The Metropolitan Opera in New York has reached a landmark in its movie-theater broadcasts from the stage to the world: 10 million tickets sold since the series started.``Live in HD‘’ ended its sixth season this weekend, beaming Verdi‘s ``La Traviata’‘ via satellite to 1,500 movie screens in North America and more than 40 countries.Almost a quarter of a million people saw Saturday’s live performance directed for screens by the man who leads Macy‘s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Gary Halvorson. The simu

PARIS (AFP) ― Cannes season kicks off this week as the film festival unveils its pick of Hollywood giants and arthouse newcomers to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at the glitzy event on the French Riviera next month.Organisers will announce the 20-odd films in the official competition at a press conference in Paris Thursday, ending film buff speculation about who will make the cut for the world’s top movie showcase on May 16-27.Cannes’ general delegate Thierry Fremaux selects the line-up eac

PARIS (AP) ― The Louvre Museum is used to dealing with antiquities: Nearly all of its thousands of works of art date to 1848 or earlier. Now, it wants to create a relic of its own ― the old museum audio guide.The famed Paris museum, whose origins date to the 18th century, is pressing on toward modernity and going visual with new electronic guides in a deal with Japan’s Nintendo. The guide provides 3DS game consoles that offer touch-screen, visual-and-audio guidance for visitors who teem the muse

VENICE (AFP) ― French luxury billionaire Francois Pinault Friday expressed his passion for art at the inauguration of a new exhibition by New York-based Swiss artist Urs Fischer at his Venice palace.“It’s an important part of my activities,” Pinault told AFP on the sidelines of the exhibition in Palazzo Grassi on the picturesque banks of the Grand Canal.“This is my passion, it’s not work as you know. It’s something else. It goes well beyond,” said the 75-year-old founder of fashion and luxury gr

ROME (AP) ― One of Italy’s top culture officials has pushed private investment in the country’s museums and galleries and the seemingly insatiable Chinese and Indian appetites for art and archaeology as the way to pull the country out of its recession.Mario Resca, a former CEO of McDonald’s Italian operations who was appointed in 2008 by the government of Silvio Berlusconi to be director-general of the Culture Ministry, said that an increase in ticket sales to Italian museums has not been matche