Rita Gorr, Belgian opera singer, died he was 85.

Rita Gorr ^[1] was a Belgian operatic mezzo-soprano died he was 85.. She possessed a large, rich-toned voice and was an intense singing-actress, especially in dramatic roles such as Ortrud (Lohengrin) and Amneris (Aida), two of her greatest roles.^[2]

^{(18 February 1926 – 22 January 2012)} 

Life and career

Gorr was born Marguerite Geirnaert into a working-class family in the industrial town of Zelzate, near Ghent, Belgium.^[3] After leaving school she worked as a nurse, where the family who employed her discovered her singing and paid for her first lessons.^[3] After vocal studies in Ghent with Vina Bovy, and in Brussels with Jeanne Pacquot d'Assy and Germaine Hoerner, she won first prize at the vocal competition of Verviers in 1946, and made her professional debut at Antwerp as Fricka in Die Walküre the same year. She became a member of the Opera of Strasbourg from 1949 to 1952. She won another first prize at the vocal competition of Lausanne in 1952. That year she made her Paris debuts at the Opéra-Comique as Charlotte in Werther on 6 March 1952, and at the Paris Opéra on 31 October as Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; further roles in Paris included Dalila in Samson and Delilah, Venus in Tannhäuser, Mère Marie in the French premiere of Dialogues of the Carmelites (later in her career she sang Madame de Croissy), Carmen, Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande, Amneris in Aida, Eboli in Don Carlos and Marguerite in La damnation de Faust.
Her career then became international in scope, with debuts at Bayreuth in 1958, the Royal Opera House in 1959, La Scala in 1960, the Metropolitan Opera on October 17, 1962 as Amneris. In four seasons at the Met, she sang Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana, Eboli in Don Carlos, Azucena in Il trovatore, and Dalila. She was a versatile artist, singing with equal success the French, Italian and German repertories. She enjoyed a very long career singing well into her 60s and 70s and her last role was as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades which she performed in the summer of 2007 in Ghent and Antwerp.
Gorr believed that 'trouser-roles' did not suit her; she did however sing Lel in The Snow Maiden in 1955 in concert and Octavian in 1958.^[4]
Although mainly active on stage, Gorr also sang occasionally in the concert hall, in works by Schumann, Duparc and Wagner; she recorded Mahler lieder.^[4]
Gorr can be heard in two of her greatest roles on recordings, Ortrud in Lohengrin, opposite Sándor Kónya and Lucine Amara, under Erich Leinsdorf in 1965, as well as a 1959 version from Bayreuth conducted by Lovro von Matačić, and Amneris in Aida, opposite Leontyne Price and Jon Vickers, under Georg Solti. Other recorded roles include Dalila, Margared and Fricka, the latter at Bayreuth under Hans Knappertsbusch. She also recorded excerpts from Orphée et Eurydice (Orphée), Hérodiade (title role) and La damnation de Faust, as well as recitals on Pathé. Gorr can be heard in one of her rarest roles, in an excerpt from Cherubini's Medea (recorded in French) with the Orchestre du Theatre National de l'Opera under George Pretre on ASTX 130502 Pathe-Marconi, while she can be heard in excerpts from two of her Wagner roles, Isolde and Elisabeth, under André Cluytens on Testament SBT1256.^[5]
In her later life Gorr made her home in Dénia, Spain.^[3] Oresko describes her as giving "the impression of regal grandeur and control by the solidness of her vocal production and a unique gift for instinctive authority".^[4]

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Earle Gister, American acting teacher, died he was 77.

Earle R. Gister was an American acting teacher^[1] and was a pioneer in professional theatre training from the mid-1960s  died he was 77..^[2] Earle Gister was renowned for his specialty and passion for the plays of Anton Chekhov.^[3]

^{(March 30, 1934 – January 22, 2012)} 

Life and career

Gister (Carleton College ’56 with a B.A. in history) of New Haven, Connecticut, spent more than 30 years training professional actors. After earning his B.A. at Carleton, he "traveled with Corrigan to Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, and earned an MFA in drama." He credited the foundation of his acting technique to his studies with such people as Robert Corrigan, "the drama professor who would serve as his mentor,"^[4] and Paul Mann, his acting coach in New York City.
Reported by the Yale Daily News: “Earle had a very large educational impact on the country,” said J. Michael Miller, director of The Actors’ Center in New York and co-founder of the League, which disbanded in 1987. “If there was one man who made a significant difference in professional theater training, it was him.”
Also from the Yale Daily News: "Over a more than 40-year career in the world of theater, Gister mentored some of today’s most celebrated actors, directed the entire canon of Anton Chekhov at the Yale Repertory Theatre and earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most respected theater professors. His reforms to theater education changed the prevalent attitude that “training actors was like training mechanics,” Miller said, and encouraged the development of hundreds of Master of Fine Arts programs in acting across the country."
For a number of years Earle Gister taught at Carnegie Mellon University where he was the chairman of the drama department.^[5] From the New York Times archive, "The Board of Higher Education yesterday approved the appointment of Earle R. Gister as director of the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at City College. The appointment [was] described by a college official as a step toward transforming the center into a major metropolitan area theater-training program."^[6]
Then, under Lloyd Richards who was the dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, Earle Gister grew into a Master Acting Teacher.^[7] Earle was named the first Lloyd Richards Adjunct Professor of Drama in 1994.^[8] Following Richards, Stan Wojewodski, Jr., took over the stewardship of the Yale School of Drama from 1991 to 2002. For a total of 19 years Earle Gister was Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Chair of the MFA Acting Program at the Yale School of Drama. In 1999 Earle Gister retired from the Yale School of Drama.
In 1991 Gister shared a Tony Award on behalf of the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre.^[9] He was a member of the National Theatre Conference since 1967, a founding member of the League of Professional Theatre Training Programs in 1972, a Tony Award nominating committee member in 1980, and a member the first grants award panel in theater for the National Endowment for the Arts. He and his wife have three sons.^[10]
Earle Gister was a Co-founder of the League of Professional Theatre Training Programs, advisor to the National Endowment for the Arts, and co-chair of the training panel of the Theatre Communications Group. Gister has played a significant role in the nurturing and development of most of the major theatre training programs in the United States.^[11]

Professional History

James Bundy, dean of the Yale School of Drama and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, is quoted in Playbill.com saying of Gister, "I can vividly recall his galvanic effect on so many actors, his insightful and soulful readings of the given circumstances of great plays, his deeply thoughtful notes and advice, and his love of ice cream. It is astonishing to think of the breadth of talent that Earle brought to Yale and nurtured here, and it is worth remembering that for years, when he was asked to name the greatest strength of the School of Drama, his inevitably generous reply was, 'the students.'"^[12]
Gister's teaching career included: Teacher-North Carolina School of the Arts; Teacher-The Juilliard School; Teacher-NYU; Associate Dean-Yale School of Drama; Associate Dean and Master Teacher of Acting-Yale School of Drama; Chairman of the Acting Department-Yale School of Drama; Head of Acting-Carnegie Mellon University; and Chairman of the Drama Department-Carnegie Mellon University.

Board Memberships and Affiliations

• Teacher and Board Member-The Actors Center
• Board Member (past)-Leonard Davis Center

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Sarah Cullen, British radio and television journalist, died She was 62.

Sarah Cullen was a British radio and television journalist who worked for ITN, as well as BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme died She was 62.. Remembered for her distinctive red hair and volatile temperament, Cullen forged a reputation for reporting from the street, and undertook many assignments in Northern Ireland, including covering events during the closing days of The Troubles.

Life and career

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Cullen's father was the manager of a quarry in County Durham while her mother taught mathematics at a teacher training college.^[1] Her grandfather was John Bradley, editor of the Scottish Catholic Herald.^[2] She was educated at the Sisters of Notre Dame convent school, a boarding school at Southport, before studying for A-levels at a sixth form college in Cambridge. She was a student at University College London from 1968 to 1972, graduating with a BA degree in History. She interrupted her studies from 1970 to 1971 in order to take a paid sabbatical year as editor of the University of London student newspaper then titled Sennet. Cullen joined ITN as a graduate trainee in 1972.^[1][2]
After being sent for a brief stint at the Liverpool Daily Post,^[2] she worked as a scriptwriter and desk editor for the broadcaster, before auditioning as an on-screen reporter.^[1] She was one of ITN's first female reporters along with Carol Barnes, Joan Thirkettle and Sue Lloyd-Roberts, and was appointed their Home Affairs Correspondent in 1983. However, after being made redundant from ITN in 1991 she moved to radio, freelancing for Radio 4's PM, and was the recipient of a Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award as News Reporter of the Year in 1994.^[2] She joined the morning Today Programme in 1994.^[2] During her career she developed a talent for getting the so-called "real voices" of people onto radio and television through her news reports,^[2] going out into the street to interview members of the public. Often she would be sent out to gauge opinion on issues of government policy, where she would seek out those who were most likely to be affected by a particular decision.^[1]
She was also sent to Belfast on many occasions to cover issues relating to The Troubles, and would employ the same news gathering technique, often venturing into so-called "no-go" areas of the city to speak to ordinary people caught up in the conflict. During one late-night visit to Belfast she was seized by members of the Provisional IRA who had heard she had been interviewing locals in the Falls Road. On that occasion she was ordered to telephone a senior editorial manager in London because the group's commander was unconvinced by her BBC credentials. Stephen Mitchell later recalled the telephone call: "Before I had fully woken up a man with a very strong Irish accent was explaining that he was with the Provisionals, that he and I had met years before when I was working in Belfast, and he was demanding to know whether I could vouch for this 'mad woman’ who had been found talking to people on the Falls Road in the middle of the night and who was claiming to be from the BBC." Mitchell verified her identity to which the IRA man replied: "Thank God, we can let her go. I was afraid we would have had to keep her and she’s terrifying."^[1][3]
For another series of news reports she went to Glasgow to investigate the city's illegal drug trade, and gathered her material by befriending a young woman who was a drug addict. After spending almost a week working undercover she helped the woman through the rehabilitation process.^[4]
Cullen's memoirs of her early days at ITN, In Praise of Panic were published in 1982.^[2]
Cullen left the BBC after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1998, and underwent chemotherapy. She suffered further health problems later in life.^[1][2]

Personal life

Cullen married fellow journalist Kieran Devaney in 1986. The couple had a son, Tom, and the marriage was dissolved in 1998.^[1][2]


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Massimo Baistrocchi, Italian diplomat and writer, Ambassador to Namibia (2001–2004), died from heart attack he was 69.

Massimo Baistrocchi  was an Italian writer, artist, freelance journalist and diplomat who served as Italy's Ambassador to Namibia from 2001 to 2004, as well as Ambassador to Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, and Benin died from heart attack he was 69..^[1]

(August 17, 1942 – January 22, 2012)

Baistrocchi was born on August 17, 1942, in Karuizawa, Japan.^[1] He worked as journalist, and wrote articles for Italian and overseas magazines and other publications.^[1] His books and articles focused on numerous subjects, such as travel, culture and socio-economic issues.^[1] His books were often influenced by his diplomatic postings, including "Namibian Elegy," which included poems focusing on key Namibian geographical features, including the Spitzkoppe, the Orange River, the Fish River Canyon and Sossusvlei.^[1] He held art exhibitions around the world including Spain, Japan, South Korea, Ghana, Portugal, Egypt, and Hong Kong.^[1]
He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a press officer in 1970.^[1] He was appointed as Italian ambassador to Ghana and Togo in May 1996, holding that diplomatic post until 2001. Massimo Baistrocchi was appointed Ambassador from Namibia from 2001 to 2004. He was reportedly so fond of the country that he purchased a Namibian home.^[1] Baistrochhi returned to Italy following the end of his posting in Namibia, where he served as President of the Interministerial Commission for the Recovering of Works of Art.^[1] During the late 2000s, Baistrocchi was once again sent to Africa, serving first as Italy's ambassador to Nigeria and then as ambassador to Benin.^[1] He the retired from the diplomatic corp, but returned to their home in Windhoek, Namibia, once a year.^[2]
Baistrocchi died from a heart attack in Windhoek, Namibia, on January 22, 2012, at the age of 69.^[1] He was survived by his wife, driana, and his daughter Allegra. An exhibition of his art was held at the National Art Gallery of Namibia on January 27, 2012, as a tribute.^[2]


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Slavko Ziherl, Slovenian psychiatrist and politician, died he was 66.

Slavko Ziherl MD PhD was a Slovenian specialist in psychiatry died he was 66.. He graduated from the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine in 1970, and specialised in neuropsychiatry at the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana in 1976 and in psychiatry in the Netherlands in 1993. He had a Ph.D in the field of psychiatry. He was specialising in psychiatry in Great Britain for one year, and attended advanced studies in the USA, Great Britain and Canada.

(September 23, 1945 – January 21, 2012) 

From 1978 to 1990 Ziherl was the Head of the Centre for Treatment of Alcohol Addiction of the University Psychiatric Hospital in Ljubljana, and from 1994 to 1996 he was the Head of the Centre for Clinical Psychiatry of the University Psychiatric Hospital, and until 1998 he was the Medical Director of the Psychiatric Hospital of the University Medical Centre. After the independence of the Ljubljana Psychiatric Hospital, he was the general director until 2000, and since 2004, he was the medical director of this hospital. Since 1976, he was working in the outpatient clinic for treating sexual disorders, and since 1996, he was the head of the clinic.
Ziherl had been a university teacher of psychiatry at the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine since 1997, and since 1996 he was the holder of the subject Forensic Psychopathology at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law. He was heading postgraduate studies for psychotherapy at the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine since 1994. He was the holder of the subject Forensic Psychiatry for the master’s degree in criminal law at the Faculty of Law. He also held lectures in psychopathology at the postgraduate level at the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine. He was the national coordinator for specialisation in psychiatry and the chief mentor to specialists of psychiatry.
Ziherl was a member of the Health Council at the Ministry of Health (1997–2002). Since 1999, he was a member of the Committee for Expert Medical Issues at the Medical Chamber of Slovenia. From 1996 to 2000 he was the President of the Association of Psychiatrists for the first time, and since 2004 he was re-elected for the President of the Association of Psychiatrists. He was the President of the Extended Expert Council for Psychiatry. Since 1995, he was the representative of the Association of Psychiatrists and Slovenian health care centres in the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), Section of Psychiatry and the European Board of Psychiatry (EBP). Since 2001, he was the Vice-President of the EBP.
Ziherl was the author of books on controlling alcohol, on autohypnosis, several chapters in professional literature, as well as the co-editor and author of several chapters in a textbook on psychiatry, and he translated 10 psychological handbooks from English. His bibliography amounts to more than 190 units. He published his articles in newspapers and magazines as well as appears on radio and television.
Ziherl was born in Ljubljana in 1945. He lived in Ljubljana, and he was married with two children. In last years, he was an active member of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party. He died in Ljubljana on 21 January 2012 due to a heart disease.^[1]

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Tang Xiaodan, Chinese film director, died he was 101.

Tang Xiaodan was a Chinese film director died he was 101..^[1] In 1984, he won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director.

(February 22, 1910 – January 21, 2012)


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Jeffrey Ntuka, South African footballer, died from being stabbed he was 26.

Jeffrey Ntuka-Pule was a South African footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a defender  died from being stabbed he was 26..

(10 May 1985 – 21 January 2012)

Club career

Born in Kroonstad, Free State,^[1] Ntuka joined English club Chelsea in 2003 and spent five years on loan at Belgium club Westerlo,^[2] making 93 league appearances for them.^[3] Ntuka returned to South Africa in 2009, making his debut for Kaizer Chiefs in May 2009.^[4] After battling alcohol problems,^[5] Ntuka later played for SuperSport United.^[3] He was released by United in 2011.

International career

Ntuka earned five caps for South Africa between 2004 and 2007.^[3] Ntuka was a member of South Africa's squad at the 2005 COSAFA Cup, but had to withdraw due to injury.^[6]

Death

Ntuka was stabbed to death in Kroonstad during the early hours of 21 January 2012.^[2]

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