NOW, AN OPERATIC ‘LIVE AID’
Some of the world’s most celebrated opera singers are planning to participate in a concert to raise money for African famine victims modeled on the hugely successful Live Aid rock event last month, a spokesman for the event has announced.
Tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras, along with mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa are expected to be among those appearing at the Arena di Verona in Italy on Sunday, publicist Don Verona said in announcing details of the concert in London.
“I think a number of them got together and said, ‘Look, if they (rock acts) can put on a Live Aid concert, why can’t we do the same?’ ” he told a news conference.
Organizers are also hoping to recruit tenor Placido Domingo, sopranos Montserrat Caballe and Mirella Freni, baritones Sherrill Milnes and Piero Cappucilli and conductors Leonard Bernstein and James Levine.
Funds will go to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other charities providing aid for the starving in Ethiopia and Sudan, Verona added.
The twin, televised Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which featured some of the biggest names in rock music, raised about $50 million for famine victims.
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