Word: francos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...unkindly described by a contemporary as having "so little of Venus in her appearance, that she was usually called the Pig." But more than anyone else, it was a 33-year-old Australian, 225 years later, who put Alcina center stage. Joan Sutherland's stupendous stamina and strength in Franco Zeffirelli's 1960 production at La Fenice not only earned her the title of La Stupenda but single-handedly brought this neglected opera back into the repertoire. Since being snapped up by New York's Metropolitan Opera for its young artists' development program in 2001, Perth-born Durkin...
...fact, has long been something of a demographic exception in Europe. Its birthrate started to drop in the late 18th century, and over the course of the 19th century it was the French who worried as the British and Germans bred like rabbits. Prussia's victory in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 strengthened the idea that having babies was a patriotic duty, an idea compounded by the national trauma of World War I, which cost France 10% of its working-age male population. Well before Marshal Pétain placed the Vichy regime under the slogan of "work...
...destiny; a random gunshot from a reckless Moroccan boy triggers anguished events in Mexico, the U.S. and Japan. Children of Men conjures up a future world with no future: the human race has become infertile, and anarchy blankets the globe. Pan's Labyrinth burrows into the past, to Franco's Spain in 1944, and into a dark wonderland of fierce and magical creatures that offers escape to an 11-year-old girl on the cusp of puberty and despair. Each film toys with the implausible but creates a movie world that is both coherent and compelling --a testament to their...
...that glittering opening night of The First Emperor as a movie-critic. The title role is sung by Placido Domingo, who in the 80s displayed his celebrated tenor in movie versions of Cavallieri Rusticana, Pagliacci, La Traviata and Otello, all directed by Franco Zeffirelli. But I was mainly interested in the Chinese connection. I wanted to see ? hear, really ? what Tan Dun, the gifted composer who had won an Oscar for his scoring of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, would do with his epic subject. I also was eager to see the production, since it was to be staged by Zhang...
...group of five men, including two building engineers, come to scout the project for the Italian town of Selvetta, where things are even darker - nearly four sunless months each winter. Like Viganella residents, they complain more of high heating bills than of depression supposedly linked to lack of sun. Franco Rolandi, who runs the only café nearby, says the scarce heat from the mirror isn't the point. "This town is heading for extinction. We need to do something," he says. "Remember when they built the Eiffel Tower? People said, 'What's the point?' Now look at Paris...