LA Opera Chandler Home To Get $100 Million Upgrade

“Company General Manager Plácido Domingo said that the pavilion, the opera’s home, will be closed for a year for renovations. Music Center President Stephen Rountree said by phone that the renovation will happen no sooner than 2011 and will cost more than $100 million, which has yet to be raised. The pavilion will retain its historic 1960s look, but the interior will be ‘freshened up,’ and the acoustics and backstage facilities will be updated.”

Ian McEwan Finds A Brother

Ian McEwan, who grew up to be one of Britain’s premier authors, a winner of the prestigious Booker Prize who received a Commander of the British Empire honor from Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 recently discovered he has a brother. “For many years, McEwan and his lost brother, a bricklayer named David Sharp, each lived near Oxford without knowing the other existed, according to the Oxford Mail, the newspaper that first reported the story.”