OPERAHarmony in Rome: Rome’s open-air opera season...

OPERA

Harmony in Rome: Rome’s open-air opera season was revived Monday, two weeks after being canceled by the city’s mayor because of a dispute with unionized workers. Puccini’s “Tosca” will open the summer season July 16 at the amphitheater at Piazza di Siena in Rome’s Villa Borghese park, said Giorgio Vidusso, director of the Teatro dell’Opera. Mayor Francesco Rutelli had called off the summer season after he said stagehands and other unionized workers refused to withdraw threats of strikes. But an agreement was reached on issues of hiring practices and pay raises.

MOVIES

Short Story: Now that Cannes is over, film fest-goers can try the first Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival that opens in the city on Wednesday. Among events scheduled for the fest, which runs through Sunday and features 100 films: a showcase of early short films from established directors including Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion and Saul Bass; screenings of movies from aboriginal filmmakers around the world; and a program featuring shorts from Canadian filmmakers.

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U.S.-European Pact: The film industries on both sides of the Atlantic have struck a deal to begin a training program designed to give new impetus to Europe’s film industry, the Motion Picture Assn. of America announced Monday. “We want to be part of the revitalization of the cinema in Europe,” MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti said in a statement released in Brussels. Under the deal, put together on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, the MPAA and its member companies pledged to underwrite, along with European film companies, a training program over a five-year period.

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Can’t Even Get His Voice Mail: Sorry, folks, Robert Kincaid is not a real person. That’s the message the National Geographic Society wants to get out before the movie version of the bestseller “The Bridges of Madison County” arrives in theaters Friday and the society is barraged with phone calls from people wanting to speak to Kincaid. So far, society officials have fielded several thousand inquiries from people in search of Kincaid, the character who is portrayed as a photographer for National Geographic magazine. National Geographic did supply some props for the Warner Bros. movie starring Clint Eastwood (as Kincaid) and Meryl Streep, including camera bags from the 1960s and some authentic photos from that era. The props will go on display in June at the society’s Washington headquarters.

POP/ROCK/JAZZ

Jazz Doctor: Jazz great Tito Puente received an honorary doctorate from Boston’s Berklee College of Music on Saturday in front of hundreds of fans at Puerto Rico’s Heineken JazzFest Big Band in San Juan. It marked the first time the school honored a musician outside its Boston campus. The honor coincides with the recent release of Puente’s jazz album “Tito’s Idea.”

BENEFITS

Raising Funds for AIDS: MTV and VH1 will present “The Goods Presents: Think Positive,” a special that profiles young people and their experiences with HIV and AIDS. The program, which airs next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. on VH1 and 10:30 p.m. on MTV, will support “7th on Sale/The Return to New York,” the fashion world’s annual AIDS benefit, by selling items during promotional breaks. . . . The cast of the 1990 movie “Longtime Companion,” one of the first mainstream films about AIDS, will get together on Monday at the Virgin Megastore to present the Video Industry AIDS Action Committee with the Longtime Companion Award to honor its efforts on behalf of AIDS. The Los Angeles Virgin Megastore will donate part of the proceeds from video and laser-disc sales during the month of June to the committee. Cast members Mary-Louise Parker, Bruce Davison and Campbell Scott are expected to attend. . . . Talk-show host Leeza Gibbons will be honored at a benefit for Caring for Babies With AIDS, the L.A.-based group that helps children with HIV/AIDS and their families, June 9 at the Century Plaza Hotel. Paula Poundstone and Pia Zadora will perform.