The principal conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera, James Levine, is bowing out of upcoming performances at the famed house with a back injury, a spokesman said Tuesday.

MILAN (Reuters) - Salvatore Licitra, a leading Italian opera tenor seen as an artistic heir to the late Luciano Pavarotti, died Monday from head injuries suffered in a scooter accident last month, a statement on his website said.

World champion soprano Pretty Yende never knew opera existed until a soaring score of an airline commercial came over the television in her South African black township home 10 years ago.

Renowned Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra died overnight, a week after he suffered serious injuries to his head and chest in a road accident while on a scooter in Sicily, Italian media reported Monday.

Trade unionists at La Scala opera house in Milan on Friday announced a strike that will force the cancellation of next week's much-awaited performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio" by the prestigious Vienna Staatsoper.

MILAN (Reuters Life!) - Leading Italian opera tenor Salvatore Licitra, seen as an artistic heir to the late Luciano Pavarotti, is in serious condition with head injuries suffered in a Sicilian scooter accident, his publicist said Monday.

Spanish opera star Placido Domingo will perform a one-off benefit concert in Christchurch to raise funds for the arts in the earthquake devastated New Zealand city, it was announced Tuesday.

Germany's 100th Wagner opera festival kicked off here Monday in an edition that will include a taboo-busting performance by an Israeli orchestra.

Russia's Bolshoi Theatre is to finally reopen on October 28 with a lavish ballet and opera gala after a six-year closure for a sometimes fraught restoration, its general director said on Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja's homeland is small, but his fan club stands to grow exponentially when he joins America's soprano sweetheart Renee Fleming for a broadcast from Jerusalem and sings Verdi's "Requiem" at a BBC Proms concert in London.

The French reign at Vienna's venerable State Opera has kicked off with a bang, bringing in record revenues and attendance numbers in its very first season.

Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor, is to extend his contract as music director of the Berlin State Opera, city officials said Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - If the film "The Social Network" lifted the veil on the ingenuity and intrigue behind Internet networking, the opera "Two Boys" which had its premiere on Friday focuses on what it's like to be trapped inside the web.

LONDON (Reuters) - Nico Muhly, 29, says he likes shiny objects, but his first opera, opening in London on Friday and headed later to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is about the murky world of Internet impersonation and underage sex.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Richard Wagner's operas are linked with the Rhine, but a modern concert hall beside the Danube has become a new temple for works of the 19th century German romantic who never fails to stir passions, pro and con.

BUDAPEST (Reuters Life!) - Richard Wagner's operas are linked with the Rhine, but a modern concert hall beside the Danube has become a new temple for works of the 19th century German romantic who never fails to stir passions, pro and con.

A Prague festival will host the world premiere of Antonio Vivaldi's opera L'Unione della Pace, e di Marte, following its reconstruction by a Czech expert 284 years after its only performance.

In a musical first, all Mozart's theatrical works will get an airing by the Warsaw chamber orchestra at the 21st Mozart Festival which gets underway on Wednesday, the festival director said.

MILAN (Reuters) - Luxury shoemaker Tod's pledged 5.2 million euros ($8 million) on Thursday to fund Milan's La Scala opera house and urged others in the private sector to come to the rescue of Italy's cash-starved cultural treasures.

MILAN (Reuters) - Luxury shoemaker Tod's pledged 5.2 million euros ($8 million) on Thursday to fund Milan's La Scala opera house and urged others in the private sector to come to the rescue of Italy's cash-starved cultural treasures.