WindyCityOperaman
Dan Soda (Windy City Operaman) is a Chicago native whose first visit to opera was at age 17 and Massenet’s Werther with Troyanos and Kraus. Nothing was ever the same. Opera and concert performances, recordings and video are an obsession. He prepares Parterre Box’s daily birthday and anniversary tributes. He also enjoys concerts, live theater and movies.
On this day in 1944 the “Batman and Robin” newspaper comic strip premiered.
On this day in 1914 Riccardo Zandonai‘s Francesca da Rimini premiered in Turin.
On this day in 1930 Luigi Pirandello‘s Come Tu Mi Vuoi premiered in Milan.
On this day in 1598 Boris Godunov was chosen tsar of Russia.
On this day in 1950, the longest-running prime-time game show What’s My Line premiered on CBS.
On this day in 1686 Jean Baptiste Lully’s Armide premiered in Paris.
On this day in 1939 Victor Fleming replaced George Cukor as director of Gone With the Wind.
On this day in 1816 the Teatro San Carlo in Naples was destroyed by fire.
On this say in 1947 Christian Dior unveiled a “New Look”, helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.
On this day in 55 A.D., Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman emperorship, died under mysterious circumstances in Rome, clearing the way for Nero to become Emperor.
On this day in 1940, the first “Tom & Jerry” cartoon debuted.
Born on this day in 1888 English actress Edith Evans.
On this day in 1649 the claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain by the Parliament of Scotland.
On this day in 1919 Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks launched United Artists.
On this day in 1968 Golden Rainbow, starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, opened at the Shubert Theater.
On this day in 1960 La Dolce Vita, directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, premiered in Italy.
On this day in 1933, the sisters Christine and Léa Papin murdered their employer’s wife and daughter in Le Mans, France.
On this day in 1893 Puccini’s Manon Lescaut premiered in Turin.
On this day in 1861 Friedrich Hebbel’s Siegfrieds Tod premiered in Weimar.
On this day in 1661, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, was ritually executed after having been dead for two years.
On this day in 1781 Mozart’s Idomeneo premiered in Munich.
On this day in 1813 Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published in the United Kingdom.
On this day in 1302 Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence, where he served as one of six priors governing the city.
On this day in 1833 Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia premiered in Milan.