Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, an American mezzo soprano singer, died Monday morning at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lieberson, 52, died after a bout with terminal cancer, according to Richard Gaddes, general director of the Santa Fe Opera.
Lieberson was born in San Francisco where her father conducted community opera productions. She began her musical career as a violinist.
Lieberson avoided the standard operatic repertoire, preferring instead to perform early (pre-1750) music and contemporary works. Particularly respected for her musiciansh
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently at the top of charts for iTunes. The PM tops the list of the most downloaded podcasts at the on-line iTunes music store.
The Harper podcasts are speeches, rather than songs. Since April 4 the speeches can be downloaded for free. While the speeches are available on the Tory party's website, putting them on iTunes has reverberated through cyberspace.
"Refusing to speak to the media, refusing to answer the tough question, but releasing canned speeches? What country is this? China? iTunes should be asha
Amateur filmmaker Solomon Rothman has released a full-length open source movie called 'Boy Who Never Slept.'
The movie is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license; this allows people to use, edit, or share the movie in any way (except commercially) as long as they credit the creators.
All of the raw unedited footage, including audio files, is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license; as long as the creators are credited, users can do whatever they want with the files privately or comme
Superman returned to theatres for the first time in nearly 20 years, when Superman Returns opened on Wednesday. The film earned $21 million on its first day of showing, making it the eighth biggest box-office draw ever for a Wednesday opening in North America.
The film has so far received generally positive reviews from the media. It is directed by Bryan Singer, who also did the first two X-Men films. Superman is played by Brandon Routh, and Lois Lane by Kate Bosworth, with Lex Luthor played by Kevin Spacey. It is the first Superman film since
Sir George Martin and his son Giles are reported to be working on a new Beatles album, which is scheduled to be released by The Beatles' company Apple Corps through EMI Music later this year.
The album will be based on the new show by Cirque du Soleil, entitled LOVE, which will feature remixed versions of The Beatles' songs. Some observers have stated that the album, which is being put together from the original master recordings, may well be the closest thing to an original Beatles album since the legendary band's break up.
The album will
Aaron Spelling, the American film and television producer died on Friday, June 23, at his residence in Los Angeles, California. He was 83 and died of complications of a stroke he suffered a week ago.
Spelling is best known as the producer of several popular television series, including Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, and Melrose Place.
Matt Hanson aims to raise £1 million to fund the production of a feature-length film which would be distributed freely via the Internet under a Creative Commons licence, all funded through 50,000 people each donating £25 to the project, which he's called 'A Swarm of Angels'.
No stranger to filmmaking, Matt has produced numerous digital short films, a series of books on digital filmmaking and set up the digital film festival onedotzero, now in its tenth year. He wants to finally make a feature length film, and decided that it was better to turn
MP3s for the people? The Pirate Party, a new Swedish political party first publicized in January, wants to legalize sharing music, movies, and other copyrighted content using the Internet. What may seem like a doomed effort by a small group of idealists is attracting significant media attention, in part due to a recent police raid on The Pirate Bay, an extremely popular BitTorrent tracker (see Wikinews coverage).
The Pirate Bay allows people to download content listed in its database using the BitTorrent protocol (including the latest Hollyw
The BBC has confirmed that its famous Top of the Pops music programme is to be axed this summer, after Media Guardian broke the news. The programme began on New Year's Day in 1964 and has featured most of the top bands and artists ever since.
The last show will be on July 30, 2006.
The Controller of BBC Two, Roly Keating, said "I've really enjoyed the last year that Top of the Pops has transmitted on BBC Two and the team did a sterling job in revitalising the format for our audience, but we all recognise that the time has come to move on."
The Australian federal opposition has attacked the Howard government following four incidents in a week at the HIFAR nuclear research reactor in Lucas Heights, South of Sydney. The incidents come just a week after the Australian government announced an inquiry into the feasibility of nuclear power.
The first incident occurred on June 8, when a carbon canister containing radioactive material exploded, blowing out seals in a cell at the Lucas Heights site. The accident is believed to be an explosion in a carbon canister containing radioactive ma
The Australian federal government is looking at reviewing censorship laws to ensure that so-called "hate material" is adequately censored. The government claims the review is required following the approval of eight publications and a film that allegedly promoted terrorism
Australia's attorney general, Phillip Ruddock said he had written to censorship ministers in each state and territory informing them that he wishes to raise the matter with them in July. He said that the government did not wish for material advocating or promoting "terrorist
Musician Billy Preston, a so-called "fifth Beatle", died in Arizona at the age of 59 after a long illness.
A native of Houston, Texas, Preston played while in his teens with Mahalia Jackson, Little Richard and Ray Charles.
He later backed up the Beatles, playing keyboards on Let It Be, The White Album and Abbey Road. He also played on the hit Beatles single "Get Back."
As a soloist, Preston topped the record charts in the early 1970s with "Outta Space," "Will It Go Round in Circles," and "Nothing from Nothing."
He joined the Rolling Stone
