Top Stories
La Scala's gala premiere of 'Don Carlo' celebrates Italian opera's new status as cultural treasure
- Italian melodrama's official recognition as a global cultural treasure was celebrated Thursday during La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” with some of the drama spilling out into the theater with a pair of anti-fascist cries before the curtain went up. Singer Patti Smith and Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar joined an audience of mostly Italian glitteratti that showered the 4-hour production with 13 minutes of applause along with roses and carnations. La Scala premiere veterans Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as Elisabeth of Valois and Italian baritone Luca Salsi got the loudest reception.
More Stories
- EntertainmentThe Telegraph
‘They play better for me now I can’t fire them’: an audience with the world’s most senior conductor
Herbert Blomstedt is the undisputed possessor of the title of “World’s Most Senior Conductor”. Born in the US in 1927 to Swedish parents, he has had an unbroken career of almost 70 years on the podium, conjuring performances of taut dramatic cogency and lyrical warmth with an approach that is winningly impassioned and yet entirely unshowy. He’s led the Oslo Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, among others, and made scores of award-winning recordings.
- EntertainmentTime
When I Need Hope, I Look to the History of Black Brilliance
'The history of black excellence in America gives us a template for how to fight'
- NewsAssociated Press
10 Things to Know for Monday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:
- NewsAssociated Press
Toscanini's musical and anti-Fascist legacy remembered
MILAN (AP) — Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini's legacies included abolishing encores at La Scala. So it was a playful touch when one of the maestro's musical heirs included a Verdi encore during a tribute at the Milan opera house marking the 150th anniversary of Toscanini's birth.
- NewsANI
Historic Harry's bar in Venice frequented by Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles close to being tapped out
Washington, Dec. 18 (ANI): Italy's economic crisis has left the iconic Harry's Bar in Venice close to being tapped out, which was a popular stop on the celebrity circuit, counting Truman Capote, Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles, Arturo Toscanini among its regulars, who had a favorite table there.
