DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
• Barcelona’s Liceu opera house reopened its doors on Monday for the first time in over three months to hold a concert exclusively for a quiet, leafy audience of nearly 2,300 house plants. Organisers said the intention was to reflect on the absurdity of the human condition in the era of the coronavirus, which deprives people of their position as spectators. The six-minute Concert for the Biocene featured a string quartet playing Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s Chrysanthemum, chosen for its requiem-like sadness. Both before and after the six-minute performance, the four elegantly dressed musicians respectfully bowed to the “audience”.
A pair of Olms. PICTURE: Public domain.
• Three “baby dragons” have gone on display in a Slovenian cave. The three olms, an ancient amphibious species which reach a maximum of 35 centimetres long and are blind, are part of a litter of 21 which hatched in 2016 thanks to a breeding program. The three eel-like olms, which have been kept in a cave laboratory, can now be seen in the famous Postojna Cave which recently reopened its doors to visitors.
• Experts have called for greater regulation of those able to carry out artwork restorations in Spain after a copy of a work by baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo saw the Virgin Mary transformed into a cartoonish looking character during a botched restoration. A private art collector in Valencia reportedly paid €1,200 to have the copy of the Immaculate Conception cleaned by a furniture restorer. But the job went awry and attempts to restore the painting saw the Virgin left unrecognisable. The case has drawn comparisons with the now-infamous restoration of a fresco of Christ on the wall of a Spanish church in the town of Borja, with the result dubbed “Monkey Christ” by some.
– With Reuters
