Book Talk: Madison Smartt Bell on gods and demons

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By Elaine Lies

TOKYO | Thu Jun 2, 2011 1:09pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mae is a Las Vegas blackjack dealer, working amid the rattle of dice and whisper of cards, roaming the desert with a rifle in her time off.

When planes crash into the World Trade Center, she revels in the anarchy of the destruction. And she sees, in television footage, the face of an old lover, screaming as the towers fall.

"The Color of Night," by Madison Smartt Bell, follows Mae as 9/11 sends her back through a past shadowed by abuse and her years in a 1960s cult that commits a horrifying crime, and ultimately she tracks down her lover again.

Bell, a National Book Award finalist who has written extensively about Haiti, spoke with Reuters about his book and the origins of his compelling, if unusual, heroine.

Q: What was your intention with this book?

A: "It just popped into my head. I heard that voice talking to me and then I started writing it down. When you say my intentions, it's more like her intentions. I think she wants to make her case, that she's a divine being sort of walking around, having been purified and refined through suffering, and forged in the fire, she just walks through all the mundanity and ordinary suffering of mortal life. That's her position.

"Particularly if you sign in to her world view, she's extremely powerful and even if you don't, she's got a certain amount of power. And I think that's attractive."

Q: So you heard a voice and you went on from there?

A: "Without her voice, there'd be nothing. I'd done a project a long time before, maybe four or five years before, for a series of retelling contemporary myths... I wrote about 100 words worth of proposal. I had an idea that wasn't quite the same, but there was a little germ and some part of it stuck in my mind. I think it just came out of that, like a seed.

"It was an idea of setting a Dionysius/Orpheus myth in the atmosphere of 60s terrorism and having somebody remember it. Those elements were in it. But then I basically forgot it, and when it came back it had just simmered in my unconscious for four to five years and just kind of matured there without my thinking about it, really."

Q: Was it easy or hard to write?

A: "It was incredibly easy to write, and I felt -- and I still feel like -- it was the best thing I'd done in a long time. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the ease of composition. It was mostly just typed straight onto the keyboard with minimal revision. Like automatic writing."

Q: The use of 9/11 was unusual. What was behind that?

A: "It gave the other end of the story. The front end, chronologically, is all the other stuff that happened back in the 60s. It's all reawakened by 9/11. The device of having her see her old lover in 9/11 footage and the idea that she'd just been in suspended animation all that time in between... As if you could just turn her off. That event turns her back on."

Q: And because of who she is, her response to it would be different from a lot of people.

A: "Well, sure. Everybody in the United States thought it was really terrible. So did I... I didn't feel celebratory about it at all. Yet I knew a few people in this country who did. That stuck with me and that became part of it."

Q: You said this book came to you in Mae's voice. Where do you get your ideas -- was this typical?

A: "I've said with some seriousness that my work is dictated to me by demons, and I feel that that's true. There's two ways of looking at it. If you want to take a reductive view, and there's nothing here in the universe aside from us, then it comes from your unconscious mind. I sort of teach in those terms. But I actually believe that there's a lot more in the universe than just us, and whenever I have inspiration it means a spirit is trying to express itself through me, which takes a lot of the difficulty out of writing a book because you just have to do what you're told.

"A lot of times it's not that simple. With these long historical novels there's just a lot of work that you've got to do that's kind of laborious. But this book was easy, because there's just one voice and it was very strong, and it was very clear. And all I had to do was write it down."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

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By Elaine Lies

TOKYO | Thu Jun 2, 2011 1:09pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mae is a Las Vegas blackjack dealer, working amid the rattle of dice and whisper of cards, roaming the desert with a rifle in her time off.

When planes crash into the World Trade Center, she revels in the anarchy of the destruction. And she sees, in television footage, the face of an old lover, screaming as the towers fall.

"The Color of Night," by Madison Smartt Bell, follows Mae as 9/11 sends her back through a past shadowed by abuse and her years in a 1960s cult that commits a horrifying crime, and ultimately she tracks down her lover again.

Bell, a National Book Award finalist who has written extensively about Haiti, spoke with Reuters about his book and the origins of his compelling, if unusual, heroine.

Q: What was your intention with this book?

A: "It just popped into my head. I heard that voice talking to me and then I started writing it down. When you say my intentions, it's more like her intentions. I think she wants to make her case, that she's a divine being sort of walking around, having been purified and refined through suffering, and forged in the fire, she just walks through all the mundanity and ordinary suffering of mortal life. That's her position.

"Particularly if you sign in to her world view, she's extremely powerful and even if you don't, she's got a certain amount of power. And I think that's attractive."

Q: So you heard a voice and you went on from there?

A: "Without her voice, there'd be nothing. I'd done a project a long time before, maybe four or five years before, for a series of retelling contemporary myths... I wrote about 100 words worth of proposal. I had an idea that wasn't quite the same, but there was a little germ and some part of it stuck in my mind. I think it just came out of that, like a seed.

"It was an idea of setting a Dionysius/Orpheus myth in the atmosphere of 60s terrorism and having somebody remember it. Those elements were in it. But then I basically forgot it, and when it came back it had just simmered in my unconscious for four to five years and just kind of matured there without my thinking about it, really."

Q: Was it easy or hard to write?

A: "It was incredibly easy to write, and I felt -- and I still feel like -- it was the best thing I'd done in a long time. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the ease of composition. It was mostly just typed straight onto the keyboard with minimal revision. Like automatic writing."

Q: The use of 9/11 was unusual. What was behind that?

A: "It gave the other end of the story. The front end, chronologically, is all the other stuff that happened back in the 60s. It's all reawakened by 9/11. The device of having her see her old lover in 9/11 footage and the idea that she'd just been in suspended animation all that time in between... As if you could just turn her off. That event turns her back on."

Q: And because of who she is, her response to it would be different from a lot of people.

A: "Well, sure. Everybody in the United States thought it was really terrible. So did I... I didn't feel celebratory about it at all. Yet I knew a few people in this country who did. That stuck with me and that became part of it."

Q: You said this book came to you in Mae's voice. Where do you get your ideas -- was this typical?

A: "I've said with some seriousness that my work is dictated to me by demons, and I feel that that's true. There's two ways of looking at it. If you want to take a reductive view, and there's nothing here in the universe aside from us, then it comes from your unconscious mind. I sort of teach in those terms. But I actually believe that there's a lot more in the universe than just us, and whenever I have inspiration it means a spirit is trying to express itself through me, which takes a lot of the difficulty out of writing a book because you just have to do what you're told.

"A lot of times it's not that simple. With these long historical novels there's just a lot of work that you've got to do that's kind of laborious. But this book was easy, because there's just one voice and it was very strong, and it was very clear. And all I had to do was write it down."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

Baloane

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By Elaine Lies

TOKYO | Thu Jun 2, 2011 1:09pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mae is a Las Vegas blackjack dealer, working amid the rattle of dice and whisper of cards, roaming the desert with a rifle in her time off.

When planes crash into the World Trade Center, she revels in the anarchy of the destruction. And she sees, in television footage, the face of an old lover, screaming as the towers fall.

"The Color of Night," by Madison Smartt Bell, follows Mae as 9/11 sends her back through a past shadowed by abuse and her years in a 1960s cult that commits a horrifying crime, and ultimately she tracks down her lover again.

Bell, a National Book Award finalist who has written extensively about Haiti, spoke with Reuters about his book and the origins of his compelling, if unusual, heroine.

Q: What was your intention with this book?

A: "It just popped into my head. I heard that voice talking to me and then I started writing it down. When you say my intentions, it's more like her intentions. I think she wants to make her case, that she's a divine being sort of walking around, having been purified and refined through suffering, and forged in the fire, she just walks through all the mundanity and ordinary suffering of mortal life. That's her position.

"Particularly if you sign in to her world view, she's extremely powerful and even if you don't, she's got a certain amount of power. And I think that's attractive."

Q: So you heard a voice and you went on from there?

A: "Without her voice, there'd be nothing. I'd done a project a long time before, maybe four or five years before, for a series of retelling contemporary myths... I wrote about 100 words worth of proposal. I had an idea that wasn't quite the same, but there was a little germ and some part of it stuck in my mind. I think it just came out of that, like a seed.

"It was an idea of setting a Dionysius/Orpheus myth in the atmosphere of 60s terrorism and having somebody remember it. Those elements were in it. But then I basically forgot it, and when it came back it had just simmered in my unconscious for four to five years and just kind of matured there without my thinking about it, really."

Q: Was it easy or hard to write?

A: "It was incredibly easy to write, and I felt -- and I still feel like -- it was the best thing I'd done in a long time. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the ease of composition. It was mostly just typed straight onto the keyboard with minimal revision. Like automatic writing."

Q: The use of 9/11 was unusual. What was behind that?

A: "It gave the other end of the story. The front end, chronologically, is all the other stuff that happened back in the 60s. It's all reawakened by 9/11. The device of having her see her old lover in 9/11 footage and the idea that she'd just been in suspended animation all that time in between... As if you could just turn her off. That event turns her back on."

Q: And because of who she is, her response to it would be different from a lot of people.

A: "Well, sure. Everybody in the United States thought it was really terrible. So did I... I didn't feel celebratory about it at all. Yet I knew a few people in this country who did. That stuck with me and that became part of it."

Q: You said this book came to you in Mae's voice. Where do you get your ideas -- was this typical?

A: "I've said with some seriousness that my work is dictated to me by demons, and I feel that that's true. There's two ways of looking at it. If you want to take a reductive view, and there's nothing here in the universe aside from us, then it comes from your unconscious mind. I sort of teach in those terms. But I actually believe that there's a lot more in the universe than just us, and whenever I have inspiration it means a spirit is trying to express itself through me, which takes a lot of the difficulty out of writing a book because you just have to do what you're told.

"A lot of times it's not that simple. With these long historical novels there's just a lot of work that you've got to do that's kind of laborious. But this book was easy, because there's just one voice and it was very strong, and it was very clear. And all I had to do was write it down."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

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Detained artist Ai headlines Beijing art show with blank wall

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Fei Xiaosheng, an organizer of the Third Incidental Art Festival gestures in front of the wall left blank in support of detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei, during the opening ceremony in Beijing June 1, 2011. Organisers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance over the case. The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Credit: Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

By Michael Martina

BEIJING | Wed Jun 1, 2011 10:33am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Organizers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance of the authorities.

A small tag with Ai's name adorns a blank wall among 19 other artists' work at an annual photography show that opened Wednesday, almost two months after police seized Ai Weiwei at Beijing's airport, igniting an international outcry.

The organizers' gesture of support for China's most politically controversial artist is a rare public display from mainland China's artistic community, which has largely stayed silent about Ai's detention.

"We feel regret because his voice can't be heard," said Lin Bing, a photographer who helped organize the show at the gallery CCD300, in Beijing's Caochangdi art area.

"It has made us think about when an artist loses the possibility of expressing himself."

Shi Yong, the owner of the gallery, said the exhibition was normal and legal, but Lin said he received phone calls from the police bureau after the show opened asking him to come in for a discussion. Organizers could not be reached by phone later.

China's state media and foreign ministry have said Ai is being investigated for tax avoidance and related charges. His family have said they have not been formally told about such charges and reject them as smears intended to silence him.

Ai had supported the Incidental Art Festival -- now in its third year -- and exhibited art at past shows, said Lin. If it were not for the "special situation," he said, his work would have been included again.

Chinese police told state media last month that a company Ai controlled, The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., had evaded a "huge amount" of taxes and destroyed accounting documents.

But family members and supporters say the outspoken 53-year-old artist is a victim of a crackdown on political dissent.

Beijing's alarm about dissent intensified after overseas Chinese websites in February spread calls for protests across China inspired by the "Jasmine Revolution" of anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world.

Ai's career encompasses protests for artistic freedom in 1979, provocative works in the 1990s and a role in designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

One man with the surname Xie who came to see the exhibition took a photo in front of the white wall with Ai's name tag.

"He doesn't have his freedom, but his honor is being defended," he said, pointing to the wall.

Ai's wife Lu Qing told Reuters that after almost 60 days since his detention she has still not been notified by authorities regarding his charges and has been able to meet with him only once to discuss his health.

"There was no way to have a piece of his work hung for the show, but I think the fact that there is a blank wall in its place gives his voice extra force," she said of the exhibition.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Fei Xiaosheng, an organizer of the Third Incidental Art Festival gestures in front of the wall left blank in support of detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei, during the opening ceremony in Beijing June 1, 2011. Organisers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance over the case. The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Credit: Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

By Michael Martina

BEIJING | Wed Jun 1, 2011 10:33am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Organizers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance of the authorities.

A small tag with Ai's name adorns a blank wall among 19 other artists' work at an annual photography show that opened Wednesday, almost two months after police seized Ai Weiwei at Beijing's airport, igniting an international outcry.

The organizers' gesture of support for China's most politically controversial artist is a rare public display from mainland China's artistic community, which has largely stayed silent about Ai's detention.

"We feel regret because his voice can't be heard," said Lin Bing, a photographer who helped organize the show at the gallery CCD300, in Beijing's Caochangdi art area.

"It has made us think about when an artist loses the possibility of expressing himself."

Shi Yong, the owner of the gallery, said the exhibition was normal and legal, but Lin said he received phone calls from the police bureau after the show opened asking him to come in for a discussion. Organizers could not be reached by phone later.

China's state media and foreign ministry have said Ai is being investigated for tax avoidance and related charges. His family have said they have not been formally told about such charges and reject them as smears intended to silence him.

Ai had supported the Incidental Art Festival -- now in its third year -- and exhibited art at past shows, said Lin. If it were not for the "special situation," he said, his work would have been included again.

Chinese police told state media last month that a company Ai controlled, The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., had evaded a "huge amount" of taxes and destroyed accounting documents.

But family members and supporters say the outspoken 53-year-old artist is a victim of a crackdown on political dissent.

Beijing's alarm about dissent intensified after overseas Chinese websites in February spread calls for protests across China inspired by the "Jasmine Revolution" of anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world.

Ai's career encompasses protests for artistic freedom in 1979, provocative works in the 1990s and a role in designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

One man with the surname Xie who came to see the exhibition took a photo in front of the white wall with Ai's name tag.

"He doesn't have his freedom, but his honor is being defended," he said, pointing to the wall.

Ai's wife Lu Qing told Reuters that after almost 60 days since his detention she has still not been notified by authorities regarding his charges and has been able to meet with him only once to discuss his health.

"There was no way to have a piece of his work hung for the show, but I think the fact that there is a blank wall in its place gives his voice extra force," she said of the exhibition.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Baloane

Cost aparat dentar

Fei Xiaosheng, an organizer of the Third Incidental Art Festival gestures in front of the wall left blank in support of detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei, during the opening ceremony in Beijing June 1, 2011. Organisers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance over the case. The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Credit: Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

By Michael Martina

BEIJING | Wed Jun 1, 2011 10:33am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Organizers of an art show in the Chinese capital have left an empty space on a gallery wall for detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei in a rare gesture of open defiance of the authorities.

A small tag with Ai's name adorns a blank wall among 19 other artists' work at an annual photography show that opened Wednesday, almost two months after police seized Ai Weiwei at Beijing's airport, igniting an international outcry.

The organizers' gesture of support for China's most politically controversial artist is a rare public display from mainland China's artistic community, which has largely stayed silent about Ai's detention.

"We feel regret because his voice can't be heard," said Lin Bing, a photographer who helped organize the show at the gallery CCD300, in Beijing's Caochangdi art area.

"It has made us think about when an artist loses the possibility of expressing himself."

Shi Yong, the owner of the gallery, said the exhibition was normal and legal, but Lin said he received phone calls from the police bureau after the show opened asking him to come in for a discussion. Organizers could not be reached by phone later.

China's state media and foreign ministry have said Ai is being investigated for tax avoidance and related charges. His family have said they have not been formally told about such charges and reject them as smears intended to silence him.

Ai had supported the Incidental Art Festival -- now in its third year -- and exhibited art at past shows, said Lin. If it were not for the "special situation," he said, his work would have been included again.

Chinese police told state media last month that a company Ai controlled, The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., had evaded a "huge amount" of taxes and destroyed accounting documents.

But family members and supporters say the outspoken 53-year-old artist is a victim of a crackdown on political dissent.

Beijing's alarm about dissent intensified after overseas Chinese websites in February spread calls for protests across China inspired by the "Jasmine Revolution" of anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world.

Ai's career encompasses protests for artistic freedom in 1979, provocative works in the 1990s and a role in designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The exhibition comes at an especially sensitive time, as China braces for Saturday's 22nd anniversary of the government's deadly mobilization of the military to clear pro-democracy protests focused on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

One man with the surname Xie who came to see the exhibition took a photo in front of the white wall with Ai's name tag.

"He doesn't have his freedom, but his honor is being defended," he said, pointing to the wall.

Ai's wife Lu Qing told Reuters that after almost 60 days since his detention she has still not been notified by authorities regarding his charges and has been able to meet with him only once to discuss his health.

"There was no way to have a piece of his work hung for the show, but I think the fact that there is a blank wall in its place gives his voice extra force," she said of the exhibition.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Cost aparat dentar

Met opera stars cancel Japan tour on radiation fear

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NEW YORK | Wed Jun 1, 2011 2:24pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of the Metropolitan Opera's leading performers due to sing in Japan this week, have pulled out with concerns about radiation, the New York opera company said.

Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja canceled their roles in performances in Nagoya and Tokyo following concerns about radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant just 240km (150 miles) from Tokyo, caused by the massive March 11 earthquake.

Some 350 company members arrived on Monday for performances of the operas "La Boheme," "Don Carlo" and "Lucia di Lammermoor" beginning on Saturday and running until June 19.

"Last-minute cancellations by soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja, both citing concerns about post-earthquake radiation, forced the Met to scramble over the weekend to find replacement stars," the statement issued on Tuesday by the Met Opera said.

Up until last week, Netrebko, 39, and Calleja, a Maltese tenor who has sung in opera houses around the world, had been planning on performing in Japan, as scheduled, the Met said. But Netrebeko, 39, changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl.

"She didn't feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn't want to disappoint her Japanese fans. Mr. Calleja also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time."

Instead, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenors Marcelo Alvarez, Rolando Villazon and Alexey Dolgov joined the tour.

Soprano Barbara Frittoli agreed to move into the role of Mimi in "La Boheme" to replace Netrebko, while Poplavskaya will replace Frittoli in the role of Elisabeth in "Don Carlo."

"Anything can happen in the volcanic world of opera, and with this tour it seems that our volcano has momentarily erupted," said the Met's General Manager, Peter Gelb.

Engineers in Japan have been battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control more than two months after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan's coastline.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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NEW YORK | Wed Jun 1, 2011 2:24pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of the Metropolitan Opera's leading performers due to sing in Japan this week, have pulled out with concerns about radiation, the New York opera company said.

Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja canceled their roles in performances in Nagoya and Tokyo following concerns about radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant just 240km (150 miles) from Tokyo, caused by the massive March 11 earthquake.

Some 350 company members arrived on Monday for performances of the operas "La Boheme," "Don Carlo" and "Lucia di Lammermoor" beginning on Saturday and running until June 19.

"Last-minute cancellations by soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja, both citing concerns about post-earthquake radiation, forced the Met to scramble over the weekend to find replacement stars," the statement issued on Tuesday by the Met Opera said.

Up until last week, Netrebko, 39, and Calleja, a Maltese tenor who has sung in opera houses around the world, had been planning on performing in Japan, as scheduled, the Met said. But Netrebeko, 39, changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl.

"She didn't feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn't want to disappoint her Japanese fans. Mr. Calleja also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time."

Instead, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenors Marcelo Alvarez, Rolando Villazon and Alexey Dolgov joined the tour.

Soprano Barbara Frittoli agreed to move into the role of Mimi in "La Boheme" to replace Netrebko, while Poplavskaya will replace Frittoli in the role of Elisabeth in "Don Carlo."

"Anything can happen in the volcanic world of opera, and with this tour it seems that our volcano has momentarily erupted," said the Met's General Manager, Peter Gelb.

Engineers in Japan have been battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control more than two months after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan's coastline.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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NEW YORK | Wed Jun 1, 2011 2:24pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of the Metropolitan Opera's leading performers due to sing in Japan this week, have pulled out with concerns about radiation, the New York opera company said.

Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja canceled their roles in performances in Nagoya and Tokyo following concerns about radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant just 240km (150 miles) from Tokyo, caused by the massive March 11 earthquake.

Some 350 company members arrived on Monday for performances of the operas "La Boheme," "Don Carlo" and "Lucia di Lammermoor" beginning on Saturday and running until June 19.

"Last-minute cancellations by soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja, both citing concerns about post-earthquake radiation, forced the Met to scramble over the weekend to find replacement stars," the statement issued on Tuesday by the Met Opera said.

Up until last week, Netrebko, 39, and Calleja, a Maltese tenor who has sung in opera houses around the world, had been planning on performing in Japan, as scheduled, the Met said. But Netrebeko, 39, changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl.

"She didn't feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn't want to disappoint her Japanese fans. Mr. Calleja also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time."

Instead, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenors Marcelo Alvarez, Rolando Villazon and Alexey Dolgov joined the tour.

Soprano Barbara Frittoli agreed to move into the role of Mimi in "La Boheme" to replace Netrebko, while Poplavskaya will replace Frittoli in the role of Elisabeth in "Don Carlo."

"Anything can happen in the volcanic world of opera, and with this tour it seems that our volcano has momentarily erupted," said the Met's General Manager, Peter Gelb.

Engineers in Japan have been battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control more than two months after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan's coastline.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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DC relaunching comic book titles at issue No. 1

birou notarial

LOS ANGELES | Tue May 31, 2011 11:26pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DC Comics will reset the dial by renumbering its lineup of superhero comics when it releases 52 issues tagged No. 1, starting with its famed Justice League series, the company said on Tuesday.

The publisher behind Superman and Batman also plans to redesign costumes for many of its characters as part of the rebranding and retooling effort, which will begin on August 31 with the release of the Justice League issue No. 1.

Justice League is the decades-old team of superheroes headed by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, who collectively battle evil.

The DC Comics push to start over on its titles comes as the New York-based publisher struggles to catch up to arch rival Marvel Comics.

Marvel, which is owned by Walt Disney Co, accounts for 40 percent of the publications sold at comic-book stores compared to 27 percent for second-place DC Comics, according to statistics from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.

With the possible exception of Batman, the Time Warner Inc-owned DC Comics has struggled to turn its superhero characters into viable movie franchises that can drive sales on everything from comic books to toys. Indeed, a planned "Wonder Woman" TV series was recently aborted.

DC Comics gave few details on Tuesday about the relaunch of its comic book titles, but it said that the No. 1 issue releases on 52 titles will continue through the month of September.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dean Gooodman)

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LOS ANGELES | Tue May 31, 2011 11:26pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DC Comics will reset the dial by renumbering its lineup of superhero comics when it releases 52 issues tagged No. 1, starting with its famed Justice League series, the company said on Tuesday.

The publisher behind Superman and Batman also plans to redesign costumes for many of its characters as part of the rebranding and retooling effort, which will begin on August 31 with the release of the Justice League issue No. 1.

Justice League is the decades-old team of superheroes headed by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, who collectively battle evil.

The DC Comics push to start over on its titles comes as the New York-based publisher struggles to catch up to arch rival Marvel Comics.

Marvel, which is owned by Walt Disney Co, accounts for 40 percent of the publications sold at comic-book stores compared to 27 percent for second-place DC Comics, according to statistics from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.

With the possible exception of Batman, the Time Warner Inc-owned DC Comics has struggled to turn its superhero characters into viable movie franchises that can drive sales on everything from comic books to toys. Indeed, a planned "Wonder Woman" TV series was recently aborted.

DC Comics gave few details on Tuesday about the relaunch of its comic book titles, but it said that the No. 1 issue releases on 52 titles will continue through the month of September.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dean Gooodman)

Baloane

Cost aparat dentar

LOS ANGELES | Tue May 31, 2011 11:26pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DC Comics will reset the dial by renumbering its lineup of superhero comics when it releases 52 issues tagged No. 1, starting with its famed Justice League series, the company said on Tuesday.

The publisher behind Superman and Batman also plans to redesign costumes for many of its characters as part of the rebranding and retooling effort, which will begin on August 31 with the release of the Justice League issue No. 1.

Justice League is the decades-old team of superheroes headed by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, who collectively battle evil.

The DC Comics push to start over on its titles comes as the New York-based publisher struggles to catch up to arch rival Marvel Comics.

Marvel, which is owned by Walt Disney Co, accounts for 40 percent of the publications sold at comic-book stores compared to 27 percent for second-place DC Comics, according to statistics from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.

With the possible exception of Batman, the Time Warner Inc-owned DC Comics has struggled to turn its superhero characters into viable movie franchises that can drive sales on everything from comic books to toys. Indeed, a planned "Wonder Woman" TV series was recently aborted.

DC Comics gave few details on Tuesday about the relaunch of its comic book titles, but it said that the No. 1 issue releases on 52 titles will continue through the month of September.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dean Gooodman)

Cost aparat dentar

Broadway posts larger takings for past season

birou notarial

Patrons wait in line at the box office of the Foxwoods Theater, home to the Broadway play ''Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark'' in New York March 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Tue May 31, 2011 6:56pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broadway theaters increased gross revenues in the 2010/11 season, as the U.S. economy emerged from recession, while attendance figures have stayed relatively steady in the past five years.

The Broadway League said on Tuesday in the 52-week period ending May 22, gross takings were $1.06 billion, compared to $1.02 billion for the previous 52 weeks.

The number of people attending shows in the same period was 12.26 million, up three per cent compared to last year's figures, according to the trade association representing theater owners, operators and producers.

Several years ago showed similar attendance figures, with the 2007/2008 season producing 12.27 million in attendance. The 2009/10 season produced 11.89 in attendance.

The Broadway League attributed a diversity of shows to the continued increase in grosses. It said shows yielded an official gross of more than $1.08 billion for the 2010/11 season and 12.53 million in attendance, but those figures included adding an extra week, a 53rd week, that happens every seven years to maintain an end-of-May season.

Producers have increased revenue in the past several years aided by premium front-of-house and last-minute seats, which can sell for as much as $400.

The season, which saw previews for the accident-prone yet so far profitable blockbuster new musical, "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" by U2's Bono and the Edge, saw the opening of 42 shows opened including 14 musicals, 25 plays and 3 specials.

The season included box-office and well-received hits ranging from the Tony-nominated musical, "The Book of Mormon," a spoof about a pair of Mormon men on a mission to Africa from the creators of the TV series "South Park," to "War Horse," a play transferred from London that uses projections and puppets.

Older favorites such as "The Lion King" and "Wicked" continue to pull in the crowds, with both raking in more than $1.65 million for the week ending May 29, many years after they first opened.

Big-name movie stars have continued to flock to Broadway with producers keen to guarantee better sales with Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Al Pacino and Daniel Radcliffe all headlining recent shows.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Birou Notarial Bucuresti

Baloane

Patrons wait in line at the box office of the Foxwoods Theater, home to the Broadway play ''Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark'' in New York March 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Tue May 31, 2011 6:56pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broadway theaters increased gross revenues in the 2010/11 season, as the U.S. economy emerged from recession, while attendance figures have stayed relatively steady in the past five years.

The Broadway League said on Tuesday in the 52-week period ending May 22, gross takings were $1.06 billion, compared to $1.02 billion for the previous 52 weeks.

The number of people attending shows in the same period was 12.26 million, up three per cent compared to last year's figures, according to the trade association representing theater owners, operators and producers.

Several years ago showed similar attendance figures, with the 2007/2008 season producing 12.27 million in attendance. The 2009/10 season produced 11.89 in attendance.

The Broadway League attributed a diversity of shows to the continued increase in grosses. It said shows yielded an official gross of more than $1.08 billion for the 2010/11 season and 12.53 million in attendance, but those figures included adding an extra week, a 53rd week, that happens every seven years to maintain an end-of-May season.

Producers have increased revenue in the past several years aided by premium front-of-house and last-minute seats, which can sell for as much as $400.

The season, which saw previews for the accident-prone yet so far profitable blockbuster new musical, "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" by U2's Bono and the Edge, saw the opening of 42 shows opened including 14 musicals, 25 plays and 3 specials.

The season included box-office and well-received hits ranging from the Tony-nominated musical, "The Book of Mormon," a spoof about a pair of Mormon men on a mission to Africa from the creators of the TV series "South Park," to "War Horse," a play transferred from London that uses projections and puppets.

Older favorites such as "The Lion King" and "Wicked" continue to pull in the crowds, with both raking in more than $1.65 million for the week ending May 29, many years after they first opened.

Big-name movie stars have continued to flock to Broadway with producers keen to guarantee better sales with Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Al Pacino and Daniel Radcliffe all headlining recent shows.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Baloane

Cost aparat dentar

Patrons wait in line at the box office of the Foxwoods Theater, home to the Broadway play ''Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark'' in New York March 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Tue May 31, 2011 6:56pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broadway theaters increased gross revenues in the 2010/11 season, as the U.S. economy emerged from recession, while attendance figures have stayed relatively steady in the past five years.

The Broadway League said on Tuesday in the 52-week period ending May 22, gross takings were $1.06 billion, compared to $1.02 billion for the previous 52 weeks.

The number of people attending shows in the same period was 12.26 million, up three per cent compared to last year's figures, according to the trade association representing theater owners, operators and producers.

Several years ago showed similar attendance figures, with the 2007/2008 season producing 12.27 million in attendance. The 2009/10 season produced 11.89 in attendance.

The Broadway League attributed a diversity of shows to the continued increase in grosses. It said shows yielded an official gross of more than $1.08 billion for the 2010/11 season and 12.53 million in attendance, but those figures included adding an extra week, a 53rd week, that happens every seven years to maintain an end-of-May season.

Producers have increased revenue in the past several years aided by premium front-of-house and last-minute seats, which can sell for as much as $400.

The season, which saw previews for the accident-prone yet so far profitable blockbuster new musical, "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" by U2's Bono and the Edge, saw the opening of 42 shows opened including 14 musicals, 25 plays and 3 specials.

The season included box-office and well-received hits ranging from the Tony-nominated musical, "The Book of Mormon," a spoof about a pair of Mormon men on a mission to Africa from the creators of the TV series "South Park," to "War Horse," a play transferred from London that uses projections and puppets.

Older favorites such as "The Lion King" and "Wicked" continue to pull in the crowds, with both raking in more than $1.65 million for the week ending May 29, many years after they first opened.

Big-name movie stars have continued to flock to Broadway with producers keen to guarantee better sales with Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Al Pacino and Daniel Radcliffe all headlining recent shows.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Cost aparat dentar

Elaine Paige in rare U.S. stage foray with "Follies"

birou notarial

By Robert Windeler

Sun May 29, 2011 9:49pm EDT

NEW YORK (Back Stage) - In 1964, 16-year-old Elaine Bickerstaff auditioned for her first professional musical straight from drama school, and she didn't get the part.

Her teacher was so sure that Elaine was right for the show -- "The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd," on its pre-Broadway British tour -- that she urged a name change and a stealthy second audition.

Desperate for a marquee-worthy name, Elaine leafed through the telephone book. She decided that the pages themselves were more interesting than any name printed on them, added the "i" for extra flair, and an unrecognized Elaine Paige was cast in the show.

Paige has sung onstage for a living ever since and is currently appearing in the star-studded Kennedy Center revival of "Follies" in Washington, D.C. She made her West End debut in "Hair" in 1968. In 1972, she was in the chorus of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and became a star as the pair's "Evita" in 1978. She introduced "Memory" in Lloyd Webber's "Cats" and has been the first lady of British musical theater to this day. Lloyd Webber says "She has a 'belt' voice in areas where no self-respecting angel will ever dare to tread and she has the heart to use this God-given voice in a way that imbues it with true emotion."

Surprisingly, Paige has done relatively little work in America until recently. She attributes this to being so closely identified as "an Andrew Lloyd Webber girl, so involved in his work." (She did finally make her one and only Broadway appearance as a Norma Desmond replacement in the composer's "Sunset Boulevard" in 1996.) In 2004, she sang 18 performances as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," for the New York City Opera.

WEARING TWO HATS

After seeing the 1987 Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," starring Patti LuPone and directed by Jerry Zaks, Paige decided to buy this quintessential American musical for herself to take to London. "I remember coming out of the theater beaming from ear to ear and the feeling of being uplifted by this wonderful, wonderful musical," she says. "I knew that I wanted to play the part of Reno Sweeny in London. I also knew that the only way to do that was to produce it myself. If you wait around for others to offer you roles, you could wait around forever."

She took director Zaks with her to London, but found the experience "quite difficult, wearing two hats at one time, just exhausting, and probably not something I would ever do again. I remember having internal fights with myself about creative things as the artist and with the producer's hat on worrying about costs. I found that to be quite taxing." The production was a success, however, and the Queen Mother, a Porter fan, paid a visit.

Paige came to New York just last summer to make a duets album, "Elaine Paige and Friends," with producer Phil Ramone. While she was making the recording, Paige's agents brought up "the possibility of my working in the theater again, which was not something I was seeking particularly at this point in my life. Now I'm involved with my concert tours, traveling the world at my own speed and booking them about a year in advance. All the stage shows I did ran and ran, and committing to eight performances a week for years on end now seems daunting."

But then Paige was offered the role of Carlotta Campion in "Follies." "As a cameo in a short run, it really interested me," she explains. "Getting to sing 'I'm Still Here,' one of the great classics in musical theater, was the clincher."

RESEARCH IS FUN

Paige began her preparations by "Googling the song's references that we Brits wouldn't be quite au fait with: 'Abie's Irish Rose,' 'Five Dionne Babies,' 'Beebe's Bathysphere,' and several more. Obviously J. Edgar Hoover is fine, and commie, pinko tool ... stinko by my pool' we understand. As an actor I immerse myself in the era we're in, which here is America from the 1930s to 1972, to create a backstory for my character. That's part of the fun of being an actor, that you get to do all that research."

While still at home in London, Paige reunited with dialect coach Joan Washington to get just the right American dialect for Carlotta's limited dialogue and one song. Thanks to her weekly radio program, "Elaine Paige on Sunday," now in its sixth year on BBC Radio 2 (and available and archived online), "I have a rather large listenership in America," she says.

So far that hasn't translated to playing large halls in the U.S. "I'd love to do some concert work here, but it seems tricky to put that into place -- quite why, I'm not sure. I have been offered cabaret, but that's not really what I do, I don't really know about it, and I'm not used to small rooms."

So after "Follies" ends its run June 17, Paige is off to big venues in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and perhaps New Zealand, a circuit she plies "every couple of years, interspersed with concerts in Scandinavia and elsewhere. One circles the Earth, follows the sun, that's the idea."

At 63, Paige is "just trying to find the time to get everything in and still have a life. Every now and again I get a little world-weary and look forward to being in one place, being still, working on one thing. You get to a place where you do need some down time, to get inspired again, but you also can't stop and just do nothing. You have to crank yourself up and start again. Home is always home, but I also love to travel, so I've got the perfect job, really."

Birou Notarial Bucuresti

Baloane

By Robert Windeler

Sun May 29, 2011 9:49pm EDT

NEW YORK (Back Stage) - In 1964, 16-year-old Elaine Bickerstaff auditioned for her first professional musical straight from drama school, and she didn't get the part.

Her teacher was so sure that Elaine was right for the show -- "The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd," on its pre-Broadway British tour -- that she urged a name change and a stealthy second audition.

Desperate for a marquee-worthy name, Elaine leafed through the telephone book. She decided that the pages themselves were more interesting than any name printed on them, added the "i" for extra flair, and an unrecognized Elaine Paige was cast in the show.

Paige has sung onstage for a living ever since and is currently appearing in the star-studded Kennedy Center revival of "Follies" in Washington, D.C. She made her West End debut in "Hair" in 1968. In 1972, she was in the chorus of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and became a star as the pair's "Evita" in 1978. She introduced "Memory" in Lloyd Webber's "Cats" and has been the first lady of British musical theater to this day. Lloyd Webber says "She has a 'belt' voice in areas where no self-respecting angel will ever dare to tread and she has the heart to use this God-given voice in a way that imbues it with true emotion."

Surprisingly, Paige has done relatively little work in America until recently. She attributes this to being so closely identified as "an Andrew Lloyd Webber girl, so involved in his work." (She did finally make her one and only Broadway appearance as a Norma Desmond replacement in the composer's "Sunset Boulevard" in 1996.) In 2004, she sang 18 performances as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," for the New York City Opera.

WEARING TWO HATS

After seeing the 1987 Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," starring Patti LuPone and directed by Jerry Zaks, Paige decided to buy this quintessential American musical for herself to take to London. "I remember coming out of the theater beaming from ear to ear and the feeling of being uplifted by this wonderful, wonderful musical," she says. "I knew that I wanted to play the part of Reno Sweeny in London. I also knew that the only way to do that was to produce it myself. If you wait around for others to offer you roles, you could wait around forever."

She took director Zaks with her to London, but found the experience "quite difficult, wearing two hats at one time, just exhausting, and probably not something I would ever do again. I remember having internal fights with myself about creative things as the artist and with the producer's hat on worrying about costs. I found that to be quite taxing." The production was a success, however, and the Queen Mother, a Porter fan, paid a visit.

Paige came to New York just last summer to make a duets album, "Elaine Paige and Friends," with producer Phil Ramone. While she was making the recording, Paige's agents brought up "the possibility of my working in the theater again, which was not something I was seeking particularly at this point in my life. Now I'm involved with my concert tours, traveling the world at my own speed and booking them about a year in advance. All the stage shows I did ran and ran, and committing to eight performances a week for years on end now seems daunting."

But then Paige was offered the role of Carlotta Campion in "Follies." "As a cameo in a short run, it really interested me," she explains. "Getting to sing 'I'm Still Here,' one of the great classics in musical theater, was the clincher."

RESEARCH IS FUN

Paige began her preparations by "Googling the song's references that we Brits wouldn't be quite au fait with: 'Abie's Irish Rose,' 'Five Dionne Babies,' 'Beebe's Bathysphere,' and several more. Obviously J. Edgar Hoover is fine, and commie, pinko tool ... stinko by my pool' we understand. As an actor I immerse myself in the era we're in, which here is America from the 1930s to 1972, to create a backstory for my character. That's part of the fun of being an actor, that you get to do all that research."

While still at home in London, Paige reunited with dialect coach Joan Washington to get just the right American dialect for Carlotta's limited dialogue and one song. Thanks to her weekly radio program, "Elaine Paige on Sunday," now in its sixth year on BBC Radio 2 (and available and archived online), "I have a rather large listenership in America," she says.

So far that hasn't translated to playing large halls in the U.S. "I'd love to do some concert work here, but it seems tricky to put that into place -- quite why, I'm not sure. I have been offered cabaret, but that's not really what I do, I don't really know about it, and I'm not used to small rooms."

So after "Follies" ends its run June 17, Paige is off to big venues in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and perhaps New Zealand, a circuit she plies "every couple of years, interspersed with concerts in Scandinavia and elsewhere. One circles the Earth, follows the sun, that's the idea."

At 63, Paige is "just trying to find the time to get everything in and still have a life. Every now and again I get a little world-weary and look forward to being in one place, being still, working on one thing. You get to a place where you do need some down time, to get inspired again, but you also can't stop and just do nothing. You have to crank yourself up and start again. Home is always home, but I also love to travel, so I've got the perfect job, really."

Baloane

Cost aparat dentar

By Robert Windeler

Sun May 29, 2011 9:49pm EDT

NEW YORK (Back Stage) - In 1964, 16-year-old Elaine Bickerstaff auditioned for her first professional musical straight from drama school, and she didn't get the part.

Her teacher was so sure that Elaine was right for the show -- "The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd," on its pre-Broadway British tour -- that she urged a name change and a stealthy second audition.

Desperate for a marquee-worthy name, Elaine leafed through the telephone book. She decided that the pages themselves were more interesting than any name printed on them, added the "i" for extra flair, and an unrecognized Elaine Paige was cast in the show.

Paige has sung onstage for a living ever since and is currently appearing in the star-studded Kennedy Center revival of "Follies" in Washington, D.C. She made her West End debut in "Hair" in 1968. In 1972, she was in the chorus of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and became a star as the pair's "Evita" in 1978. She introduced "Memory" in Lloyd Webber's "Cats" and has been the first lady of British musical theater to this day. Lloyd Webber says "She has a 'belt' voice in areas where no self-respecting angel will ever dare to tread and she has the heart to use this God-given voice in a way that imbues it with true emotion."

Surprisingly, Paige has done relatively little work in America until recently. She attributes this to being so closely identified as "an Andrew Lloyd Webber girl, so involved in his work." (She did finally make her one and only Broadway appearance as a Norma Desmond replacement in the composer's "Sunset Boulevard" in 1996.) In 2004, she sang 18 performances as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," for the New York City Opera.

WEARING TWO HATS

After seeing the 1987 Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," starring Patti LuPone and directed by Jerry Zaks, Paige decided to buy this quintessential American musical for herself to take to London. "I remember coming out of the theater beaming from ear to ear and the feeling of being uplifted by this wonderful, wonderful musical," she says. "I knew that I wanted to play the part of Reno Sweeny in London. I also knew that the only way to do that was to produce it myself. If you wait around for others to offer you roles, you could wait around forever."

She took director Zaks with her to London, but found the experience "quite difficult, wearing two hats at one time, just exhausting, and probably not something I would ever do again. I remember having internal fights with myself about creative things as the artist and with the producer's hat on worrying about costs. I found that to be quite taxing." The production was a success, however, and the Queen Mother, a Porter fan, paid a visit.

Paige came to New York just last summer to make a duets album, "Elaine Paige and Friends," with producer Phil Ramone. While she was making the recording, Paige's agents brought up "the possibility of my working in the theater again, which was not something I was seeking particularly at this point in my life. Now I'm involved with my concert tours, traveling the world at my own speed and booking them about a year in advance. All the stage shows I did ran and ran, and committing to eight performances a week for years on end now seems daunting."

But then Paige was offered the role of Carlotta Campion in "Follies." "As a cameo in a short run, it really interested me," she explains. "Getting to sing 'I'm Still Here,' one of the great classics in musical theater, was the clincher."

RESEARCH IS FUN

Paige began her preparations by "Googling the song's references that we Brits wouldn't be quite au fait with: 'Abie's Irish Rose,' 'Five Dionne Babies,' 'Beebe's Bathysphere,' and several more. Obviously J. Edgar Hoover is fine, and commie, pinko tool ... stinko by my pool' we understand. As an actor I immerse myself in the era we're in, which here is America from the 1930s to 1972, to create a backstory for my character. That's part of the fun of being an actor, that you get to do all that research."

While still at home in London, Paige reunited with dialect coach Joan Washington to get just the right American dialect for Carlotta's limited dialogue and one song. Thanks to her weekly radio program, "Elaine Paige on Sunday," now in its sixth year on BBC Radio 2 (and available and archived online), "I have a rather large listenership in America," she says.

So far that hasn't translated to playing large halls in the U.S. "I'd love to do some concert work here, but it seems tricky to put that into place -- quite why, I'm not sure. I have been offered cabaret, but that's not really what I do, I don't really know about it, and I'm not used to small rooms."

So after "Follies" ends its run June 17, Paige is off to big venues in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and perhaps New Zealand, a circuit she plies "every couple of years, interspersed with concerts in Scandinavia and elsewhere. One circles the Earth, follows the sun, that's the idea."

At 63, Paige is "just trying to find the time to get everything in and still have a life. Every now and again I get a little world-weary and look forward to being in one place, being still, working on one thing. You get to a place where you do need some down time, to get inspired again, but you also can't stop and just do nothing. You have to crank yourself up and start again. Home is always home, but I also love to travel, so I've got the perfect job, really."

Cost aparat dentar

Spoleto Festival USA plans vibrant run despite funding cut

birou notarial

By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

Birou Notarial Bucuresti

Baloane

By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

Baloane

Cost aparat dentar

By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

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