Hints and tips:
...The V&A show aims to reclaim the word by focusing on the power of star performances, where image is often key....
...Expect an evening of the most-loved arias performed by a stellar ensemble....
...But by the time it was completed in 1819, the then monarch, Ferdinand VII, decided that the royal art collection (shaped by his predecessors Charles V and Philip II) should be exhibited instead....
...George V’s horse Anmer caused whose death on June 4 1913? Which cocktail is made with vodka and orange juice (above)?...
...There is outright farce: when everyone in the world saw Frank Lampard’s ball cross the goal line in the 2010 England v Germany game — everyone, that is, except the referee....
...V of Spain during his final years in the 1730s and 1740s....
...Carving concrete with GPS tracking is “cutting-edge technology”, says David Green, chief executive of the V&A Waterfront, whose shareholders funded the Silo’s £35m renovation....
...As she streamed through ribbony cabalettas, even fussy staging couldn’t hinder our enjoyment of her aria “Tanti Affetti”. rossinioperafestival.it...
..., van Kampen has naturally been drawn to the story of the Italian castrato Farinelli and his sudden withdrawal from the world of opera he so bestrode to become in 1737 chamber musician to King Philippe V...
...“It was playful, imaginative, inviting, fun and at the same time functional,” says Victoria Broackes, head of the London Design Festival at the V&A....
...He plays Philippe V of Spain, to whom the operatic castrato Farinelli became chamber musician in 1737....
...Elena herself spends most of her time with a third suitor, Uberto, who is James V in disguise and the most interesting of the three aspirants....
...It is the jumping-off point for our four-night cruise aboard the M/V Aria, the newest of a handful of vessels transforming the sweat-soaked hazards of an Amazon expedition into a luxury experience....
...This year’s most bizarre location, for composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven’s The Air We Breathe (City of Desire V), was the dank basement of a disused waterfront grain silo peopled with strangely solemn guards....
...Juan Diego Florez’s note-perfect Giacomo V and Colin Lee’s expressive Rodrigo canter through their freakishly athletic arias....
...If you dine at an “outside” table at St Mark’s Square, you can catch a “Streetmosphere” performance of opera arias....
...Others will find, that like listening only to arias, the effect is blunting rather than uplifting. The Gilbert Collection at Somerset House certainly had its critics....
...But there is more to it than that: Puccini’s unfinished masterpiece is rich with show-stopping arias and orchestral colour....
...At worst it cuts the Mozartian rhythms to pieces, fast-cutting during arias or charging round the landscape during the overture....
International Edition