Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 December 24

Sixty-two churches are cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust in Southwest England. The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk which have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968. The Trust's primary aim is to ensure that the buildings in its care are weatherproof and to prevent any deterioration in their condition. The majority of the churches remain consecrated, and many are occasionally still used for worship. The churches in South West England are in the counties of Bristol, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. The majority of the churches are in villages. One of the churches is in Imber, Wiltshire, from where the entire civilian population was evicted in 1943 to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. (Full list...)

Aida

Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini.

This picture shows the set for a performance of Aida by the Israeli Opera in 2011.

Photograph: Avinoam Michaeli

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