Barenboim appeals to Italy's president to protect culture at La Scala's gala 'Die Walkuere'. Daniel Barenboim appealed to Italy's president to protect the country's cultural institutions from planned budget cuts in unprecedented remarks from the orchestra pit before raising the baton on Richard Wagner's "Die Walkuere" for La Scala's gala season premiere Tuesday.

MILAN (Reuters) - La Scala's production of Richard Wagner's "The Walkyrie" drew a 15-minute ovation on the opening night of the opera house season on Tuesday, though the climate of austerity sweeping Europe clouded the starry event.

MILAN (Reuters) - Richard Wagner's tale of the struggle for power tangled with familial love and incest will open Milan's La Scala opera season on Tuesday evening for an audience of the rich and powerful.

Music director of Canada's Windsor Symphony Orchestra chosen conductor of Cincinnati Pops. The music director of Canada's Windsor Symphony Orchestra will take up the baton as conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

ROME (Reuters) - Italian conductor Riccardo Muti has fired the opening salvo in a budding opera rivalry between Milan and the Italian capital by conceding only the second encore of his entire career in Rome.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - In one of the world's deadliest cities, where drug gangs murder a dozen people a day, a former heroin addict is changing lives with violins and trumpets rather than assault rifles.

Review: Tempestuous triangle: Gheorghiu, Kaufmann, Borodina in 'Adriana Lecouvreur'. High-class hokum it may be, but when "Adriana Lecouvreur" is cast with terrific singers and staged with old-fashioned opulence, who cares?

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim on Friday said that the legacy of German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) should be liberated from the "weight" of an association with Nazism.

MILAN (Reuters) - Protests against government cuts to funding for the arts in Italy risk marring the glamorous opening night of Milan's La Scala opera house next week.

Nominations for the 53rd Grammy Awards in top categories. Nominees announced Wednesday in top categories for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards

Irish conductor Derek Gleeson says guest baton at Tehran orchestra came with learning curve. Irish composer Derek Gleeson, who has conducted orchestras throughout Europe, faced a bit of a learning curve in preparing to take the guest baton at the Tehran Symphony Orchestra this weekend.

German tenor Peter Hofmann, who performed Wagner at Bayreuth, dies at 66. German tenor Peter Hofmann, who became famous for his performances of Richard Wagner operas, died Tuesday. He was 66.

Gustafson, manager of performers from Suzanne Vega to Patti LuPone, dies in NYC at 56. The former managing partner of the firm that managed the careers and tours of performers from Suzanne Vega to Patti LuPone, has died in Manhattan. Byron Gustafson was 56.

Boston Symphony Orchestra opens summer Tanglewood season with Levine's all-Italian concert. Boston Symphony Orchestra says conductor James Levine, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and other renowned world musicians will headline its summer 2011 Tanglewood season.

Four performances of the Bolshoi Ballet are to be beamed live from Moscow to 300 cinema screens around the world as part of a tie-up with French movie house giant Gaumont-Pathe, the firm said on Friday.

The 2008 European champion Tomas Verner won the men's section of the Cup of Russia, the fifth leg in the ISU Grand Prix series here on Saturday.

Macedonians took a day off work on Friday to plant seven million trees as part of a project started in 2008 to revive fire-ravaged forests in the landlocked Balkan country.

GENEVA (Reuters Life!) - Two young pianists from Japan and South Korea demonstrated the dominance of young Asians in the world of classical music at the Geneva International Music Competition on Thursday night.

Renowned Estonian-American conductor Neeme Jarvi on Thursday quit as chief of Estonia's National Symphony Orchestra after falling out with the culture minister who had fired its director.

George H.W. Bush, Maya Angelou, Warren Buffett among Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. The White House says former President George H.W. Bush, poet Maya Angelou (MEYE'-ah AN'-jeh-loo) and investor Warren Buffett are among the 2010 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.