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LIFESTYLE MONDAY, MAY 15, 2017 MUSIC & MOVIES Ukrainian rock band representing Ukraine with the song “Time” O.Torvald perform on Kristian Kostov from Bulgaria, center, reacts after placing second in the Final of the stage. Eurovision Song Contest, in Kiev, Ukraine. French singer representing France with the song “Requiem” Alexandra Maquet aka Alma performs on stage. Lucie Jones from United Kingdom performs the song Dihaj from Azerbaijan performs the song “Skeletons” dur- Jacques Houdek from Croatia performs the song “My “Never Give Up on You” during the Final for the Eurovision ing the Final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Friend”. Song Contest. German singer-songwriter representing Robin Bengtsson from Sweden, center, performs the song “I Can’t Go On”during the Final Jurors count the votes during the final of the 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Germany with the song “Perfect life” Isabella for the Eurovision Song Contest. Contest 2017 Grand Final. Levina Luen aka Levina performs on stage. year included Italian Francesco Gabbani. Liza Ignatieva, a 21-year-old university He was tipped to win with a number, student in Moscow. “But they broke the viewed nearly 114 million times on rules of the event by not letting her in. YouTube, that mixes Buddhist imagery Why they invented new rules for Russia with a dancing ape, and that he only? Yes, we have bad relations but they explained as poking fun at the West’s shouldn’t do it to us.” superficial embrace of eastern culture. More than 10,000 have been killed in Jacques Houdek, known as ‘Mr Voice’ in the war between Ukraine and pro- Croatia, blended pop and operatic Russian fighters that erupted in 2014 fol- singing styles in the song “My Friend”. lowing the Maidan street protests that Romania fielded a duo that combined rap ousted a pro-Russian president, and the and yodelling. annexation of Crimea. But during Ukraine has won the competition Eurovision at least, Maidan and its sur- twice, including last year with a song rounding streets have been filled with about the mass deportation of Tatars fans. Big screens and food stalls have from Crimea by Josef Stalin, and its win- been set up in the center of the capital, ners performed on Saturday. Moscow and Ukrainian memorabilia put on sale. fielded a candidate this year who had vio- “And yes, there is a war going on, but it’s lated Ukrainian law by performing in further, further out,” said Stephanie Crimea after the Russian takeover. Kiev Novak, a visiting fan from Australia. “And I accused Moscow of deliberately provok- think isn’t it the whole point of Eurovision ing a row. to help bring Europe together? What Russian singer Yulia Samoylova per- could be better than bringing Europe to a formed in Crimea again on Tuesday, coin- country that is being so affected by war ciding with the first Eurovision semi-final. at the moment and to show them what a Manel Navarro from Spain, left, performs the song “Do It for Your JOWST from Norway, right, performs the song “Grab the Moment”. “I think politics shouldn’t intervene,” said beautiful country it is.” — Reuters Lover”. Leading soprano Renee Fleming bids adieu to signature role woman. An emotional high point occurs at the appeared nearly 250 times at New York’s pre- a trio near the finale of the opera with end of the first act when Fleming, whose char- miere opera house in 22 roles. She has also Octavian and Sophie, the younger woman acter is called the Marschallin, ponders the sung in all of the world’s major opera houses whom Octavian falls for. Fleming acted with passage of time and imagines herself as an old including Milan, London and Paris. A repre- understatement and reserve that lent weight woman. “Everything fades away like mist and sentative for Fleming said the diva “does not to the sense of melancholy at the passage of dreams,” she tells the young lover Octavian, like to be a repeater” and has already per- time. While the Strauss opera worked themati- shortly before she sends him away. Fleming formed most classic roles for which her voice cally as a kind of not-quite-sendoff for has praised the character as one of opera’s is suited. Fleming from the Met, it did not include obvi- most fully developed for a woman. Fleming has increasingly shown an interest ous applause lines for the audience to express “There is so little repertoire in the classical in fresh works, seeking newly composed its appreciation during the performance. The literature that has anything to do with women pieces that befit a grown woman. Throughout Met crowd on Saturday however made up for who are really fully drawn, who have the com- her time on stage Saturday, Fleming’s voice that with a standing ovation for Fleming at plexity and the challenges that they truly revealed a combination of lightness and rich- the end. — AFP face,” she told AFP last year. “So often in ness, especially near the end of act one and in opera, women are symbolic and sort of arche- typal and mostly very young, mostly victims,” she said. ‘People’s diva’ Raised in Rochester, New York, and the daughter of two music teachers, Fleming has attained unique stature within opera, enjoying rare crossover appeal among the general pub- lic and a nickname as “the people’s diva,” a tes- tament to a combination of glamor, talent and a touch of grittiness. She sang the “top 10” list Soprano Renee Fleming looks to the audience during the curtain call for Richard for former late-night host David Letterman in Strauss’ opera “Der Rosenkavalier” in New York on Saturday. — AP 2013 and won praise for her rendition of the national anthem at the 2014 Super Bowl. pera superstar Renee Fleming bid ture opera roles, saying she is excited about That prominence has made Fleming a reli- adieu Saturday to one of her trademark new singing challenges and that she feels it is ably bankable star, a status on full display with Oroles, performing Strauss’s “Der time to move on from playing women “Der Rosenkavalier,” one of the Met’s most Rosenkavalier” for the last time before a warm decades younger who comprise most of the highly anticipated new productions of 2016-7, and enthusiastic crowd at the Metropolitan possibilities for a lyric soprano in the opera a season that commemorates 50 years at Opera in a sold-out matinee. Fleming beamed repertoire. Lincoln Center. Five of the nine Met perform- from the stage and patted her heart in grati- Fleming is not on the Met schedule for ances of “Der Rosenkavalier” completely sold tude to the cheers at the finale of Strauss’s bit- 2016-7, but a Met spokeswoman said she will out and the run as a whole reached 98 percent tersweet comedy as confetti shimmered to the be back in the 2018-9 season. In “Der capacity, making it the best attended Met stage from above. Rosenkavalier,” Fleming was cast as the wife of opera of the season, a Met spokeswoman said. Fleming, 58, often considered the leading a field marshal in Vienna high society in the Besides “Rosenkavalier,” Fleming’s other American soprano of her generation, plans to early 20th century who turns away a much signature parts include Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” Artist Wiz Khalifa performs during a concert at the annual Mawazine Music continue to sing in concert and some staged junior lover, sensing that it is only a matter of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” and Festival in Rabat, Morocco, Saturday May 13, 2017. — AP opera. But she has retired many of her signa- time before he rejects her for a younger Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello.” She has.

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