title: Norway Debate

text: The next two speakers were National Liberal Lewis Jones and Labour's Frederick Bellenger, who was still a serving army officer and was evacuated from France only a month later. Jones, who supported Chamberlain, was unimpressive and was afterwards accused of introducing party politics into the debate. There was a general exodus from the chamber as Jones was speaking. Bellenger, who repeated much of Attlee's earlier message, called "in the public interest" for a government "of a different character and a different nature".


title: Norway Debate

text: When Bellenger sat down, it was 20:03 and the Deputy Speaker, Dennis Herbert, called on Leo Amery, who had been trying for several hours to gain the Speaker's attention. Amery later remarked that there were "barely a dozen" members present (Nicolson was among them) as he began to speak. Nicolson, who expected a powerfully critical speech from Amery, wrote that the temperature continued to rise as Amery began and his speech soon "raised it far beyond the fever point".


title: Norway Debate

text: Amery had an ally in Clement Davies, chairman of the All Party Action Group which included some sixty MPs. Davies had been a National Liberal subject to the National Government whip but, in protest against Chamberlain, he had resigned it in December 1939 and crossed the floor of the House to rejoin the Liberals in opposition. Like many other members, Davies had gone to eat when Jones began speaking but, on hearing that Amery had been called, he rushed back to the chamber. Seeing that it was nearly empty, Davies approached Amery and urged him to deliver his full speech both to state his full case against the government and also to give Davies time to collect a large audience. Very soon, even though it was the dinner hour, the House began filling rapidly.


title: Norway Debate

text: Amery's speech is one of the most famous in parliamentary history. As Davies had requested, he played for time until the chamber was nearly full. The most notable absentee, for much of the speech, was Chamberlain himself who was at Buckingham Palace for an audience with the King. Amery began by criticising the government's planning and execution of the Norway Campaign, especially their unpreparedness for it despite intelligence warning of likely German intervention and the clear possibility of some such response to the planned British infraction of Norwegian neutrality by the mining of Norwegian territorial waters. He gave an analogy from his own experience which devastatingly illustrated the government's lack of initiative:


title: Norway Debate

text: As tension increased in the House and Amery found himself speaking to a "crescendo of applause", Edward Spears thought he was hurling huge stones at the government glasshouse with "the effect of a series of deafening explosions". Amery widened his scope to criticise the government's whole conduct of the war to date. He moved towards his conclusion by calling for the formation of a "real" National Government in which the Trades Union Congress must be involved to "reinforce the strength of the national effort from inside".


title: Norway Debate

text: Although sources are somewhat divided on the point, there is a consensus among them that Chamberlain had arrived back in the chamber to hear Amery's conclusion. Nicolson recorded Chamberlain as sitting on a "glum and anxious front bench". Amery said:


title: Norway Debate

text: Amery delivered the last six words in a near whisper, pointing at Chamberlain as he did so. He sat down and the government's opponents cheered him.


title: Norway Debate

text: Afterwards, Lloyd George told Amery that his ending was the most dramatic climax he had heard to any speech. Amery himself said he thought he had helped push the Labour Party into forcing a division next day. Harold Macmillan said later that Amery's speech "effectively destroyed the Chamberlain government".


title: Norway Debate

text: It was 20:44 when Amery sat down and the debate continued until 23:30. The next speech was by Archibald Southby, who tried to defend Chamberlain. He declared that Amery's speech would "certainly give great satisfaction in Berlin" and he was shouted down. Bob Boothby interrupted and said that "it will give greater satisfaction in this country".


title: Norway Debate

text: Southby was followed by Labour's James Milner who expressed the profound dissatisfaction with recent events of the majority of his constituents in Leeds. He called for "drastic change" to be made if Great Britain was to win the war. Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton spoke next, commencing at 21:28. Although a Conservative, he began by saying that there was a great deal in Milner's speech with which he was in agreement, but almost nothing in Southby's with which he could agree.


title: Norway Debate

text: The next speaker was Arthur Greenwood, the Labour deputy leader. He gave what Jenkins calls "a robust Labour wind-up". In his conclusion, Greenwood called for "an active, vigorous, imaginative direction of the war" which had so far been lacking as the government was passive and on the defensive because "(as) the world must know, we have never taken the initiative in this war". Summing up for the government was Oliver Stanley, the Secretary of State for War, whose reply to Greenwood has been described as ineffective.


title: Norway Debate

text: It is generally understood that Labour did not intend a division before the debate began but Attlee, after hearing the speeches by Keyes and Amery, realised that discontent within Tory ranks was far deeper than they had thought. A meeting of the party's Parliamentary Executive was held on Wednesday morning and Attlee proposed forcing a division at the end of the debate that day. There were a handful of dissenters, including Hugh Dalton, but they were outvoted at a second meeting later on.


title: Norway Debate

text: Jenkins says the Labour decision to divide turned the routine adjournment motion into "the equivalent of a vote of censure". Earlier in his opening address, Morrison had focused his criticism on Chamberlain, John Simon and Samuel Hoare who were the three ministers most readily associated with appeasement.


title: Norway Debate

text: Hoare, the Secretary of State for Air, was scheduled to speak next but Chamberlain insisted on replying to Morrison and made an ill-judged and disastrous intervention. Chamberlain appealed not for national unity but for the support of his friends in the House:


title: Norway Debate

text: That shocked many present who regarded it as divisive to be so explicit in relying on whipped support from his own party. Bob Boothby, a Conservative MP who was a strong critic of Chamberlain, called out: "Not I"; and received a withering glare from Chamberlain. The stress on "friends" was considered partisan and divisive, reducing politics at a time of crisis from national level to personal level.


title: Norway Debate

text: Hoare followed Chamberlain and struggled to cope with many of the questions being fired at him about the air force, at one point failing to realise the difference between the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm. He sat down at 17:37 and was succeeded by David Lloyd George.


title: Norway Debate

text: Lloyd George had been prime minister during the last two years of the First World War. He was now 77, and it was to be his last major contribution to debate in the House in which he had sat for 50 years. There was personal animosity between Lloyd George and Chamberlain. The latter's appeal to friends gave Lloyd George the opportunity for retribution. First, he attacked the conduct of the campaign and began by dismissing Hoare's entire speech in a single sentence:


title: Norway Debate

text: Lloyd George then began his main attack on the government by focusing on the lack of planning and preparation:


title: Norway Debate

text: Emphasising the gravity of the situation, he argued that Britain was in the worst position strategically that it had ever been as a result of foreign policy failures, which he began to review from the 1938 Munich agreement onwards. Interrupted at this point, he retorted:


title: Norway Debate

text: Lloyd George went on to say that British prestige had been greatly impaired, especially in America. Before the events in Norway, he claimed, the Americans had been in no doubt that the Allies would win the war, but now they were saying it would be up to them to defend democracy. After dealing with some interruptions, Lloyd George criticised the rate of re-armament pre-war and to date:


title: Norway Debate

text: Dealing with an intervention at this point, Lloyd George said, in passing, that he did not think that the First Lord was entirely responsible for all the things that happened in Norway. Churchill intervened and said:


title: Norway Debate

text: Jenkins calls this "a brilliant metaphor" but wonders if it was spontaneous. It produced laughter throughout the House, except on the government front bench where, with one exception, all the faces were stony. A spectator in the gallery, Baba Metcalfe, recorded that the exception was Churchill himself. She recalled him swinging his legs and trying hard not to laugh. When things calmed down, Lloyd George resumed and now turned his fire onto Chamberlain personally:


title: Norway Debate

text: There was silence as Lloyd George sat down and one observer said that all the frustrations of the past eight months had been released. Chamberlain was deeply perturbed and, two days later, told a friend that he had never heard anything like it in Parliament. Churchill was overheard saying to Kingsley Wood that it was going to be "damned difficult" for him (Churchill) doing his summary later on. Jenkins says the speech recalled Lloyd George in his prime. It was his best for many years, but also his last of any real impact.


title: Norway Debate

text: It was 18:10 when Lloyd George concluded and some four hours later that Churchill began his summary to wind up the government's case ahead of the division. In the interim, several speakers were called to argue both for and against the government. They included long-serving Liberal National George Lambert, Sir Stafford Cripps, Alfred Duff Cooper, George Hicks, George Courthope, Robert Bower, Alfred Edwards, and Henry Brooke. The last of these, Brooke, finished at 21:14 and gave way to A. V. Alexander who wound up for Labour and put forward certain questions that Churchill as First Lord might answer. His final point, however, was to criticise Chamberlain for his appeal to friendship:


title: Norway Debate

text: Jenkins describes Alexander as someone who tried, despite being completely different in character and personality, to make of himself a "mini-Churchill". On this occasion, he did present Churchill with some awkward questions about Norway but, as with other speakers before him, it was done with genuine respect amidst severe criticism of Chamberlain, Hoare, Simon and Stanley in particular. There was some embarrassment for Churchill in that he was late in returning to the House for Alexander's speech and Chamberlain had to excuse his absence. He arrived just in time for Alexander's questions about Norway.


title: Norway Debate

text: Churchill was called to speak at 22:11, the first time in eleven years that he had wound up a debate on behalf of the government. Many members believed that it was the most difficult speech of his career because he had to defend a reverse without damaging his own prestige. It was widely felt that he achieved it because, as Nicolson described it, he said not one word against Chamberlain's government and yet, by means of his manner and his skill as an orator, he created the impression of being nothing to do with them.


title: Norway Debate

text: The first part of Churchill's speech was, as he said it would be, about the Norwegian campaign. The second part, concerning the vote of censure which he called a new issue that had been sprung upon the House at five o'clock, he said he would deal with in due course.


title: Norway Debate

text: Churchill proceeded to defend the conduct of the Norwegian campaign with some robustness, although there were several omissions such as his insistence that Narvik be blocked off with a minefield. He explained that even the successful use of the battleship at Narvik had put her at risk from many hazards. Had any come to pass, the operation, now hailed as an example of what should have been done elsewhere, would have been condemned as foolhardy:


title: Norway Debate

text: As for the lack of action at Trondheim, Churchill said it was not because of any perceived danger, but because it was thought unnecessary. He reminded the House that the campaign continued in northern Norway, at Narvik in particular but he would not be drawn into giving any predictions about it. Instead, he attacked the government's critics by deploring what he called a cataract of unworthy suggestions and actual falsehoods during the last few days:


title: Norway Debate

text: Churchill then had to deal with interruptions and an intervention by Arthur Greenwood who wanted to know if the war cabinet had delayed action at Trondheim. Churchill denied that and advised Greenwood to dismiss such delusions. Soon afterwards, he reacted to a comment by Labour MP Manny Shinwell:


title: Norway Debate

text: This produced a general uproar led by the veteran Scottish Labour member Neil Maclean, said to be the worse for drink, who demanded withdrawal of the word "skulks". The Speaker would not rule on the matter and Churchill defiantly refused to withdraw the comment, adding that:


title: Norway Debate

text: Having defended the conduct of the naval operations in the Norwegian campaign at some length, Churchill now said little about the proposed vote, other than to complain about such short notice:


title: Norway Debate

text: Churchill sat down but the rowdiness continued with catcalls from both sides of the House and Chips Channon later wrote that it was "like bedlam". Labour's Hugh Dalton wrote that a good deal of riot developed, some of it rather stupid, towards the end of the speech.


title: Norway Debate

text: At 23:00, the Speaker rose to put the question "that this House do now adjourn". There was minimal dissent and he announced the division, calling for the Lobby to be cleared. The division was in effect a no confidence motion or, as Churchill called it in his closing speech, a vote of censure. Of the total 615 members, it has been estimated that more than 550 were present when the division was called but only 481 voted.


title: Norway Debate

text: The government's notional majority was 213, but 41 members who normally supported the government voted with the Opposition while an estimated 60 other Conservatives deliberately abstained. The government still won the vote by 281 to 200, but their majority was reduced to 81. Jenkins says that would have been perfectly sustainable in most circumstances, but not when Great Britain was losing the war and it was clear that unity and leadership were so obviously lacking. In these circumstances, the reversal was devastating and Chamberlain left the chamber pale and grim.


title: Norway Debate

text: Among the Conservatives, Chips Channon and other Chamberlain supporters shouted "Quislings" and "Rats" at the rebels, who replied with taunts of "Yes-men". Labour's Josiah Wedgwood led the singing of "Rule Britannia", joined by Conservative rebel Harold Macmillan of the Noes; that gave way to cries of "Go!" as Chamberlain left the Chamber. Amery, Keyes, Macmillan and Boothby were among the rebels voting with Labour. Others were Nancy Astor, John Profumo, Quintin Hogg, Leslie Hore-Belisha and Edward Spears, but not some expected dissidents such as Duncan Sandys, who abstained, and Brendan Bracken who, in Jenkins' words, "followed [Churchill's] example rather than his interest and voted with the government". Colville in his diary said the government were "fairly satisfied" but acknowledged that reconstruction of the Cabinet was necessary. He wrote that "the shock they have received may be a healthy one".


title: Norway Debate

text: The debate continued into a third day but, with the division having been held at the end of the second day, the final day was really a matter of wrapping up. Starting at 15:18, there were only four speakers and the last of them was Lloyd George who spoke mostly about his own time as prime minister in the First World War and at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He concluded by blaming the democracies for not carrying out the pledges made at that time with the result that Nazism had arisen in Germany. When he finished, shortly before 16:00, the question "that this House do now adjourn" was raised and agreed to, thus concluding the Norway Debate.


title: Norway Debate

text: On 9 and 10 May, Chamberlain attempted to form a coalition government with Labour and Liberal participation. They indicated an unwillingness to serve under him but said they probably would join the government if another Conservative became prime minister. When Germany began its western offensive on the morning of the 10th, Chamberlain seriously considered staying on but, after receiving final confirmation from Labour that they required his resignation, he decided to stand down and advised the King to send for Churchill as his successor.


title: Norway Debate

text: Gaining the support of both Labour and the Liberals, Churchill formed a coalition government. His war cabinet at first consisted of himself, Attlee, Greenwood, Chamberlain and Halifax. The coalition lasted until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945. On 23 May 1945, Labour left the coalition to begin their general election campaign and Churchill resigned as prime minister. The King asked him to form a new government, known as the Churchill caretaker ministry, until the election was held in July. Churchill agreed and his new ministry, essentially a Conservative one, held office for the next two months until it was replaced by the first Attlee ministry after Labour's election victory.


title: Norway Debate

text: The Norway debate is regarded as a high point in British parliamentary history, coming as it did at a time when Great Britain faced its gravest-ever danger. Former prime minister David Lloyd George said the debate was the most momentous in the history of Parliament. Future prime minister Harold Macmillan believed that the debate changed British history and, perhaps, world history.


title: Norway Debate

text: In his biography of Churchill, Roy Jenkins describes the debate as "by a clear head both the most dramatic and the most far-reaching in its consequences of any parliamentary debate of the twentieth century". He compares it with "its nineteenth-century rivals" (e.g., the Don Pacifico debate of 1850) and concludes that "even more followed from the 1940 debate" as it transformed the history of the next five years.


title: Norway Debate

text: Andrew Marr wrote that the debate was "one of the greatest parliamentary moments ever and little about it was inevitable". The plotters against Chamberlain succeeded despite being deprived of their natural leader, since Churchill was in the cabinet and obliged to defend it. Marr notes the irony of Amery's closing words which were originally directed "against" Parliament by Cromwell, who was speaking "for" military dictatorship.


title: Norway Debate

text: When asked to choose the most historic and memorable speech for a volume commemorating the centenary of "Hansard" as an official report of the House of Commons, former Speaker Betty Boothroyd chose Amery's speech in the debate: "Amery, by elevating patriotism above party, showed the backbencher's power to help change the course of history".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been "Faust" (1859); his "Roméo et Juliette" (1867) also remains in the international repertory. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his Ave Maria (an elaboration of a Bach piece), and "Funeral March of a Marionette".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Born in Paris into an artistic and musical family Gounod was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France's most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome. His studies took him to Italy, Austria and then Prussia, where he met Felix Mendelssohn, whose advocacy of the music of Bach was an early influence on him. He was deeply religious, and after his return to Paris, he briefly considered becoming a priest. He composed prolifically, writing church music, songs, orchestral music and operas.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's career was disrupted by the Franco-Prussian War. He moved to England with his family for refuge from the Prussian advance on Paris in 1870. After peace was restored in 1871 his family returned to Paris but he remained in London, living in the house of an amateur singer, Georgina Weldon, who became the controlling figure in his life. After nearly three years he broke away from her and returned to his family in France. His absence, and the appearance of younger French composers, meant that he was no longer at the forefront of French musical life; although he remained a respected figure he was regarded as old-fashioned during his later years, and operatic success eluded him. He died at his house in Saint-Cloud, near Paris at the age of 75.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Few of Gounod's works remain in the regular international repertoire, but his influence on later French composers was considerable. In his music there is a strand of romantic sentiment that is continued in the operas of Jules Massenet and others; there is also a strand of classical restraint and elegance that influenced Gabriel Fauré. Claude Debussy wrote that Gounod represented the essential French sensibility of his time.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod was born on 17 June 1818 in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the second son of François Louis Gounod (1758–1823) and his wife Victoire, "née" Lemachois (1780–1858). François was a painter and art teacher; Victoire was a talented pianist, who had given lessons in her early years. The elder son, Louis Urbain (1807–1850), became a successful architect. Shortly after Charles's birth François was appointed official artist to the Duc de Berry, a member of the royal family, and the Gounods' home in Charles's early years was at the Palace of Versailles, where they were allotted an apartment.


title: Charles Gounod

text: After François's death in 1823, Victoire supported the family by returning to her old occupation as a piano teacher. The young Gounod attended a succession of schools in Paris, ending with the Lycée Saint-Louis. He was a capable scholar, excelling in Latin and Greek. His mother, the daughter of a magistrate, hoped Gounod would pursue a secure career as a lawyer, but his interests were in the arts: he was a talented painter and outstandingly musical. Early influences on him, in addition to his mother's musical instruction, were operas, seen at the Théâtre-Italien: Rossini's "Otello" and Mozart's "Don Giovanni". Of a performance of the latter in 1835 he later recalled, "I sat in one long rapture from the beginning of the opera to its close". Later in the same year he heard performances of Beethoven's "Pastoral" and "Choral" symphonies, which added "fresh impulse to my musical ardour".


title: Charles Gounod

text: While still at school Gounod studied music privately with Anton Reicha – who had been a friend of Beethoven and was described by a contemporary as "the greatest teacher then living" – and in 1836 he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris. There he studied composition with Fromental Halévy, Henri Berton, Jean Lesueur and Ferdinando Paer and piano with Pierre Zimmerman. His various teachers made only a moderate impression on Gounod's musical development, but during his time at the Conservatoire he encountered Hector Berlioz. He later said that Berlioz and his music were among the greatest emotional influences of his youth. In 1838, after Lesueur's death, some of his former students collaborated to compose a commemorative mass; the Agnus Dei was allocated to Gounod. Berlioz said of it, "The Agnus, for three solo voices with chorus, by M. Gounod, the youngest of Lesueur's pupils, is beautiful – very beautiful. Everything in it is novel and distinguished – melody, modulation, harmony. In this piece M. Gounod has given proof that we may expect everything of him".


title: Charles Gounod

text: In 1839, at his third attempt, Gounod won France's most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome for composition, for his cantata "Fernand". In doing so he was surpassing his father: François had taken the second prize in the Prix de Rome for painting in 1783. The Prix brought the winner two years' subsidised study at the French Institute in Rome and a further year in Austria and Germany. For Gounod this not only launched his musical career, but made impressions on him both spiritually and musically that stayed with him for the rest of his life. In the view of the musicologist Timothy Flynn, the Prix, with its time in Italy, Austria and Germany, was "arguably the most significant event in [Gounod's] career". He was fortunate that the director of the institute was the painter Dominique Ingres, who had known François Gounod well and took his old friend's son under his wing.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Among the artistic notables the composer met in Rome were the singer Pauline Viardot and the pianist Fanny Hensel, sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Viardot became of great help to Gounod in his later career, and through Hensel he got to know the music not only of her brother but also of J.S.Bach, whose music, long neglected, Mendelssohn was enthusiastically reviving. Gounod was also introduced to "various masterpieces of German music which I had never heard before". While in Italy, Gounod read Goethe's "Faust", and began sketching music for an operatic setting, which came to fruition over the next twenty years. Other music he composed during his three years' scholarship included some of his best-known songs, such as "Où voulez-vous aller?" (1839), "Le Soir" (1840–1842) and "Venise" (1842), and a setting of the Mass ordinary, which was performed at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.


title: Charles Gounod

text: In Rome, Gounod found his strong religious impulses increased under the influence of the Dominican preacher Henri-Dominique Lacordaire and he was inspired by paintings in the city's churches. Unlike Berlioz, who had been unimpressed by the visual arts of Rome when he was at the Institute ten years earlier, Gounod was awed by the work of Michelangelo. He also came to know and revere the sacred music of Palestrina, which he described as a musical translation of Michelangelo's art. The music of some of his own Italian contemporaries did not appeal to him. He severely criticised operas by Donizetti, Bellini and Mercadante, composers he described as merely "vines twisted around the great Rossinian trunk, without its vitality and majesty" and lacking Rossini's spontaneous melodic genius.


title: Charles Gounod

text: For the last year of his Prix de Rome scholarship, Gounod moved to Austria and Germany. At the Court Opera in Vienna he heard "The Magic Flute" for the first time, and his letters record his joy at living in the city where Mozart and Beethoven had worked. Count Ferdinand von Stockhammer, a leading patron of the arts in Vienna, arranged for Gounod's setting of the Requiem Mass to be performed. It was warmly received, and its success led Stockhammer to commission a second Mass from the composer.


title: Charles Gounod

text: From Vienna, Gounod moved on to Prussia. He renewed his acquaintance with Fanny Hensel in Berlin and then went on to Leipzig to meet her brother. At their first encounter Mendelssohn greeted him, "So you're the madman my sister has told me about", but he devoted four days to entertaining the young man and gave him much encouragement. He arranged a special concert of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra so that his guest might hear the "Scottish" Symphony, and played him some of the works of Bach on the organ of the Thomaskirche. Reciprocating, Gounod played the Dies Irae from his Viennese Requiem, and was gratified when Mendelssohn said of one passage that it was worthy to be signed by Luigi Cherubini. Gounod commented, "Words like this from such a master are a true honour and one wears them with more pride than many a ribbon".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod arrived home in Paris in May 1843. He took up a post, which his mother had helped to secure, as chapel master of the church of the Missions étrangères. For a winner of the Prix de Rome it was not a distinguished position. The organ of the church was poor, and the choir consisted of two basses, a tenor and a choirboy. To compound Gounod's difficulties, the regular congregation was hostile to his attempts to improve the music of the church. He expressed his views to a colleague:


title: Charles Gounod

text: Despite his generally affable and compliant nature Gounod remained adamant; he gradually won his parishioners over, and served for most of the five-year term he had agreed to. During this period Gounod's religious feelings became increasingly strong. He was reunited with a childhood friend, now a priest, Charles Gay, and for a time he himself felt drawn to holy orders. In 1847 he began to study theology and philosophy at the seminary of St Sulpice, but before long his secular side asserted itself. Doubting his capacity for celibacy, he decided not to seek ordination and continued with his career as a musician. He later recalled:


title: Charles Gounod

text: The outset of Gounod's theatrical career was greatly helped by his reacquaintance with Pauline Viardot in Paris in 1849. Viardot, then at the peak of her fame, was able to secure for him a commission for a full-length opera. In this Gounod was exceptionally fortunate: a novice composer in the 1840s would usually, at the most, be asked to write a one-act curtain raiser. Gounod and his librettist, Emile Augier, created "Sapho", drawing on Ancient Greek legend. It was intended as a departure from the three genres of opera then prevalent in Paris – Italian opera, grand opera and opéra comique. It later came to be regarded as the first of a new type, opéra lyrique, but at the time it was thought by some to be a throwback to the operas of Gluck, written sixty or seventy years earlier. After difficulties with the censor, who found the text politically suspect and too erotic, "Sapho" was given at the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was reviewed by Berlioz in his capacity as a music critic; he found some parts "extremely beautiful … the highest poetic level of drama", and others "hideous, unbearable, horrible". It did not draw the public and closed after nine performances. The opera received a single performance at the Royal Opera House in London later in the same year, with Viardot again in the title role. The music received more praise than the libretto, and the performers received more than either, but "The Morning Post" recorded, "The opera, we regret to say, was received very coldly".


title: Charles Gounod

text: In April 1851 Gounod married Anna Zimmerman (1829–1907), daughter of his former piano professor at the Conservatoire. The marriage led to a breach with Viardot; the Zimmermans refused to have anything to do with her, for reasons that are not clear. Gounod's biographer Steven Huebner refers to rumours about a liaison between the singer and composer, but adds that "the real story remains murky". Gounod was appointed superintendent of instruction in singing to the communal schools in the city of Paris, and from 1852 to 1860 he was director of a prominent choral society, the Orphéon de la Ville de Paris. He also frequently stood in for his elderly and often ill father-in-law, giving music lessons to private pupils. One of them, Georges Bizet, found Gounod's teaching inspiring, praised "his warm and paternal interest" and remained a lifelong admirer.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Despite the brevity of "Sapho"'s run, the piece advanced Gounod's reputation, and the Comédie-Française commissioned him to write incidental music for François Ponsard's five-act verse tragedy "Ulysse" (1852), based on the "Odyssey". The score included twelve choruses as well as orchestral interludes. It was not a successful production: Ponsard's play was not well received, and the audience at the Comédie-Française had little interest in music. During the 1850s Gounod composed his two symphonies for full orchestra and one of his best-known religious works, the Messe solennelle en l'honneur de Sainte-Cécile. It was written for the St Cecilia's day celebrations of 1855 at Saint-Eustache, and in Flynn's view demonstrates Gounod's success in "blending the operatic style with church music – a task at which many of his colleagues tried and failed".


title: Charles Gounod

text: As well as church and concert music, Gounod was composing operas, beginning with "La Nonne sanglante" (The Bloody Nun, 1854), a melodramatic ghost story with a libretto that Berlioz had tried and failed to set, and that Auber, Meyerbeer, Verdi and others had rejected. The librettists, Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne, reworked the text for Gounod and the piece opened at the Opéra on 18 October 1854. The critics derided the libretto but praised the music and production; the work was doing well at the box-office until it fell victim to musical politics. The director of the Opéra, Nestor Roqueplan, was supplanted by his enemy, François-Louis Crosnier, who described "La Nonne sanglante" as "filth" and shut the production down after its eleventh performance.


title: Charles Gounod

text: In January 1856 Gounod was appointed a knight of the Legion of Honour. In June of that year he and his wife had the first of their two children, a son Jean (1856–1935). (Their daughter Jeanne (1863–1945) was born seven years later.) In 1858 Gounod composed his next opera, "Le Médecin malgré lui". With a good libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, faithful to the Molière comedy on which it is based, it gained excellent reviews, but its good reception was overshadowed for Gounod by the death of his mother the day after the premiere. At the time an initial run of 100 performances was considered a success; "Le Médecin malgré lui" achieved that and was revived in Paris and elsewhere during the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th. In 1893 the British "Musical Times" praised its "irresistible gaiety". Huebner comments that the opera does not deserve the relative neglect into which it has since fallen.


title: Charles Gounod

text: With Barbier and Carré, Gounod turned from French comedy to German legend for "Faust". The three had worked on the piece in 1856, but it had to be shelved to avoid clashing with a rival (non-operatic) "Faust" at another theatre. Returning to it in 1858 Gounod completed the score, rehearsals began towards the end of the year and the opera opened at the Théâtre-Lyrique in March 1859. One critic reported that it was presented "under circumstances of uncommon excitement and expectation"; another praised the work but doubted if it would have enough popular appeal to be a commercial triumph. The composer later recalled that the opera "did not strike the public very much at first", but after some revision and with a good deal of vigorous promotion by Gounod's publisher, Antoine de Choudens, it became an international success. There were productions in Vienna in 1861, and in Berlin, London and New York in 1863. "Faust" has remained Gounod's most popular opera and one of the staples of the operatic repertoire.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Over the next eight years Gounod composed five more operas, all with Barbier or Carré or both. "Philémon et Baucis" (1860) and "La Colombe" (The Dove, 1860) were opéras comiques based on stories by Jean de La Fontaine. The first was an attempt to take advantage of a vogue for mildly satirical comedies in mythological dress started by Jacques Offenbach with "Orphée aux enfers" (1858). The opera had originally been intended for the theatre at Baden-Baden, but Offenbach and his authors expanded it for its eventual first performance, in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique. "La Colombe", also written for Baden-Baden, was premiered there and later expanded for its first Paris production (1886).


title: Charles Gounod

text: After these two moderate successes, Gounod had an outright failure, "La Reine de Saba" (1862), a grand opera with an exotic setting. The piece was lavishly mounted, and the premiere was attended by the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, but the reviews were damning and the run finished after fifteen performances. The composer, depressed by the failure, sought comfort in a long trip to Rome with his family. The city enchanted him as much as ever: in Huebner's words "renewed exposure to Rome's close entwining of Christianity and classical culture energized him for the travails of his career back in Paris".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's next opera was "Mireille" (1864), a five-act tragedy in a Provençal peasant setting. Gounod travelled to Provence to absorb the local atmosphere of the various settings of the work and to meet the author of the original story, Frédéric Mistral. Some critics have seen the piece as a forerunner of "verismo" opera, although one that emphasises elegance over sensationalism. The opera was not a great success at first; there were strong objections from some quarters that Gounod had given full tragic status to a mere farmer's daughter. After some revision it became popular in France, and remained in the regular opéra comique repertoire into the 20th century.


title: Charles Gounod

text: In 1866 Gounod was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and was promoted within the Legion of Honour. During the 1860s his non-operatic works included a Mass (1862), a Stabat Mater (1867), twenty shorter pieces of liturgical or other religious music, two cantatas – one religious, one secular – and a "Marche pontificale" for the anniversary of the coronation of Pius IX (1869), later adopted as the official anthem of the Vatican City.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's last opera of the 1860s was "Roméo et Juliette" (1867), with a libretto that follows Shakespeare's play fairly closely. The piece was a success from the outset, with box-office receipts boosted by the large number of visitors to Paris for the Exposition Universelle. Within a year of the premiere it was staged in major opera houses in continental Europe, Britain and the US. Other than "Faust" it remains the only Gounod opera to be frequently staged internationally.


title: Charles Gounod

text: After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Gounod moved with his family from their home in Saint-Cloud, outside Paris, first to the countryside near Dieppe and then to England. The house in Saint-Cloud was wrecked by the advancing Prussians in the build-up to the Siege of Paris. To earn a living in London, Gounod wrote music for a British publisher; in Victorian Britain there was a great demand for religious and quasi-religious drawing room ballads, and he was happy to provide them.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod accepted an invitation from the organising committee of the Annual International Exhibition to write a choral piece for its grand opening at the Royal Albert Hall on 1 May 1871. As a result of its favourable reception he was appointed director of the new Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, which, with Queen Victoria's approval, was subsequently renamed the Royal Choral Society. He also conducted orchestral concerts for the Philharmonic Society and at the Crystal Palace, St James's Hall and other venues. Proponents of English music complained that Gounod neglected native composers in his concerts, but his own music was popular and widely praised. The music critic of "The Times", J. W. Davison, rarely pleased by modern music, was not an admirer, but Henry Chorley of "The Athenaeum" was an enthusiastic supporter, and writers in "The Musical World", "The Standard", "The Pall Mall Gazette" and "The Morning Post" called Gounod a great composer.


title: Charles Gounod

text: In February 1871, Julius Benedict, the director of the Philharmonic Society, introduced Gounod to a singer and music teacher called Georgina Weldon. She quickly became a dominant influence in Gounod's professional and personal life. There was much inconclusive conjecture about the nature of their relationship. Once peace was restored in France during 1871, Anna Gounod returned home with her mother and children, but Gounod stayed on in London, living in the Weldons' house. Weldon introduced him to competitive business practices with publishers, negotiating substantial royalties, but eventually pushed such matters too far and involved him in litigation brought by his publisher, which the composer lost.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod lived in the Weldons' household for nearly three years. The French newspapers speculated about his motives for remaining in London; they speculated the more when it was suggested that he had declined the French President's invitation to return and succeed Auber as director of the Conservatoire. In early 1874 his relations with Davison of "The Times", never cordial, descended into personal hostility. The pressures on him in England and the comments about him in France brought Gounod to a state of nervous collapse, and in May 1874 his friend Gaston de Beaucourt came to London and took him back home to Paris. Weldon was furious when she discovered that Gounod had left, and she made many difficulties for him later, including holding on to manuscripts he had left at her house and publishing a tendentious and self-justifying account of their association. She later brought a lawsuit against him which effectively prevented him from coming back to Britain after May 1885.


title: Charles Gounod

text: The musical scene in France had altered considerably during Gounod's absence. After the death of Berlioz in 1869, Gounod had been generally regarded as France's leading composer. He returned to a France in which, though still well respected, he was no longer in the vanguard of French music. A rising generation, including members of the new Société Nationale de Musique such as Bizet, Emmanuel Chabrier, Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet, was establishing itself. He was not embittered, and was well disposed to younger composers, even when he did not enjoy their works. Of the later generation he was most impressed by Camille Saint-Saëns, seventeen years his junior, whom he is said to have dubbed "the French Beethoven".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Resuming operatic composition, Gounod finished "Polyeucte", on which he had been working in London, and during 1876 composed "Cinq-Mars", a four-act historical drama set in the time of Cardinal Richelieu. The latter was staged first at the Opéra-Comique in April 1877, and had a mediocre run of 56 performances. "Polyeucte", a religious subject close to the composer's heart, did worse when it was given at the Opéra the following year. In the words of Gounod's biographer James Harding, "After Polyeucte had been martyred on twenty-nine occasions the box-office ruled that enough was enough. He was never resuscitated."


title: Charles Gounod

text: The last of Gounod's operas, "Le Tribut de Zamora" (1881), ran for 34 nights, and in 1884 he made a revision of "Sapho", which lasted for 30 performances at the Opéra. He reworked the role of Glycère, the deceitful villainess of the piece, with the image of Weldon in his mind: "I dreamt of the model … who was terrifying in satanic ugliness" Throughout these disappointments "Faust" continued to attract the public, and in November 1888 Gounod conducted the 500th performance at the Opéra.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Away from opera Gounod wrote the large-scale "Messe du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus" in 1876 and ten other masses between then and 1893. His greatest popular successes in his later career were religious works, the two large oratorios "La Rédemption" (1882) and "Mors et vita" (1885), both composed for and premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in England. The two were enthusiastically taken up by the British public and on the continent, and in their day were widely ranked with the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn. The Philharmonic Society in London unsuccessfully sought to commission a symphony from the composer in 1885 (the commission eventually went to Saint-Saëns); fragments of a third symphony exist from late in Gounod's career, but are thought to date from a few years later.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's last years were lived at Saint-Cloud, composing sacred music and writing his memoirs and essays. On 15 October 1893, after returning home from playing the organ for Mass at his local church, he suffered a stroke while working on a setting of the Requiem in memory of his grandson Maurice, who had died in infancy. After being in a coma for three days Gounod died on 18 October, at the age of 75.


title: Charles Gounod

text: A state funeral was held at L'église de la Madeleine, Paris, on 27 October 1893. Among the pallbearers were Ambroise Thomas, Victorien Sardou and the future French President Raymond Poincaré. Fauré conducted the music, which at Gounod's wish was entirely vocal, with no organ or orchestral accompaniment. After the service, Gounod's remains were taken in procession to the Cimetière d'Auteuil, near Saint-Cloud, where they were interred in the family vault.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod is best known for his operas – in particular "Faust". Celebrated during his lifetime, Gounod's religious music became unfashionable in the 20th century and little of it is regularly heard. His songs, an important influence on later French composers, are less neglected, although only a few are well known. Michael Kennedy writes that Gounod's music has "considerable melodic charm and felicity, with admirable orchestration". He adds that Gounod was "not really a master of the large and imposing forms, in this way perhaps being a French parallel to Sullivan". There is wide agreement among commentators that he was at his finest more often in the earlier decades of his career than later. Robert Orledge judges that in the 1850s and 1860s Gounod introduced to French opera a combination of "tender, lyrical charm, consummate craftsmanship, and genuine musical characterization", but his later works tend to "sentimentality and banality ... in his quest for inspired simplicity".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Cooper writes that as Gounod grew older he began to suffer from "what might be described as the same "cher grand maître" complex as infected Hugo and Tennyson". Huebner observes that the fact that Gounod's reputation began to wane even during his lifetime does not detract from his place among the most respected and prolific composers in France during the second half of the 19th century.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod wrote twelve operas, in a variety of the genres then prevailing in France. "Sapho" (1851) was an early example of opéra lyrique, smaller-scale and more intimate than grand opera but through-composed, without the spoken dialogue of opéra comique. Berlioz wrote of it, "Most of the choruses I found imposing and simple in accent; the whole third act seemed to me very beautiful ... But the quartet in the first act, the duet and trio in the second, where the passions of the principal characters break out with such force, absolutely revolted me". A more recent reviewer remarks on Gounod's "genuine talent for music-drama ... exercised in the Quartet of Act 1 where each character has an independent part, making effective counterpoint in dramatic as well as musical terms". Gounod revised the work in 1858 and again, more radically, in 1884, but it was never a success. The one fairly well known number from the score, Sapho's "O ma lyre immortelle", is a reworking of a song he had composed in 1841.


title: Charles Gounod

text: "La Nonne sanglante" (1854), a work on a larger scale than "Sapho", suffers from a libretto that Huebner describes as an "unhappy blend of historico-political grand opera and the supernatural". He observes that in the traditions of grand opera it features processions, ballets, large ensemble numbers, and "a plot where the love interest is set against a more or less clearly drawn historical backdrop". Announcing a rare revival of the work in 2018, the Opéra-Comique described the score as "refined, sombre, and labyrinthine". A reviewer praised its "verve and imagination ... colourful and percussive music, well adapted to evoke the horror of the situations ... quite voluptuous in the arias (in a score that one can nevertheless find rather academic in parts)".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Cooper classes "Le Médecin malgré lui" (1858) as one of Gounod's finest works, "witty, quick-moving and full of life". In complete contrast to its predecessor, it is a three-act comedy, regarded as a masterpiece by Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Cooper says of the score that Gounod seems to have learned more from Mozart than from Rossini or Auber, and to have "divined by instinct the great comic possibilities of what passed at that time for a ferociously 'learned' style, namely counterpoint." The piece held its place in the repertory during the latter part of the 19th century, but by the time Serge Diaghilev revived it in 1924 Gounod was out of fashion. In Stravinsky's words, "[Diaghilev's] dream of a Gounod 'revival' failed in the face of an indifferent and snobbish public who did not dare applaud the music of a composer not accepted by the avant-garde". For his revival Diaghilev commissioned Erik Satie to compose recitatives to replace the original spoken dialogue, and that version is sometimes used in the occasional modern productions of the piece, such as that by Laurent Pelly at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2016.


title: Charles Gounod

text: "Faust" (1859) appealed to the public not only because of its tunefulness but also for its naturalness. In contrast with grand operas by Gounod's older contemporaries, such as Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots" or Rossini's "William Tell", Faust in its original 1859 form tells its story without spectacular ballets, opulent staging, grand orchestral effects or conventionally theatrical emotion. "The charm of Faust lay in its naturalness, its simplicity, the sincerity and directness of its emotional appeal" (Cooper). The authors labelled "Faust" "a lyric drama", and some commentators find the lyrical scenes stronger than the dramatic and supernatural ones. Among the best known numbers from the piece are Marguerite's "Jewel" song, the Soldiers' Chorus, Faust's aria "Salut! Demeure chaste et pure" and Méphistophélès' "Le Veau d’or" and Sérénade. Another popular song is Valentin's "Avant de quitter ces lieux", which Gounod, rather reluctantly, wrote for the first London production, where the star baritone required an extra number. Among the popular numbers from the score is the ballet music, written when the Opéra – where a ballet interlude was mandatory – took over presentation of the work in 1869. The ballet makes full use of the Opéra's large orchestral resources; it is now frequently omitted in live performances, particularly in productions outside France, but the ballet suite became a popular concert item, independent of the opera. The recitatives generally used instead of the original spoken dialogue were composed by Gounod in an early revision of the score.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Writing of "Philémon et Baucis", Huebner comments that there is little dramatic music in the score and that most of the numbers are "purely decorative accretions to the spoken dialogue". For the 1876 revival at the Opéra-Comique, which established the work in the repertory there until the Second World War, Gounod reduced it to two acts. For a revival by Diaghilev in 1924, the young Francis Poulenc composed recitatives to replace the spoken dialogue. The music critic Andrew Clements writes of "La Colombe" that it is not a profound work, but is "well filled with the kind of ingratiating tunes that Gounod could turn out so effectively". Although "La Reine de Saba" was a failure, it contains three numbers that gained moderate popularity: the Queen's big aria‚ "Plus grand dans son obscurité", King Solomon's "Sous les pieds d'une femme" and the tenor solo "Faiblesse de la race humaine".


title: Charles Gounod

text: "Mireille" (1865) was a moderate success, and although it did not emulate "Faust" in becoming an international hit, it remained popular in France into the 20th century. The most famous number, the waltz-song "O légère hirondelle", a favourite display piece for many coloratura sopranos, was written to order for the prima-donna of the Théâtre Lyrique a year after the premiere. Another popular number is Ourrias's swaggering "Si les filles d'Arles" described by the critic Patrick O'Connor as an attempt by the composer to repeat the success of Méphistophélès' "Veau d'or" from "Faust". Gounod revised the work, even giving it a happy ending, but in the 1930s Reynaldo Hahn and Henri Büsser prepared a new edition for the Opéra-Comique, restoring the work to its original tragic five acts.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's last successful opera was "Roméo et Juliette" (1867). Gustav Kobbé wrote five decades later that the work had always been more highly regarded in France than elsewhere. He said that it had never been popular in England except as a vehicle for Adelina Patti and then Nellie Melba, and that in New York it had only featured regularly at the Metropolitan Opera when it was under the control of Maurice Grau in the late 19th-century. Some reviewers thought it inappropriate that Juliet was allotted a waltz song ("Je veux vivre, dans ce rêve"), but Romeo's "Ah! levè-toi, soleil" was judged one of Gounod's finest tenor arias. Although never as popular as "Faust", "Roméo et Juliette" continues to hold the stage internationally. Gounod had no further success with new operas. His three attempts, "Cinq-Mars" (1877), "Polyeucte" (1878), and "Le Tribut de Zamora" (1881), were all taken off after brief runs, and have seldom been seen since.


title: Charles Gounod

text: The two symphonies, in D major and E-flat major, cannot be precisely dated. The first was completed at some time before 1855 and the second by 1856. Like many other composers of the mid-19th-century Gounod found Beethoven's shadow daunting when contemplating the composition of a symphony, and there was even a feeling among the French musical public that composers could write operas or symphonies but not both. The influence of Beethoven is apparent in Gounod's two symphonies, and the musical scholar Roger Nichols and the composer's biographer Gérard Condé also find a debt to Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony in the slow movement of the First. Gounod's sometime pupil Bizet took the First as his model for his own Symphony in C (1855). Late in life Gounod started but did not complete a Third Symphony. A complete slow movement and much of a first movement survive. Other orchestral works include the "Funeral March of a Marionette" (1879), an orchestration of an 1872 solo piano piece.


title: Charles Gounod

text: The "Petite Symphonie" (1885), written for nine wind instruments, follows the classical, four-movement pattern, with a slow introduction to the sonata form first movement. The commentator Diether Stepphun refers to its "cheerfully contemplative and gallant wit, with all the experience of human and musical maturity". Gounod's Ave Maria gained considerable popularity. It consists of a descant superimposed over a version of the first prelude of Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier". In its original form it is for violin with piano; the words of the Hail Mary were added to the melody later.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's output of liturgical and other religious music was prolific, including 23 masses, more than 40 other Latin liturgical settings, more than 50 religious songs and part-songs, and seven cantatas or oratorios. During his lifetime his religious music was regarded in many quarters more highly than his most popular operas. Saint-Saëns wrote, "When, in the far-distant future, the operas of Gounod shall have been received into the dusty sanctuary of the libraries, the Mass of St Cecilia, the "Redemption", and "Mors et Vita", will still endure". In the 20th century views changed considerably. In 1916, Gustave Chouquet and Adolphe Jullien wrote of "a monotony and heaviness which must weary the best-disposed audience". In 1918, in a centenary tribute to Gounod, Julien Tiersot described "La Rédemption" and "Mors et Vita" as "imbued with pure and elevated lyricism", but this view did not prevail. Other critics have referred to "the ooze of the erotic priest" and called the oratorios "the height of nineteenth-century hypocritical piety".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Orledge judges the early masses as the best of Gounod's religious music. He comments that the composer moved away from "Palestrinian austerity" towards "a more fluid, operatic style" in his "Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile" (1855). He comments that in general Gounod's work in the 1860s "became more Italianate, while retaining its French attributes of precision, taste, and elegance".


title: Charles Gounod

text: Gounod's songs are by far the most numerous of his compositions: he wrote more than a hundred French secular songs and thirty more in English or Italian for the British market. The songs come from every stage of his career, but most of the best are generally considered to be from the earlier years. Maurice Ravel called Gounod "the true founder of the "mélodie" in France". The pianist and musical scholar Graham Johnson, quoting this, adds that although Berlioz might be thought to have a claim to that title, it was Gounod who brought the "mélodie" widespread popularity in France:


title: Charles Gounod

text: Johnson adds that Gounod brought to the "mélodie" "those qualities of elegance, ingenuity, "sensibilité", and a concern for literature which together constitute the classic qualities of French song" in mélodies that display the composer's "melodic genius, his talent for creating long flowing lines (only surpassed by Fauré), and his instinct for the harmonic "juste"".


title: Charles Gounod

text: From his earliest period, during and just after his time as a Prix de Rome student, Gounod's songs include some of his best, in the view of both Huebner and Johnson. Examples include "Où voulez-vous aller?" (words by Gautier, 1839) – which challenged comparison with Berlioz, who had already set the poem in his "Les Nuits d'été" – and "Venice" (Musset), 1842, described by Johnson as "astonishingly evocative with its turbulent interludes painting that city's ability both to intoxicate and disturb". Other early songs such as "Le vallon" and "Le soir" (both to words by Lamartine, c. 1840) demonstrate Gounod's ability to cope with large-scale Romantic verse.


title: Charles Gounod

text: The songs of Gounod's middle and later years are in the main judged less impressive. Johnson compares Gounod with Mendelssohn in terms of artistic decline, suggesting that their celebrity as establishment figures led them to adopt a style "suitable for the pomposities of gigantic music festivals." Nevertheless, Johnson observes that some of the songs written during Gounod's stay in England in the 1870s are excellent of their kind, such as "Oh happy home" (words by Edward Maitland, 1872), "If thou art sleeping, maiden" (Longfellow, 1872 or 1873) and "The Worker" (Frederic Weatherly, 1873). Gounod's time in Britain also produced arrangements of Scottish folk songs, and settings of poetry by Wordsworth, Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hood, Byron, Shelley and Francis Palgrave.


title: Charles Gounod

text: Although only a comparatively small amount of Gounod's music endures in the regular musical repertoire, his influence on later French composers was important. In Cooper's words, "he was more than an individual composer: he was the voice of a deep and permanent strain in the French character ... [A] whole range of emotion, which had been voiceless before, had found in him its ideal expression, and his influence will perhaps never quite disappear for that reason". Cooper suggests that the two sides of Gounod's music nature influenced later French composers as different as Fauré and Massenet, the first drawing on and refining Gounod's classical purity and refinement, and the latter drawing on his romantic and voluptuous side (so much so that he was dubbed ""la fille de Gounod""). Ravel's comment on Gounod's importance to "mélodie" is quoted above, and Debussy wrote, "Gounod, for all his weaknesses, is essential … the art of Gounod represents a moment in French sensibility. Whether one wants to or not, that kind of thing is not forgotten".


title: Heart of Champions

text: Heart of Champions (also known as Pressure Point in Australia and the United Kingdom, and Swing in Germany, also its working title) is a 2021 American drama film directed by Michael Mailer, from a screenplay by Vojin Gjaja. It stars Michael Shannon, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, David James Elliott and Ash Santos.


title: Heart of Champions

text: In May 2019, it was announced Michael Shannon had joined the cast of the film, with Howard Deutch directing from a screenplay by Vojin Gjaja, Shannon will also serve as a producer on the film. In October 2019, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton joined the cast of the film, with Michael Mailer replacing Deutch as director. In November 2019, David James Elliott joined the cast of the film.


title: Heart of Champions

text: Principal photography began in Louisiana on November 2, 2019, and concluded on December 3, 2019. Louisiana State University served as a main set for the film.


title: Heart of Champions

text: The film was released in select theatres on October 29, 2021 under a deal with Vertical Entertainment. It also became available on VOD services on November 19, 2021.


title: Alternate Prime Minister of Israel

text: The alternate prime minister of Israel () is the "de facto" deputy of the prime minister of Israel and the second highest ranking cabinet minister, who is designated to replace the prime minister of Israel in a rotation government. The position was created "de jure" to resolve the 2019–2022 Israeli political crisis, alongside the formal rotation mechanism of the alternation government. It existed "de facto" in the 1984–88 rotation government, which was established on the basis of a non-binding rotation agreement. According to the , the government swearing-in includes a target date for the prime minister and alternate prime minister to switch their posts. Government ministers report either to the prime minister or the alternate prime minister, with the prime minister being unable to dismiss cabinet ministers reporting to the alternate prime minister without the alternate prime minister's consent.


title: Alternate Prime Minister of Israel

text: The most recent alternate prime minister was Naftali Bennett, who served from 1 July to 8 November 2022.


title: Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship

text: The "Harpers Ferry"-class of the United States Navy is a class of dock landing ships completed in the early 1990s. Modified from the , the design sacrifices landing craft capacity for more cargo space, making it closer to an amphibious transport dock type, but was not designated as such. Externally, the two classes can be distinguished by the positions of weapons: The "Harpers Ferry" class has the Phalanx CIWS mounted forward, and the RAM launcher on top of the bridge, while the "Whidbey Island" has the opposite arrangement.


title: Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship

text: As of 2009, all ships of the class are scheduled to undergo a midlife upgrade to ensure they remain in service through 2038. The ships will be upgraded each year through 2013, and the last ship will be modernized in 2014. Ships homeported on the East Coast will undergo upgrades at Metro Machine Corp., and ships based on the West Coast will receive upgrades at General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego.


title: Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship

text: Major elements of the upgrade package include diesel engine improvements, fuel and maintenance savings systems, engineering control systems, increased air conditioning/chill water capacity, and replacement of air compressors. The ships also replaced steam systems with all-electric functionality that will decrease maintenance.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton is a city in and the county seat of Butler County, Ohio. Located north of Cincinnati, Hamilton is the second largest city in the Greater Cincinnati area and the 10th largest city in Ohio. The population was 63,399 at the 2020 census. Hamilton is governed under a council-manager form of government; the current mayor is Patrick Moeller and the city manager is Joshua Smith. Most of the city is served by the Hamilton City School District.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton has three designated National Historic Districts: Dayton Lane, German Village, and Rossville. The industrial city is seeking to revitalize through the arts; it declared itself the "City of Sculpture" in 2000. Its initiative has attracted many sculpture installations to the city, which founded the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton started as Fort Hamilton (named to honor Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury), constructed in Sept.-Oct. 1791 by General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. The fort was the first of several built north from Fort Washington into Indian territory. The fort was built to serve as a supply station for the troops of general Arthur St. Clair during his campaign in the Northwest Indian War. Later it was used by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The fort was located upstream from the mouth of the Great Miami River where the river is shallow during normal flow and easily forded by men, animals and wagons on its gravelly bottom. In 1792 the fort was enlarged with a stable area by General Wayne. The fort was abandoned in 1796 after the signing of the Treaty of Greenville.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: A settlement grew up around the fort and was platted as Fairfield in 1794. By 1800, Hamilton was becoming an agricultural and regional trading town. The town was platted, government was seated, and the town named by 1803.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton was first incorporated by act of the Ohio General Assembly in 1810, but lost its status in 1815 for failure to hold elections. It was reincorporated in 1827 with Rossville, the community across the Great Miami River in St. Clair Township. The two places severed their connection in 1831 only to be rejoined in 1854. Designated the county seat, this became a city in 1857. On 14 March 1867, Hamilton withdrew from the townships of Fairfield and St. Clair to form a "paper township", but the city government is dominant.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: On the afternoon of 17 September 1859, Abraham Lincoln arrived at the Hamilton Station (the station is on the city's Historic Preservation list). He gave a campaign speech in support of his fellow Republican, William Dennison, who was running for Ohio governor. Lincoln's speech concentrated on popular sovereignty. He began: "This beautiful and far-famed Miami Valley is the garden spot of the world." It was during this campaign that the relatively unknown Lincoln was first mentioned as a possible presidential contender.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: By the mid-19th century, Hamilton had developed as a significant manufacturing city. Its early products were often machines and equipment used to process the region's farm produce, such as steam engines, hay cutters, reapers and threshers. Other production included machine tools, house hardware, saws for mills, paper, paper making machinery, carriages, guns, whiskey, beer, woolen goods, and myriad and diverse output made from metal, grain, and cloth.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: By the early 20th century, the town was a heavy-manufacturing center for vaults and safes, machine tools, cans for vegetables, paper, paper making machinery, locomotives, frogs and switches for railroads, steam engines, diesel engines, foundry products, printing presses, and automobile parts. During the two world wars, its factories manufactured war materiel, Liberty ship engines, and gun lathes. Manufacturers used coke to feed furnaces. Its by-product, gas, fueled street lights. The Great Miami River valley, in which Hamilton was located, had become an industrial giant.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The county courthouse, constructed between 1885 and 1889, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its monumental architecture. The city has three historic districts: Dayton Lane, German Village and Rossville. Like Cincinnati, Hamilton attracted many German and Italian immigrants from the mid-19th century on, whose influence was expressed in culture, food and architecture. Hamilton also had a Jewish community; with increased immigration by Eastern European Jews, they founded Beth Israel Synagogue in 1901 as an Orthodox alternative to Hamilton's Reform synagogue. It had been founded by German Jews in the 1880s, when nearby Cincinnati was a center of Reform Judaism in the United States. At the time around 250 Jewish families lived in Hamilton.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In the 1920s, many Chicago gangsters established second homes in Hamilton. This gave Hamilton the nickname "Little Chicago". Some of these men appeared to have invested in what became an active district of gambling and prostitution. During World War II, the military declared the entire city off-limits to its enlisted personnel because of its numerous gambling and prostitution establishments. Madame Freeze's and the long row of prostitution houses along Wood Street (now called Pershing Avenue) were notorious among soldiers. Factories in Hamilton converted their operations to support the war effort, manufacturing military supplies, such as tank turrets, Liberty ship and submarine engines, and machined and stamped metal parts.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: With the 1950s came the construction of the new interstate highway I-75, part of a nationwide system and one which bypassed the city. A decision made to reduce traffic through the city resulted in cutting it off from the newest transportation network, and businesses were drawn to areas outside with access to the highway. Until 1999, when the Butler County Veterans Highway was built, Hamilton was the second-largest city in the United States without direct interstate access.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: On 30 March 1975, Easter Sunday, James Ruppert murdered 11 family members in his mother's house at 635 Minor Avenue in Hamilton, in what is referred to as the "Easter Sunday Massacre". The murders shocked the town of Hamilton and the entire country. This was the deadliest shooting inside a private residence in American history.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In the late 20th century, industrial restructuring in heavy manufacturing resulted in widespread loss of jobs in older industrial cities, as operations were merged, relocated, and finally moved offshore. Like other Rust Belt cities in the northern tier, Hamilton has struggled to develop a new economy after such wide-scale changes, but it has retained more of its population than many such cities. In addition, since the late 20th century it has attracted new immigrants, primarily Hispanics from Mexico and Latin America.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In 2009, the city won the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards for best-tasting municipal water for the United States; and in 2010, a gold medal for the best in the world.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Hamilton Hydraulic, also called the Hamilton & Rossville Hydraulic, was a system devised to supply water power to shops and mills; it spurred one of Hamilton's greatest periods of industrial and population growth (1840–1860). Specially built canals and natural reservoirs brought water from the Great Miami River north of Hamilton into the town as a source of power for future industries.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The hydraulic began about four miles north of Hamilton on the river, where a dam was built to divert water into the system. Nearby, two reservoirs stored water for the hydraulic, whose main canal continued south along North Fifth Street to present Market Street. There it took a sharp west turn to the river at the present intersection of Market Street and North Monument Avenue, between the former Hamilton Municipal Building and the present Courtyard by Marriott. The first water passed through the system in January 1845. As the water flowed through the canal, it turned millstones in the hydraulic. The project had been a risky one because there were no shops along its course to use the power when the company was organized in 1842. The gamble paid off. Several small industries were built on the hydraulic in the 1840s. One was the Beckett Paper Co.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The hydraulic remained a principal source of power for Hamilton industries through the 1870s when stationary steam engines became practical and affordable. Later, most of the hydraulic canal was covered and/or filled. The hydraulic attracted auto manufacturer Henry Ford to Hamilton after World War I, when he sought a site for a tractor factory. Ford built a plant—which soon converted to producing auto parts—at the north end of North Fifth Street so it could take advantage of power provided by a branch of the hydraulic.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Geographic and geological evidence shows that floods have occurred throughout the valley since prehistoric times. Since European-American settlement, diaries, anecdotes, folk tales, letters, and official records have provided documentation of relatively common severe floods in 1814, 1828, 1832, 1847, 1866, 1883, 1897, 1898, and 1907.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In March 1913 the greatest flood occurred. Heavy rain fell over the entire watershed, and the ground was frozen, as well as saturated from previous lighter rains. This resulted in a high rate of run-off from the rain: an estimated 90% flowed directly into the streams, creeks, and rivers. Between 9 and 11 inches of rain fell over five days, March 25 to March 29, 1913. An amount equivalent to about 30 days' discharge of water over Niagara Falls flowed through the Miami Valley during the ensuing flood. In the Great Miami River Valley, 360 persons died, about 200 of whom were from Hamilton. Some drowned, some were washed away and never found, others died from various diseases and complications, and some committed suicide because of severe losses. Damage in the valley was calculated at $100 million, the equivalent of $2 billion in 21st-century value. The flood waters were so powerful that within two hours they destroyed all four of Hamilton's bridges: Black Street, High-Main Street, Columbia, and the railroad bridge.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In Hamilton the flood waters rose with unexpected and frightening suddenness, reaching over three to eight feet in depth in downtown, and up to eighteen feet in the North End, along Fifth Street and through South Hamilton Crossing. The waters spread from D Street on the west to what is now Erie Highway on the east. The waters' rise was so swift that many people were trapped in the upper floors of businesses and houses. In some cases, people had to escape to their attics, and then break through the roof as the waters rose even higher. Temperatures hovered near freezing. The water current varied, but in constricted locations it raced at more than twenty miles per hour. The dead people, more than 1,000 drowned horses, other livestock, and pets, and sewage tainted the water. Nearly one-third of the population was left homeless and displaced: 10,000 of the 35,000 residents of Hamilton. Thousands of houses were destroyed by the flood; afterward, many that were too damaged to repair had to be demolished by city workers.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Following the disastrous 1913 flood in the Great Miami River Valley, residents realized that the only way to prevent future flooding was to deal with protection on a watershed basis. Citizens from all the major cities in the valley, Piqua, Troy, Dayton, Carlisle, Franklin, Miamisburg, Middletown, and Hamilton, gathered together to find a solution and worked with legislative representatives to draft enabling legislation to create the Miami Conservancy District. It was passed by the state and signed into law by Governor James Cox. Although challenged several times in the courts, the laws withstood those attacks. The law and District have also withstood the tests of time. By 1915, the District hired an engineering staff, which developed plans for valley-long channel improvements, levees, and storage basins to temporarily retain excessive rains. The system was designed to withstand rains and flows that would be up to 40% greater than those of 1913. Waters have been retained more than 1,000 times, thereby preventing flooding. Construction began in 1915 and was completed in 1923. The Miami Conservancy District was the first of its kind in the nation and has been an example of flood control protection. It is unique for having been developed, built, and supported financially just by those who benefit. The Miami Conservancy District is financially supported by an assessment on each property that was affected by the 1913 waters, related to the present value of the property because it is not at risk of flooding. All the other areas within the District are assessed because they benefit by reducing or eliminating danger to infrastructure, commerce, and transportation.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Chem-Dyne is a hazardous waste dump site located on the east side of Hamilton. In 1982, the Justice Department disclosed that the hazardous chemicals at the dump included arsenic, benzene, cyanides, vinyl chloride, naphthalene, chloroform, polychlorinated biphenyls, trichloroethylene and the pesticides aldrin and dieldrin. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Chem-Dyne and asked the court to issue an injunction requiring the defendants to help with cleanup as well as to reimburse the government for clearing and safeguarding the site, which the department said had already cost $826,000. The defendants were alleged to have violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund Act established to help pay for cleaning up hazardous waste sites. The Justice Department said the out-of-court settlement with the other companies had been reached after four months of negotiations that included Ohio authorities. It did not identify the companies that settled.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: On May 28, 1986, as part of a plan to increase publicity about Hamilton and aid in city revitalization, the City Council voted 5–1 in favor of adding an exclamation point to the city's name, similarly to the popular musical "Oklahoma!". Thus, Hamilton officially became Hamilton! While at the time used extensively in the city's documents, letterheads, business cards and on local signage, the United States Board on Geographic Names did not include the exclamation point; nor did Rand McNally maps. The exclamation point is generally no longer used. It is not in use on the Hamilton municipal website.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2020, there were 63,399 people and 27,392 households residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 74.6% White, 9.9% African American, 0.6% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 6.1% from other races, and 7.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.0% of the population.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 62,477 people, 24,658 households, and 15,489 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 27,878 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 84.0% White, 8.5% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.6% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.4% of the population.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: There were 24,658 households, of which 32.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.3% were married couples living together, 17.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 37.2% were non-families. 30.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.06.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The median age in the city was 35.3 years. 24.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.6% were from 25 to 44; 24.9% were from 45 to 64; and 13.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.8% male and 51.2% female.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 60,690 people, 24,188 households, and 15,867 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,808.2 people per square mile (1,084.3/km). There were 25,913 housing units at an average density of 1,199.0/sq mi (463.0/km). The racial makeup of the city was 88.94% White, 7.55% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.45% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.46% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.58% of the population.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: There were 24,188 households, out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.5% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.02.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In the city the population was spread out, with 25.8% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.9% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.1 males.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The median income for a household in the city was $35,365, and the median income for a family was $41,936. Males had a median income of $32,646 versus $23,850 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,493. About 10.6% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.1% of those under age 18 and 9.8% of those age 65 or over.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton was home to minor league baseball in 1884, 1889, 1911 and 1913, as the Hamilton Mechanics played as members of the Ohio State League.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Hamilton Joes (Baseball Club) is a collegiate summer baseball team that competes in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League (GLSCL), which is one of eight leagues formed under the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB). (The NACSB is responsible for other high-profile leagues such as the Cape Cod Baseball League). The club was named after Cincinnati Reds baseball player and broadcaster Joe Nuxhall. The club's name is also a tribute to his legacy of giving to the community. The Joes inaugural season was in 2009. They won the GLSCL championship in 2010 and 2016. There have been 40 former Joes drafted or signed into professional baseball, most notably Brent Suter (2009, 2010) of the Milwaukee Brewers and Ryan Rua (2010) of the Texas Rangers.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: West Side Little League of Hamilton has been to the Little League World Series contested in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in , , , , and . In 2021, they won the Tom Seaver bracket and advanced to the championship game, where they lost to a team from Taylor, Michigan. West Side Little League has also won the state championship 19 times since 1988 in the majors division.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Council consists of seven members who are elected in non-partisan elections at staggered intervals and serve four-year terms. They elect a mayor within the council, and together select and appoint a professional city manager to operate the city. Operating as the legislative branch of the city, the Council provides policy direction to the City Manager. The judge of the municipal court is also an elected official.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The city's Council-Manager form of government was established in 1926, based then on election by proportional representation with a single transferable vote (STV). This system was developed to try to meet the rapidly changing needs of cities with their growing immigrant populations. "The PR/STV ballot allows voters to rank order their choices in either at-large or multimember district elections. With each ballot ultimately counting toward the election of one candidate, voters' preferences can be transferred to second or subsequent choices if their most preferred candidate is already elected or has no chance of election, thus maximizing the proportion of effective votes and permitting minorities to win their share of seats."


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton was one of several major Ohio cities that adopted the PR/STV form of elections in the early 20th century; Ashtabula was the first in 1915. This system was considered more progressive than plurality voting, with winner take all, and the at-large election system found in some cities, which also benefited the majority and generally succeeded in preventing minorities from gaining office. Use of PR/STV resulted in more minorities, including women, being able to enter politics and attain positions on city councils which they likely otherwise would not have gained in at-large voting. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a significant minority is that representing 5% or more of the population.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The success of PR/STV nationally (including in New York City for a time) led to a political backlash from bosses and parties that lost power. In Hamilton, opponents mounted numerous campaigns to repeal the charter, finally succeeding after four failed referendums in 12 years. Since the city of Hamilton returned to plurality voting, the African-American minority has less frequently been able to win seats on the council. In 2015, however, city council members include two women (white) and an African-American man; other members are white males.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The City Manager operates as chief executive officer, directing a workforce of more than 675 permanent employees and a $400+ million budget. The city also maintains a Public Safety Director for the city, responsible for police protection, staffed by more than 110 full-time professionals, and fire protection, staffed by more than 110 full-time fire fighters.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton is served by the Hamilton City School District, which operates Hamilton High School. The district has underway a major $200 million capital program including construction of eight elementary schools, a freshman school, two completely renovated middle schools, and an upgraded high school with two new gyms, a new media center, six new classrooms and a new cafeteria.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: In 2002, President George W. Bush visited Hamilton and signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law at Hamilton High School.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Talawanda City School District and Talawanda High School in Oxford, Ohio serves a small portion of the city.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Ross Local School District and Ross High School operate outside the city proper, serving a small portion of the city and surrounding rural area.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Father Stephen T. Badin High School, a private Catholic high school of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and several Catholic elementary schools (St. Ann Catholic School, St. Peter in Chains School, St. Joseph Consolidated School, Sacred Heart of Jesus School and Queen of Peace School), serve the city and surrounding area.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Miami University, based in Oxford, Ohio, has a regional campus in the city. Miami University Hamilton opened in 1968 and now has more than 5,000 students. It also has a campus in nearby Middletown, with about 2,700 students.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Highways serving Hamilton are US Highway 127, State Route 128, State Route 129, State Route 130, and State Route 4. Hamilton's location at the intersection of U.S. Route 127 and State Routes 128. 129, and 130 makes the city one of the few towns located at the intersection of four consecutively numbered highways.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Hamilton station is currently unused. It previously serviced passenger trains to Detroit (until 1971), Chicago, Washington and New York City (until 2005).


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Lane Public Library is located in an architecturally significant building in the heart of Hamilton's Historic German Village. Built in 1866 by local philanthropist Robert Clark Lane, the library building has survived floods and fires and has been improved by six separate renovations and expansion projects. It is a community focal point for Hamilton.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: A significant building renovation in 1995-1996 upgraded the library for the 21st century's technology while protecting its Victorian architectural character. The 25,000-square foot building houses several library administration departments as well as the Circulation, Information, Teen, and Children's Departments. It has a large local history room, which also has materials related to genealogy.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: Clark donated the first collection of materials to the library, approximately 3,000 books. Today, the collection numbers over 123,000. In addition to popular books and research volumes, the library offers the community access to videos, DVDs, CDs, CD ROMs, puppets, audio books and eBooks. In the year 2000, more than 435,000 items were checked out of Clark Lane's library, and staff members answered over 48,500 reference questions.


title: Hamilton, Ohio

text: The Lane Public Library also features the Lane Libraries Community Technology Center, located on the ground floor of the historic Robinson-Schwenn Building at 10 Journal Square in downtown Hamilton. The center offers a high-tech collaborative work/play/create space with public use computers (both PC and Mac), high-end software, tablet and eReader demo displays, 3D printers and comfortable lounge-style seating with Wi-Fi available throughout.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Vijay Babu (born 14 May 1976) is an Indian film producer, actor, and businessman, who works in the Malayalam film industry. He is the founder of the film production company Friday Film House.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Vijay Babu is best known for producing and starring in the films "Philips and the Monkey Pen" (2013), "Peruchazhi" (2014), "Aadu" (2015), "Adi Kapyare Kootamani" (2015), "Mudhugauv" (2016), "Angamaly Diaries" (2017), "Aadu 2" (2017), "June" (2019), "Sufiyum Sujatayum" (2021), and "Home" (2021). In 2014, he won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Children's Film (as producer) for his production firm for "Philips and the Monkey Pen". The character "Sarbath Shameer" played by Vijay Babu appearing in "Aadu" film series had developed into a cult following.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: "Sufiyum Sujatayum", produced by him under his banner Friday Film House, is the first Malayalam film to have a direct release on an OTT platform, Amazon Prime Video. Babu is known for bankrolling many experimental films and supporting upcoming filmmakers in the industry.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Vijay Babu was born in Kollam, Kerala to Subashchandra Babu and Maya Babu. He has two siblings, Vinay Babu and Vijayalakshmi.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Babu did his schooling at St. Jude School, Kollam and received graduation from the Loyola College, Chennai. He started his media career at STAR India in Mumbai. In 2002, he was selected as the Best Employee of STAR TV. Later that year, he quit his job to venture as an entrepreneur in Dubai. After a few years, he joined as the COO of Asianet and Sitara TV in Hyderabad. In 2009, Babu returned to Kerala as the Vice President of Surya TV. He is married to Smitha, a Dubai-based employee. The couple has a son named Bharath.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Babu is one of the founders and CEO of Friday Film House founded a Kerala-based film production company along with the actress Sandra Thomas. Friday Film House won seven of the Kerala state film awards in various fields in 2014. Though the company was established after the success of the film "Friday", the movie is considered the first production venture of Friday Film House.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: Babu is best known for his roles in "Philips and the Monkey Pen" and "Nee-Na", and as the producer of "Philips and the Monkey Pen", "Peruchazhi" and "Aadu". His role as Vinay Paniker in "Nee-Na" received appreciation from critics.


title: Vijay Babu (actor, born 1976)

text: On 22 April 2022, a newcomer actress from the Malayalam film industry accused Vijay Babu of sexual and physical abuse over the past two months in the guise of friendship and guidance, and subsequently registered a criminal case which is currently being investigated. In response, he left India and is suspected to be in Dubai, with Indian police having issued a look out circular for him at the airports and planning to search his properties for evidence. In a Facebook Live stream four days later, Babu denied the accusations, claiming to be "the one who is suffering" and stating he would contersue for defamation. While his action received criticism, various men's rights groups came in support of him quoting the one-sided nature of law when it comes to such allegations. Activists like Rahul Easwar and Mithun Vijay Kumar announced MenToo movement on various platforms to protect the actor from media trials and demanded a gender-neutral form of justice. Notably, he named his accuser in the video despite knowing it is illegal under Indian law, leading to him additionally being charged under IPC Section 228A for violating the victim's anonymity and criticism from supporters of sexual assault survivors. While the internal complaint commission of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) recommended that Babu be expelled, the organisation ultimately did not do so, instead accepting a letter from him distancing himself from the executive board. In response to this inaction, four members (Maala Parvathy, Kukku Parameswaran, Shweta Menon and Hareesh Peradi) criticized AMMA's stance and left the association.


title: Taipei Metro

text: Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), branded as Metro Taipei, is a rapid transit system serving the areas of Taipei and New Taipei in Taiwan, operated by the government-owned Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, which also operates the Maokong Gondola.


title: Taipei Metro

text: Taipei Metro was the first metro system ever built in Taiwan. The initial network was approved for construction in 1986 and work began two years later. It began operations on March 28, 1996, and by 2000, 62 stations were in service across three main lines. Over the next nine years, the number of passengers had increased by 70%. Since 2008, the network has expanded to 131 stations and the passenger count has grown by another 66%.


title: Taipei Metro

text: The system has been praised by locals for its effectiveness in relieving growing traffic congestion in Taipei and its surrounding satellite towns, with over two million trips made daily.


title: Taipei Metro

text: The idea of constructing the Taipei Metro was first put forth at a press conference on 28 June 1968, where the Minister of Transportation and Communications Sun Yun-suan announced his ministry's plans to begin researching the possibility of constructing a rapid transit network in the Taipei metropolitan area; however, the plan was shelved due to fiscal concerns and the belief that such a system was not urgently needed at the time. With the increase of traffic congestion accompanying economic growth in the 1970s, the need for a rapid transit system became more pressing. In February 1977, the Institute of Transportation (IOT) of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) released a preliminary rapid transport system report, with the designs of five lines, including U1, U2, U3, S1, and S2, to form a rough sketch of the planned corridors, resulting in the first rapid transit system plan for Taipei.


title: Taipei Metro

text: In 1981, the IOT invited British Mass Transit Consultants (BMTC) and China Engineering Consultants, Inc. to form a team and provide in-depth research on the preliminary report. In 1982, the Taipei City Government commissioned National Chiao Tung University to do a research and feasibility study on medium-capacity rapid transit systems. In January 1984, the university proposed an initial design for a medium-capacity rapid transit system in Taipei City, including plans for Wenhu line and Tamsui–Xinyi line of the medium-capacity metro system. On March 1, 1985, the Executive Yuan Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) signed a treaty with the Taipei Transit Council (TTC), composed of three American consultant firms, to do overall research on a rapid transit system in metropolitan Taipei. Apart from adjustments made to the initial proposal, Wenhu line of the medium-capacity metro system was also included into the network. In 1986, the initial network design of the Taipei Metro by the CEPD was passed by the Executive Yuan, although the network corridors were not yet set. A budget of NT$441.7 billion was allocated for the project.