A surname or family name is a name added to a given name. In many cases, a surname is a family name and many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In the western hemisphere, it is commonly synonymous with last name because it is usually placed at the end of a person's given name.
In most Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries, two or more last names (or surnames) may be used. In China, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Madagascar, Taiwan, Vietnam, and parts of India, the family name is placed before a person's given name.
The style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name (forename) is far from universal. In many countries, it is common for ordinary people to have only one name or mononym.
The concept of a "surname" is a relatively recent historical development, evolving from a medieval naming practice called a "byname". Based on an individual's occupation or area of residence, a byname would be used in situations where more than one person had the same name.
Monteverdi (foaled 10 April 1977) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the leading European two-year-old of 1979, when he was unbeaten in four races including the National Stakes, Ashford Castle Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes. His three-year-old season was a disappointment as he failed to win in four races, finishing second in his first two races and then running unplaced in the Irish 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby. He was then retired to stud where he had little success as a sire of winners.
Monteverdi was a small, "neat, quite attractive" chestnut horse with a small white star and white socks on his hind legs bred in Ireland by Lawrence Kip McCreery at his Orchardstown Stud in County Tipperary. He was sired by Lyphard, an American-bred, French-trained stallion who won the Prix Jacques le Marois and Prix de la Foret in 1972. At stud in the United States, Lyphard sired many important winner including Three Troikas, Manila and Dancing Brave. Monteverdi's dam Janina, was a half-sister of the Coronation Cup winner Nagami and a great-granddaughter of the outstanding broodmare Athasi, whose other descendants include Trigo, Tulyar and Time Charter.
Monteverdi was a Swiss brand of luxury cars created in 1967 by Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) and based in Binningen on the southern edge of Basel, Switzerland.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Peter Monteverdi built, sold and raced a number of "specials" called MBM while at the same time developing the motor vehicle repair business founded by his father into a major dealership handling Ferrari, BMW and Lancia brands.
By 1967, he had decided to undertake series production of exclusive high performance luxury sports and touring cars. The first model, the 2-seater Monteverdi High Speed 375S coupé, was launched at that year's Frankfurt Motor Show and received very positive reviews. The car used a heavy and simple steel frame provided by Stahlbau Muttenz GmbH with an aluminium body designed by Pietro Frua. It looked quite similar to other Frua creations of that time, particularly the Maserati Mistral Coupé and the British AC 428. There are rumours that all the three shared some details like windows etc. The elegant looking car was powered by a 440c.i. (7.2 Litre) Chrysler V8 engine delivering up to 375 bhp (according to SAE standards) and had a luxurious interior finished to the highest standards. Eleven copies of the Frua-designed Monteverdi coupé were built from 1968 to 1969, then the alliance of Monteverdi and Frua split in anger. Not long before, Frua had built two 2+2 coupés with a stretched wheelbase. One of them was presented as Monteverdi 375/L, the other one stayed for some years at Frua before, in 1971, it was slightly modified and sold to AC where it was presented as a one-off AC 428.
The Concert (or The Perils of Everybody) is a ballet made by Jerome Robbins, subsequently New York City Ballet's ballet master, to Chopin's:
The décor was by Saul Steinberg, the costumes by Irene Sharaff and the lighting by Ronald Bates. The premiere took place at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, on Tuesday, 6 March 1956. Robbins made three subsequent ballets to Chopin's music: Dances at a Gathering (1969), In the Night (1970), and Other Dances (1976), made for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova.
Concrete is the seventeenth album by the British band Pet Shop Boys. It was released on 23 October 2006. Due to be called Concert, on 20 September 2006, Pet Shop Boys announced that the album was going to be called Concrete, which was the title that they originally wanted for the album. It is the first live concert to be released by the band on Audio CD.
The performance recorded for the album took place at the Mermaid Theatre on 8 May 2006, as an exclusive for broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Sold on Song program. Attendance, totaling 600, was by invitation or through winning competitions held by Radio 2 and the band's official website. The event was hosted by the BBC's Stuart Maconie.
The 27 May Radio 2 broadcast included an interview conducted by Maconie, but excluded four songs from the running order ("You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk", "After All", "Numb", and "Dreaming of the Queen"). The full concert was later broadcast on BBC 6 Music on 28 August.
On 19 September 1943, an operation by Soviet partisans began under the code name “Concert.” It was one of the largest operations of World War II in its effects on the incapacitation of railroad communications in the logistics of the enemy rear. The operation was conducted through a plan developed by and under the management of the Central Staff of Partisan Movement at the Stavka VGC (Chief Military Committee), and was coordinated with the forthcoming offensive of the Soviet troops in the Smolensk Offensive operation (Operation Suvorov 7 August - 2 October) and Gomel directions and intended crossing of the river Dnepr as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943 (1 July - 31 December). The operation included participation of 193 partisan detachments and groups totalling more than 210,000 men, women, and children.