Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314580855?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Soprano talks of her 'sabbatical' from opera
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Her character Antonia literally sings herself to death in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann," but in real life Natalie Dessay says her own upcoming break from opera is not so irrevocable.
"I'm going to take a sabbatical, and then we'll see," the French soprano said in an interview. "The truth is my repertoire is shrinking. I'm not a young woman anymore, so I don't feel adequate for roles where I'm the girl in love for the first time. I don't want to eternally redo Lucia or Ophelie or even Manon. I want some new challenges."
So after the curtain falls on her last performance in "Hoffmann" at the San Francisco Opera on July 6, Dessay will vanish for a time from American opera stages. Her last scheduled operatic performances anywhere are in Massenet's "Manon" this fall in Toulouse, France.
After that, no opera, at least through 2015. But that hardly means Dessay is giving up singing. She has several concert tours planned with pianist Philippe Cassard, who will accompany her in songs by, among others, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Debussy and Duparc. She also will tour with Michel Legrand, using a microphone while singing works by a composer known for his popular songs and jazz.
"So I won't be doing opera ? but I will be doing things to earn money," Dessay said.
And she'd like to fulfill a lifelong dream by breaking into theater. In fact, she started out as a drama student. Singing came about almost by accident because she had to do some for a role in a student play, and "people said, 'Oh, you have a nice voice.'"
That nice voice ? agile and bell-like up to the soprano stratosphere ? catapulted her to international stardom in the early 1990s in such comic roles as Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and the mechanical doll Olympia in "Tales of Hoffmann."
More serious dramatic parts followed ? the title role in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Ophelie in Thomas' "Hamlet" and Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."
But now, at age 48, she no longer can manage the highest notes, and her voice never grew big enough for heavier lyric roles like Mimi in Puccini's "La Boheme."
"For example, I'd like to be able to do Blanche (the heroine of Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites"), but that's not for my voice," she said. "It would be possible in a small hall, but in a big house it's not a good idea. I've done Melisande (in Debussy's "Pelleas and Melisande") in a small house, but I couldn't do it at the Metropolitan Opera."
Still, based on her performance as Antonia on Thursday night, Dessay seems an unlikely candidate for early retirement from the opera stage. Vocally she sounded in fine shape, her delicate soprano perhaps a bit small for the role but fitting perfectly with her character's fragile state. And dramatically she was as compelling as ever.
One casualty of her planned time away from opera is the role of the emotionally unstable Elvira in Bellini's "I Puritani." She had agreed to do it in Paris and at the Met, but ended up canceling both engagements.
"The music is wonderful, but I just don't see myself playing her," she said. "She becomes crazy in exactly 30 seconds, then she's not crazy anymore, then she's crazy again.
"I mean, the libretto is really too stupid," she said, wrinkling her nose.
A new part she is considering after her sabbatical is the wily maid Despina in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte." It might seem a surprising choice, since it's by no means the lead role in the opera.
"The Met offered it to me, and I think it's a good idea," she said. "It's maybe not that interesting to sing, but it would be wonderful to play."
The role she most regrets never performing is the title character in Berg's atonal masterpiece "Lulu."
"I couldn't learn it," she said. "It's just horribly long. Musically, I'm not a good reader. And I don't have perfect pitch. It would have taken me two years."
Even though she'll be doing concert tours, Dessay is looking forward to spending more time at home in France with her family ? husband bass-baritone Laurent Nouri and their two teenage children. As of June, she had been on the road non-stop since February.
"I think they are very happy, because they will see me more," she said, adding with a smile, "of course, they may regret that after a few months."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soprano-talks-her-sabbatical-opera-145442429.html
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Iran's currency rises after presidential election
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Traders in Iran say the country's currency has briefly reached its strongest level in nearly 10 months, reflecting hopes that Iran's newly elected president might ease tensions with the West.
Iran's rial was exchanged around 29,000 for $1 Sunday, compared to more than 36,000 before the June 14 election of Hasan Rowhani. The rial had not dipped below 30,000 since late September. Later Sunday it rose to about 31,000.
The rial has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the U.S. dollar since late 2011, partly because of sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Rowhani's election boosted hope that his promises of international outreach could bring progress in the nuclear impasse. The West fears Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon. Iran says its program is for energy and research.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irans-currency-rises-presidential-election-154013546.html
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Robert Duvall spectator at Bulger trial in Boston
BOSTON (AP) ? Academy Award winner Robert Duvall is one of the spectators at the racketeering trial of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.
Duvall sat in the back of the courtroom Friday at Bulger's trial in Boston.
The 82-year-old Duvall has had a long television and film career, including starring roles in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II." In those mob epics, he played Tom Hagen, a lawyer and adviser to the Corleone family.
He won a best actor Oscar in 1984 for his role in "Tender Mercies."
He has been shooting a movie, "The Judge," in Shelburne, Mass., this month. Duvall plays the title character in the film, which also stars Robert Downey Jr., Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D'Onofrio.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robert-duvall-spectator-bulger-trial-boston-132814587.html
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'World War Z': Inside The Emotional Final Act
'Let's scale it down, let's make it a little more intimate,' writer Damon Lindelof tells MTV News of filmmakers' approach to the ending.
By Todd Gilchrist, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709384/world-war-z-movie-final-act.jhtml
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Report: Cyclist Jan Ullrich admits blood doping
BERLIN (AP) ? Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, has admitted for the first time that he received blood-doping treatment from Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes during his career, according to an interview with a German magazine published Saturday.
Ullrich had previously acknowledged having unspecified "contact" with Fuentes, but went further in an interview with the weekly Focus.
"Yes, I received treatment from Fuentes," the German rider was quoted as saying.
Asked if he only engaged in blood doping with Fuentes, Ullrich replied that "the doctor's diagnosis says that." He said he couldn't remember how many times he had received treatment from Fuentes.
In February 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned Ullrich for two years for blood doping.
The CAS ruled that the German was "fully engaged" in Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes' doping program, exposed in the Operation Puerto probe. The court stripped him of his third-place finish at the 2005 Tour. Ullrich retired in 2007.
Ullrich didn't contest the CAS ruling, saying at the time that he wanted to "put an end to the issue."
IOC vice president Thomas Bach said the confession is "too little, too late."
"Jan Ullrich had his chance for a creditable admission a couple of years ago and he missed it," Bach said in an emailed statement. "Today's confirmation of some of the already well known and established facts does not help Jan Ullrich nor cycling."
In Saturday's interview, the 39-year-old Ullrich said that while he had made bad decisions during his career, "I did not harm or defraud anyone."
"Almost everyone took performance-enhancing substances then. I took nothing that the others didn't also take," he was quoted as saying. "For me, fraud starts when I gain an advantage. That wasn't the case. I wanted to ensure equality of opportunities.
"The issue is dealt with for me. I only want to look forward, and never again backward."
Ullrich's interview comes after Lance Armstrong, the dominant cyclist of his generation, acknowledged in January that he doped for all seven of his Tour wins from 1999-2005. On three of those occasions, Ullrich finished second.
"I am no better than Armstrong, but no worse either," Ullrich was quoted as saying. "The great 'heroes' of earlier years are now people with failures that they have to come to terms with."
Earlier this year, Armstrong said doping became so routine it was "like saying we have to have air in our tires or water in our bottles."
Asked about that comment, Ullrich told Focus: "I can't understand that. I always knew that I was doing something forbidden and wrong."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-jan-ullrich-admits-blood-doping-091803638.html
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Addax Calf Brookfield Zoo: Chicago-Area Zoo Welcomes Its Newest Arrival (PHOTOS)
It's a boy at Brookfield Zoo! (And a very important one at that.)
The pitter patter of little hooves can now be heard at the Chicago-area Brookfield Zoo thanks to the arrival of an addax antelope calf.
The zoo announced Thursday that a male addax calf was born on June 7 to mama Sara, 4, and 11-year-old father Winston. Its precious, already-visible horn buds are expected to already grow into horns in the coming weeks.
According to the zoo, addax are a critically endangered species on the brink of extinction -- almost 200 live in accredited zoos across North America, while only about 300 more live in the wild, mostly in Niger. The addax have been hunted excessively of its horns, flesh and hide, contributing to the species' decline.
In further good news at the zoo, three more members of the Brookfield's addax herd are also expecting to give birth this summer -- so the calf will likely have some new playmates before long.
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