Observations · People · Pop Culture

Roman Viktyuk’s late production “Requiem for Radames” with Vasilyeva, Aroseva and Obraztsova

In memory of Roman Viktyuk, I suggest watching one of his late theatrical works: the production "Requiem for Radames", after the play by Aldo Nicolaj, with three great Russian actresses: Vera Vasilyeva, Olga Arosheva and Yelena Obraztsova. The story of the lives and rivalry of two opera divas

Art · Books · Humour

This is how the morning after the first snow might look somewhere in a prefabricated castle on the outskirts of Eastern Biryullia

But this is in fact an illustration by the British artist Angela Barrett for the 1993 Snow White. The Queen lets three drops of blood fall on the snow, having pricked herself while sewing pearls onto a length of brocade, and wishes for a beautiful child with white skin, dark

Close-up of a stone relief in which the hand of one figure holds the hand of another, beside folds of clothing.

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Humour

Persian courtier leads a Greek envoy by the hand to the king in a Persepolis relief

What is high diplomacy? Here, for example, a Persian courtier tenderly holds the hand of a Greek envoy as he escorts him to the royal throne. Detail of a sculpted frieze from Persepolis, Iran, photograph by Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Observations · Society · People

There is a certain irony of the information world in the lot of outstanding persons, to be mentioned in some inscrutable idle impulse by people who, on the whole, couldn't care less about them and never could, for the one and only time in all…

There is a certain irony of the information world in the lot of outstanding persons, to be mentioned in some inscrutable idle impulse by people who, on the whole, couldn't care less about them and never could, for the one and only time in all history, and then

Books · Mores · People

The English vet James Herriot, who became famous for his touching and instructive writings about livestock, farm life and the treatment of animals, has a story about a loathsome fat man who beat his wife

The English vet James Herriot, who became famous for his touching and instructive writings about livestock, farm life and the treatment of animals, has a story about a loathsome fat man who beat his wife. When the domestic tyrant happened to injure himself, and Herriot drove him to the doctor

Art · Museums · Science

Charles Bell painted tetanus in 1809 after seeing soldiers wounded at Corunna

A painting by the surgeon Charles Bell, 1809, hangs in the Edinburgh Surgeons' Hall. Bell resolved to paint this canvas after witnessing the torments of tetanus among wounded British soldiers following the battle against Napoleon's troops at Corunna. The picture captures the final stage of tetanus, when

Cinema · Observations · Humour

In episode 6 of «TASS Is Authorised to Announce» there is a very interesting scene in a fashionable European psychiatric hospital, where the wealthy Emma Schanz, played by Olga Volkova (you will surely remember her as the waitress Violetta from «Station f

In Emma's private ward we learn of the Nazi past of her father and husband, along with other compromising particulars. To judge by Mrs Schanz's account, her husband got her hooked on drugs and shut her away in the madhouse, hoping to conceal the truth she

Coming Up · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Exhibition on Sergei Diaghilev and His Circle at the Sheremetev Palace until 12 February 2021

At the Sheremetev Palace, the International Exhibition "In Diaghilev's Circle. Intersecting Destinies" runs until 12 February 2021, devoted to the creative path of Sergei Diaghilev. The career of the foremost ideologue of Russian culture is presented through portraits of the Diaghilev circle drawn from museums around

Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People

Three versions of how Queen Fabiola met King Baudouin of Belgium

The role of Queen Fabiola on screen could quite well have been played by Dame Angela Lansbury, who, incidentally, is three years older than Fabiola and is alive and well even now, at 95. As for how Fabiola and Baudouin met, there are three most popular versions of their encounter.

A smiling elderly woman in a lilac hat with flowers and a light patterned jacket holds an open paper fan. She wears a necklace and a gold bracelet.

NB!

Elderly woman in a lilac flowered hat holding a fan

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, Spanish aristocrat who became Queen of Belgium

Sweet Fabiola was, perhaps, the most colourful member of the Belgian royal family. And this had nothing to do with her formal status: from her youth, when she was not yet especially titled, despite her closeness to the court of Alfonso XIII, the Spanish aristocrat Fabiola de Mora y Aragón

Aristocracy · Monarchies

Three living queens of Belgium and their titles after the abdication of Albert II

Three Queens of Belgium: Queen Fabiola, Queen Paola and Queen Mathilde. From 2013 to 2014 Belgium was a unique monarchy with three living queens. Fabiola, the childless widow of King Baudouin, bore the title of Queen of the Belgians after the accession of her brother-in-law Albert II, while

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