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Hercules vs. Vampires is an opera by composer Patrick Morganelli. The work is written as a companion piece to the 1961 film Hercules in the Haunted World . [1]
The work integrates the 1961 film by projecting the film in its entirety behind the action on stage. [2] However, the soundtrack of the original film is replaced with Morganelli's music. The performers on stage sing a libretto adapted from the 1961 film screenplay by Mario Bava, Sandro Continenza, Franco Prosperi, and Duccio Tessari in sync with the projected film.
Commissioned by the Opera Theater Oregon, the work had its world premiere in Portland in May 2010. [3] In April 2015 the work was staged by the Los Angeles Opera. [4] In October 2017, the opera was staged at the Arizona Opera. [5] Nashville Opera gave a performance of Hercules vs. Vampires on January 27, 2018. [6]
Anthony Quinn was a Mexican-American actor, painter, writer, and film director. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in numerous critically acclaimed movies both in Hollywood and abroad. His notable films include La Strada, The Guns of Navarone, Guns for San Sebastian, Lawrence of Arabia, The Shoes of the Fisherman, The Message, Lion of the Desert, and A Walk in the Clouds. He also had an Oscar-nominated titular role in Zorba the Greek.
Kevin David Sorbo is an American actor. He had starring roles in two television series: as Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and as Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda. Sorbo is also known for acting in the Christian drama films God's Not Dead and Let There Be Light.
Kristin Laura Kreuk is a Canadian actress. Debuting on teen drama Edgemont, she became most known for her roles as Lana Lang in the superhero television series Smallville (2001–2011), also as Catherine Chandler in The CW sci-fi series Beauty & the Beast (2012–2016) and as Joanna Hanley in the CBC legal drama series Burden of Truth (2018–2021).
Frank Oz is an American actor, puppeteer, and filmmaker. He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show, and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street.
Hercules is a 1997 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. The 35th Disney animated feature film and the eighth animated film produced during the Disney Renaissance, the film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The film is loosely based on the legendary hero Heracles, the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology.
Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer and singer, known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles, as well as a writer, lingerie inventor, and real estate mogul. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Katrin Sveg in the 1958 Broadway production of The Marriage-Go-Round, and reprised the role in the 1961 film version. In the 1960s, she starred for two seasons as Catwoman in the television series Batman (1966–1967). Her other stage credits include the Ziegfeld Follies in 1956, Lola in Damn Yankees! in 1961, and Irma in Irma la Douce in 1965 in regional productions.
Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar is a British-American retired actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre, she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller The Collector (1965), which earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Amber Nicole Benson is an American actress, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has also directed, produced and starred in her own films Chance (2002) and Lovers, Liars & Lunatics (2006). She also co-directed the film Drones with fellow Buffy cast member Adam Busch. Benson also starred as a waitress in the horror movie The Killing Jar.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is an American outdoor sports multi-purpose stadium located in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to L.A. veterans of World War I. Completed in 1923, it will become the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times when it hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. The stadium has previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Jessica Claire Timberlake is an American actress and model. Biel began her career as a vocalist appearing in musical productions until she was cast as Mary Camden in the family drama series 7th Heaven (1996–2006), in which she achieved recognition. The series is the longest-running series that aired on The WB channel and the longest-running family drama in television history.
Mario Bava was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the Macabre". His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish technical ingenuity, feature recurring themes and imagery concerning the conflict between illusion and reality, as well as the destructive capacity of human nature.
Ann K. Powers is an American writer and pop music critic. She is a music critic for NPR and a contributor at the Los Angeles Times, where she was previously chief pop critic. She has also served as pop critic at The New York Times and an editor at The Village Voice. Powers is the author of Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, a memoir; Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black & White, Body and Soul in American Music, on eroticism in American pop music; and Piece by Piece, co-authored with Tori Amos.
Lifeforce is a 1985 British science fiction horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, and starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, and Patrick Stewart. Based on Colin Wilson's 1976 novel The Space Vampires, the film portrays the events that unfold after a trio of humanoids in a state of suspended animation are brought to Earth after being discovered in the hold of an alien space ship by the crew of a European space shuttle.
Hercules in the Haunted World is a 1961 Italian sword-and-sandal film directed by Mario Bava. British bodybuilder Reg Park plays Hercules while British actor Christopher Lee appears as Hercules' nemesis Lico. Shooting at Cinecittà, director Mario Bava used some of the same sets from the earlier Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis which had already starred Reg Park.
Steven Chadwick McQueen, known professionally as Steven R. McQueen, is an American actor and a former model, best known for his role as Jeremy Gilbert in The CW fantasy supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to 2015 and in 2017, and its spin-off Legacies in 2018. He also starred as Jimmy Borelli in the NBC dramas Chicago Fire from 2015 to 2016 and Chicago P.D. in 2016, part of the One Chicago franchise.
Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva, known professionally as Nina Dobrev, is a Canadian actress. Her first acting role was as Mia Jones in the drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation. She later became known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on The CW's supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries.
Benjamin Millepied is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States after joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from NYCB in 2011.
Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-American transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bioscientist, and media proprietor. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Soon-Shiong is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups; an adjunct professor of surgery and executive director of the Wireless Health Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; and a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Dartmouth College. Soon-Shiong has published more than 100 scientific papers and has more than 230 issued patents worldwide on advancements spanning numerous fields in technology and medicine.
Brad Mays is an independent filmmaker and stage director, living and working in Los Angeles, California.
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