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Renowned for its exquisite setting, the Hollywood Bowl plays host to a tremendous diversity of artists, from classical and pops to jazz, rock, pop and world music. “We are honored to be acknowledged by our peers,” said Arvind Manocha, Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. “The Hollywood Bowl is privileged to be recognized not only for our versatile presentation but also for the work we do to create a successful summer season.” Subscriptions for the Bowl’s 2010 season are on sale now, and single tickets will be available for purchase beginning May 2, 2010.

During the 2009 season, the Hollywood Bowl concert series included performances by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Plácido Domingo and Yo-Yo Ma, Ravi Shankar, Grace Jones, Faith Hill, Aretha Franklin, Liza Minnelli and Herbie Hancock, among others. The team of Andrew Hewitt and Bill Silva also brought artists including Eric Clapton, The Killers, Barry Manilow and Maxwell to the Bowl, and the venue played host to the Playboy Jazz Festival and the 20th anniversary of Mariachi USA.

The Pollstar Concert Industry Awards honor the best of the concert industry for their accomplishments. Nominees were selected by over 125 concert business peers (agents, managers, promoters and industry professionals), and winners were determined by ballots cast by Pollstar subscribers. Other 2010 Pollstar winners include Madison Square Garden, Royal Albert Hall, 02 Arena, Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, Club Nokia L.A. Live, the Greek Theatre, the Coachella Festival and the Glastonbury Festival. For over 20 years, Pollstar has provided music business professionals with the most reliable and accurate source of worldwide concert tour schedules and ticket sales results.

Nestled snugly in the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood Bowl is the largest natural amphitheater in the United States. Seating nearly 18,000 patrons, the Bowl has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and presents outdoor concert performances each summer featuring classical, jazz, and world music presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. The Bowl's summer music festivals have become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers and Disneyland. The Bowl grounds themselves - one of Los Angeles County's most renowned parks - are open year-round for visitors to enjoy free of charge. For more information please follow this link . . . ]]> Noteworthy http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2494 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2491 Rare Art Ltd, one of the world’s leading specialist silver dealers, at 53-64 Chancery Lane,
London WC2 from 3-25 June 2010.

This unique exhibition will be in support of Sir John Soane’s Museum which will lend silverware designs by Robert Adam, considered one of the greatest decorators of all time, from its extensive collection. Neo-classicism in silver, furniture and ceramics dates from the second half of the 18th century and was a new idea that took the world by storm. It was both a reaction against the excesses of the rococo and an enthusiastic revival of the use of shapes and decoration from Greek and Roman architecture. Neo-classicism in English silver is a much neglected area and the the exhibition catalogue by the curator Christopher Hartop will make an important scholarly
contribution to research into the subject.

The foreword will be written by Tim Knox, Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, and proceeds from the sale of the catalogue will go to the museum. Koopman Rare Art and Sir John Soane’s Museum will also hold a one day conference on neo-classical metalwork in London on Saturday 19 June 2010. One of the finest pieces in the exhibition will be the Doncaster Cup, loaned from Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire by The National Trust.

This neo-classical silver-gilt racing trophy was made by Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp in 1764 and was designed by Robert Adam. The latter’s drawing for the design of the cup is among those being loaned to the exhibition by Sir John Soane’s Museum and will be displayed alongside it.
Silver-gilt tea urn engraved with the cipher of Queen Charlotte, consort of George III.
(The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

Loans from The Royal Collection will include a soup tureen and a pair of sauce boats from a
silver-gilt dinner service commissioned from the Royal Goldsmith Thomas Heming in 1789-90, probably to commemorate George III’s recovery from illness. Another Thomas Heming
work loaned by The Royal Collection is a silver-gilt tea urn, dating from 1768-69, engraved
with the cipher of Queen Charlotte, George III’s consort.

Five years ago Koopman Rare Art mounted another important loan exhibition devoted to Rundell & Bridge, the Royal Goldsmiths to George III and George IV, so it is appropriate that The Royal Collection is loaning a silvergilt candelabrum made by John Bridge in 1828-29 to The Classical Ideal: English Silver 1760-1840.

The Akzo Nobel Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art is lending a George III silver cup and cover made in London 1770-71 by Louisa and George Courtauld while a three-light candelabrum will come from Lloyd’s of London. This 1774-75 piece by John Carter was designed by Robert Adam for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, a Welsh MP and landowner who was a major patron of the arts. Another seminal piece of Adam design in the exhibition will be a candlestick loaned by Manchester Art Gallery which, like the Doncaster Cup, will be displayed alongside the original drawing from Sir John Soane’s Museum. A pair of George III silver ewers thought to have been designed by James Wyatt will be lent by Temple Newsam in Leeds, one of England’s great historic estates. Twelve items will be loaned by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, including pieces from the celebrated silver collection formed by the late Sir Arthur Gilbert of Beverly Hills, which has recently been acquired by the museum.

Among other important items will be a pair of silver-gilt candlesticks made for the eccentric
arts patron and collector William Beckford by Charles Aldridge in London in 1787–88 and a
pair of George III sauce tureens probably designed by James Wyatt and made in Birmingham
in 1773-74 by Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill. Loaned from a private collection in North
America, these tureens formed part of a dinner service supplied by Boulton and Fothergill to
Charles Vere, a landowner, whose coat of arms is engraved on the side. Another magnificent
example of English neo-classical silver in the exhibition will be a silver-gilt teapot made in
London in 1785-86 by Andrew Fogelberg and Stephen Gilbert.

Koopman Rare Art Ltd will hold a simultaneous selling exhibition for the duration of The
Classical Ideal: English Silver 1760-1840. The two events will be held in separate galleries in
the same building.

Conference on 19 June 2010
A one-day conference on neo-classical metalwork tied in with the loan exhibition will be held
on Saturday 19 June from 11am to 5pm. Organized by Koopman Rare Art in conjunction with
Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Silver Society and the Furniture History Society, it will start
with a tour of the exhibition and then move to the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn
Fields for a buffet lunch and lectures. The cost per person will be £50. Enquires to 020-7242-
7624.

The exhibition catalogue • The Classical Ideal: English Silver 1760–1840 by Christopher Hartop, with a foreword by Tim Knox, Director of the Sir John Soane Museum, will be published on 1 June 2010.The proceeds will go to Sir John Soane’s Museum to benefit its Adam Drawings Online Project.

Koopman Rare Art Ltd
Koopman Rare Art Ltd is one of the world’s leading dealers in English and continental silver. It
offers for sale magnificent silver dating from c1500 to the present day, has been instrumental
in building up many important private collections and works closely with major international
museums. Koopman also contributes to academic research by holding groundbreaking loan
exhibitions and in 2005 hosted the first exhibition to be devoted to the Royal Goldsmiths
Rundell & Bridge.

Sir John Soane’s Museum • The architect Sir John Soane’s house, museum and library at No 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2 has been a public museum since the early 19th century. Today Sir John Soane’s Museum is one of the country’s most unusual and significant museums. It is currently undertaking a £6 million project to increase public access to unseen parts of the house,
upgrade visitor facilities, create a new exhibition gallery and make other improvements.

Exhibition dates and opening hours: June 3-25, 2010. Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am to 1pm, closed on Sundays. Admission free]]> Fine Arts - Antiques http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2491 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2350
The display will include watercolours by Turner, Constable and others from the collection bequeathed in 2007 by the late Dorothy Scharf. Other works to be shown include a portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini; a drawing by Ingres (once owned by Samuel Courtauld), fine Victorian watercolours by Frederick Walker; a rare 18th century pastel by John Russell showing one of the porters of the Royal Academy at Somerset House, sculptures by Degas and Rodin, and two oil sketches by Georges Seurat.. The display will also unveil Sir Joshua Reynolds’s late masterpiece Cupid and Psyche. Early work presented by sculptors Sir Anthony Caro, Phillip King and Richard Long extend the collections more fully into the second half of the twentieth century. Dates: June 17 to September 19, 2010

THE COURTAULD GALLERY, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Use this link for further information . . . .

]]> Art http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2350 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2507
“As Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome I have received. The musicians of the LA Phil are my new family, and I love working with them and sharing our music making with you, our audience. As we continue to build and create many more beautiful memories together, I am looking forward to my second season with this wonderful orchestra,” said Gustavo Dudamel.

For further information, please follow this link . . .]]> Performances http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2507 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:15:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2490
While 2010 will see the return of talented conductors, directors and singers who have helped seal Garsington Opera’s reputation, the season will also, in true Garsington tradition, introduce exciting new artists, drawn from around the world, and encompass its policy of presenting gems from the repertoire that are rarely seen. Rossini’s wonderful and romantic opera Armida receives its first ever British production at Garsington this year.

The season opens and closes with the opera that launched Garsington Opera at Garsington Manor – Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro – in a revival by John Cox of his outstanding production which was a glorious highlight of the 2005 season. Douglas Boyd, whose Fidelio was a major success at Garsington in 2009, conducts a talented young cast. Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be directed by Danny Slater whose previous work includes memorable productions at Garsington of La Cenerentola and Don Pasquale. Steuart Bedford, who worked with Britten over many years and assisted the composer in his recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will conduct.

The final Rossini at Garsington Manor will be the first British production of one of his Neapolitan masterpieces, Armida. It will be directed by Martin Duncan, whose production of Mirandolina in 2009 was so well received, with renowned Rossini interpreter David Parry conducting. This romantic opera involves magic powers and, appropriately, an enchanted garden.

All three operas will find an ideal setting in the summer garden of Garsington Manor during a season that runs from 2 June to 3 July 2010

ARMIDA • Rossini’s 1817 opera Armida reveals the composer at his dazzling best. A Neapolitan opera seria with a libretto inspired by the 16th century Italian poet Tasso’s La Gerusalemme liberata, it tells the story of the sorceress Armida, who lures men to her island prison. She has been sent by dark forces to undermine the paladin knights, but has fallen in love with one of them, Rinaldo. Singing the title role is the bright young British-born soprano Jessica Pratt. She is joined by Victor Ryan Robertson from the US as Rinaldo, and three more outstanding tenors: Spain’s David Alegret who plays the knights Gernando and Ubaldo; Bogdan Mihai from Romania who makes his UK debut as Goffredo (the leader of the paladins) and as Carlo, a knight; and British singer Nicholas Watts who sings Eustazio, Goffredo’s brother. The Greek bass Christophoros Stamboglis sings the key roles of Idraote (King of Damascus and Armida’s uncle) and Astarotte (leader of Armida’s spirits). They are joined by a large chorus of paladins, demons and spirits. Armida is directed by Martin Duncan, recently appointed Artistic Advisor to the Cultural Director of the London Olympics 2012, with designs by Ashley Martin-Davis. The conductor is renowned Rossini expert David Parry.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM • Steuart Bedford, who worked with Britten over many years and assisted him in his own recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will conduct a cast that includes some of today’s most promising operatic talent. The British baritone George von Bergen sings Demetrius, while the role of Hermia is taken by Anna Stéphany who represented England at the 2009 Cardiff Singer of the World. The British singer James Laing, rapidly establishing himself at the forefront of a new generation of countertenors, sings the role of Oberon. He is joined by the young British soprano Rebecca Bottone in the role of Tytania, who has recently created the role of Marie in Rufus Wainwright’s first opera Prima Donna. Daniel Slater, responsible for Garsington Opera’s outstanding production of La Cenerentola in 2009, directs, while the production’s breathtaking designs are by Francis O’Connor whose vivid designs for last year’s production of Mirandolina were widely praised.

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO • John Cox will revive his memorable 2005 production of Le nozze di Figaro, the first opera ever performed at Garsington. Sri Lankan Kishani Jayasinghe, who recently received the Arts and Culture Award at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, sings the Countess with the impressive young Australian baritone Grant Doyle as the Count. The young baritone James Oldfield sings the title role with the outstanding soprano Sophie Bevan as his sweetheart. The brilliant conductor Douglas Boyd, Music Director of the Manchester Camerata, will conduct.
All the operas will be sung in their original language and will, as usual, be staged on the terrace of the Jacobean Manor house and performed with the Garsington Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Before and during the season, Garsington Opera will run an extensive education programme in Oxfordshire ranging from schools to a UK Border Agency Immigration Removal Centre.

Armida 5, 7, 13, 19, 22, 25, 29 June 5.50pm
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 17, 20, 24, 26, 30 June, 2 July 5.50pm
Le nozze di Figaro 2, 6, 12, 18, 23, 27 June, 1, 3 July 5.30pm

Box Office: Bookings open April 19, 2010
Telephone 01865 361636 Garsington Opera, Garsington, Oxford OX44 9DH

Use this link to visit Garsington Opera online . . . ]]> Performances http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2490 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2495
This exhibition at the Leopold Museum in the MuseumsQuartier lifts the lid on 200 years of watercolor painting in Austria . Among the 5,700 works of art in the Leopold collection are thousands of watercolors so sensitive to light that they very rarely go on display. A selection of these treasures will be on display in 2010 to mark the 85th birthday of the museum's founder, Rudolf Leopold. Hidden Treasures of Austrian Watercolor Painting Runs to: May 24, 2010 at the
Leopold Museum, MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1 More info? Please follow this link . . . ]]> Art http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2495 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2487 LigeStyle: Gardens & Gardening
Brussels, Belgium -- The Royal Greenhouses in Laeken cover six acres of neoclassical rotundas, domes and galleries. Twenty full time gardeners tend the giant ferns, fruit-bearing banana trees, grottoes, glades and grassy vistas. Highlights include the Azalea House, the rotunda, a colony of birds and the orange trees. Walkways are filled with climbing geraniums and fuchsias, whose blossoms form an overhead canopy. The visit ends with a short walk through the Royal Park.

Besides the greenhouses, the visit includes the Queen Elisabeth's workshop and the stables of the castle which were built in the beginning of the 20th century during the reign of King Leopold II and King Albert I. They are a masterpiece of the architects Girault and Flanneau. Dates: April 15 - May 9, 2010

]]> LifeStyles http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2487 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2509
The tour of Sex and the City Hotspots incorporates more than 40 locations from the movie and the TV show including the shop where Charlotte bought her "Rabbit,” the trendy Meatpacking District, and a stop to drink a cosmopolitan at the bar owned by Aidan. It’s the perfect mix of shopping, drinking, and sightseeing in the hip neighborhoods of New York City. There are also locations from Sex and the City: The Movie interspersed in the tour.

The package costs $179 per ticket and departs at 2pm in front of Pulitzer Fountain on Fifth Avenue. For more information or to purchase tickets follow this link . . . or call 212-209-3370.

On Location tours has launched Sex and the City girlfriend getaways and bachelorette packages that include the tour of Sex and the City Hotspots by limousine, dinner at a location used in the show, and entrance into one of the nightclubs where scenes from Sex and the City were filmed!

On Location Tours, Inc. is a bus tour company based in New York City, specializing in TV and movie location tours. On Location Tours also operates the tour of Sopranos Sites and Gossip Girl Sites, the New York TV and Movie Sites, Washington DC TV and Movie Sites, and the Central Park Movie Sites. The company was founded in 1999, by Georgette Blau, a 1996 graduate of Skidmore College.]]> Noteworthy http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2509 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:16:13 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2488 Impressionists’ pictorial solutions and the most recent scientific insights in the fields of physiology
and chromatics, Georges Seurat developed the method that went down in art history as Pointillism
and became an important source of inspiration for later artists. Runs to: May 9, 2010 at the Schirn Kunsthalle , Frankfurt Use this link for more information . . .]]> Art http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2488 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500 http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2486 More information
]]> Art http://luxurytraveler.com/blogindex.php?itemid=2486 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0600