Latest news with #Nicoletta
North Wales Live
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
A giant 150ft mural of Pavarotti has appeared on a North Wales hillside
The widow of the great Luciano Pavarotti has given her seal of approval to a massive 150ft mural of her late husband. The chalk profile was created in just 24 hours on a hillside in North Wales. The artwork was create to celebrate Pavarotti's first appearance 70 years ago at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, Denbighshire. To mark the anniversary, his widow Nicoletta Mantovani was a guest of honour at this year's festival. She attended the mural's unveiling alongside members of the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir – the choir that first hosted Luciano and his father Fernando in 1955. She arrived in the town on board a vintage steam train from Corwen where the choir serenaded her with a Welsh song special to her late husband. Nicoletta said she shed a tear when she heard the world-famous choir perform. The 45-metre by 30-metre artwork is visible from the Eisteddfod Pavilion below and from Castell Dinas Brân above – a ruined medieval castle built by the Welsh Princes. It's hosted by Wern Isaf campsite on Donkey Hill overlooking the Eisteddfod grounds. Nicoletta was given a clear view of the stunning chalk sculpture, which depicts the Maestro in full voice. It was designed in partnership with record label Decca. She said it was 'really great', adding: 'It is good that it is there for people to see someone who was so closely connected to the festival.' David Hennigan, Eisteddfod board director, said the mural has become an instant tourism attraction in the town. 'The reaction from eisteddfod concertgoers has been overwhelming,' he said. 'People have been standing in the car park to view the sculture and the comments have been amazing. 'We thought it would be well received but the response has been even better than we expected. It's been a very worthwhile project.' Nicoletta, who was married to the singing legend until his death in 2007, journeyed from Italy to celebrate three major milestones at this week's International Eisteddfod. Pavarotti was just 19 and a trainee teacher when he came to the Llangollen in 1955 with his father, Fernando, as part of Chorus Rossini from their home city of Modena. He returned as a global star in 1995 to perform a sell-out concert. This year would have been his 90th birthday. Today (Saturday, July 12) she will be on the famous Pavilion stage to help present the Pavarotti Trophy, named in honour of her late husband, to the winners of the Choir of the World Competition. In another coup for the festival, on Sunday evening Nicoletta will hand over the coveted Pendine Trophy to the winner of the International Voice of the Future competition. She will sharing the presentation with sponsors Mario and Gill Kreft and another megastar of the opera world, Sir Bryn Terfel. Songs performed by Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir as Nicoletta arrived in Denbighshire included We'll Keep a Welcome in the Hillside, which Pavarotti loved. At Llangollen train station she was also entertained by Italian and Bulgarian groups competing at the festival, both in colourful national costumes. She said: 'My arrival was incredible. It was exactly the way Luciano told me how the people of Wales are so warm and friendly. And to hear the Fron Choir perform – especially the welcome song that was a favourite of his – I cried. 'Travelling on the train was also very special, seeing the countryside and when we arrived at Llangollen station, I enjoyed the choir and the dancers who greeted us. I knew one of the songs and mimed along to it. 'At the Eisteddfod it was fantastic to meet the volunteers. It is really important and so precious for people from all different countries to come together in the name of culture and music.'
Sky News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Romania's new president Nicosur Dan finally looks like he's enjoying life after a campaign full of rancour and division
The roads in the heart of Bucharest were swaying. People were singing, laughing, and looking up at a balcony, waiting for the next president to appear. In the end, he took to the street, walking along the pavement, high-fiving everyone within reach. After a campaign full of rancour and division, Nicosur Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, finally looked like he was enjoying life. His victory was more comprehensive than most had predicted. A week ago, the favourite to win this election was his rival, the populist George Simion, but Dan gradually rose in the polls. 3:17 Among the crowd, there was a sense that some had voted because they wanted him to win, and others had backed him because they didn't like Mr Simion's Donald Trump -inspired brand of strongman leadership. Some even felt it brought back memories of the brutal communist past that once cowed this country. "I have felt overwhelmed and scared," said Nicoletta. "For the last couple of weeks we lived in terror of returning to something we had to live with for 45 years." Alongside her was Ada - one of many, many young voters I met in the crowd. She told me she felt like she was "dreaming", after waking up in the morning "worried that the nightmare would not finish". But now, she was thrilled - convinced that Mr Dan can reinvigorate his country: "We put our trust in him because we don't want to leave the country - we are Romanians by home, we feel Romanian, we think Romanian." There were many flags here with the blue and yellow of the European Union - few doubt that Mr Dan had more affection for the EU than Mr Simion. I met a couple who had both draped themselves in EU flags and told me that "we hope we will be going the European way". Another couple told me they had been terrified that Mr Simion would take Romania out of the EU - a claim he flatly denied when I met him the day before the election. 5:25 We had spoken to Mr Simion earlier in the day, when he seemed quietly confident of victory. "People are fed up with normal politicians," he told me in the shadow of Bucharest's enormous parliament - the biggest building in Europe. A landslide, he felt sure, was on the way. Around him were populist politicians and activists from around the world - including Britain, America, Italy, France, Poland and the Netherlands. They cheered him, and agreed that victory was within sight. And then came the exit poll, and the realisation that the momentum of his dominant triumph in the first round of this election had faded. Still, Mr Simion insisted he would win, naming himself as the Romanian president on Facebook. It was only in the small hours that Mr Simion admitted that he had been beaten by a million votes, emerging to declare that he would keep fighting. "I will be there in all of the battles we have ahead of us - this work is just starting and I will be there with every one of you," he said, punching the air before walking off. He wants to remain the leader for, as he puts it, "patriots, sovereignists and conservatives" who want to return to "democracy and common sense". Romania has had a turbulent six months, starting with the decision to cancel the last presidential election because of suspected Russian interference, and then to ban Calin Georgescu, the man who allegedly benefited from that Moscow master plan. Even some of Mr Georgescu's most avowed opponents felt uneasy that an election had been cancelled in that way. Then the schism between the politics of Mr Simion and Mr Dan split the country, as did the lingering sense that Romanian democracy was under scrutiny. So now the challenge is to unite and heal this nation - a strategically crucial member of both the EU and NATO. And that is Mr Dan's most immediate challenge. As he was soaking up the cacophony and affection last night, a group of his supporters were opening champagne and pouring out glasses in the street, toasting their new president. To win is one thing; to prosper is quite another.
