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Viardot-Garcia, Pauline

(Encyclopedia)Viardot-Garcia, Pauline pōlēnˈ vyärdōˈ-gärsēäˈ [key], 1821–1910, French mezzo-soprano; sister of Maria Malibran; pupil of her father, Manuel García. Following her concert debut in Brussel...

overture

(Encyclopedia)overture, instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and w...

Buffalo City

(Encyclopedia)Buffalo City, metropolitan municipality, Eastern Cape prov., South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. East London is the municipal...

local area network

(Encyclopedia)local area network (LAN), a computer network dedicated to sharing data among several single-user workstations or personal computers, each of which is called a node. A LAN can have from two to several ...

Ford, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer, b. Dearborn, Mich. Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast ...

Lauder, Estée

(Encyclopedia)Lauder, Estée, 1908?–2004, American cosmetics company founder, b. Corona, Queens, N.Y., as Josephine Esther Mentzer. The daughter of immigrants, she married Joseph Lauter (later changed to Lauder) ...

eunuch

(Encyclopedia)eunuch yo͞oˈnĭk [key] [Gr.,=keeper of the couch], castrated human male, particularly a chamberlain of a harem in Asia. The custom of employing eunuchs as servants in wealthy or royal households is ...

Puccini, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Puccini, Giacomo jäˈkōmō po͞ot-chēˈnē [key], 1858–1924, Italian composer of operas. He wrote some of the most popular works in the opera repertory. A descendant of a long line of musicians, ...

Heinze, Frederick Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Heinze, Frederick Augustus hīnˈzē [key], 1869–1914, American copper magnate, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He went in 1889 to Butte, Mont., as engineer for a mining company. In 1893 he organized the Montana ...

Northern Pacific Railway

(Encyclopedia)Northern Pacific Railway, former American rail line, following the northern route from Duluth and St. Paul, Minn., to Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Oreg. The Northern Pacific RR Company was chartered ...