Early life.

Adolf Bertram was born in Hildesheim, Royal Prussian Province of Hanover (now Lower Saxony), Germany. He studied theology at the University of Munich, the University of Innsbruck, and the University of Würzburg, where he obtained a doctorate in theology, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon law in 1884. He was ordained a Roman Catholic diocesan priest in 1881. On 26 April 1906 he was elected bishop of Hildesheim, an election that received papal confirmation on 12 June 1906.  Eight years later, on 8 September 1914, the Pope confirmed his election by the cathedral chapter of Breslau as bishop of that see, and he took possession of it on 28 October. Since 1824 the title Prince-Bishop of Breslau was a merely honorific title granted to the incumbents of the see, without a prince-bishopric of secular rule wielded by the incumbent, but granting a seat in the Prussian House of Lords and in the Austrian House of Lords. This, however, was abolished when Austria and Prussia became republican after 1918. Bertram continued to use the title of prince-bishop also thereafter until he was ranked Archbishop of Breslau on 13 August 1930.

Cardinal.

On 4 December 1916 Bertram was created a cardinal but only "in pectore" for fear of provoking a negative reaction against the Church on the part of the Allies, especially from the Italian side.  After hostilities ceased, his appointment was published on 5 December 1919, and he was assigned the titular church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura on 18 December 1919. From 1919 to his death, he was also Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Silesian uprisings.

Throughout the Polish Uprisings against Germany in parts of Upper Silesia, he underlined his pro-German attitude, in line with his previous declaration of being a "German bishop" attached to the German state, which generated controversy and criticism from Poles. Throughout the upheaval, he tried to influence the Vatican on behalf of Germany. In turn, he was called a "German chauvinist" and accused of being "anti-Polish", as he removed Polish priests and replaced them with Germans in Upper Silesia during the events. He forbade Polish priests from taking part in Polish cultural and political activities but allowed German ones to participate in political agitation. Bertram questioned the decree of Pope Benedict XV that ordered him to refrain from visiting Upper Silesia during the Upper Silesia plebiscite, calling it "the result of Polish intrigue" by August Hlond, a personal friend of Benedict XV.

Order of 21 November 1920.

On 21 November 1920, four months before the Silesian Plebiscite, Bertram issued an order that made political activity of local priests dependent on the agreement of the local provost and supported by threat of severe church sanctions if broken. Since 75%-80% of provosts were of Germans, and local priests were regularly Polish Jesuit priests immigrated from Little Poland, that was seen as giving support to the German side in the plebiscite, and the Polish public reacted with anger. Wincenty Witos told Bertram that if not for his order, three quarters of Upper Silesian population would vote for Poland. In the end, almost 60% of Upper Silesians voted for Germany. The Polish government protested Bertram's decision to the Vatican, and the Polish Foreign Ministry began actions opposing the decree.

Conflict with Polish members of the clergy.

A special committee of 91 priests from Upper Silesia issued a declaration to Holy See in which they warned of the consequences of Bertram's actions and growing "bitterness" among the population that would harm the Catholic Church in the long term. They called for a boycott of his order and declared loyalty to Vatican. Soon, the priests were supported by senior members of the Polish clergy. On 30 November, at the residence of Cardinals Aleksander Kakowski and Dalbor and Bishops Bilczewski, Sapieha, Teodorowicz, Fulman and Przeździecki issued a letter to Pope to warn him that Bertram engaged in political activity on behalf of German side and threatened to break relations between the Vatican and the Polish state as well as the Polish nation. Thy pleaded with the Pope to revoke Bertram's order.  As the consequences of Bertram's order became known, the Polish Parliament debated on breaking up relations with the Vatican or removing the Polish ambassador to the Vatican. Eventually, the Polish government decided to issue a protest note, and the Vatican revoked its delegate to Poland, Achille Ratti, who would later become Pope Pius XI.  On 7 November 1922, Bertram lost his episcopal competence in the parishes of Breslau diocese that had become part of Poland, namely in the prior Austro-Hungarian, now Polish eastern Cieszyn Silesia (Polish acquired 1918/1919), and the prior German East Upper Silesia (seized by Poland on 20 June 1922). On 17 December the Holy See established for these areas an exempt Apostolic Administration, which it elevated as the new Diocese of Katowice on 28 October 1925 by the bull Vixdum Poloniae Unitas. The parishes in northwesterly Czechoslovak Cieszyn Silesia (Zaolzie) remained under Bertram's jurisdiction of Breslau.

Last years of Weimar Republic.

By his bull "Pastoralis officii nostri" Pope Pius XI elevated Bertram to Archbishop of Breslau on 13 August 1930, carrying out the stipulations of the concordat between the Free State of Prussia and the Holy See. Bertram then supervised three suffragans within Breslau's new Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province, the dioceses of Berlin and Ermland as well as the Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl.  In 1930, he refused a religious funeral for a well-known Nazi official on the grounds that the principles of National Socialism were incompatible with the Catholic faith.In a widely publicized statement, he criticized as a grave error the one-sided glorification of the Nordic race and the contempt for divine revelation that was increasingly taught throughout Germany. He warned against the ambiguity of the concept of ""positive Christianity"", a highly nationalistic religion that the Nazis were encouraging. Such a religion, he said, "for us Catholics cannot have a satisfactory meaning since everyone interprets it in the way he pleases".  In 1932, he sought the permission of Rome regarding about joining the Nazi Party, but it was refused as the Church wanted no involvement with politics.

Nazi dictatorship.

In March 1933, the president of an interfaith group asked for Bertram's aid in protesting the boycott of Jewish business organised by the Nazis but was refused as he regarded it as purely an economic matter and because, in his opinion, the Jewish press had kept silent about the persecution of Catholics.  On the eve of the Second World War, Nazi Germany and, to a much lesser extent, Poland annexed parts of Czechoslovakia, Sudetenland and Zaolžje/Zaolzie, whose northern part was a component of Bertram's diocese. After the Polish takeover of Zaolžje, which was never internationally recognised, the Polish government requested the Holy See to depose Bertram from jurisdiction in the newly-Polish annexed area. The Holy See complied, and Pope Pius XI then subjected the Catholic parishes in Zaolžje to an apostolic administration under Stanisław Adamski, Bishop of Katowice, who wielded that administration until 31 December 1939.

World War II.

He ordered Church celebrations upon Nazi Germany's victory over Poland and France, with an order to ring bells all across Reich upon the news of the German capture of Warsaw in 1939. With his knowledge, the diocese of Breslau issued a statement calling the war with Poland a "holy war" fought to enforce God's orders on how to live and regain "German lost land".  Bertram as "ex officio" head of the German episcopate sent greetings on the occasion of Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939 in the name of all German Catholic bishops, an act that angered bishop Konrad von Preysing; Bertram was the leading advocate of accommodation as well as the leader of the German church, a combination that reigned in other would-be opponents of Nazism.  Throughout most of World War II Cardinal Bertram remained in Breslau. Bertram opposed what he called the immorality and "neopaganism" of the Nazi Party. On 23 December 1939 Cesare Orsenigo, Nuncio to Germany, appointed – with effect of 1 January 1940 – Bertram – and Olomouc' Archbishop Leopold Prečan – as apostolic administrators for exactly those Catholic parishes of Zaolžje, where Pius XI had deposed them in 1938.  In 1940, Cardinal Bertram condemned the propaganda and planning for Operation Lebensborn and Nazi vitalism and insemination plans as ""immoral"", saying that the Lebensborn programme was institutionalized ""adultery"".  A few months after his death, "Time" magazine wrote about Cardinal Bertram:Died. Adolf Cardinal Bertram, 86, outspoken anti-Nazi Archbishop of Breslau and dean of the German Catholic hierarchy, whose tireless resistance to Hitler's "neopaganism" was climaxed last March in his defiance of orders to evacuate Breslau before the advancing Russians; presumably in Breslau. His death left the College of Cardinals with 40 members - the fewest in 144 years.  In early 1941 Bertram as metropolitan bishop of the Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and speaker of the Fulda Conference of Bishops, rejected Carl Maria Splett's request to admit the Danzig diocese as member in his ecclesiastical province and at the conference.

Last years and death.

In 1945, during the so-called Siege of Breslau, he resisted pressure from the Nazi government to leave the city, until much of the population was evacuated in the wake of the Soviet assault (Festung Breslau). Bertram finally decided to leave the city in late February or early March 1945 and spent the rest of the war at his summer residence at Castle Johannesberg in Jauernig (Czechoslovak part of Breslau diocese, Sudetenland), where he died on 6 July 1945 at the age of 86.  He was buried at the local cemetery in Ves Javorník (Oberjauernig). His body was exhumed in 1991 and was reburied in the metropolitan cathedral in Wrocław, Poland. He was succeeded as Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops by Josef Frings.

Legacy.

It has been claimed that Bertram scheduled a Requiem Mass upon Hitler's death. However, this claim has been disputed by Ronald Rychlak:In point of fact, this is what we know: Bertram was elderly and ill when the war ended. When he died (just weeks later), his papers included a handwritten order scheduling a Requiem Mass for "all" Germans who died in the war, including Hitler (who was originally reported to have died while fighting the Red Army), and for the protection of the Catholic Church in Germany. This order was never sent, and the Mass was never held. Bertam's personal secretary later reported being unaware of this paper or any such proposed order. In fact, the order itself was crossed through with two broad strokes.

Adolf Cardinal Bertram (14 March 1859 – 6 July 1945) was archbishop of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Adolf Johannes Kardinal Bertram (* 14. März 1859 in Hildesheim; † 6. Juli 1945 auf Schloss Johannesberg bei Jauernig) war ein deutscher Theologe, zunächst Bischof von Hildesheim, später Erzbischof von Breslau.


Drug metabolism.

The metabolism of a drug or toxin in a body is an example of a biotransformation. The body typically deals with a foreign compound by making it more water-soluble, to increase the rate of its excretion through the urine. There are many different processes that can occur; the pathways of drug metabolism can be divided into: Drugs can undergo one of four potential biotransformations: Active Drug to Inactive Metabolite, Active Drug to Active Metabolite, Inactive Drug to Active Metabolite, Active Drug to Toxic Metabolite (biotoxification).

Microbial biotransformation.

Biotransformation of various pollutants is a sustainable way to clean up contaminated environments. These bioremediation and biotransformation methods harness the naturally occurring, microbial catabolic diversity to degrade, transform or accumulate a huge range of compounds including hydrocarbons (e.g. oil), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pharmaceutical substances, radionuclides and metals. Major methodological breakthroughs in recent years have enabled detailed genomic, metagenomic, proteomic, bioinformatic and other high-throughput analyses of environmentally relevant microorganisms providing unprecedented insights into biotransformation and biodegradative pathways and the ability of organisms to adapt to changing environmental conditions.  Biological processes play a major role in the removal of contaminants and pollutants from the environment. Some microorganisms possess an astonishing catabolic versatility to degrade or transform such compounds. New methodological breakthroughs in sequencing, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and imaging are producing vast amounts of information. In the field of Environmental Microbiology, genome-based global studies open a new era providing unprecedented "in silico" views of metabolic and regulatory networks, as well as clues to the evolution of biochemical pathways relevant to biotransformation and to the molecular adaptation strategies to changing environmental conditions. Functional genomic and metagenomic approaches are increasing our understanding of the relative importance of different pathways and regulatory networks to carbon flux in particular environments and for particular compounds and they are accelerating the development of bioremediation technologies and biotransformation processes. Also there is other approach of biotransformation called enzymatic biotransformation.

Oil biodegradation.

Petroleum oil is toxic for most life forms and episodic and chronic pollution of the environment by oil causes major ecological perturbations. Marine environments are especially vulnerable, since oil spills of coastal regions and the open sea are poorly containable and mitigation is difficult. In addition to pollution through human activities, millions of tons of petroleum enter the marine environment every year from natural seepages. Despite its toxicity, a considerable fraction of petroleum oil entering marine systems is eliminated by the hydrocarbon-degrading activities of microbial communities, in particular by a remarkable recently discovered group of specialists, the so-called hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB). "Alcanivorax borkumensis", a paradigm of HCB and probably the most important global oil degrader, was the first to be subjected to a functional genomic analysis. This analysis has yielded important new insights into its capacity for (i) n-alkane degradation including metabolism, biosurfactant production and biofilm formation, (ii) scavenging of nutrients and cofactors in the oligotrophic marine environment, as well as (iii) coping with various habitat-specific stresses. The understanding thereby gained constitutes a significant advance in efforts towards the design of new knowledge-based strategies for the mitigation of ecological damage caused by oil pollution of marine habitats. HCB also have potential biotechnological applications in the areas of bioplastics and biocatalysis.

Metabolic engineering and biocatalytic applications.

The study of the fate of persistent organic chemicals in the environment has revealed a large reservoir of enzymatic reactions with a large potential in preparative organic synthesis, which has already been exploited for a number of oxygenases on pilot and even on industrial scale. Novel catalysts can be obtained from metagenomic libraries and DNA sequence based approaches. Our increasing capabilities in adapting the catalysts to specific reactions and process requirements by rational and random mutagenesis broadens the scope for application in the fine chemical industry, but also in the field of biodegradation. In many cases, these catalysts need to be exploited in whole cell bioconversions or in fermentations, calling for system-wide approaches to understanding strain physiology and metabolism and rational approaches to the engineering of whole cells as they are increasingly put forward in the area of systems biotechnology and synthetic biology.

Biotransformation is the chemical modification (or modifications) made by an organism on a chemical compound. If this modification ends in mineral compounds like CO, NH, or HO, the biotransformation is called mineralisation.

Die Biotransformation ist ein Vorgang im Stoffwechsel von Lebewesen, bei welchen nicht ausscheidbare Stoffe durch chemische Prozesse in ausscheidbare Stoffe umgewandelt "(transformiert)" werden.


Background.

In the wake of discovery of the Rye House Plot and Charles II's persecution of the Whigs, Locke fled England to Amsterdam, Holland in September 1683. Throughout his life, Locke had taken an interest in the debate about religious toleration. The question was much debated in Holland during Locke's stay and in October 1685 Louis XIV of France Revoked the Edict of Nantes that had guaranteed religious toleration for French Protestants.  In Holland, Locke met Philipp van Limborch, a Professor of Divinity, and it was to be a discussion with Limborch that persuaded Locke to temporarily put aside his work on "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" and put forth his ideas on toleration. Locke wrote the "Letter" during the winter of 1685-86.

Argument of the "Letter".

One of the founders of Empiricism, Locke develops a philosophy that is contrary to the one expressed by Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan", in supporting toleration for various Christian denominations. Hobbes did allow for individuals to maintain their own religious beliefs as long as they outwardly expressed those of the state, however, and it has been argued that Locke's rejection of Catholic Imperialism was the ultimate basis for his rejection of government's interest in spiritual salvation.  Unlike Hobbes, who saw uniformity of religion as the key to a well-functioning civil society, Locke argues that more religious groups actually prevent civil unrest. Locke argues that civil unrest results from confrontations caused by any magistrate's attempt to prevent different religions from being practiced, rather than tolerating their proliferation. Locke's primary goal is to "distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion." He seeks to persuade the reader that government is instituted to promote external interests, relating to life, liberty, and the general welfare, while the church exists to promote internal interests, i.e., salvation. The two serve separate functions, and so, must be considered to be separate institutions.  For Locke, the only way a church can gain genuine converts is through persuasion and not through violence. This relates to his central conclusion, namely, that the government should not involve itself in care of souls. In support of this argument he presents three main reasons: (1) individuals, according to Locke, cannot divest control over their souls to secular forces, as God does not appoint the magistrate; (2) force cannot create the change necessary for salvation, because while it can coerce obedience, it cannot change one's beliefs; and (3) even if coercion could persuade someone of a notion, it would not help with ensuring salvation, because there is no reason to believe that magistrates are reliable judges of religious truth.  Locke argued that those who believed that "faith need not be kept with heretics" and that "kings excommunicated forfeit their kingdoms" had "no right to be tolerated by the magistrate". Neither did "those who refuse to teach that dissenters from their own religion should be tolerated". This was because those who believed such doctrines would, given the opportunity, attack the laws and the liberty and property of the citizens. These people, Locke argued, sought religious toleration "only until they have supplies and forces enough to make the attempt" on liberty. The doctrines that "faith need not be kept with heretics" and that "kings excommunicated forfeit their kingdoms" were commonly held to be Catholic beliefs by Protestants. During his visit to France in 1676, Locke recorded that the belief that "faith does not have to be kept with heretics" was an important factor in the intolerance shown to the Protestant Huguenots.  "That church can have no right to be tolerated by the magistrate," Locke argued, "which is so constituted that all who enter it "ipso facto" pass into the allegiance and service of another prince". If this were to be tolerated, "the magistrate would make room for a foreign jurisdiction in his own territory and...allow for his own people to be enlisted as soldiers against his own government". This has been interpreted by historians as a reference to the Catholic Church, with the Pope being the prince to whom Catholics owed allegiance.  However, more recently scholars have challenged the idea that Locke opposed the toleration of Catholics in all circumstances. Mark Goldie argues that the traditional interpretation of Locke's position on Catholics "needs finessing, since he did not, in fact, exclude the theoretical possibility of tolerating Catholics...if Catholics could discard their uncivil beliefs, they could then be tolerated". Goldie asserts that Locke was opposed not to Catholicism as such but antinomianism, the belief that ordinary moral laws are superseded by religious truth. Scott Sowerby also claims that Locke left open the possibility that Catholics could be tolerated if they adopted tolerant principles and rejected political allegiance to the Pope.  John Marshall has argued that a number of passages in the "Letter" demonstrate that Locke believed that Catholics "in their terms of worship and religious speculative beliefs...deserved their worship to be free". Marshall also notes that "The combination of Locke’s comments in the Letter suggest that during [its] composition... Locke was once again struggling over how to discriminate between the series of associated political principles which for him made Catholics intolerable, and the religious worship and other religious beliefs of Catholics which deserved toleration." A confirmation of these positions seems to come from a 2019 discovery of a previously unknown manuscript, dated to 1667-8, titled "", in which Locke makes his earliest arguments for religious toleration.  Locke argued that atheists should not be tolerated because "Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon or sanctity for an atheist". There is, however, a passage added in a later edition of the "Essay concerning Human Understanding", where Locke perhaps questioned "whether 'atheism' was necessarily inimical to political obedience."  Toleration is central to Locke's political philosophy. Consequently, only churches that teach toleration are to be allowed in his society. Locke’s view on the difficulty of knowing the one true religion may suggest that religion is not personally important to Locke, but it also may point to the deep uncertainties surrounding religious belief in a time of political and intellectual conflict. In contrast, Locke’s view on atheism suggests that he was far from considering religion as unimportant. As an empiricist, he took practical considerations into account, such as how the peace of civil society will be affected by religious toleration. A close reading of the text also reveals that Locke relies on Biblical analysis at several key points in his argument.

Reception.

There were immediate responses from the High Church Anglican clergy, published by Thomas Long and Jonas Proast. Long believed the letter was written by an atheistically disguised Jesuit plot for the Roman Catholic Church to gain dominance by bringing chaos and ruin to church and state. Proast attacked the Letter and defended the view that the government has the right to use force to cause dissenters to reflect on the merits of Anglicanism, the True Religion. Locke's reply to Proast developed into an extended, controversial exchange.

A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, though it was immediately translated into other languages. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. This "letter" is addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir": this was actually Locke's close friend Philipp van Limborch, who published it without Locke's knowledge.

Der Brief über Toleranz oder Brief über die Toleranz (lateinischer Originaltitel "Epistola de tolerantia", englischer Titel "A letter concerning Toleration") ist eine Veröffentlichung des englischen Philosophen John Locke.


Graphical conventions.

Graphs are frequently drawn as node–link diagrams in which the vertices are represented as disks, boxes, or textual labels and the edges are represented as line segments, polylines, or curves in the Euclidean plane. Node–link diagrams can be traced back to the 14th-16th century works of Pseudo-Lull which were published under the name of Ramon Llull, a 13th century polymath. Pseudo-Lull drew diagrams of this type for complete graphs in order to analyze all pairwise combinations among sets of metaphysical concepts.  In the case of directed graphs, arrowheads form a commonly used graphical convention to show their orientation; however, user studies have shown that other conventions such as tapering provide this information more effectively. Upward planar drawing uses the convention that every edge is oriented from a lower vertex to a higher vertex, making arrowheads unnecessary.  Alternative conventions to node–link diagrams include adjacency representations such as circle packings, in which vertices are represented by disjoint regions in the plane and edges are represented by adjacencies between regions; intersection representations in which vertices are represented by non-disjoint geometric objects and edges are represented by their intersections; visibility representations in which vertices are represented by regions in the plane and edges are represented by regions that have an unobstructed line of sight to each other; confluent drawings, in which edges are represented as smooth curves within mathematical train tracks; fabrics, in which nodes are represented as horizontal lines and edges as vertical lines; and visualizations of the adjacency matrix of the graph.

Quality measures.

Many different quality measures have been defined for graph drawings, in an attempt to find objective means of evaluating their aesthetics and usability. In addition to guiding the choice between different layout methods for the same graph, some layout methods attempt to directly optimize these measures.

Layout methods.

There are many different graph layout strategies:

Application-specific graph drawings.

Graphs and graph drawings arising in other areas of application include  In addition, the placement and routing steps of electronic design automation (EDA) are similar in many ways to graph drawing, as is the problem of greedy embedding in distributed computing, and the graph drawing literature includes several results borrowed from the EDA literature. However, these problems also differ in several important ways: for instance, in EDA, area minimization and signal length are more important than aesthetics, and the routing problem in EDA may have more than two terminals per net while the analogous problem in graph drawing generally only involves pairs of vertices for each edge.

Software.

Software, systems, and providers of systems for drawing graphs include:

Graph drawing is an area of mathematics and computer science combining methods from geometric graph theory and information visualization to derive two-dimensional depictions of graphs arising from applications such as social network analysis, cartography, linguistics, and bioinformatics.

Das Graphzeichnen (engl. "Graph Drawing") ist ein Themengebiet der Informatik und der Diskreten Mathematik, das sich damit beschäftigt, Graphen geometrisch zu realisieren. Eine zentrale Rolle beim Graphzeichnen bilden Algorithmen, die für einen gegebenen Graphen eine 2-dimensionale Einbettung in den Euklidischen Raum berechnen. Die Knoten des Graphen werden in der Regel durch einfache geometrische Objekte wie Punkte, Kreise oder Quadrate realisiert. Gibt es eine Kante zwischen zwei Knoten, wird dies in der "Zeichnung" durch eine Jordan-Kurve dargestellt, welche die den Knoten zugeordneten Objekte verbindet.


Technical specifications.

With the MKF-6, terrain sections of around length and width, at a flight altitude of and a resolution of about (in the visible range) were recorded. wide un-perforated films with a length of (depending on the thickness of the film) per lens were used, which provided individual images with a Negative format of. An overlay of 20 to 80% of the images was possible for serial recordings. The total weight of the camera including all its control units doesn't exceed.  The MKF-6 is equipped with six high-resolution "Pinatar" 4.5 / 125 mm (focal length) lenses and a rotary shutter, capable to simultaneously take six photos in six different spectral ranges at an exposure time between and seconds. The color channels range within the wavelengths of 460–500 nm (blue), 520–560 nm (green), 580–620 nm (yellow-orange), 640-680 nm (orange-red), 700-740 nm (red) and 780–860 nm (near infrared).  Films and filters can be variously combined. Nevertheless, all photos of all lenses have to be free of optical distortions and require an identical image scale regardless of their spectral range. In order to acquire the desired quality, the developers of Carl Zeiss Jena created a completely new lens type. Moreover, the camera moves in the flight's direction during exposure to compensate for the carrier satellite's or spacecraft's orbital movement and speed of approximately, which otherwise causes smearing and blurry images.  Manufacture of the lenses was also very complex. Each of the lenses was framed separately and then clamped in a purpose-built lathe. The mounted lenses were centered in such a way that the axis of rotation of the machine and the optical axis of the lenses matched exactly. Thus, the lens frames could be reworked with highest accuracy and then arranged in tubes of precise interior diameter.  Parallel to the MKF-6, a multispectral projector, the "MSP-4" was developed. With it, several spectral images, on top of each other and under various filters can be projected on a screen or photographic film. The "PKA" precision copying machine was designed for image reproduction.

Operation.

The geoscientific flight test program, developed by the "Central Institute for Earth Physics" (Zentralinstitut für Physik der Erde) took place aboard Soviet military aircraft. The MKF-6 was first used in September 1976 on board of Soyuz 22. The spacecraft was modified and equipped with a module that accommodated the camera. A completely revised version of the device, the "MKF-6M", that could be remotely operated from the ground was introduced in 1978 and deployed at the Salyut programme of Salyut 6 and 7 and the "MIR" space station. A total of eleven MKF-6 cameras was produced. Beginning in September 1979 it was also installed in utility/agricultural aircraft, such as the Antonov An-2 for terrestrial surveys and recordings.

National significance.

For the various research institutes of East Germany, the MKF-6 project represented the first steps towards advanced scientific orbital and airborne remote sensing of the earth's surface, the assessment of water and soil quality, military reconnaissance, environmental and meteorological research, among many other fields. Eventually, as a division of the Interkosmos program of the socialist Comecon countries a department for "Remote terrestrial sensing" was established.  Considered to be the best spectral camera of its time, the development and construction costs of the MKF-6 camera amounted to 82 million East German marks. The MKF-6 is still occasionally being used. Cooperation between the Soviet Union and Carl-Zeiss-Jena for the equipment of satellites and earth terminals began in the mid-1970s. Altogether around 100 devices, developed and produced in East Germany were utilized in space missions of the Interkosmos program and about 150 devices for ground stations.

Advanced scientific research.

Achievements and experiences with the MKF-6 were applied to research and data analysis for further missions and the development of new devices.  Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was developed and used to study the atmosphere of Venus (Venera 15/16 missions in 1983).  Device development and research participation in the 1986 Vega program (probes Vega 1 and Vega 2 for Venus and Comet Halley), in which all image data of Halley's Comet was recorded, processed and interpreted.  Contributions to the planetary mission Mars 96, with the development of the Wide-Angle Optoelectronic Stereo Scanner (WAOSS).  Participation in the 1988/89 Mars lunar Phobos program, which greatly exceeded GDR involvement in the Vega missions. The "Central Institute for Cybernetics and Information Processes" (Zentralinstitut für Kybernetik und Informationsprozesse) played a major role in the development of the "Fregat Camera Complex". The Phobos mission failed due to premature probe failure as only very little data and images could be acquired, which, however were thoroughly studied and evaluated.

The MKF-6 is a multispectral camera, that was designed and made in East Germany for the purpose of Remote sensing of the earth's surface.

MKF 6 ist eine Multispektralkamera, die in der DDR für die kosmische Fernerkundung der Erde gebaut wurde. Gebaut wurde die MKF 6 vom Kombinat VEB Carl Zeiss Jena mit organisatorischer Hilfe des im Mai 1973 gegründeten "Institutes für Elektronik" der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (IE der AdW). Dort lieferte man bereits seit 1969 die Optik für die sowjetische Monderkundung. Für die MKF 6 wurden finanzielle und materielle Mittel aus einem speziellen Planteil im Staatsplan Wissenschaft und Technik zur Verfügung gestellt.


Design.

VGA connectors and cables carry analog component RGBHV (red, green, blue, horizontal sync, vertical sync) video signals, and VESA Display Data Channel (VESA DDC) data.  The original IBM PS/2 defined different signals assignments. The IBM 8513 monitor defined pin 5 as "Self Test", which displays a white screen when the cable is disconnected (the pin is not connected to ground). The IBM PS/55 Display Adapter defined pin 9 as "+12V". It turns on the specific monitor when the system unit is powered on. In the PS/2, pin 9 was keyed by plugging the female connector hole; this prevented non-VGA 15 pin cables from being plugged into a VGA socket. Four pins carried Monitor ID bits, which were rarely used; VESA DDC redefined some of these pins and replaced the key pin with +5 V DC power supply. Devices that comply with the DDC host system standard provide and supply a minimum of 50mA to a maximum of 1A.  The VGA interface is not engineered to be hot-swappable (i.e. the user cannot connect or disconnect the output device while the host is running), although in practice this can be done and usually does not cause damage to the hardware or other problems. However, nothing in the design ensures that the ground pins form the first make or the last break in the connection, so hot-swapping may introduce surges in signal lines that may or may not be adequately protected against damage. Also, depending on the hardware and software, monitor detection is sometimes unreliable when hot-plugging a VGA connection.

Nomenclature.

DE-15 has been conventionally referred to ambiguously as D-sub 15, incorrectly as DB-15 and often as HD-15 (High Density, to distinguish it from the DE-9 connector used on the older CGA and EGA cards, as well as some early VGA cards, which have the same E shell size but only two rows of pins). The video connector is an "E" size D-sub connector, with 15 pins in three rows, which is the high-density connector version (DE15HD).

Cable quality.

The same VGA cable can be used with a variety of supported VGA resolutions, ranging from 320×400px @70 Hz, or 320×480px @60 Hz (12.6 MHz of signal bandwidth) to 1280×1024px (SXGA) @85 Hz (160 MHz) and up to 2048×1536px (QXGA) @85 Hz (388 MHz). There are no standards defining the quality required for each resolution but higher-quality cables typically contain coaxial wiring and insulation that make them thicker. Shorter VGA cables are less likely to introduce significant signal degradation. A good-quality cable should not suffer from signal crosstalk, whereby signals in one wire induce unwanted currents in adjacent wires, or ghosting. Ghosting occurs when impedance mismatches, 75ohm (Ω) by the specification, cause signals to be reflected. However, ghosting with long cables may be caused by equipment with incorrect signal termination or by passive cable splitters rather than the cables themselves. Some high-end monitors and video cards featured 5 separate BNC connectors for RGBHV signals, allowing highest quality connection using five 75ohm coaxial cables. Within a 15-pin connector, the red, green, and blue signals (pins 1, 2, 3) cannot be shielded from each other, so crosstalk is possible within the 15-pin interconnect. BNC prevents crosstalk by maintaining full coaxial shielding through the circular connectors, but the connectors are very large and bulky. The requirement to press and turn the plug shell to disconnect requires access space around each connector to allow grasping of each BNC plug shell. Supplementary signals such as DDC are typically not supported with BNC.

Adapters.

There are DVI to VGA adapters and cables. As neither DVI nor VGA carry audio channels, a separate path for audio should be used, if needed. Simple adapters from other modern outputs such as HDMI to VGA are also commonplace, again requiring a separate audio path.  To connect VGA outputs to interfaces with different signaling, more complex converters may be used. Most of them need an external power source to operate and are inherently lossy. However, many modern displays are still made with multiple inputs including VGA, in which case adapters are not necessary.  VGA to SCART converters can pass color information, because VGA — SCART RGB signals are electrically compatible, except for synchronization. Many modern graphics adapters can modify their signal in software, including refresh rate, sync length, polarity and number of blank lines. Particular issues include interlace support and the use of the resolution 720×576 in PAL countries. Under these restrictive conditions, a simple circuit to combine the VGA separate synchronization signals into SCART composite sync may suffice.

Extenders.

A VGA Extender is an electronic device that increases the signal strength from a VGA port, most often from a computer. They are often used in schools, businesses, and homes when multiple monitors are being run off one VGA port, or if the cable between the monitor and the computer will be excessively long (often pictures appear blurry or have minor artifacts if the cable runs too far without a booster). VGA extenders are sometimes called VGA boosters.

Current use.

Newer video cards often do not have a VGA output. The DVI-I output, which still contains an analog VGA-compatible signal, is often also omitted. Therefore, if the user intends to connect a monitor or projector that features only a VGA input, the user usually will need to facilitate use of an active converter that receives digital signal from a DVI-D or HDMI or DisplayPort connector and changes it into analog suitable for VGA. Only older series of video cards and motherboards (for use with an integrated GPU) may still have a VGA or DVI-I connector available.

A Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector is a three-row 15-pin DE-15 connector. The 15-pin VGA connector was provided on many video cards, computer monitors, laptop computers, projectors, and high definition television sets. On laptop computers or other small devices, a mini-VGA port was sometimes used in place of the full-sized VGA connector.

VGA-Anschluss (engl. Video Graphics Array) umfasst die Spezifikation einer analogen elektronischen Schnittstelle zur Übertragung von Bewegtbildern zwischen Grafikkarten und Anzeigegeräten sowie Spezifikationen für hierzu geeignete Stecker und Kabel. Die Einführung erfolgte 1987 gleichzeitig mit dem Video Graphics Array von IBM und folgte dem EGA-Anschluss.


Overview.

Vehicles in the Flexity Swift family vary in length, but are all articulated, usually with three sections. In most cases, the centre section is very short, but can be replaced with a longer section in order to increase capacity, as London is considering doing for future lines. The trams can also be coupled together into trains. Nevertheless, they are all bi-directional with cabs at both ends and doors on both sides. An emphasis is placed on speed with units capable of safely reaching speeds of when running on dedicated lines.  Most vehicles typically weigh between, though the ones made for the Minneapolis line are heavier due to stricter crashworthiness requirements in the United States (particularly buff strength) and the vehicles in Rotterdam and Karlsruhe are also heavier due to their use on a full, high-capacity rapid transit network and on mainline railway tracks, respectively.  The Flexity Swift family comes in two distinct versions with a 70% low-floor version to allow access to those in wheelchairs without requiring the construction of high platforms in city streets and a high-floor version with level boarding at raised platforms, generally to retain compatibility with stations built for older trams or trains. While they typically use DC overhead lines for power collection, the Rotterdam vehicles are also equipped with third rail power capability for use on the central sections of the network, while the Karlsruhe tram-trains are compatible with AC electrification which is used on the mainline railways.  Both the low and high-floor models were originally developed for use on the Cologne Stadtbahn in Germany. Other uses of Flexity Swift vehicles include London Tramlink, Manchester Metrolink, the tram networks in Istanbul and Melbourne, Rotterdam Metro, Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, Bonn Stadtbahn, Stockholm light rail lines 12 and 22, and the METRO Light Rail in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The scrapped Merseytram plan for Liverpool in Merseyside planned to use the same model as London.  The Flexity Swift's closest competitors are Alstom's Citadis family (particularly the RegioCitadis, Citadis Dualis, and Citadis Spirit variants), Siemens's S70/Avanto, SD100/SD160, SD400/SD460 and S200, and Sirio from Ansaldobreda. Compared to Bombardier's other Flexity vehicles, these vehicles are not designed for streetcar operation with extensive mixed-traffic operations, although they do operate as such on a number of systems such as in London, Manchester, and Melbourne.

The Bombardier Flexity Swift is a series of urban and inter-urban tram, light rail and light metro vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of Bombardier's Flexity family of rail vehicles, and like the others, Flexity Swift vehicles can be customized to suit the needs and requirements of customers including legacy designs from its acquisition of Adtranz.

Der Flexity Swift ist eine Familie von Stadtbahnwagen des Herstellers Bombardier Transportation, die erstmals 1995 durch die Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB) eingesetzt wurde. Heute werden die Fahrzeuge von mehreren Verkehrsbetrieben in Europa, Asien und den USA eingesetzt. Dazu gehören u. a. Bonn, Frankfurt am Main, Istanbul, Köln, London-Croydon, Minneapolis, Rotterdam, Stockholm und Manchester. Für Bursa und Karlsruhe wurden Ende der 2000er Jahre Fahrzeuge bestellt. Diese sind sowohl in einer Niederflur- als auch einer Hochflur-Version lieferbar. In Deutschland sind sie hauptsächlich unter den Typbezeichnungen der KVB (K4000, K4500, K5000) oder der VGF (U5) bekannt.


Description.

The Lacepede group (originally named Napoleon, Grant and Victoria islands) is a long chain of four islands known as West Island, Middle Island, Sandy Island and East Island. They are all small, low spits of coarse sand and coral rubble, lying atop a platform coral reef. They are treeless but support low vegetation. Average annual rainfall is about 750 mm. East Island is the site of the East Island Lighthouse.

Environment.

The Lacepede Islands are an A-class reserve managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation. Rats were eradicated in 1986, allowing the recolonisation of the islands by nesting seabirds. They are Western Australia's most important breeding habitat for green turtles. There has been a possible sighting of an Omura's whale, one of the most recently described and least known baleen whales.

Birds.

The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because they support over 1% of the world populations of brown boobies and roseate terns. The breeding colony of brown boobies, of up to 18,000 breeding pairs, is possibly the largest in the world. Up to 20,000 roseate terns have been recorded there.  Other birds breeding on the islands include masked boobies, Australian pelicans, lesser frigatebirds, eastern reef egrets, silver gulls, crested, bridled and lesser crested terns, common noddies, and pied and sooty oystercatchers. Visiting waders include grey-tailed tattlers, ruddy turnstones, great knots and greater sand plovers.

History.

The island group was named by Nicolas Baudin on 5 August 1801 during his expedition around Australia, in honour of French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who described several Australian fish species. The name of the islands was first charted on the Freycinet Map of 1811.

Guano mining.

In the 19th century, the Lacepede Islands were among numerous islands off the Western Australian coast that were mined for guano. Although much of the guano mined was by Western Australian industry, there was also extensive unauthorised mining by trading ships from other countries, especially the United States. A Melbourne company, Messrs. Poole, Picken and Co., had been authorised by the Western Australian government to load guano, and had been charged a royalty of 10 shillings per ton. On 26 June 1876, a dispute arose when Gilbert Carver Roberts, on behalf of Samuel Lord, an American merchant and honorary U.S. vice consul in Melbourne, landed from the French-flagged barque "de Forcade la Roquette", disputed a demand that he pay a levy for mining and attempted to evict the Victorian guano miners licensed by the Western Australian government. Charles Robert Baldwin planted the United States flag on one of the islands, claiming the island group for that country in accordance with the United States Guano Islands Act that empowered U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands more than a league (three miles) offshore from any country, so long as they had not been formally claimed. This action, known as the "American Incident" or "Lacepede Islands Incident", sparked a diplomatic and political row, which was eventually resolved by Captain Alexander of the "de Forcade la Roquette" paying the levy and a fine, and the Western Australian government enacting legislation requiring all guano mining to be licensed, with severe penalties for transgressions. In May 1877 Governor Robinson received advice that US President Ulysses Grant had repudiated Lord's annexation. The extraction of guano was wound down in 1879 when the schooner "Aurora" removed the machinery used for extraction. The manager Captain R McEachern estimated that the quantity of guano left on the islands was less than 2000 tons.

Blackbirding.

The Lacepede Islands are also known to have been used by blackbirders, as a place to maroon kidnapped Aboriginal people before signing them up to work in various industries, such as the pearling industry. The government caretaker James Kelly was dismissed in March 1884 for taking bribes from pearlers and allowing the Lacepedes to be used as an illegal depot for Aborigines kidnapped for pearl diving. In one confirmed case Edward Chapman from Cossack was cautioned for kidnapping aborigines from the Beagle Bay community and marooning them on the Lacepedes.

The Lacepede Islands, sometimes referred to simply as the Lacepedes, are a group of four islands lying off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, about north of Broome.

Die Lacepedeinseln sind eine aus vier kleinen Inseln bestehende Inselkette vor der Nordwestküste Australiens (150 km nördlich von Broome in Western Australia). Die Inseln bilden heute ein Naturreservat.


History.

The church was built in the 14th century in the centre of Hanover, succeeding a chapel, and a Romanesque church built in 1163. The western wall of that church is partly extant. The church was dedicated to Saint Giles, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The present Gothic building was built in 1347 of sandstone from the Deister. The Reformation in Hanover began in this church. The steeple was decorated with a Baroque facade in 1703 to 1711, designed by. The interior of the church was remodeled in 1826 by Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves who used columns from cast iron. The church was destroyed in a 1943 air-raid on the city, as was most of the old town, including the other two churches. It was left in ruins as a war memorial. A monumental sculpture in the interior was designed in 1959 by and called "Demut" (Humility). Several Baroque epitaphs are featured on the outer walls. One of them, for Susanna Magdalena Oldekop, who died in 1648 as a child, shows her with an angel. The "" shows a relief of seven praying men who, according to legend, sacrificed themselves at the to rescue the town. The epitaph at the church is a copy of the original which is held by the. The Aegidienkirche has belonged to the Marktkirche parish from 1982. In 1985, the Japanese sister city of Hanover, Hiroshima, donated a peace bell (bonshō) which is installed close to the tower. It is used in an annual service on Hiroshima Day, 6 August.

The Aegidienkirche was a church in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was one of three churches in the Old Town, the others being the Marktkirche and the Kreuzkirche. It was destroyed in World War II, and was left in ruins as a war memorial.

Die Aegidienkirche ist eine im 14. Jahrhundert entstandene Kirche in Hannover. Die östlichste der drei Altstadtkirchen (die beiden anderen sind Marktkirche und Kreuzkirche) wurde benannt nach dem Heiligen Ägidius, einem der 14 Nothelfer. Sie befindet sich in der Altstadt nahe dem Aegidientorplatz an der Ecke Breite Straße und Osterstraße. 1943 wurde die Kirche bei den Luftangriffen auf Hannover durch Bomben zerstört. Die Kirche wurde nicht wiederaufgebaut, ihre Ruine dient heute als Mahnmal für die Opfer von Kriegen und Gewalt.


Life and career.

Lane was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised in Texas. She attended Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. Lane also earned a Master's degree in the advanced training program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In 2013, she briefly taught at Carnegie Mellon University. Lane is on the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University in San Marcos.  Lane was married to businessman David Wilkins and together they had one daughter, Kate Wilkins (born February 23, 1998).  Lane began her acting career in the 1984 film, "Interface". She went on to appear in television and film productions such as "Positive I.D.", "Nervous Ticks", "Hunter", and "L.A. Law", before being cast as C. C. Babcock in "The Nanny" in 1993. Lane starred in "The Nanny" until the show ended in 1999. During her time on the show, she also appeared on "The Daily Show" in August 1997. Associated acts include Fran Drescher, Charles Shaughnessy, and Daniel Davis.  Lane voiced Ivana Baiul in the 2000 film "Gen13". In December 2004, she joined the rest of the cast of "The Nanny" for the Lifetime one-hour special, "".  Since 2000, Lane has done shows at Zachary Scott Theatre, in Austin, Texas. In 2010, she was a guest on "The Fran Drescher Show".  Lane is on the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Lauren Lane (born February 2, 1961) is an American television and stage actress. She is best known for her role as C. C. Babcock on "The Nanny".

Lauren Lane (* 2. Februar 1961 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) ist eine US-amerikanische Fernseh- und Theaterschauspielerin. Bekannt wurde sie durch die Rolle der "C.C. Babcock" in der Fernsehserie "Die Nanny" (1993–1999).


Tournaments.

Currently, the following nine tournaments are part of the ATP Masters 1000: Canadian Open (alternating yearly between Montreal and Toronto), Italian Open (held in Rome), Indian Wells Masters, Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Cincinnati Masters, Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters. Since 2009, five of the tournaments are held on outdoor hard courts, three on clay and one on indoor hard court whereas from 1987 until 2008 there were two indoor tournaments at the top-9 level. There are no grass-court Masters 1000s.  In 2009, the Shanghai Masters replaced the Madrid Open, until then held as an indoor event, in the eighth slot of the year with the Madrid Open switched to clay courts replacing the Hamburg Open in the spring clay.court season. The Shanghai Masters was designated as an outdoor event despite the facility having a retractable roof and having been used as the indoor venue for the ATP Finals (then called the Tennis Masters Cup) from 2005 until 2008.

Historic names.

1990–1995
 "ATP Championship Series, Single-Week"  1996–1999
 "ATP Super 9"  2000–2003
 "Tennis Masters Series"  2004–2008
 "ATP Masters Series"  2009–2018
 "ATP World Tour Masters 1000"  2019–present
 "ATP Tour Masters 1000"

Statistics.

Breakdown of most singles titles.

Active players and most titles in each column in bold.<br>

Match wins and win–loss record.

" Active players in bold."

Big Four.

Since the start of 2009, the Big Four (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray) have combined to win 79 of the last 99 ATP Masters 1000 finals (through to 2019 Paris), and had a streak of 42 consecutive finals appearances (from 2013 Indian Wells to 2017 Canada). Djokovic won 30 titles, Nadal won 23 titles, Federer won 14, and Murray 12 titles.  The remaining 20 titles were won by 17 different players, with only Alexander Zverev winning three times. Only twelve players outside the Big Four have reached three or more Masters 1000 finals through to 2019 Paris. David Ferrer made it to seven finals and won a title at 2012 Paris. Zverev has made it to six finals and won three titles (2017 Rome, 2017 Canada, and 2018 Madrid). John Isner has made it to five finals and won the 2018 Miami Open title. Juan Martín del Potro has reached four finals and won the 2018 Indian Wells title. Kei Nishikori has also made it to four finals but won none, Daniil Medvedev has made it to three finals and won two titles (2019 Cincinnati and 2019 Shanghai), Dominic Thiem has made it to three finals and won the 2019 Indian Wells title, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has made it to three finals and won the 2014 Canada title, Stan Wawrinka has made it to three finals and won the 2014 Monte Carlo title and Tomáš Berdych, Gaël Monfils and Milos Raonic have made it to three finals but won none.  The Big Four won 18 consecutive titles from the 2014 Cincinnati to the 2016 Canada event. Nadal and Djokovic together held all 9 Masters 1000 singles titles starting with the 2013 Monte-Carlo tournament through the 2014 Miami event.  Djokovic holds the record for the most Masters 1000 singles titles in a year, winning six in 2015, while Djokovic and Nadal share the second most titles in a year with five (Djokovic in 2011, and Nadal in 2013). Additionally, Djokovic and Nadal are the only two players to win four singles titles in a row, and Nadal is the only person to complete the feat in the same calendar year when he won Madrid, Rome, Canada, and Cincinnati in 2013.  Djokovic is the first and only male player to have won all 9 of the Masters 1000 tournaments, after he won 2018 Cincinnati.  Only 9 times has a player outside of the Big Four won a title by beating a member of the Big Four in the final since 2009:

The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, ATP Masters Series, Tennis Masters Series, ATP Super 9, and ATP Championship Series, Single-Week) are the third highest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments after the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ATP Finals.

Die ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (1990–1995 Championship Series, Single Week, 1996–1999 Mercedes-Benz Super 9, 2000–2003 Tennis Masters Series, 2004–2008 ATP Masters Series) ist eine von der Tennisvereinigung ATP veranstaltete Serie von neun Herrentennis-Turnieren. Nach den Grand-Slam-Turnieren und den ATP Finals bildet die "Masters Series" die wichtigste Turnier-Reihe im Herrentennis. Das Preisgeld eines Masters-Series-Turniers beträgt mehr als 2,5 Millionen US-Dollar. Im Unterschied zu den vier Grand-Slam-Turnieren werden die Spiele der Masters-Series im Best-of-Three-Format ausgetragen (also mit zwei Gewinnsätzen).


Composition history.

Crivelli and Company were managing both La Scala and La Fenice in Venice, and as a result, in April–May 1830 Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with them for two operas, one at each theatre. The opera for December 1831 at La Scala became "Norma" and while the one for the 1832 Carnival season at La Fenice became "Beatrice di Tenda".  With Bellini's "La sonnambula" successfully staged in March 1831 and Giuditta Pasta having demonstrated her extensive vocal and dramatic ranges in creating the role of Amina, the Swiss village maiden, she had been engaged by La Scala for her debut during the following season. Bellini and Romani then began to consider the subject of the coming autumn's opera. By the summer, they had decided to base it on Alexandre Soumet's play which was being performed in Paris at around that time and which Pasta would have seen.  For the forthcoming autumn/winter season, La Scala had engaged Giulia Grisi (the sister of Giuditta Grisi) and the well-known tenor Domenico Donzelli, who had made a name for himself with Rossini roles, especially that of Otello. They would fill the roles of Adalgisa and Pollione. Donzelli provided Bellini with precise details of his vocal capabilities which were confirmed by a report which the Neapolitan composer Saverio Mercadante also provided. By the end of August it appears that Romani had completed a considerable amount of the libretto, enough at least to allow Bellini to begin work, which he certainly did in the first weeks of September as the verses were supplied. He reported in a letter to Pasta on 1 September:  I hope that you will find this subject to your liking. Romani believes it to be very effective, and precisely because of the all-inclusive character for you, which is that of Norma. He will manipulate the situations so that they will not resemble other subjects at all, and he will retouch, even change, the characters to produce more effect, if need be.  "Norma" was completed by about the end of November. While, for Romani, it became "the most beautiful rose in the garland" of all his work with Bellini, it was not achieved without some struggles. Bellini, now at the height of his powers, was very demanding of his librettist and required many re-writes before he was satisfied enough to set it to music.

Performance history.

Premiere performances.

After rehearsals began on 5 December, Pasta balked at singing the "Casta diva" in act 1, now one of the most famous arias of the nineteenth century. She felt that it was "ill adapted to her vocal abilities", but Bellini was able to persuade her to keep trying for a week, after which she adapted to it and confessed her earlier error. At the opening night, the opera was received with what Weinstock describes as "chill indifference". To his friend Francesco Florimo, on the night of the premiere, Bellini wrote "Fiasco! Fiasco! Solemn fiasco!" and proceeded to tell him of the indifference of the audience and how it affected him.  In addition, in a letter to his uncle on 28 December, Bellini tried to explain the reasons for the reactions. As other commentators have also noted, some problems were innate to the structure and content of the opera, while others were external to it. Bellini discusses the tiredness of the singers (after rehearsing the entire second act on the day of the premiere) as well as noting how certain numbers failed to please—and failed to please the composer as well! But then he explains that most of the second act was very effective. It appears from the letter that the second evening's performance was more successful and Weinstock reports it was from this performance forward that it "was recognised as a successful and important opera" with 208 performances given at La Scala alone by the end of the 19th century.  Among the external reasons, Bellini cited the adverse reaction caused by "hostile factions in the audience" consisting of both the owner of a journal (and his claque) and also of "a very rich woman", who is identified by Weinstock as Contessa Giulia Samoyloff, the mistress of the composer Giovanni Pacini. On Bellini's part, there had long been a feeling of rivalry with Pacini ever since the failure of his own "Zaira" in Parma and his return to Milan in June 1829. With no firm contract for a new opera for Bellini, Pacini's success with his "Il Talismano" at La Scala—where it received 16 performances—fueled this rivalry, at least in Bellini's head. It was only when he staged a triumphant revival of his own with "Il pirata" with the original cast that he felt vindicated. "Pirata" received 24 consecutive performances between 16 July and 23 August 1829, thus outnumbering those for Pacini's opera. However, Bellini also noted that on the second performance evening of "Norma", the theatre was full.  In all, "Norma" was given 34 performances in its first season at La Scala, and reports from elsewhere, especially those from Bergamo, when it was staged in late 1832, suggested that it was becoming more and more popular. Between 1831 and 1850 Weinstock provides details of the dozens of performances given in numerous cities outside of Italy, and then he gives details of those beyond.  Bellini left Milan for Naples, and then Sicily, on 5 January 1832 and, for the first time since 1827, 1832 became a year in which he did not write an opera. "Norma" quickly "[conquered] the whole of Europe in the space of a few years".

Later revivals.

Richard Wagner conducted "Norma" at Riga in 1837. Following the common nineteenth-century practice of adding interpolated arias, he wrote an aria for the bass and men's chorus for this production. However, that aria has not entered the general repertoire. Wagner wrote at the time that "Norma" was "indisputably Bellini's most successful composition". "In this opera, Bellini has undoubtedly risen to the greatest heights of his talent. In these days of romantic extravaganzas and the hyper-excitement of the so-called musical attractions he presents a phenomenon which can hardly be overrated. The action, free from all theatrical coups and dazzling effects, reminds one instinctively of a Greek tragedy. Perhaps the views expressed by Schiller in his 'Bride of Messina' to the effect that he had hopes for the full revival of the tragedy of the ancients upon our stage, in the form of the opera, will receive new justification in this "Norma"! Let anyone name me a spiritual painting of its kind, more fully carried out, than that of this wild Gaelic prophetess...Every emotional moment stands out plastically; nothing has been vaguely swept together..."  Wagner also praised Romani's libretto:  Here, where the poem rises to the tragic height of the ancient Greeks, this kind of form, which Bellini has certainly ennobled, serves only to increase the solemn and imposing character of the whole; all the phases of passion, which are rendered in so peculiarly clear a light by his art of song, are thereby made to rest upon a majestic soil and ground, above which they do not vaguely flutter about, but resolve themselves into a grand and manifest picture, which involuntarily calls to mind the creations of Gluck and Spontini.  The opera was given its British premiere in London on 20 June 1833 and its US premiere at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans on 1 April 1836. In the late 1840s and during the Risorgimento era, some of the music was used in demonstrations of nationalistic fervour, one such example being the 1848 celebration of the liberation of Sicily from the rule of the Bourbons held in the cathedral in Palermo. There, the "Guerra, guerra" (War, war!) chorus from act 2 was sung.

Modern times.

During the 20th century, with the bel canto revival, the most prolific Norma was the Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, who gave 89 stage performances (several of which exist on live recordings as well as two on studio versions made in 1954 and 1960). Callas's first appearances in the role began at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze in November/December 1948 followed by the second at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires in June 1949, both of which were conducted by Tullio Serafin. The following year, she appeared in the role at La Fenice in Venice in January 1950, this time under Antonino Votto, and in Mexico in May 1950 conducted by Guido Picco. In London in 1952, Callas sang Norma at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November (where the role of Clotilde was sung by Joan Sutherland); she made her American debut singing the role at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in November 1954 under Nicola Rescigno; and then she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York under Fausto Cleva in October/November 1956. In 1960, she performed Norma in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece with the collaboration of the Greek National Opera.

Singers in the title role.

The title role—"one of the most taxing and wide-ranging parts in the entire repertory"—is one of the most difficult in the soprano repertoire. It calls for great vocal control of range, flexibility, and dynamics as well as containing a wide range of emotions: conflict of personal and public life, romantic life, maternal love, friendship, jealousy, murderous intent, and resignation. The German soprano Lilli Lehmann once remarked that the singing of all three Brünnhilde roles of Wagner's opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in one evening would be less stressful than the singing of one Norma. She also commented "When you sing Wagner, you are so carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene that you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself. But in Bellini, you must always have a care for beauty of tone and correct emission." According to the Met Opera Archives, Lehmann said this to "Herald Tribune" critic Henry Krehbiel.  Throughout the 20th century, many singers have taken the role of Norma. In the early 1920s, it was Rosa Raisa, Claudia Muzio, and Rosa Ponselle who were each admired. Maria Callas emerged as a major force in the role in the post-World War II period. She made two studio recordings of the opera for EMI, and several broadcasts of her live performances have been preserved from the early 1950s through her final performances of the role in Paris in 1964.  In the 1960s, two very different performers took the role: the Australian Dame Joan Sutherland and the Turkish Leyla Gencer. Following Sutherland's 1964 debut as Norma, Luciano Pavarotti called her "the greatest female voice of all time."  The Dutch coloratura Cristina Deutekom tackled the role in 1970. Throughout the decade, four other bel canto specialists debuted their Normas: Radmila Bakočević, Montserrat Caballé, Beverly Sills, and Renata Scotto. Also singing Norma during this period were Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett, the American divas who began as mezzo-sopranos and eventually started singing soprano repertoire.  During the 1980s and 1990s, the role of Norma was performed by such different singers as Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Marisa Galvany, Dame Gwyneth Jones, and Jane Eaglen. Other Normas include Hasmik Papian, Fiorenza Cedolins, Galina Gorchakova, Maria Guleghina, Nelly Miricioiu, June Anderson, Edita Gruberová and Carmela Remigio (who performs more frequently the role of Adalgisa).  In 2008, Daniela Dessì performed as Norma at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 2010 (in Dortmund) and 2013 (at the Salzburg Festival) the role was taken by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli: this version was also recorded with coloratura soprano Sumi Jo as Adalgisa. In 2011, Sondra Radvanovsky also added the role to her repertory, one to which she returned in the autumn 2014 at the San Francisco Opera and in the autumn of 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On 13 April 2013, the Italian "bel canto" soprano, Mariella Devia, after a career of 40 years and one day after turning 65, successfully made her debut as Norma at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.Angela Meade has played the role often, including in 2013 and 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Summary.

The action takes place in Gaul under the Roman occupation, and is centered on the triangular love affair between Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, Norma, his former companion, and the young Adalgisa. The background is the uprising of the Gallic people against the Roman occupiers, led by the Druid Oroveso.  Norma, the high priestess of the Druid temple, who had two children by Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, breaking her Druid chastity vows, discovers that her lover is now in love with her friend, the young Druid priestess Adalgisa. Norma tries to convince Pollione to give up Adalgisa and return to her, but he refuses. Norma publicly confesses her fault and is sentenced to death by fire. Pollione is convicted for pursuing Adalgisa in the temple and goes to the stake with Norma.

Synopsis.

Act 1.

"Scene 1: The grove of the druids".

Oroveso leads the druids in a procession in the forest to pray for victory against the invading Romans: (Oroveso and druids: "Ite sul colle, o Druidi" / "Go up on the hill, O druids"). The druids pray that Norma will come and have the courage to broker peace with the Romans: (Druids and Oroveso: "Dell'aura tua profetica" / "With thy prophetic aura, imbue her, O terrible God".) All leave to go to the temple.  Pollione and Flavio enter. Although Norma has secretly broken her vows in order to love him and has borne him two children, Pollione tells Flavio that he no longer loves her, having fallen in love with the priestess Adalgisa. But he expresses some remorse, describing his dream in which Adalgisa was beside him at the altar of Venus and a huge storm arose: (Pollione, aria: "Meco all'altar di Venere" / "With me at the altar in Rome was Adalgisa dressed in white, veiled all in white.") The storm presaged disaster for them both: "Thus does Norma punish her faithless lover," he declares. They hear the trumpets sounding to announce Norma's arrival. Flavio urges his friend to leave, but Pollione stands firm, proclaiming that he will confront them with a superior power and overthrow their altars: (Cabaletta: "Me protegge, me difende" / "I am protected and defended")  As Norma leads the druids and priestesses, the crowd proclaims: "Norma viene" / "Norma is coming" and, as Oroveso awaits her, they describe her dress and manner. All kneel as she approaches. "The time is not ripe for our revenge", she declares, stating that Rome will perish one day by being worn down. Then, with the mistletoe in hand, she approaches the altar with a plea to the moon (the "Chaste Goddess"): (cavatina: "Casta diva" / "Chaste goddess"). Continuing, she pleads that the goddess shed upon earth that peace which she has created in heaven. She calls for all to complete the rites and then clear the uninitiated from the grove. To herself, she declares that she cannot hurt Pollione, but desires that things return to where they used to be: (Cabaletta: "Ah! bello a me ritorna" / "Return to me, O beautiful one"). The assembled crowd accepts her cautious approach, and all leave the grove.  "Later that night: The Temple of Irminsul in the grove"  Adalgisa prays at the temple, remembering with some sorrow how she became involved with Pollione. He enters, telling her that she prays to a cruel god and is not trying to invoke the god of love. While she appears to reject him, he declares (Aria: "Va crudele" /"Go, O cruel one") but he is convinced that he cannot leave her; he is distraught, but she is equally torn, until the moment when he declares that he must return to Rome the following day. He begs Adalgisa to go with him: (Duet: Pollione, then Adalgisa, then together: "Vieni in Roma" / "Come to Rome"). She resists him, but finally appears to agree that they will leave together the following day.

"Scene 2: Norma's dwelling".

Norma appears to be upset and orders her maid, Clotilde, to take the two children away from her, expressing very ambivalent feelings about them. She tells Clotilde that Pollione has been recalled to Rome, but does not know if he will take her or how he feels about leaving his children. As Adalgisa approaches, the children are taken away.  Adalgisa tells Norma she has fallen in love with a Roman, whom she does not name. As she describes how she fell in love while waiting at the temple and seeing "his handsome face" appear, Norma recalls (as an aside) her own feelings for Pollione ("my passions, too, burned like this"), and more and more, their experiences of falling in love run parallel: (Norma and Adalgisa, duet: "Sola, furtiva al tempio" / "Often I would wait for him"). Adalgisa pleads for help and forgiveness, and Norma pledges that she will do that and will also free her from her vows as a priestess: (Norma: "Ah! sì, fa core, abbracciami" / "Yes, take heart, embrace me". Adalgisa: "Ripeti, o ciel, ripetimi" / "Say that again, heavens, say again")  Norma asks Adalgisa to describe the man whom she loves. Responding, she tells her that he is a Roman, and, at that moment, turns to indicate that it is Pollione who is just then entering the room. As Norma furiously turns to confront Pollione, Adalgisa is confused: Norma: "Oh! non tremare, o perfido" / "O faithless man, do not tremble".  Forcing the priestess to realise that she is the victim of a huge deception, Norma addresses Adalgisa. (Trio: each sings in succession, beginning with Norma: "Oh! di qual sei tu vittima" / "Oh, you are the victim"; then Adalgisa: "Oh! qual traspare orribile" / "What horror has been revealed"; then the two women together, followed by Pollione alone: "Norma! de' tuoi rimproveri" / "Norma, do not reproach me now", continuing with "Please give this wretched girl some respite"; after which all three repeat their words, singing at first singly, then together.)  There follow angry exchanges among the three, Norma declaring Pollione to be a traitor; he trying to persuade Adalgisa to leave with him; and she angrily telling him to go away. When he declares that it is his fate to leave Norma, she encourages the young priestess to go with him, but the latter declares that she would rather die. Norma then demands that her lover go, leaving behind his children—and his honour. (Finale: brief duet, Adalgisa and Pollione: he declares his love, and she her desire to Norma not to be the cause of grief to her. Trio: Norma continues to rage at Pollione, Adalgisa repeats her desire to make him return to Norma, and Pollione curses the day when he met Norma.) Then the sound of the druids calling Norma to the temple is heard. They report that the angry god, Irminsul, has spoken. Pollione storms out.

Act 2.

"Scene 1: Norma's dwelling".

Norma looks at both of her sons, who are asleep. She considers killing them. Advancing towards them with knife upraised, she hesitates. (Recitative: "Dormono entrambi... non vedran la mano che li percuote" / "They are both asleep... they shall not see the hand which strikes them.") But she cannot bring herself to do it: (Aria: "Teneri, teneri figli" / "My dear, dear sons") The children wake up and she calls for Clotilde, demanding that Adalgisa be brought to her.  The young priestess enters, concerned at how pale Norma looks. Norma makes her swear to do everything she asks and, upon her agreement, tells her that she is entrusting the two children to her care and states that they should be taken to the Roman camp to their father Pollione, a man who she hopes will make a better mate for Adalgisa than he was for her. Adalgisa is aghast. Norma: "I beg you for his children's sake." (Duet, first Norma: "Deh! con te, con te li prendi" / "Please, take them with you") Adalgisa tells her that she will never leave Gaul and only agreed to the request in order to do what was good for Norma. (Duet, Adalgisa: "Vado al campo") In the duet, Adalgisa agrees to go to the Roman camp and tell Pollione of Norma's grief but her hope is to persuade him to return to Norma. She then renounces Pollione: (Duet: "Mira, o Norma" / "Look, o Norma") They sing together, each expressing her own thoughts and feelings until Norma realises that Adalgisa will give up Pollione and remain with her: (Cabaletta: Duet, Norma and Adalgisa: "Si fino all'ore estreme" / "Until the last hour")

"Scene 2: The grove".

The druid warriors gather and prepare themselves to attack the Romans. Oroveso enters with news from the gods: the time has not arrived to strike. Somewhat frustrated, the soldiers accept the decision.

"Scene 3: The temple of Irminsul".

Norma enters. (Aria: "Ei tornerà" / "He will come back") Then Clotilde arrives with news that Adalgisa has failed to persuade Pollione to return. Although Norma questions whether she should have trusted her, she then learns from her servant that Adalgisa is returning and wishes to take her vows at the altar and that the Roman has sworn to abduct her from the temple. In anger, Norma strikes a gong-like shield as a summons to war. Trumpets sound and Oroveso and the druids all rush in, demanding to know what is happening. They hear Norma's answer and the soldiers take up the refrain: "Guerra, guerra!" / "War, war!", while Norma proclaims "Blood, blood! Revenge!"  In order for Norma to complete the rites to authorise going to war, Oroveso demands to know who will be the sacrificial victim. At that moment, Clotilde rushes in to announce that a Roman has desecrated the temple, but that he has been apprehended. It is Pollione who is led in, and Norma is urged to take the sacrificial knife to stab him but, approaching him, she is unable to perform the deed. The assembled crowd demands to know why, but she dismisses them, stating that she needs to question her victim.  The crowd departs: (Duet, Norma and Pollione: "In mia man alfin tu sei" / "At last you are in my hands"). Norma demands that he forever shun Adalgisa; only then will she release him and never see him again. He refuses, and she vents her anger by telling him that she will then kill her children. "Strike me instead", he demands, "so that only I alone will die", but she quickly asserts that not only will all the Romans die, but so will Adalgisa, who has broken her vows as a priestess. This prompts him to plead for her life. (Cabaletta: Norma and Pollione: "Già mi pasco ne' tuoi sguardi" / "Already I take pleasure in the looks you give me".) When Pollione demands the knife, she calls the priests to assemble. Norma announces that it would be better to sacrifice a priestess who has broken her vows, and orders the pyre to be lit. Oroveso demands to know who is to be sacrificed while Pollione begs that she stays silent. Norma then wonders to herself if she is not in fact the guilty one, then reveals that it is she who is to be the victim: a high priestess who has broken her vows, has become involved with the enemy, and has borne his children. (Aria, Norma to Pollione: "Qual cor tradisti" / "The heart you betrayed"; Duet: Norma and Pollione; ensemble, Norma, Oroveso, Pollione, druids, priests: each expresses his/her sorrow, anger, pleas to Norma, with Oroveso learning for the first time that Norma is a mother.)  In the concerted finale, Norma pleads with Oroveso to spare her children, reminding her father that they are of his own blood. ("Deh! non volerli vittime" / "Please don't make them victims"). After he promises to take care of them, she prepares to leap into the flames, and the re-enamoured Pollione joins her, declaring "your pyre is mine as well. There, a holier and everlasting love will begin".

Music.

It was Giuseppe Verdi who—late in his life—made some perceptive comments in a letter of May 1898 to, who had recently published a book on Bellini. In the letter, Verdi states:  Bellini is poor, it is true, in harmony and instrumentation; but rich in feeling and in an individual melancholy of his own! Even in the least well-known of his operas, in "La straniera", in "Il pirata", there are long, long, long melodies such as no-one before him had produced. And what truth and power of declamation, as for example in the duet between Pollione and Norma! [See act 2, scene 3 above. Norma: "In mia man alfin tu sei" / "At last you are in my hands"] And what elation of thought in the first phrase of the introduction [to the duet]... no-one ever has created another more beautiful and heavenly.  Commenting on the overall quality of the music in "Norma", David Kimbell states that "Bellini's most astonishing achievement in "Norma" is, amid all the more obvious excitements of musical Romanticism, to have asserted his belief that the true magic of opera depended on a kind of incantation in which dramatic poetry and song are perfectly fused." Additionally, Kimbell provides examples of how the composer's art is revealed in this opera, but also noting that the ability to achieve a "fusion of music and dramatic meaning is to be found elsewhere in Bellini's work"

Schopenhauer's praise.

Schopenhauer claimed that tragedy causes the spectator to lose the will to live. "The horrors on the stage hold up to him the bitterness and worthlessness of life, and so the vanity of all its efforts and endeavors. The effect of this impression must be that he becomes aware, although only in an obscure feeling, that it is better to tear his heart away from life, to turn his willing away from it, not to love the world and life." He praised "Norma" for its artistic excellence in producing this effect. "...[T]he genuinely tragic effect of the catastrophe, the hero's resignation and spiritual exaltation produced by it, seldom appear so purely motivated and distinctly expressed as in the opera "Norma", where it comes in the duet "Qual cor tradisti, qual cor perdesti" [What a heart you betrayed, what a heart you lost]. Here the conversion of the will is clearly indicated by the quietness suddenly introduced into the music. Quite apart from its excellent music, and from the diction that can only be that of a libretto, and considered only according to its motives and to its interior economy, this piece is in general a tragedy of extreme perfection, a true model of the tragic disposition of the motives, of the tragic progress of the action, and of tragic development, together with the effect of these on the frame of mind of the heroes, which surmounts the world. This effect then passes on to the spectator."

Ibsen parody.

"Norma, or A Politician's Love" (Danish: "Norma eller En Politikers Kjærlighed") is an eight-page drama written as an opera parody by Henrik Ibsen. It is influenced by Bellini's "Norma", which Ibsen saw in 1851, but the characters are contemporary politicians. The play was first printed anonymously in the satirical magazine "Andhrimner" in 1851. The first book edition came in 1909, and the first performance of the play was at a student theatre in Trondheim 1994.

Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Writer Marion Zimmer Bradley acknowledged that the plot of her 1993 historical novel/fantasy book "The Forest House" was based on that of "Norma" – relocated from Gaul to Britain, but sharing the basic plot outline of a love affair between a druidic priestess and a Roman officer. Bradley further stated that, in homage to Bellini, the hymns in chapter five and twenty-two of her book are adapted from the libretto of the opera's act 1, scene 1, and those in chapter thirty from act 2, scene 2.

References.

Notes Cited sources  Other sources

Norma () is a "tragedia lirica" or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play "Norma, ou L'infanticide" ("Norma, or The Infanticide") by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831.

Norma ist eine tragische Oper (Originalbezeichnung: „tragedia lirica“) in zwei Akten von Vincenzo Bellini. Das Libretto stammt von Felice Romani und beruht auf einem Drama von Louis Alexandre Soumet. Die Uraufführung mit Giuditta Pasta in der Titelrolle fand 1831 an der Mailänder Scala statt. Die Partie der Norma gilt als eine der schwierigsten und anspruchsvollsten Rollen für eine hohe Frauenstimme und fordert im Idealfall eine Darstellerin mit großen expressiven Fähigkeiten. Besonders berühmt ist die Cavatine „Casta diva“ der Norma im ersten Akt.