A 17th-century painting of Orpheus with his viol (left), and the front cover of the 1609 published score, from L'Orfeo, Claudio Monteverdi's landmark opera from the early Italian baroque, and our featured article Choice of the week.
The cover of Essai, by the significant but under-recognised 18th-century economist, Richard CantillonSix articles were promoted to featured status:
SMS Baden (1915) (nom), was Germany's last battleship of World War I, and the only capital ship not successfully sunk in Scapa Flow after the end of the war (nominated by Parsecboy).
Richard Cantillon (nom), although an obscure figure even within his profession of economics, is considered by some people to be the true father of economics (as opposed to Adam Smith), according to nominator Catalan. (picture at right)
Caesium (nom), straight from the periodic chart on your high-school chemistry classroom wall, this metal reacts explosively with frozen water, but melts in your hand (Nergaal).
L'Orfeo (nom) (1567–1643), the first opera by Claudio Monteverdi, the Italian composer who was the turning point between the European renaissance and baroque. This featured article completes a tryptich of his three surviving operas, all nominated by Brianboulton. (audio excerpt below)
Choice of the week.Raul654, Wikipedia's Featured Article Director, has shepherded the process since its early days. We owe it to him that featured articles have appeared since January 2004 in a prominent spot on the main page, which has greatly increased their profile in the project. The Signpost asked Raul to select the best of the week.
“
We had an interesting and diverse set of articles promoted this week. If I were choosing an article based strictly on my interest in the subject, it would go to SMS Baden, which is a great article in its own right. But clearly L'Orfeo, and its primary author Brianboulton, deserve special recognition. I know first-hand how hard it is to get fine arts articles up to FA status, especially musical ones. Particularly on a subject of great importance (L'Orfeo is one of the first operas ever written). The article contains everything a reader could expect – descriptions of the background, composition, instrumentation, and a plot synopsis.
I was especially pleased to see that the article includes a freely licensed sound clip. It is quite difficult to find good-quality freely licensed classical music recordings, which contribute greatly to a music article. (The audio clip got me thinking about using audio for musical articles on the main page in place of pictures – an idea that is shockingly obvious in retrospect)
Kudos, Brian – excellent work. Wikipedia is the better for it.
In a startling effect, the composer prepares us for the opening scene using just a single, unchanging harmony over a rustic drone.
Featured topics
Five topics were promoted, three of them prepared by WikiProject Military History. The first two complete the German pre-dreadnought series, leaving only the WWI-era Helgoland, Kaiser, and König classes and the handful of WWII-era ship articles to be done, "before this monster is finally finished", says nominator Parsecboy:
Wittelsbach class battleships (nom), the third class of German pre-dreadnoughts, was the first built under the naval expansion program of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.
Another of MilHist's Operation Majestic Titan projects, Kongō class battlecruisers (nom), with one featured article and four good articles, concerns the class of four battlecruisers/fast-battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War (nominator Cam).
Like a Virgin (nom) is about American recording artist (legend) Madonna's second studio album of this title, the singles released from the album, and the supporting tour and its subsequent live video release (nominator Legolas).
Brill Tramway (nom), with seven featured articles and one Good article, concerns a 10 km (six mi) privately built rail-line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England—a tramway with an interesting history (Iridescent).
The German battleship Hessen passes the Levensau Bridge—from Braunschweig class battleship, one of the articles in the new featured topic of that name.
Featured lists
Three lists were promoted. These will be considered for Choice of the week in the next edition.
Bryan Adams discography (nom), consisting of ten studio albums, five compilation albums, two soundtrack albums, three live albums and sixty-six singles (nominated by Trust Is All You Need).
A Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) in the Ngorongoro Crater in TanzaniaRare samples of the transition metal, rheniumSeven images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
USS Yorktown collision (nom), a dramatic photograph of the intentional collision with this guided missile cruiser by a Soviet frigate in what some observers have called "the last incident of the Cold War" (created by the US Navy, picture at bottom).
The chemical element rhenium (nom), a heavy, shiny metal, was the last naturally occurring stable element to be discovered, in 1925. It was named after the great river, the Rhine. It comes at a price of more than $6,000 a kilo (Alchemist-hp) (picture at right).
"Definitely not an easy choice this week. All the images are excellent, some depicting interesting historical events and others adding to our knowledge of natural history. Although much of my experience is underwater, having chased a good number of darting fish and other fast-moving critters, I can really appreciate the skill that was required to capture an image of a subject moving at high speed at such a distance. For me, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (pictured at the bottom of last week's page) sticks out above the others as a high-quality image and a great choice for nomination. – Nick"
The US Navy captured this shot of the 1988 collision between USS Yorktown (CG-48)—while it was exercising "the right of innocent passage" through Soviet territorial waters—and the Soviet Krivak I class frigate "Bezzavetniy". The collision appears to have been intentional.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
.jpg){kind=link}
Discuss this story
"May have been" seems terribly hard to believe. A missile destroyer colliding with a ship twice its size on a clear day is a long, long shot. ResMar 21:05, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]