The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| ABBA museum to open in Stockholm Posted: 03 Oct 2012 08:10 AM PDT STOCKHOLM, Oct 3 – A museum dedicated to legendary Swedish disco group ABBA, which disbanded thirty years ago, will open in Stockholm this spring, former member Bjoern Ulvaeus announced today. "This is a Cinderella story worth telling," he said at a press conference.  Bjorn Kristian Ulvaeus, a former member of the Swedish music group ABBA, at a press conference on October 3, 2012 in Stockholm announcing the new ABBA Museum. — AFP pic The band, which has sold more than 378 million records to date, split up in 1982 and has never reunited. The museum, named ABBA The Museum, is the first one to be dedicated to the group and will feature objects, clothes and films. It will be housed inside the Swedish Music Hall of Fame and will showcase not only the history of ABBA, but also the history of Swedish pop music through a range of permanent and temporary exhibitions. "There was a time when we wanted to do a museum about ABBA and nothing else, but both Benny (Andersson) and myself want it to be part of a broader context ... which is that of the history of Swedish pop music," Ulvaeus said. He said that all four members of the group have approved the museum exhibits. "I couldn't dream of a better place," Ulvaeus said. Ulvaeus said he was doubtful over becoming an object in a museum before he died, until realising that the group had "created a lot." The museum will open on the island of Djurgaarden, already home to several museums, this spring "before the tourist season begins", its managing director Mattias Hansson told AFP. He said he had little hope of all four ABBA members reuniting for the inauguration. "If they all come I would be very happy, but they decide for themselves," he said. According to Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Ulvaeus has offered to serve as a financial guarantor for the Hall of Fame, which is being built with private funds. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| Damon Albarn backs drive to find younger opera fans Posted: 03 Oct 2012 06:02 AM PDT LONDON, Oct 3 —The English National Opera launched a fresh initiative on Wednesday to attract new and younger audiences to an art form it acknowledged was still seen by many as the preserve of old and wealthy patrons. "Undress for the Opera" has the backing of former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, whose operatic work "Dr. Dee" was part of the ENO's 2011/12 season and attracted 60 per cent of new ticket buyers. Albarn, one of the biggest names in British pop, hesitated to call Dr. Dee an opera, reflecting the suspicion with which the art form is viewed by many. "I don't really know what to call it," Albarn told reporters at the ENO's Coliseum theatre in central London. "I struggle with the word opera because it's quite clear that I'm sort of swimming in deep water when I ever mention that word, so I try and avoid it." American-born film director Terry Gilliam, who directed Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" at the ENO last year and is planning to work with the company again, also backed the new drive to find opera converts. "I suppose I'm trying to bring in people like myself who didn't go to opera when they were younger, because I thought it was just for a bunch of old farts and a lot of bourgeoisie and people in dinner jackets," he said in a filmed interview. "It was an art for the rich and the successful and the almost dead." The ENO has helped to change that perception, aided by the fact that it performs operas in English and is housed in an old music hall which had "none of the pretensions of an opera house." Gilliam conceded that opera was expensive - a ticket in the stalls at the ENO costs between 83 and 95 pounds (RM409-468), and at the nearby Royal Opera House up to 250 pounds for a coveted seat to see a performance from German composer Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Undress for the Opera offered the best seats for 25 pounds each, including a pre-performance introduction, at four designated nights during the 2012/13 season. Organisers said 100 seats would be made available under the favourable terms to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Don Giovanni" on Nov. 15, Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" on Feb. 7, 2013, the world premiere of "The Sunken Garden", by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa on April 18 and "The Perfect American" by U.S. composer Philip Glass on June 13. John Berry, the ENO's artistic director, said he wanted 40 per cent of his audience to be younger than 44 years old within the next 18 months from 30 per cent now. "Young people like informality and we want to say that you don't need ties or tiaras to enjoy opera at ENO," Berry said. Asked why he was backing the project, Albarn replied: "I'm quite clearly not someone who had any form of opera education and I've done it entirely instinctively and the fact that the English National Opera is prepared to encourage that is just a great sign of its health. "At some point I hope that I can deliver something to you (the ENO) that really ticks every single box but doesn't compromise where I come from as well, and if you can do that then you will, truly, get a new audience in here." — Reuters |
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