Newsletter London for fun

Welcome to the London For Fun regular newsletter keeping you up to date with what's new in London`s events.

LONDON FOR FUN Newsletter: 10 June 2008 Issue No.149

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http://www.londonforfun.com
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1.) Top 10 London events
2.) Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries
3.) How to unsubscribe

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1. Top 10 London events
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1 - Havana Rakatan - From the sexy, spontaneous rumba to the slick footwork of the cha-cha-cha, this dance spectacular is guaranteed to get heads nodding and feet tapping! Featuring one of Cuba’s most popular Son bands live on stage, Havana Rakatan is a captivating and colourful journey through the dance and music of a truly unique country. Until 22 June. www.sadlerswells.com

2 - Strictly Gershwin - Strictly Gershwin is a dazzling celebration of George Gershwin and the sparkling age of Hollywood music and dance. Gershwin’s sassy tunes, most famously Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, combine with Derek Deane’s sensational choreography to conjure up the Silver Screen genius of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly. With over 100 dancers and musicians filling the stage, glitzy cinematic images set the scene for English National Ballet's fabulous dance spectacular. From 13 June until 22 June. www.royalalberthall.com

3 - Alfred Brendel - Alfred Brendel's reputation is unrivalled as one of the most significant musicians of the present day, especially in the performance of Viennese classics. His recital, featuring Schubert's valedictory Sonata in B flat Major, has the last word in this season's series. 27 June. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

4 - Running the Silk Road - A cast of UK and Chinese performers weave together two theatrical traditions in this enthralling collaboration. In 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics, a group of friends from London set off on an epic journey along the ancient Silk Road trading route to China. Armed only with good humour, they cross the isolated terrain of central Asia, carrying with them an alternative Olympic flame to represent the dangers of global warming. The story of their journey is interwoven with tales from Chinese mythology. Classical actors from Beijing Opera draw on the zaju theatre of the Jin Dynasty, using dance, acrobatics, comic patter and music. From 24 June until 28 June. www.barbican.org.uk

5 - Jake & Dinos Chapman: If Hitler Had Been a Hippy How Happy Would We Be - HELL hath no fury, Like a chapman spurned, So come see the second, 'Cos the first one burned. Until 13 July. www.whitecube.com

6 - Le nozze di Figaro - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Revolution is in the air in this Season’s revival of David McVicar’s wonderfully illuminating production of Le nozze di Figaro, new to The Royal Opera in 2006 to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Life on an estate in the late 1820s reveals with truth and no little wit all the tensions between master and servants, with the symptoms of Europe’s social upheaval never far away. Count Almaviva’s attempts to bed his manservant Figaro’s fiancé Susanna are repeatedly thwarted by those around him, including his own wife, the Countess. In such enlightened times if the Count wishes to dance, then Figaro will make sure it is to his tune and not the other way round. From June 24 to July 19. http://info.royaloperahouse.org

7 - Tutankhamun & Golden Age of Pharaohs - King Tut Exhibit - Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, Tutankhamun has captured the hearts of people around the world. Buried with him were treasures beyond the imagination, a tomb holding the most magnificent treasures of the Golden Age of the Pharaohs and giving us a glittering glimpse into the past. Visit the O2 Arena this November to see this truly amazing exhibition. Until 31 August. Buy tickets

8 - Richard Prince: - Continuation - Prince came to prominence in the 1980s through his celebrated series such as Cowboys, Jokes and Hoods, which appropriate images from magazines, popular culture and pulp fiction to create new photographs, sculptures and paintings that respond to ideas about American identity and consumerism. These works have been critical in challenging ideas of authorship and raising questions about the value of the ‘unique’ artwork. His exhibition at the Serpentine is a direct dialogue with his spaces, mirroring the installation of Prince’s work in his own buildings as well as responding to the Serpentine’s unique scale and location. From 26 June until 7 September. www.serpentinegallery.org

9 - Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery- This extraordinary exhibition, recently shown at The Queen’s Gallery in Edinburgh, is selected from the collections of the Royal Library in collaboration with the distinguished naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. It brings together the works of four artists and a collector who have shaped our knowledge of the world around us. Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby are diverse figures who shared a passion for enquiry and a fascination with the beautiful and bizarre in nature. All lived at a time when new species were being discovered around the world in ever increasing numbers. Many of the plants and animals represented in the exhibition were then barely known in Europe. Today some are commonplace, while others are extinct. Until 28 September. www.royalcollection.org.uk

10 - Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian - For the first time ever, this exhibition will trace the development of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century portrait painting, in both northern and southern Europe side by side. 'Renaissance Faces' will feature many of the great masters of the Renaissance, including Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Holbein, Cranach, Van Eyck and Dürer. The exhibition will comprise around seventy paintings, along with medals, sculptures, drawings and engravings. 'Renaissance Faces' will explore issues of likeness, memory and identity, examining portraits which were commissioned in connection with courtship, friendship and marriage – including self-portraits of artists themselves. From 15 October 2008 until 18 January 2009. www.nationalgallery.org.uk

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2. Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries

Events listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/events-in-London.htm

Theatre listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-theatres.htm

Museum listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-museums.htm

Galleries listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/galleries-in-London.htm

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