Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2016 ‘She’s so unusual’: Cyndi Lauper goes country yndi Lauper, one of the flamboyant stars of the pop wave of with her 1983 debut album “She’s So Unusual,” gaining attention the 1980s, plans to take a “detour” to country music. The for her glam, multicolored costumes and her distinctive “hiccup” Csinger on Wednesday announced her first solo album in six in which her voice momentarily jumps higher. The album pro- years, entitled “Detour,” on which the 62-year-old will perform duced a series of hits, most memorably “Girls Just Want to Have country classics. Lauper will team up with country greats including Fun.” Lauper has sold more than 50 million albums in her career. Willie Nelson, in a collaborative cover of his song “Night Life,” as While country is new for Lauper, she has branched out widely well as Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss. in style in her later career. Her last album, 2010’s “Memphis Blues,” Lauper grew up in New York City and maintains a thick local went in a blues direction with collaborations from legends B.B. accent but said that as a child she listened to country music, a King and Allen Toussaint, who both died last year. She previously genre historically identified with the US South. “When I was a real- went full-out into electronica in 2008’s “Bring Ya to the Brink.” ly young kid, country music was pop music, so this is what we Lauper also wrote the music to the Broadway production “Kinky grew up listening to,” she said in a statement. “These songs are Boots,” the story of a struggling shoemaker who teams up with a part of some of my earliest memories, so it has been an absolute drag queen. “Kinky Boots” won Lauper a Tony Award for Best thrill to revisit them,” she said. Lauper said she was especially Original Score, the first ever for a woman by herself, as well as her inspired by Patsy Cline, who was among the pioneering women in second Grammy Award after being named Best New Artist in 1985. country and among the first in the genre to enjoy crossover suc- Her latest album comes amid a growing following in the United cess on the pop charts. States for country music, which has become one of the biggest “Her voice was like one of my girlfriends. That’s how close I radio formats thanks to growth outside the South, even though felt to her,” Lauper said. Lauper covers two of Cline’s most famous sales for pop albums remain significantly higher. — AFP songs-”Walkin’ After Midnight” and “I Fall to Pieces”-on “Detour,” which will come out on May 6. Lauper became a global sensation Cyndi Lauper Met to stage opera by woman for first time in century he Metropolitan Opera said Wednesday conductors who next year takes charge of the it will stage “L’Amour de Loin,” a London Symphony Orchestra. Tmedieval love story set in Lebanon, The season will be the 40th for the Met’s marking the first time in a century the compa- music director James Levine, who will con- ny performs a work composed by a woman. duct major performances despite expecta- Announcing its 2016-17 season, the New York tions that the 72-year-old, who has had opera house said it will put on 26 operas repeated health scares, will soon retire. The including six new productions led by the Met Met will for the 11th season telecast perform- premiere of “L’Amour de Loin.” Written by ances to cinemas around the world in its “Live Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho with a libret- in HD” program, which has emerged as a key to by the leading Lebanese writer Amin source of revenue and exposure for the opera Maalouf, “L’Amour de Loin,” which means house whose in-person capacity is 3,800 “Love from Afar,” tells the story of Jaufre seats. — AFP Rudel, the celebrated 12th century French troubadour. The opera, which is in French, revolves around his passion for the countess of the Lebanese city of Tripoli even though he This file shows recording artist Sir Paul had never met her in person. The opera more McCartney attends the Republic Records broadly has been seen as reflecting the expe- This file photo shows rapper Tyga attends Grammy Celebration presented by rience of expatriation, a theme that is person- Kanye West Yeezy Season 3 on February 11, Chromecast Audio at Hyde Sunset Kitchen & al for Saariaho and Maalouf who have both 2016 in New York City. Cocktail. — AFP photos lived in France for a long time. It is only the second time the leading US opera house has staged a work by a woman. The Met performed “Der Wald” by English Tyga offers to escort Paul composer and suffragist Ethel Smyth in 1903. “L’Amour de Loin,” which opens at the Met on December 1, won wide acclaim at its 2000 McCartney after party snub world premiere at the Salzburg Festival and he rapper Tyga has offered to personally rockers returned to their limousine to try their has quickly traveled. Other highlights in the escort Paul McCartney to an upcoming luck at another party. Tyga-the California rapper Met’s upcoming season include Verdi’s bibli- Tshow after the Beatles legend was stunned whose biggest hit, “Rack City,” went to number cal epic “Nabucco,” which will star Placido to be turned away from the hip-hop star’s post- seven on the Billboard chart-later voiced regret, Domingo, arguably the world’s most famous Grammy party. McCartney, one of two surviving saying he was not in charge of the guest list. “I opera singer. The title role of “Nabucco” con- members of the best-selling musical act of all had no knowledge; I was inside performing,” he tinues the 75-year-old Spaniard’s increasing time, was trying to enter Tyga’s party in Los told late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel during preference to take baritone roles after win- Angeles after the Grammy Awards on Monday an interview posted online Wednesday. ning fame as a tenor. night when a bouncer insisted he was not on the He invited McCartney to his show in Los Domingo and other leading figures in the guest list. Clearly unaccustomed to such indigni- Angeles on February 26. “Paul, if you’re watching opera world will also take part in a gala in May ties, McCartney sounded dumbfounded. He was this, I would love for you to come,” he said. “I’ll 2017 to mark 50 years since the Met moved to accompanied by alternative rock icon Beck, who personally walk you in.” Kimmel voiced doubt its location at the Lincoln Center complex. won last year’s Grammy for Album of the Year, McCartney would attend, quipping: “Oh yeah, Other leading opera figures who will appear and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. he’s not going to fall for that again.” — AFP in the Met’s upcoming season include Renee “How VIP do we got to get?” McCartney told Fleming, Anna Netrebko and Nina Stemme. the doorman in an exchange caught on video The season will open on September 26 with a released by the celebrity news website TMZ. “We new production of Wagner’s “Tristan and need another hit, guys. Work on it,” he said. Beck Isolde” starring Stemme and under the baton replied, “Next year, next year,” before the three of Simon Rattle, one of the world’s leading.