Music

Music

Venice Music Biennale to honour Hungarian composer

Hungarian composer and musician Gyorgy Kurtag will be honoured with a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 53rd edition of the Venice Music Biennale later this year, organisers said on Tuesday.

Morricone awarded France's Legion d'Honneur

Legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone is to receive France's most prestigious award, becoming a member of the Legion d'Honneur, the French embassy in Rome announced on Wednesday.

Sanremo songfest to open amid protests

The curtain is about to go up on Italy's biggest musical event of the year, the Sanremo songfest, amid furious polemics from gay rights groups and consumer associations.

Mina to 'open' San Remo

Reclusive Italian singing legend Mina is to open this year's Sanremo Song Festival with a video tribute to Italian music.

Sanremo - 59' Festival della Canzone Italiana

Sanremo - named after the town where it takes place every year - is not only the Festival della Canzone Italiana, a music competition, but a true Italian institution - one of those events that bring all Italians together through television sets.

Vatican remembers The Beatles

The Vatican on Friday praised the Beatles in a newspaper article that appeared to bury the hatchet on John Lennnon's infamous 'more famous than Jesus' remark.

Placido Domingo sings John Paul II poems

Spanish tenor Placido Domingo has made an album of songs based on poems written by late Pope John Paul II.

Tenor Raimondi dies

Italian tenor Gianni Raimondi has died, La Scala said Wednesday.

La Scala called Raimondi, who accompanied Maria Callas more than any other tenor, ''one of the greatest voices in our history''.

Three best operas in the 2008-2009 season

Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini—fewer countries have given more to the great opera tradition than Italy.

Lippi looks to Cannavaro

Italy opens its World Cup 2010 qualifying campaign in Cyprus on Saturday with 2006 World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro back after the injury that put him out of Euro 2008.