Latest news with #DonQuixote
Korea Herald
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
The Royal Ballet brings its 'best' to Seoul with snapshot of classics, heritage, world premiere
The Royal Ballet of Britain is making its long-awaited return to Korea this weekend at the LG Arts Center with the world-renowned company's first official gala in Seoul since 2005. 'We're delighted to share the Royal Ballet of today with you,' said Kevin O'Hare, artistic director of the company since 2012, during a press conference Wednesday. 'The program is full of excerpts from some of our greatest works that are all linked to our repertoire. It's a snapshot of the Royal Ballet today.' Titled 'The First Gala in Seoul,' the program offers a sweeping glimpse of the company's storied yet ever-evolving repertoire. The gala features excerpts from canonical works like 'Giselle' and 'Don Quixote,' as well as Kenneth MacMillan's emotionally charged 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Manon.' More contemporary pieces are Christopher Wheeldon's 'After the Rain' pas de deux and a world premiere by Royal Ballet's dancer-choreographer Joshua Junker titled 'Spells.' As the company looks ahead to its centenary in 2031, O'Hare reflected on the legacy of its founder, Dame Ninette de Valois, citing her words as a guiding mantra: 'She always said, 'Respect the past, look to the future, but concentrate on the present.'' Principal dancer Vadim Muntagirov pointed to the company's ever-challenging and diverse repertoire as its greatest strength. 'It never lets you settle and constantly challenges you,' he said. O'Hare echoed the sentiment. 'I think each choreographic style enhances the other. So even if you're doing something very, very contemporary, that can actually enhance what you bring when you go back to the classics.' One highly anticipated piece, Wayne McGregor's "Chroma," was pulled from the program due to a last-minute injury. O'Hare expressed regret over the change, explaining that the dancer was injured at the end of last week and could not be replaced in time, adding, 'It gives us a very good excuse to return with a Wayne McGregor work in the near future.' The Seoul gala also brings together some of the Royal Ballet's biggest stars, including Benois de la Danse winner Natalia Osipova, Fumi Kaneko and several Korean dancers: first soloists Choe Yu-hui and Jun Joon-hyuk, first artist Kim Bo-min and artist (corps de ballet) Park Han-na. Choe and Jun said they are very proud and grateful to be part of the 'best' ensemble. For Choe, the performance is especially meaningful, as she returned to the stage just nine months after giving birth to her second child. 'It's a group of extraordinary dancers you can't find anywhere else,' Jun said. 'Every day, in rehearsals, in class and on stage, we work to influence one another in the best way possible — not just in how we approach our work, but in our attitude toward ballet itself. Being part of a company that creates that kind of positive cycle is something I take great pride in.'
The Herald Scotland
24-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
I found cave homes with a Star Wars vibe on my travels
I could spend my life gazing at the wonders in this treasure house: the wild works of Hieronymous Bosch, Bruegel the Elder, Goya and El Greco. But Andalusia was calling. We were adventuring with Rabbie's Tours - the gem of Scotland's travel industry. Rabbie's sets you up with a personal driver and guide. Read More: It's a unique experience, providing all the coolness and off-the-beaten-track surprise of independent travel, whilst making sure that you don't do any of the hard work. Our guide Violetta was like a charming Google, a personal storyteller dispensing info about local history or where to get the best lunch. Our driver Paolo made sure we were always where we needed to be without even having to think about it. By the end of a Rabbie's tour, your driver and guide feel like old friends and you'll be sad to say goodbye. This Andalusian adventure focused on food, culture and history, taking us from Roman ruins to Moorish monuments via the windmills of Don Quixote and bars and restaurants serving some of the best produce and wine you'll find in Spain. We began by travelling to the magnificent medieval city of Toledo. Set on a stunning hilltop, Toledo commands majestic views of the Tajo River. In the distance, the snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada sparkle. One of the great joys of this holiday was staying in Cordoba, full of winding back streets amid whitewashed houses with pretty painted doors. It's home to La Mezquita, a grand and stately mosque, built when Spain was ruled by the Moors. In Andalusia the past constantly crashes up against the present, as Moorish and Christian influences weave together in architecture, music and cuisine. Andalusia (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto) From Cordoba you can venture to the mountain fortress of La Mota, like a set from the movie El Cid. It was commanded by Christian forces during the long series of religious wars with Muslim Arabs, known as the Reconquista or the Reconquest. On your travels through Andalusia, make sure to visit the windmills of La Mancha, where Cervantes wrote of Don Quixote battling against modernity. The windmills sit on vertiginous hills overlooking the sprawling Spanish plain, stretching to horizon's end. Granada was the pearl of this tour. We stayed in a stunning hotel, right beside the famed Alhambra Palace. It was like living in a scene lifted from the pages of the Arabian Nights. Read More: It's a place of romance. At night, my wife and I sat on our balcony carved into the mountainside, surrounded by pines as the moon shone through the leaves. Make sure to take a whole day for the Alhambra. You won't be disappointed. It's a Xanadu. In Granada check out Telefonica, near the city's main square, for hip new twists on classic Andalusian food. From Granada we explored the strange little town of Guadix, comprised of caves, dug into the hills, and still inhabited. I spent a curious morning in the home of one elderly resident who saw me marvelling at his cave and invited me inside. The cave homes - which date back to Roman times but have a very Star Wars vibe - maintain a constant cool temperature in summer or winter. Next we ventured to the mountaintop town of Ronda, a place beloved by the likes of Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. You can see its appeal to Hemingway. At the heart of the town, sits an iconic bullring. I had some of the best food of my holiday here and will be back. I could spend a week in this gorgeous, romantic and historic little town. On our way to Seville, we took a detour to Almazara olive oil farm built by the designer Philippe Starck. The factory is shaped like a Picasso bull. It's an extraordinary place where olive oil is treated with the same reverence as the finest bottle of champagne. I brought a few litres back and it's damn good. Our hotel in Seville overlooked the city's Parliament in the funky Macarena district. This city throbs with life, and the highlight for me was a visit to an authentic back-street flamenco bar. It wasn't some phoney tourist spot, but where folk from Seville go for a night time fix of sexy, sweaty, visceral music and dance. After two nights in Madrid and six spent travelling Andalusia, our adventure was to end in Portugal. We crossed the border and travelled to Tavira on the Algarve. With ceramics so integral to Portuguese culture, you can pick up some gorgeous bargains here. Then it was on to Lisbon, our final destination. I love this gutsy and very real city. It's earthy and honest and as friendly as Glasgow at its best. In Lisbon, please do not leave without trying the food at a little restaurant called Sto. This place has turned food into story-telling. Your Portuguese tasting menu is like an historic and cultural tour of the country. The sardines were stunning. The Vinho Verde the best I've ever drank, and the service impeccable. Like many folk, I've been to Spain a lot, though always as an independent traveller and usually to the big cities like Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. Andalusia (Image: PA) I thought I knew Spain. I didn't. This tour took me into the real heart of Spain. I met real people in real towns where tourists seldom tread and fell in love with places I'd never heard of but will return to often. My only concern is that I'm becoming somewhat addicted to Rabbie's tours. I want adventure and experience, and I don't want to be near those crowds of tourists all doing the same thing with an iPhone stuck to their face. But here's a confession: I'm now of an age where organising and executing that kind of holiday simply takes too much time. So I just let my mates at Rabbie's do all that for me, while I sit back in the lap of luxury and do what's good for the soul: make wonderful new memories that will last me a lifetime. Neil travelled with Rabbie's Tours. For more information and details of prices go to
Buzz Feed
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Readers Reveal Most Overrated Classic Books
When I turned twenty, I set a personal reading goal to read 100 classics by the time I turned thirty. I admit, I still have twelve books to go within nine I like to think that I am relatively well-versed in classic literature. So when Reddit user villagewitch3000 asked, "What's the worst 'classic' you've ever read?" I immediately had to see if everyone agreed with me about The Scarlet Letter being one of the most tedious slogs known to classic literature. (The consensus is IS!) Even though I wholeheartedly disagree with some of these reviews, I thought they were too interesting not to share. So without further ado... "Wuthering Heights. Jesus. Heathcliff, mate, just leave her alone. " "Pride and Prejudice. Long-winded drivel, neither funny nor romantic, and without even the redeeming quality of a worthwhile message." "The Scarlet Letter. I hate how Hawthorne spoon-feeds his readers symbolism. We get it. The scarlet letter is a symbol for shame." "Gone with the Wind. Scarlett O'Hara acts ridiculous and insufferable throughout the entire novel. She doesn't care who she has to hurt, just as long as she gets her way." "To Kill a Mockingbird. I thought it was so boring and I was really disappointed. I picked it up expecting that the racism aspect of the story would have a bigger role, but instead I had to read through pages and pages of this little girl's boring life." "The Great Gatsby. I can't stand Fitzgerald's writing style." "Rebecca. It's like, bitch, I do not care about your problems. The only person in this entire mansion that I can relate to is the maid that I'm supposed to hate." "This will probably get some Catcher in the Rye. I honestly could not connect with Holden Caulfield and found him to be somewhat of a whiny, self-indulgent ne'er-do-well." "Crime and Punishment. I just wanted to punch the main character in the face over and over again. And it honestly had zero to do with the fact that he was a murderer. I just hated his personality." "Lolita, hands down. Gross, perverted, and I dreaded picking it back up every time I did. " "Frankenstein. I think my problem was that I was expecting the book to be really different from what it was." "The Alchemist. Ugh. What utter tripe. If this book changed your life, then you must have had a truly horrific life up to that point." "Les Misérables. Not only is it very long, it has seemingly interminable stretches of boredom." "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It might've been funny or clever when I was 14 and loved Monty Python and thought absurdist British humour was the height of it was awful as an adult." "Anything Tolkien. Reading the man's writing is like trying to ingest a pack of broken light bulbs." "Heart of Darkness is so incredibly boring. I had to read it for three separate classes, and I really tried to like it each time, but I can't stand that book. " "Don Don Quixote." "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Talking about the mechanics of the boat is not fun." "Ulysses. That was work." "Atlas Shrugged. 🙄😴😴😴😴😴" "Moby Dick is one of the most inconsistent books I've ever read. It starts out as a first-person narrative by Ishmael, occasionally interrupted by lengthy speeches and occasional chapters on the anatomy of the sperm whale, and by the end, it shifts to the third person. Then there is maybe a paragraph tacked onto the very end when Melville realizes this was Ishmael's story, so he kinda reverts back to the first person to explain how he could have survived to tell the tale." "The Picture of Dorian Gray. Udder nonsense dressed in off-putting, overly flowery dribble." "Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck just REALLY likes describing scenery, and sometimes I'm just not down to read through ten pages about hills. " "The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. The great depression... pretty much sums how I felt reading it." "One Hundred Years of Solitude. I recall reading it, and I ended up saying, 'That was it? What was all the fuss about?'" "Pretty much anything by Charles Dickens. He came from a time when authors were paid by installment, and it shows." "Brave New World. Didn't find it compelling at all. 1984 on the other hand scared the shit out of me." "The Turn of the Screw. It is supposed to be ambiguous, but I really only see the governess as a loon. " "The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer seems to think the only things that are funny are farts." "I read Slaughterhouse-Five and I don't remember a damn thing about it. " "I hated The Giver. The ending was just deus ex machina wish fulfillment. " "Walden was my 'I can't stand this' book. It almost destroyed my love of reading." "I get why Uncle Tom's Cabin is important, but hoooo boy, that book is a hot mess. Most of the classics I've slogged through are at least objectively well written, but not this one. " "Vanity Fair. I've read it about four times, and I still can't keep up with who is who and what the main character's motive is." "The Yellow Wallpaper. Yeah, I get it. Patriarchy bad. " "The Count of Monte Cristo. It builds up to this lacklustre ending that could've happened chapters ago. I felt I would have been better off watching a Hollywood adaptation loosely based on the original novel." "The Bell Jar. Took it from my university read it." "Toni Morrison's Beloved. Starts off boring, progresses slowly, and tries to be meaningful in places, but it just felt contrived. Then out of nowhere, a supernatural ending that would be more at home in a Sci-fi original movie." Since The Great Gatsby is my favourite book of all time, I am personally offended by those who tell me that Fitzgerald is nothing special. I want to scream, "You try writing such colourful and poetic prose!" So please don't let me down in the comments. Instead, in the comments, tell me the classic literature titles that you could barely get through, and which of the above titles are WRONG to be listed as a "bad classic." And make sure you follow BuzzFeed Canada on TikTok and Instagram for more!
TimesLIVE
09-06-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Madrid's ghost towns revived as housing crisis escalates in Spain
The first call came two minutes after estate agent Segis Gomez posted a listing in Sesena, a development near Madrid that gained notoriety as one of the 'ghost towns' created when Spain's property bubble burst in 2008. Half-built and half-empty for more than a decade, squatters have left the development 40km south of the capital and middle-class families, driven out of the city centre by an acute housing crisis, are moving in. Construction has restarted. Demand is so strong in Sesena that Gomez has a waiting list of 70 people for each property. Property prices have recovered their original value after plunging to less than half during the crisis, he said. As anger grows over the cost of housing in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made providing affordable homes one of his main goals, even as he encourages population growth through immigration. The size of the challenge is clear in Madrid, which grew by 140,000 people in 2024, but only registered permits to build 20,000 new homes. Short supply is being worsened by a boom in holiday lets, record migration and onerous planning laws. 'The problem is that we can't match supply and demand quickly enough. So prices go up, or people have to trade price for distance,' said Carles Vergara, a real estate professor at IESE Business School in Madrid. Sesena has been adopted as a commuter town as Madrid overflows, even though it is located in the neighbouring Castile-La Mancha region and lacks good transport links to the capital and public services, which caused homebuyers to reject it in the past. Its founder and original developer, Francisco Hernando, had a vision of 13,000 affordable apartments with gardens and swimming pools on the Spanish plain where author Cervantes set his best-known work Don Quixote, but the project became a byword for speculative greed and corruption. Only 5,000 homes ended up being built. Hernando, who began his project in 2004, failed to tell homebuyers he hadn't secured access to water or that the town had no public transport or schools. Hernando died in 2020. When the market collapsed, initial investors saw the value of their property plummet, while many homes ended up in the hands of banks.
Korea Herald
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet head to Seoul for July galas
Two of Europe's most storied ballet companies — The Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet — are set to take to the stage in Seoul next month, offering local audiences a rare opportunity to witness their grandeur, tradition and artistic evolution through back-to-back galas. From July 4 to 6, The Royal Ballet returns to Korea for the first time in two decades, performing "The First Gala in Seoul" at the LG Arts Center in Magok-dong, western Seoul. The company's much-anticipated visit features eight principal dancers, including Benois de la Danse-winning ballerina Natalia Osipova as well as Korean first soloists Choe Yu-hui and Jun Joon-hyuk. From July 30 to Aug. 1, the Paris Opera Ballet will present "Ballet Gala of Etoiles in Paris" at the Seoul Arts Center. Leading the Parisian company is Park Sae-eun, the company's first Asian etoile and Benois de la Danse-winning ballerina, returning to her home country alongside a cast of stars. This marks the POB's second gala appearance in Korea in collaboration with the Seoul Arts Center, following performances in 2024. Notably, Park herself was directly involved in curating the program. Both companies will showcase a dynamic range of works — from signature pas de deux, or duets, from the classical canon to modern masterpieces — highlighting their artistic versatility. The Royal Ballet's program includes excerpts from "Don Quixote," "Giselle," Frederick Ashton's "Swan Lake" and Kenneth MacMillan's drama ballets "Romeo and Juliet" and "Manon." The Paris Opera Ballet will divide its repertoire into two alternating programs over the three-day run. Classical highlights include scenes from "The Sleeping Beauty," "Sylvia" and "Paquita." Both companies also lean into contemporary works to express their modern identities. The Royal Ballet will bring Christopher Wheeldon's poetic "After the Rain." The Paris Opera Ballet counters with George Balanchine's "Sonatine" set to the music of Maurice Ravel, Jerome Robbins' "In the Night" and Maurice Bejart's evocative "Songs of a Wayfarer." In an overlap, both galas include McGregor's kinetic "Chroma," originally choreographed for the Royal Ballet in 2006. Seoul audiences will be treated to a pas de trois, or trio, by The Royal Ballet on July 5 and 6 and a pas de deux by the Paris Opera Ballet on Aug. 1. Lausanne winner Park Youn-jae in Seongnam Adding to Seoul's ballet-filled summer, the Seongnam Arts Center will present 2025 Ballet Stars on July 26 and 27 at its Opera House in Gyeonggi Province — a gala performance that brings together internationally acclaimed ballet stars and rising next-generation dancers. This year's program, spread over two days with different lineups, offers a rich blend of classical and contemporary works. Highlights include beloved scenes from "Le Corsaire," "Giselle," "Swan Lake" and "Don Quixote" — perennial favorites among Korean audiences — as well as contemporary pieces rarely staged in Korea such as "Ballet 102," "Closer" and "To Fly Again." The 2025 edition features principal dancer Chae Ji-young and second soloist Lee Sun-woo of Boston Ballet, Kim Soo-min of Dresden Semperoper Ballet's corps de ballet and first soloist James Kirby Rogers, as well as Park Sang-won and Leo Hepler of the Dutch National Ballet. Also joining the stage are some of Korea's brightest rising stars. Park Youn-jae, who won first prize at this year's Prix de Lausanne, and Kang Gyeong-ho, who gained national attention by finishing second on Mnet dance competition show "Stage Fighter," will bring a fresh dynamic to the gala.
