LONDON (AFP) ― One of the youngest dancers ever to be a principal of the Royal Ballet, Ukrainian Sergei Polunin, has quit just days before a new production opens and only two years after he was promoted.“This has obviously come as a huge shock,” said Monica Mason, the director of the Royal Ballet, in a statement issued late Tuesday.“Sergei is a wonderful dancer and I have enjoyed watching him tremendously, both on stage and in the studio, over the past few years. I wish him every success in the

Jan. 26, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Photographer Annie Leibovitz says she has come back from some dark days and revived her creativity with a new project now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that marks a departure from her popular celebrity portraits.Two years ago, Leibovitz was facing millions in debt and a mismanaged fortune that nearly cost her the legal rights to her own work, which includes some of pop culture’s most memorable images. The ordeal was a good lesson in managing her business, Leibo

Jan. 26, 2012

ABU DHABI (AFP) ― The oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi announced on Tuesday that it had given the green light for the completion of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums after construction delays.The executive council of Abu Dhabi, which functions like a government for the emirate, said it had “approved the budgets and deadlines for the inauguration of projects on the island of Saadiyat, particularly the Louvre, Guggenheim, and Sheikh Zayed” museums.The statement gave no specific timeline for completio

Jan. 25, 2012

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The 14 rooms of the National Gallery of Art in Washington dedicated to French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are due to reopen Saturday after a two-year renovation.The paintings from artists like Corot, Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and Renoir are displayed in a new thematic arrangement designed to make them have a “conversation” with each other, Mary Morton, director of the museum’s department of French paintings, told AFP. Previously, the paintings were arranged chronologica

Jan. 25, 2012

MILAN (AP) ― La Scala’s general manager said Tuesday that he hopes Premier Mario Monti’s government will avoid cutting spending for culture, noting that music and theater can help unite people.Stephane Lissner told foreign reporters that La Scala will have a difficult time balancing the famed opera house’s budget in 2012 due to expected drops in public and private contributions, even as the Milan opera house increases attendance and the number of performances.“We are facing a very difficult move

Jan. 25, 2012

LONDON (AP) ― Legitimate music downloads still aren’t growing quickly enough.A report published Monday by the recording industry’s main lobby group showed that digital revenue has grown 8 percent over the past year to about $5.2 billion ― a solid figure for some industries, but not one where overall receipts have fallen by nearly two-thirds amid a shift toward online ― and in many cases illegal ― music downloads.“The 8 percent figure should be much higher,’’ said Frances Moore, the chief executi

Jan. 24, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Since its beginnings in the 1970s, rap music has transformed from an underground, street-based sound to a definitive part of pop culture, transcending race and becoming one of the strongest ― and most prolific ― voices of today’s generation. But at the Grammy Awards, rap has had a long-lasting losing streak in the top categories.The hip-hop sound ― first recognized at the 1989 Grammys ― has seen numerous prestigious nominations over the years, and rap acts have either led or tied

Jan. 24, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Smithsonian American Art Museum is holding its first major exhibit exploring the art and evolution of video games.The unusual exhibit opens March 16 and will be on view in Washington through Sept. 30.“The Art of Video Games’’ will focus on the graphics, technology and storytelling of some of the best games for systems ranging from Atari to the PlayStation 3. It will include 80 video games that were selected with help from the public, which voted online last year.The museum

Jan. 19, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Photographs by the wife of imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo will be shown at Columbia University next month.Beijing artist Liu Xia has been under house arrest since shortly after her husband was awarded the peace prize. Her photos were smuggled out of China just before she was placed under house arrest.Liu’s works are censored in China. The series of 25 photos depict lifelike dolls in various settings. One shows her husband holding a doll. In another, a tied-up

Jan. 19, 2012

LONDON (AFP) ― Britain’s greatest living artist, David Hockney, has swapped the Californian sunshine for the landscape of his native Yorkshire for a blockbuster exhibition which goes on show this week.Hockney has portrayed country lanes and hedgerows in a riot of colour that leaps off the wall at the Royal Academy of Arts, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in London.In the show, “A Bigger Picture,” Hockney and his team also show the countryside shifting through the seasons on a giant bank of v

Jan. 18, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Opera superstar Placido Domingo is getting ready to conduct 35 New York City schoolchildren who are studying music five days a week under a program inspired by Venezuela’s acclaimed youth orchestra program, El Sistema.Domingo will conduct the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from Public School 129 in Harlem and Public School 152 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, at a fundraiser Wednesday for their after-school music program, called Harmony.The children will play Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus

Jan. 18, 2012