Vanessa may refer to:
Vanessa is an American opera in three (originally four) acts by Samuel Barber, opus 32, with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by Cecil Beaton and directed by Menotti. Barber revised the opera in 1964, reducing the four acts to the three-act version most commonly performed today.
For the Met premiere, Sena Jurinac was contracted to sing the title role. However, she cancelled six weeks before the opening night and Eleanor Steber replaced her, making it her own for a long time. In the role of Erika, Vanessa's niece, was Rosalind Elias, then a young mezzo-soprano. Nicolai Gedda sang the lover Anatol, mezzo Regina Resnik sang the Baroness, Vanessa's mother, while bass, Giorgio Tozzi, sang the old doctor.
The premiere "was an unqualified success with the audience and with many of the critics as well although they were somewhat qualified in their judgment. Of the final quintet, however, New York Times critic Howard Taubman said it is '...a full-blown set-piece that packs an emotional charge and that would be a credit to any composer anywhere today.' ". Other reports substantiate this and it won Barber the Pulitzer Prize. In Europe, however, it met with a chillier reception.
Vanessa (1868) is a painting by John Everett Millais in Sudley House, Liverpool. It is a fancy portrait depicting Jonathan Swift's correspondent Esther Vanhomrigh (1688-1723), who was known by that pseudonym.
Vanessa represents a major departure in Millais's art because he abandons fully for the first time the detailed finish that was still to be seen in Waking and Sleeping, exhibited in the previous year. Influenced by the work of Diego Velázquez and Joshua Reynolds, Millais paints with dramatic, visible brush strokes in vivid colours, creating what has been described as an "almost violently modern" handling of paint.
Esther Vanhomrigh is known as "Swift's Vanessa" because of the fictional name he gave her when he published their correspondence. The portrait is wholly imaginary. No actual image of Esther Vanhomrigh exists. She is holding a letter, presumably written to or from Swift. Her sad expression is related to the fraught nature of the relationship, which was broken up by Swift's relationship to another woman, Esther Johnson whom he called "Stella". Millais also painted a companion piece depicting Stella.
Drone or drones may refer to:
Drones is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Muse, released on 5 June 2015 in Europe and 8 June in the United Kingdom under Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. It was recorded between October 2014 and April 2015 at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, and co-produced by the band and Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Muse aimed to return to the simpler guitar-bass-drums rock sound of their earlier albums. It is a concept album following the protagonist's journey from abandonment to indoctrination as a "human drone" and eventual defection.Drones received generally positive reviews; critics often praised the music but criticised the lyrics. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
On their previous albums The Resistance (2009) and The 2nd Law (2012), Muse experimented with orchestral and electronic music. In December 2013, Muse released a live album and video, Live at Rome Olympic Stadium; songwriter Matthew Bellamy said the band wanted the live album "to capture some of the extremes of what we've been doing since we want to go in a different direction in the future."
Drones is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Rick Rosenthal and starring Eloise Mumford and Matt O'Leary.
Two Airmen are tasked with deciding the fate of a terrorist with a single push of a button. As the action plays out in real time, their window to use a deadly military drone on the target slowly closes. With time running out, the Airmen begin to question what the real motives are behind the ordered lethal attack.