
Pennies over patriotism? Stars move to tax havens
France's Socialist government is introducing a 75-percent income tax on those earning over €1 million ($1.3 million), leading some of the country's ...

Review: Meyerbeer's rare 'Robert' staged in London
Degas painted it. Chopin wrote variations on it. Balzac and Dumas mentioned it in their fiction. The Paris Opera performed it 100 times in just three ...

A look at prolific Twitter accounts
Pope Benedict XVI hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark on Wednesday as he sent his first tweet from his new account. In amassing an army of ...

Swiss opera diva Della Casa dies at 93
Famed for her beauty that matched her serene voice, Swiss-born diva Lisa Della Casa swept up crowds at opera houses of the past century with an ...
Mick Jagger love letters sell for $300,000
Jumpin' Jack Flash! A batch of love letters written by Mick Jagger to a 1960s muse have sold at auction for 187,250 pounds ($301,472). Sotheby's says ...

Review: Kaufmann triumphs as La Scala's Lohengrin
This Lohengrin is no knight in shining armor, confidently riding in on a swan to defend a beautiful maiden. No, the barefoot hero on view at La Scala ...

Critics savage Spice Girls stage musical
The critics have spoken — "Viva Forever" did not spice up their lives. British reviewers were scathing Wednesday about the big-budget stage show built ...

Spice Girls musical 'Viva Forever' opens in London
"Viva Forever"? Time will tell. Girl Power lit up London's West End on Tuesday at the premiere of the new Spice Girls musical — but audiences and ...

Russian opera diva Vishnevskaya dies at 86
World-renowned Russian opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, who with her husband defied the Soviet regime to give shelter to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn ...

US actress Parker hails EU as example for America
American actress Sarah Jessica Parker praised the EU on Tuesday for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for pacifying Europe and uniting its different ...

Springsteen, Lady Gaga join Stones concert in US
Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga and The Black Keys will join the Rolling Stones on Saturday for the final concert marking the band's 50th anniversary.

Review: Terfel shines in Zurich's odd 'Dutchman'
There's scarcely a ship or a sailor to be seen in the wildly revisionist, weirdly anti-colonialist new production of Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" ...
Lady Gaga thanks Russian PM Medvedev
Lady Gaga has expressed "her gratitude" to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for opposing regional laws that make it a crime to provide minors ...
Wagner wins over La Scala's ardent Verdi fans
Richard Wagner won over La Scala's ardent Verdi followers during the gala season premiere on Friday with a production of "Lohengrin" that packed ...

Trapped in 2 worlds: 'Pelleas et Melisande'
In Claus Guth's haunting new production of Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande," the characters move as if in a trance between two worlds — both of them ...

'The Bodyguard' stage musical opens in London
Does "The Bodyguard" have the muscle to be a hit? A stage musical based on the 1992 movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner has opened at ...
British composer Jonathan Harvey dies at 73
Jonathan Harvey, a British modernist composer whose operas and other works reflected a deep engagement with spirituality, has died at age 73.

Banned 50 years ago, exhibition reopens in Moscow
Better known in the West for promising to "bury" the capitalist world, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev is also remembered by Russians for banning works ...

Elizabeth Price wins UK's Turner Prize for arts
Video artist Elizabeth Price, who uses collage and clutter to explore people's relationship to consumer culture, was named the winner of British art's ...
Metal band's singer charged in Czech fan death
The manager of a heavy metal band says its lead singer will vigorously defend himself against a charge that he caused a fan's death at a concert in ...

La Scala: Verdi-Wagner polemics 'ridiculous'
The dual bicentennial of the births of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner is turning into a dueling bicentennial. La Scala general manager ...
Court bans video of Pussy Riot's performance
The video of punk band Pussy Riot's performance in Russia's main cathedral is extremist and must be removed from the web, a Moscow court ruled ...

Katy Perry gets a perfume deal
Katy Perry is adding some new scents to her perfume line. The singer and songwriter will develop a line of signature scents with beauty company Coty ...
Danish theater cancels Amy Winehouse play
A play about Amy Winehouse that was to premiere in Denmark in January has been canceled after the late British singer's family blocked its use of her ...

Rolling Stones mark 50th year with London show
The Rolling Stones made a triumphant return to the London stage on Sunday night in the first of five concerts to mark the 50th anniversary of their ...