[Q]: This article: Between the first and second season of promenade concerts, Wood did his last work in the opera house, conducting Stanford's new opera Shamus O'Brien at the Opera Comique. It ran from March until July 1896, leaving Wood enough time to prepare the second Queen's Hall season, which began at the end of August. The season was so successful that Newman followed it with a winter season of Saturday night promenade concerts, but despite being popular they were not a financial success, and were not repeated in later years. In January 1897 Wood took on the direction of the Queen's Hall's prestigious Saturday afternoon symphony concerts. He continually presented new works by composers of many nationalities, and was particularly known for his skill in Russian music. Sullivan wrote to him in 1898, "I have never heard a finer performance in England than that of the Tchaikovsky symphony under your direction last Wednesday". Seventy-five years later, Sir Adrian Boult ranked Wood as one of the two greatest Tchaikovsky conductors in his long experience. Wood also successfully challenged the widespread belief that Englishmen were not capable of conducting Wagner. When Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra performed at Windsor Castle in November 1898, Queen Victoria chose Tchaikovsky and Wagner for the programme. Wood, who modelled his appearance on Nikisch, took it as a compliment that the queen said to him, "Tell me, Mr Wood, are you quite English?"In 1898, Wood married one of his singing pupils, Olga Michailoff, a divorcée a few months his senior. Jacobs describes it as "a marriage of perfect professional and private harmony". As a singer, with Wood as her accompanist, she won praise from the critics. contains an answer for the question: What was the name of the person that conducted the Tchaikovsky symphony?, what is it ?
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[A]: Wood


[Q]: This article: The film opens with an English schoolteacher, Gwen Mayfield, packing up her belongings at a mission school in colonial Africa. The local witch doctors have led a rebellion, and they reach the school before she is able to escape—the shaman wearing a body mask. Gwen screams, and the scene dissolves to the opening credits. The next scene is back home in England, where Gwen meets with the apparently Reverend Alan Bax for a job interview. We discover that Gwen suffered a nervous breakdown from whatever she experienced at the hand of the rebels when the school was attacked. Alan is impressed by Gwen and hires her to be the new head teacher at the small private school he and his sister, well-known journalist Stephanie Bax, run for the local children in the village of Heddaby. Upon moving into the teacher's cottage, Gwen asks her maid, Valerie Creek, where she might find the rectory. Valerie is confused—she knows there is no rectory—until Gwen explains she would like to thank Mr. Bax. "Oh, you mean the Baxes' house!" she says, and shows her the way after tea. At the house, Gwen meets Stephanie and mentions she tried to look for the church on the way but couldn't find it. Stephanie explains there isn't any church, and no "Reverend Alan Bax"—but that the pretence is completely harmless. Alan shows Gwen the old church, now a ruin, as he walks her home. He confesses to her that he is not really a priest—"I wanted to enter the Church, but I failed." He notes that he does not try to persuade anyone or officiate, but sometimes wears the priestly collar "for security." Gwen tries to find out more about why the old church was left a ruin but Alan mysteriously turns silent and seems to be unable to move, so she says good night and leaves him to his thoughts. contains an answer for the question: The witch doctors reach the school before who can escape?, what is it ?
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[A]: Gwen


[Q]: This article: Etty had used experimental techniques to make The Sirens and Ulysses, using a strong glue as a paint stabiliser which caused the paint to dry hard and brittle, and to flake off once dry, a problem made worse by the painting's large size causing it to flex whenever it was moved. From the moment it was complete it began to deteriorate. After it was exhibited at the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition it was considered in too poor a condition for public display, and it was placed in long-term storage in the archives of the Royal Manchester Institution and its successor, the Manchester Art Gallery. In the mid 20th century there were a number of unsuccessful attempts to repair The Sirens and Ulysses, but an attempt to clean the painting unintentionally damaged the paint further.In 2003, Manchester Art Gallery staff determined that if conservation work were not undertaken, the painting would soon be beyond repair. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and AXA Art Insurance provided funding for the restoration. A replacement canvas to which the painting had been attached in the 1930s was removed. Following this, a mixture of isinglass adhesive and chalk was used to restore the surface of the painting, and the paint added during the earlier attempted restoration was removed. A new double layer of canvas was added to the back of the painting, and the three layers were glued together.In 2006 the repaired painting was moved back from the conservation studios to the Manchester Art Gallery. The Gallery Nine section of the MAG was converted into a temporary studio, open to the public to watch the final retouching work until it was completed in 2010, and The Sirens and Ulysses currently hangs in Gallery Three. contains an answer for the question: What artist's painting got funding for its restoration after it was feared it would soon be beyond repair?, what is it ?
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[A]: Etty


[Q]: This article: In 1964 Shostakovich composed the music for the Russian film Hamlet, which was favourably reviewed by The New York Times: "But the lack of this aural stimulation – of Shakespeare's eloquent words – is recompensed in some measure by a splendid and stirring musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. This has great dignity and depth, and at times an appropriate wildness or becoming levity".In later life, Shostakovich suffered from chronic ill health, but he resisted giving up cigarettes and vodka. Beginning in 1958 he suffered from a debilitating condition that particularly affected his right hand, eventually forcing him to give up piano playing; in 1965 it was diagnosed as poliomyelitis. He also suffered heart attacks the following year and again in 1971, and several falls in which he broke both his legs; in 1967 he wrote in a letter: "Target achieved so far: 75% (right leg broken, left leg broken, right hand defective). All I need to do now is wreck the left hand and then 100% of my extremities will be out of order."A preoccupation with his own mortality permeates Shostakovich's later works, among them the later quartets and the Fourteenth Symphony of 1969 (a song cycle based on a number of poems on the theme of death). This piece also finds Shostakovich at his most extreme with musical language, with twelve-tone themes and dense polyphony throughout. He dedicated the piece to his close friend Benjamin Britten, who conducted its Western premiere at the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival. The Fifteenth Symphony of 1971 is, by contrast, melodic and retrospective in nature, quoting Wagner, Rossini and the composer's own Fourth Symphony. Shostakovich died of lung cancer on 9 August 1975. A civic funeral was held; he was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow. Even before his death he had been commemorated with the naming of the Shostakovich Peninsula on Alexander Island, Antarctica., Despite suffering from Motor Neurone Disease (or ALS) from as early as the 1960s, Shostakovich insisted upon writing all his own correspondence... contains an answer for the question: What is the last name of the person who suffered heart attacks in 1966 and again in 1971?, what is it ?
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[A]:
Shostakovich