Opera Software has released the final version of Opera 10, the latest version of the company’s flagship Web browser.
– Opera Software has released the final version of Opera 10, the latest version of the company’s flagship Web browser.
Opera 10 is free, comes in 43 languages, and works on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. Users can download the browser at http://www.opera.com/.
According to Opera officials there a…
The Royal Opera House is to stage an opera created through social networking site Twitter.
Members of the public have been invited to submit their "tweets" online – messages of up to 140 characters – which will form the new libretto.
The first scene of the as-yet-untitled work has already been completed and features a man who has been kidnapped by a group of birds.
Excerpts will be performed at the Royal Opera House in September.
The opera will be set to original music by composer Helen Porter along with some more familiar opera tunes.
‘Your opera’
The project was launched as part of the Royal Opera House’s (ROH) Ignite season and aims to get more people involved in the creative side of opera.
Alison Duthie, head of ROH2 said: "It’s the people’s opera and the perfect way for everyone to become involved with the inventiveness of opera as the ultimate form of storytelling.
"Expect the unexpected – who knows how the story will evolve, but get tweeting and you can play your part in your opera."
The Royal Opera House blog gave a precis of Act One, Scene One: "William is languishing in a tower, having been kidnapped by a group of birds who are anxious for revenge after he has killed one of their number.
"Hans has promised to rescue him. The Woman With No Name is off to her biochemistry laboratory to make a potion to let people speak to the birds."
Contributions can still be made to the libretto on ROH’s Twitter feed.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
At last! Britney & Justin: The Opera!
Brooklyn-based composer Jacob Cooper has penned an opera based on the teenage love affair of pop’s ill-fated “It Couple,” Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.
Jessica Biel will not be pleased.
Timberbrit is described as a “tragic tale” that imagines Spears’ last concert, in the final hours of her life, when childhood [...]
RIFF GENERATING GENIUS TURNS 62 TOMORROW
Queen is one of those rock bands so rippled into what we consider that genre at this point that it seems too small a thing to call them “influential.” From strict radio fare to the more outre melange of Howlin Rain, of Montreal and My Morning Jacket, there’s Queen smiling out at us, all art spangled and power chord sweet. They are hard rock and tearful weepers, brainy concept makers and silly song slingers – an incongruous, unapologetically massive swirl of elements that didn’t exist before them but surely survives in myriad permutations today.
This Sunday, July 19, is guitarist Brian May‘s 62nd birthday and we couldn’t let the weekend pass without raising a glass to him. The Caucasian afro-ed picker is muscle and grace, so tough yet so tender and right up there with the greatest riff architects in history. Without May there’d be no Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani or many others – or at least they’d play with a certain significant part of their vocabulary stripped out. Since Queen’s self-titled 1973 debut, May has been nudging the genre in potent directions and we hope he gets the full measure of whatever birthday wish he makes this year when he blows out the candle.
We start this week with a crushing piece of so-wrong-it’s-right perfection from the boys. Just wait for May’s six-string blast that haymakers us 30 seconds in. And in hindsight, it’s not too tough to figure out which way the pendulum swung with ol’ Freddie, right?
While countless plays at sporting events and over film montages has stolen some of this classic’s thunder, presented here when the song was still fresh in 1981 at a famous Montreux performance it shows itself the pub-ready sing-along great that it is, emerging with saloon piano and a nigh irresistible lyric belted out by one of the finest frontmen ever.
Now this is some nasty guitar! The lead-off track from Queen’s debut has propulsive force in this 1977 live take at the legendary Earl’s Court.
One of the neat tricks Queen pulled off was remaining relevant through several decades. While this version lacks David Bowie‘s original vocal it does show Freddie’s crowd mastery before the band drops into a tight, kinda wistful rendition of the mega-hit.
“Can anybody find me somebody to love?” It’s a simple enough sentiment, and Queen excelled at tapping a wildly populist vein and this bit of miniature opera stands as perhaps their crowning jewel in a long line of fantastic love songs. This romp from 1982 at the Milton Keynes Bowl is appropriately, uh, enlarged for your pleasure.
Anyone who doubts Queen’s influence on metal and contemporary marvels like The Mars Volta need only peep this scorching 1977 performance of one of the band’s early best.
1976′s A Day At The Races – and companion precursor 1975′s A Night At The Opera – was where all the elements of Queen fully coalesced. The switchback rush of moods and styles is apparent from Races‘ opening pair, presented here in sterling live form.
All those post-gig hours spent in European discos paid off as 1980 rolled around and Queen discovered their funky side. Quite the outfit on Freddie on this one.
There’s an air of life-clinging energy to this 1989 single packed with compact, tasty playing from May and an impassioned Mercury lead vocal surely powered by his then-recent HIV diagnosis. In ways, this tune seems like Queen’s smackdown of the hair metal acts that invaded the 1980s, where they show how easily they could toss off something akin to but quite superior to anything Poison, Slaughter, et al. had to offer.
For all their pomp, they could be quite goofy, as witness by this loopy number (and matching video) from 1978′s Jazz chock full of pop culture references.
We wrap up this week’s installment with a pair of the band’s finest from A Night at the Opera. First, “something a bit heavier” and then a number that contains all the group’s charms, ambition and immense talent in one multifaceted marvel (offered below in both live and original, iconic video form). Thanks so much for the killer music, Mr. May.
And don’t forget, you can eyeball video sweetness 24/7 with JamBase TV.
Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich has earned a place of distinction in the Pantheon of Public Stupidity.
Sir Edward Downes, who conducted first Sydney Opera House performance, ends life with wife, Joan, in Switzerland
One of Britain’s most respected conductors, Sir Edward Downes, and his wife, Joan, a choreographer and TV producer, have died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, their family said today.
Downes, 85, was almost blind when he and his 74-year-old wife, who had become his full-time carer, travelled to Switzerland to end their lives, a family statement released to the BBC said.
Born in Birmingham, Downes had a long and distinguished career, including conducting the first performance at the Sydney Opera House. He worked with the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House in London.
The statement from the couple’s son and daughter, Caractacus and Boudicca, said they “died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing”.
The statement continued: “After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems.”
The couple died at a clinic run by Dignitas, the Swiss organisation that operates a specialist euthanasia service.
The Downes family said: “Our father, who was 85 years old, almost blind and increasingly deaf, had a long, vigorous and distinguished career as a conductor.
“Our mother, who was 74, started her career as a ballet dancer and subsequently worked as a choreographer and TV producer before dedicating the last years of her life to working as our father’s personal assistant.
“They both lived life to the full and considered themselves to be extremely lucky to have lived such rewarding lives, both professionally and personally.”
Downes was knighted in 1991.A Metropolitan police spokesman said Greenwich CID had launched an investigation.
“We continue to investigate the circumstances of their deaths. [There are] no further details at this stage,” he said.
In the past, police have investigated cases in which British people have travelled to the Dignitas clinic. Anyone assisting a person to commit suicide could face up to 14 years in prison.
Prosecutors have not pushed forward cases against families and friends of the growing numbers of Britons who have travelled to Dignitas to die, however, and there is fierce debate about whether the law should be changed to protect people from prosecution.
Last December, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would take no action against the family of 23-year-old Daniel James, who travelled to Switzerland to die after being paralysed from the chest down in a rugby accident.
The police did not investigate the deaths earlier this year of Peter and Penelope Duff, who became the first terminally ill British couple to be helped to die together in Switzerland.
Last week, the House of Lords voted against an attempt by the former lord chancellor Lord Falconer to relax the law on assisted suicide. His amendment to the coroners and justice bill would have allowed people to help someone with a terminal illness travel to a country where assisted suicide is legal.
Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, is seeking to clarify the law in the House of Lords. She wants a ruling that her husband will not be prosecuted if he helps her travel abroad to die.
Some people fear that relaxing the law on assisted suicide would lead to an increase in cases, and put people at risk of being pushed into taking their own lives. Gordon Brown is against a change in the law.
Renowned British conductor Sir Edward Thomas Downes, CBE, has died at the age of 85, after travelling to right-to-die clinic Dignitas with his wife.
He and his wife Joan, 74, both chose to end their lives at the Swiss clinic, their family said in a statement.
According to the statement, the couple "died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing".
The Birmingham-born conductor enjoyed a 40-year relationship with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Our father, who was 85 years old, almost blind and increasingly deaf, had a long, vigorous and distinguished career as a conductor," his family said.
"Our mother, who was 74, started her career as a ballet dancer and subsequently worked as a choreographer and TV producer, before dedicating the last years of her life to working as our father’s personal assistant.
Health problems
"They both lived life to the full and considered themselves to be extremely lucky to have lived such rewarding lives, both professionally and personally.
"After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems."
Born in Birmingham on 17 June 1924, the renowned conductor began playing the violin and violin at the age of five.
His pursuit of conducting was aided by a two-year scholarship to study in Aberdeen, which led him to study with eminent German conductor Hermann Scherchen.
In 1952 he joined the Royal Opera where he remained a company member for 17 years.
He became Associate Music Director in 1991 and conducted a huge repertoire at Covent Garden for over 50 consecutive seasons.
He began his relationship with the BBC Philharmonic as Chief Guest Conductor, going to become Principal Conductor from 1980 to 1991 and later Conductor Emeritus.
Honoured
In 1970 he became Music Director of the Australian Opera and conducted the first performance in the Sydney Opera House.
He was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra until 1983 and travelled widely as a guest conductor to opera houses and orchestras all over the world.
Sir Edward was honoured by four music colleges and five universities as well as receiving the Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics Circle and Royal Philharmonic Society awards.
He became a CBE in 1986 and was knighted in 1991.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
