Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, May 19, 2021

This handout photo taken on Monday and received from Yokosuka City yesterday shows 60 million yen (550,850 USD) in merican pop star Ariana Grande mar- Grande told People magazine, which con- caption “forever n then some.” cash donated by an elderly man ried her luxury real estate agent firmed a report from TMZ. “The couple and The couple was seen for the first time A anonymously to Yokosuka City, fiance Dalton Gomez at her home in both families couldn’t be happier,” the repre- together in public in a music video for “Stuck Kanagawa prefecture. — AFP Los Angeles on Sunday, US media reported sentative said. Grande announced her with U,” a charity song she recorded with Monday. “It was tiny and intimate - less than engagement to Gomez in a December Justin Bieber during the coronavirus lock- 20 people. The room was so happy and full Instagram post that included photos of the down in California and released earlier this of love,” a representative for 27-year-old pair and her diamond and pearl ring with the month. The lyrics of the song refer to the million yen ($550,850) in cash inside and a couple spending the lockdown together. letter saying ‘This is the money I’ve been The song tells a story familiar to many Special delivery: saving since the first grade. Please make young couples in the pandemic era-forced use of it. It’s a donation,’” said the official. to settle down together quickly or be kept The man appeared to be in his 70s or apart thanks to virus mitigation restrictions. Man donates 80s and declined to give his name, saying The experience seemed to have a happy he wanted to stay anonymous. “We’ve nev- ending for the “thank u next” artist. er received such a big donation from an Grammy-award winning Grande was $550,000 in cash anonymous person,” the official added. also engaged to comedic actor Pete Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji said in a statement Davidson in 2018. And Ariana Grande he was “surprised and moved” by the dona- made headlines outside of the US in 2017 tion, particularly during the hardship of the when a stadium concert of hers was the tar- to Japan city pandemic. “I’m speechless and full of grati- get of a suicide bombing terrorist attack in tude,” he said. Japan is no stranger to anonymous donors. Last year, a man Manchester, England, leaving 22 people n elderly Japanese man has anony- appeared at the Nara city hall with a bag dead and hundreds injured. — AFP mously donated his life’s savings-in A filled with 30 million yen in cash. He left a cash-to a city outside of Tokyo, an note inside saying he wanted the money to unexpected financial windfall as the econo- be used to help the poor and fund educa- my reels from the fallout of the coronavirus tion, according to local media. And else- pandemic. The man, who did not identify where last year, a hospital in Kobe received In this file photo US singer-song- himself, appeared at city hall in Yokosuka five million yen in cash sent by mail by an writer Ariana Grande performs dur- on Monday and asked that a backpack with anonymous donor. — AFP ing the 62nd Annual Grammy a letter inside be given to the mayor, the offi- Awards in Los Angeles. — AFP cial who met him told AFP. “We found 60

the post-pandemic era is due to take place kitchen work surface to stretch. The Moulin ond wave of the pandemic in late October on September 10 under the iconic windmill Rouge has been shut since March 12, 2020 only to be extended through the spring as a Yes we cancan: in Montmartre. Twelve dancers, in matching — the longest closure since the theatre was third wave hit the country. masks and feathers, braved the morning destroyed by fire in 1915. “Today, the plan- The Moulin Rouge at the foot of chill outside the Moulin Rouge on Monday ets are aligning. We are pleased to be work- Montmartre opened at the height of Belle Moulin Rouge to reveal the opening date stitched into their ing on this restart,” said Jean-Victor Clerico, Epoque Paris in 1889, quickly associated dresses, much to the surprise of passing director general of the Moulin Rouge. with the wild cancan dance and immortal- motorists on the Boulevard de Clichy. “I’m “If everything goes well, there won’t be ized in the paintings of Henri de Toulouse- to return in extremely happy,” said 32-year-old dancer any distancing even inside. There are still Lautrec. It has lived many lives, rebuilt after Mathilde Tutiaux. some unknown factors. If one-meter (three the fire, surviving through World War II, its “It feels so good to finally have a date. feet) distancing is still needed, we will have boards graced by legends from Edith Piaf to he curtain went up again in Britain’s September We are desperate to see our audiences to reduce capacity to 50 percent.” The other Charles Aznavour, and then getting another Ttheatres this week, after a year of clo- again. The first cancan of the restart will be renowned centers of Parisian “nude chic” global boost with the release of the 2001 sure due to the coronavirus pandemic, something else. It’s a very technical number will reopen around the same time: Crazy eponymous film starring Nicole Kidman and bringing hopes of recovery for the belea- he Moulin Rouge in Paris will be high- and after a break of more than a year, we Horse on September 9 and Le Lido on Ewan McGregor. Today, it remains a guered culture sector. College lecturer kicking its way back on stage in will have to rehearse very hard this sum- September 16. With infection rates falling favorite with tourists, who account for half its Denise O’Brien, 49, seized the opportunity T to visit London’s Bridge Theatre on Monday, September, it announced with a flour- mer.” Like the other 60 members of the and vaccine rates rising, France is set to business in normal times. — AFP ish on Monday, after the longest shut down cast, Tutiaux was forced to train alone at reopen many cultural sites today after a six- as restrictions on indoor mixing were finally in more than a century. The first cancan of home during the shutdown, using her month shutdown that began during the sec- eased. “It’s a really controlled environment. I’ve always loved the theatre-the industry is going to die if we don’t go,” she told AFP. Heather Alderson, a 56-year-old adver- tising employee, braved a downpour and booked an hour off work to visit a theatre for the first time in more than 12 months. “You can get narrative from anywhere, but noth- ing beats theatre in its immersiveness and the fact that it’s live,” she said. Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”-the world’s longest-running play-returned to St Martin’s Theatre in London’s West End entertain- ment district on Monday. A special concert production of “Les Miserables” takes centre stage at the Sondheim Theatre from Thursday, while “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” returns to Shakespeare’s Globe from Wednesday. ‘A mixed picture’ Thousands of jobs were threatened as theatres were shut and Britain lurched from one period of restrictions to another throughout 2020. But despite the reopening, Dancers from the Moulin Rouge cabaret, wearing French cancan outfits, pose for photographers in Dancers from the Moulin Rouge cabaret, wearing French cancan outfits, pose for photographers. many larger venues will not welcome back Paris, to announce the cabaret’s reopening next September 10. — AFP photos theatregoers immediately as social distanc- ing requirements mean some shows are museum in Amsterdam say they want to the history department. One story is that of the Dutch East India Company and Dutch not profitable. Julian Bird, chief executive of start a “better conversation” in a country still Wally, a slave on the Palmeneribo planta- West India company remains widely known, the Society of London Theatre and UK reckoning with its role in colonialism, and tion in Suriname, who took part in a slave Dutch links to slavery have themselves also Theatre, welcomed the changes, even Dutch slavery with questions raised by the Black Lives revolt in 1707 and escaped but was then remained hidden away. “The history of though only one-third of West End theatres Matter movement last year. recaptured and burned to death. slavery is something that people in school plan to reopen straightaway. “This is national history, not just for a Paintings of slaves on the plantation sit have not been taught a lot about, and at the “We are desperate to have everything small group but for every one of us,” Valika open, but it’s fantastic that we can open in exhibition Smeulders, head of the Rijksmuseum histo- parts,” he told AFP. “It gets audiences back ry department, told AFP during a preview. into theatres and, crucially, provides “The colonial past is an important element in employment for people in our sector.” Bird our national history. So it was timely, as it previously warned that 70 percent of the- confronts was not done before, to present an exhibi- atres would go bust by the end of 2020 tion on slavery.” In a sign of the changing without state support, while a study for the times, Dutch King Willem-Alexander will for- Creative Industries Federation predicted mally opened the exhibition yesterday. It will 200,000 job losses without government brutal past open to the public as soon as coronavirus intervention. Now he remains optimistic measures are lifted for museums, but be about British theatre’s future and the inter- viewable immediately online and for school national primacy of the West End, which set of leg irons that once chained parties. drew over 15 million visitors and generated Aslaves by the ankles for punishment. revenues of almost £800 million ($1.1 bil- A pair of Rembrandt portraits of a rich Burned to death lion, 928 million euros) in 2019. Dutch couple dressed in slavery-funded fin- Called simply “Slavery”, the exhibit Items displayed at the exhibition “Slavery” at “It’s a mixed picture but not nearly as bad ery. Dozens of objects like these went on traces the 10 individual stories using both the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. as it looked like being,” he said. “We’ve show yesterday at the Dutch national objects from the Rijksmuseum’s collection- learned a lot about COVID and I’m proud Rijksmuseum as it opens a landmark exhi- some never seen before-and from other alongside a manuscript detailing Wally’s we have this safety mark for theatres. “The bition on slavery highlighting the museums. But it also uses songs and oral interrogation by slave owners. Like the other pipeline of production is coming through Netherlands’ dark colonial past. Focusing sources, which visitors listen to on an audio stories in the exhibition, his tale is told in the and new shows are opening. That creativity on the stories of 10 people ranging from tour, to fill the gaps where no records exist. audiotour by someone with a connection-in and flair hasn’t gone at all.” enslaved people to slave owners, the show “They tell about people who had to leave his case Dutch former world champion kick- Although government support has kept covers 250 years of Dutch involvement in their children behind, or they feel they’re boxer Remy Bonjasky, whose ancestors are organizations afloat, some people have fall- slavery in Suriname, Brazil, the Caribbean, treated as tools and not human beings,” believed to have fled the same plantation. en through gaps in the safety net. Asia and South Africa. Curators at the said Eveline Sint Nicolaas, senior curator in Elsewhere sit the austere portraits of afflu- Freelancers make up an estimated 70 per- ent Amsterdammer Oopjen Coppit and her cent of theatre workers and were hit hard by husband Marten Soolmans, which they lockdowns due to their fragile employment commissioned legendary artist Rembrandt status. Freelance lighting designer Robbie to paint in 1634. Soolmans’ family made a same time you see that in the public debate Butler, 27, worked in the West End before fortune from a sugar refinery supplied by it is a very important subject,” said the pandemic and received self-employ- slave plantations in Brazil. After he died, Smeulders. ment income support.—AFP Oopjen remarried to a man who had once The Rijksmuseum is itself also con- kept slaves in Brazil. fronting the role of slavery in the “Golden “We know Oopjen had several links with Age” of Dutch art that it houses, adding slavery and that’s also very interesting,” said extra information to 80 objects in its perma- Sint Nicolaas. “It really affected Dutch socie- nent collection to highlight “hidden links to ty in many ways, it wasn’t history that just slavery”, it said. The Netherlands has never happened far away in the colonies.” formally apologized for its role in the slave trade. But Prime Minister Mark Rutte admit- ‘Very important subject’ ted last year in the wave of the Black Lives The entire exhibition, previewed by AFP, Matter protests that racism remained a features jarring contrasts of art and atrocity, problem in the Netherlands. The time is now brushstrokes and branding irons. What was right for the Rijksmuseum to address the long thought to be a gilt dog collar in the issue, said Smeulders. “Yes, you could museum’s collection may actually have even say that we should have done this been a neck ring for a slave. Closer inspec- earlier. But when we decided to do this, we tion of Dutch family portraits reveals slaves wanted to do it well,” she said. — AFP in the shadows. Similarly, while the A man visits the exhibition “Slavery” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. — AFP photos Netherlands’ history of colonialism under