a party in Paris that evening. Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, is announced and demands that she break off her relationship with his son for the sake of his family, since he reveals that Violetta's relationship with Alfredo has threatened his daughter's engagement (Giorgio: – "Pure as an angel, God gave me a daughter") because of Violetta's reputation. Meanwhile, he reluctantly becomes impressed by Violetta's nobility, something which he did not expect from a courtesan. She responds that she cannot end the relationship because she loves Alfredo so much, but Giorgio pleads with her for the sake of his family. With growing remorse, she finally agrees (Violetta, Giorgio: – "Tell the young girl, so beautiful and pure,") and says goodbye to Giorgio. In a gesture of gratitude for her kindness and sacrifice, Giorgio kisses her forehead before leaving her weeping alone.


title: La traviata

text: Violetta gives a note to Annina to send to Flora accepting the party invitation and, as she is writing a farewell letter to Alfredo, he enters. She can barely control her sadness and tears; she tells him repeatedly of her unconditional love (Violetta: – "Love me, Alfredo, love me as I love you"). Before rushing out and setting off for Paris, she hands the farewell letter to her servant to give to Alfredo.


title: La traviata

text: Soon, the servant brings the letter to Alfredo and, as soon as he has read it, Giorgio returns and attempts to comfort his son, reminding him of his family in Provence (Giorgio: – "Who erased the sea, the land of Provence from your heart?"). Alfredo suspects that the Baron is behind his separation from Violetta, and the party invitation, which he finds on the desk, strengthens his suspicions. He decides to confront Violetta at the party. Giorgio tries to stop Alfredo, but he rushes out.


title: La traviata

text: At the party, the Marquis tells Flora that Violetta and Alfredo have separated, much to the amazement of everyone who had previously seen the happy couple. She calls for the entertainers to perform for the guests (Chorus: – "We are gypsy girls who have come from afar"; – "We are matadors from Madrid"). Gastone and his friends join the matadors and sing (Gastone, chorus, dancers: – "Piquillo is a bold and handsome matador from Biscay").


title: La traviata

text: Violetta arrives with Baron Douphol. They see Alfredo at the gambling table. When he sees them, Alfredo loudly proclaims that he will take Violetta home with him. Feeling annoyed, the Baron goes to the gambling table and joins him in a game. As they bet, Alfredo wins some large sums until Flora announces that supper is ready. Alfredo leaves with handfuls of money.


title: La traviata

text: As everyone is leaving the room, Violetta has asked Alfredo to see her. Fearing that the Baron's anger will lead him to challenge Alfredo to a duel, she gently asks Alfredo to leave. Alfredo misunderstands her apprehension and demands that she admit that she loves the Baron. In grief, she makes that admission and, furiously, Alfredo calls the guests to witness what he has to say ( – "You know this woman?"). He humiliates and denounces Violetta in front of the guests and then throws his winnings at her feet in payment for her services. She faints onto the floor. The guests reprimand Alfredo: ("Ignoble insulter of women, go away from here, you fill us with horror!").


title: La traviata

text: In search of his son, Giorgio enters the hall and, knowing the real significance of the scene, denounces his son's behavior (Giorgio, Alfredo, Violetta, chorus: – "A man, who even in anger, offends a woman renders himself deserving of contempt.").


title: La traviata

text: Flora and the ladies attempt to persuade Violetta to leave the dining room, but Violetta turns to Alfredo: – "Alfredo, Alfredo, you can't understand all the love in this heart...".


title: La traviata

text: Dr. Grenvil tells Annina that Violetta will not live long since her tuberculosis has worsened. Alone in her room, Violetta reads a letter from Alfredo's father telling her that the Baron was only wounded in his duel with Alfredo. He has informed Alfredo of the sacrifice she has made for him and his sister; and he is sending his son to see her as quickly as possible to ask for her forgiveness. But Violetta senses it is too late (Violetta: – "Farewell, lovely, happy dreams of the past").


title: La traviata

text: Annina rushes into the room to tell Violetta of Alfredo's arrival. The lovers are reunited and Alfredo suggests that they leave Paris (Alfredo, Violetta: – "We will leave Paris, O beloved").


title: La traviata

text: But it is too late: she knows her death approaches (Alfredo, Violetta: – "Great God!...to die so young"). Alfredo's father enters with the doctor, regretting what he has done. After singing a duet with Alfredo, Violetta suddenly revives, exclaiming that the pain and discomfort have left her. A moment later, she dies in Alfredo's arms.


title: La traviata

text: The opera uses an orchestra with the following instrumentation: 2 flutes (fl. 2 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, harp, cimbasso, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, strings.


title: La traviata

text: Banda: Verdi did not fully orchestrate the parts of the on-stage band, but rather composed it in the style of a piano reduction, leaving the actual realization to the person in charge of the band. Over the years many versions were created, varying from theater to theater depending on the instruments available, but none of them is authoritative. A widespread version is: 1 piccolo, 4 clarinets, 2 horns, flugelhorn, 3 trumpets, at least 2 trombones, low brasses (number unspecified), bass drum.


title: La traviata

text: The prelude to the opera begins with very soft, very high strings depicting the frail heroine, followed by the main love theme of the opera, which is then played on lower strings while the higher instruments decorate the melody.


title: La traviata

text: This delicate atmosphere is altered on curtain rise by lively dance tunes in the orchestra. After the famous "Brindisi", an offstage band plays a series of waltzes (waltz rhythms pervade the first act of the opera, creating a Parisian atmosphere). The concluding part of Violetta's solo scene that ends the first act is full of vocal decoration and feverish ornamentation as she swears to stay free ("Sempre libera"). These coloratura effects are not required for the character after the first act.


title: La traviata

text: The lengthy and crucial duet between the elder Germont and Violetta in act 2 is multi-sectioned with the music following the changing dramatic situation.


title: La traviata

text: "La traviata" is the only one of Verdi's many operas to be set entirely indoors. Unlike "Il trovatore", which was composed simultaneously, "La traviata" is an intimate piece, full of tender lyricism. The character of Violetta dominates the work and her music changes as she develops through the drama, from the hectic, almost hysterical coloratura of the first act, to the more dramatic passages of the second, and the spiritual quality of her music as she dies in act 3.


title: Henry Danger

text: Henry Danger is an American comedy television series created by Dan Schneider and Dana Olsen that aired on Nickelodeon from July 26, 2014 to March 21, 2020. The series stars Jace Norman, Cooper Barnes, Riele Downs, Sean Ryan Fox, Ella Anderson, and Michael D. Cohen.


title: Henry Danger

text: Henry Hart is a 13-year-old boy who lives in the town of Swellview. He lands a part-time job as Kid Danger, a sidekick of Swellview's well-known superhero Captain Man. Captain Man tells Henry not to tell anybody about his job, so he attempts to keep it a secret from his best friends, Charlotte and Jasper, his younger sister, Piper, and his parents. Henry goes to a shop called "Junk 'n' Stuff" which has a secret lair called the Man Cave hidden underneath where Captain Man does his work. Captain Man says he will not be around for long and needs help; soon enough, he will need someone to take his place when he is gone.


title: Henry Danger

text: The series was picked up with an initial production order of 20 episodes on March 13, 2014, later expanding to 26 episodes. On July 26, 2014, the series started airing with a one-hour special as the first episode. Series creator Dan Schneider stated on Twitter that a character from one of his previous series would make a guest appearance on the series.


title: Henry Danger

text: On November 18, 2014, the series was renewed for a second season. The series was renewed for a third season on March 2, 2016. On November 16, 2016, the series was renewed for a fourth season.


title: Henry Danger

text: In March 2018, Jace Norman indicated in an interview with "Extra" that the series was to be picked up for a fifth season. On July 27, 2018, the series was renewed for a fifth season of 20 episodes. In addition, Michael D. Cohen had been promoted to main cast and Christopher J. Nowak now serves as showrunner while Jake Farrow now serves as executive producer. On December 3, 2018, it was announced that Nickelodeon had ordered 10 additional episodes for the fifth season, bringing the series to 117 produced episodes. On April 3, 2019, it was announced that Nickelodeon had ordered 10 additional episodes for the fifth season, bringing the series to 127 produced episodes, with 128 episodes ultimately being produced. On May 11, 2019, it was announced that Frankie Grande would return for a special musical episode that premiered on July 27, 2019. On December 7, 2019, Nickelodeon began advertising that the "final episodes" of the series would begin airing in January 2020.