Barcelona

Casa Milà , better known as La Pedrera , is a building designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built during the years... 1905–1910, being considered officially completed in 1912. It is located at 92, Passeig de Gràcia in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was a controversial design at the time for the bold forms of the undulating stone facade and wrought iron decoration of the balconies and windows, designed largely by Josep Maria Jujol, who also created some of the plaster ceilings. Architecturally it is considered an innovative work for its steel structure and curtain walls – the façade is self-supporting. Other innovative elements were the construction of underground car parking and separate lifts and stairs for the owners and their servants. In 1984, it was declared World Heritage by UNESCO. The building is made open to the public by the CatalunyaCaixa Foundation, which manages the various exhibitions and activities and visits to the interior and roof. It was built for the married couple, Roser Segimon and Pere Milà.
more

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família , commonly known as the Sagrada Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in... Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí . Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 was consecrated and proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI. Though construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style—combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project and at the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s.
more

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya , abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is housed... in the Palau Nacional, built for the 1929 World's Fair. Situated on the Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, it was rehabilitated for the 1992 Summer Olympics. His director is Josep Serra i Villalba. The museum was located in this building in 1990, when the Catalonian Museum Law reunited the collections of the former Museu d'Art de Catalunya and the Museu d'Art Modern , and declared it the national museum. The new museum thus combined Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque art collections from the Museu d'Art de Catalunya with the 19th and 20th century art collections of the Museu d'Art Modern, and incorporated the Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats , the Gabinet Numismàtic de Catalunya and the Biblioteca d'Història de l'Art .
more

The Museu Picasso in Barcelona, Spain, has one of the most extensive collections of artworks by the 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. This... is one of the most popular and most visited museums in Barcelona. The museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces in Barcelona's La Ribera. The original idea for the museum came from Picasso’s lifelong friend, Jaume Sabartés. Picasso had given Sabartés great many paintings, drawings and prints during the course of their friendship. Originally Sabartés had planned to set up a museum based on his collection in Málaga, Picasso’s birthplace. It was Picasso himself who suggested that Barcelona would be more appropriate, given his long standing connections with the city. The museum first opened in 1963 and the original collection was made up of Sabartés donation , the items that Picasso had previously given to the city of Barcelona, those that had previously been in the possession of the city’s museum of modern art plus other gifts from Picasso’s friends and collectors.
more

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, Spain. The museum... opened to the public on November 28, 1995. Its current director is Bartomeu Marí . Previous directors were Daniel Giralt-Miracle , Miguel Molins , Manuel J. Borja-Villel . In 1959, art critic Alecandre Cirici Pellicer formed a group of contemporary artists showing work in a series of 23 exhibitions with the hopes of beginning a collection for a new contemporary art museum in Barcelona. It was not until 1986 that the Barcelona City Council recommended the American architect Richard Meier & Partners to design the museum. Art critics Francesc Miralles and Rosa Queralt were hired to write the museum’s mission statement. In 1987, the MACBA Foundation was created. In the following year the MACBA Foundation, in conjunction with the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Barcelona City Council, founded the MACBA Consortium in order further the process of the museum.
more

Museu de la Xocolata is a private museum in Barcelona, Spain, owned by the Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona . The museum opened in 2000, at Carrer... Comerç 36, in El Born, Ciutat Vella, on the ground level of an old barracks. Many of the displays are chocolate sculptures, including various well-known Barcelona buildings, and illustrations from various stories.
more

Tommy Robredo Garcés is a Spanish professional tennis player. On 8 May 2006, he broke into the world's top ten for the first time. His highest... singles ranking to date is No. 5, which he first reached on 28 August 2006 soon after winning the Hamburg Masters. He turned professional in 1998 and was coached by José Manuel "Pepo" Clavet and is now coached by Karim Perona. Robredo considers his forehand to be his best shot, and red clay is his favorite surface. Robredo began playing tennis regularly when he was five and his family moved to Olot, where his father Ángel became the director of the local tennis club, Club Natació Olot. He was coached by his father until 1996 when he joined the Spanish Tennis Federation at the Centre d'Alt Rendiment , a famous center for professional sports training in Sant Cugat del Vallès. He turned professional in 1998. As a junior player, Robredo won the Junior Orange Bowl 16–Under in both singles and doubles in 1998.
more

Kristen Bjorn is the stage name of a British director and producer of gay pornographic movies and a former gay pornographic actor. In the foreword... to a book devoted to Kristen Bjorn's work, director William Higgins wrote that, "[in] the relatively brief history of hardcore gay videos, Kristen Bjorn has emerged unchallenged as the best director to date." Bjorn was born in London, the son of a Russian mother and a British father. He was raised in Washington, D.C., where his father was stationed as a diplomat. He has a brother and two sisters. In an interview conducted in 1997, Bjorn stated that only one of his sisters knows his profession as a maker of gay erotic films. After graduating from high school, Bjorn set out to travel widely, to places including Asia, India, and Europe. His career goal at the time was to be "a photographer for a magazine like National Geographic. I wanted to travel across the world and photograph people. I was really very interested in different cultures." Bjorn arrived in San Francisco in 1978, where he encountered the gay community for the first time. "[I]t was all very strange to me.
more

Elena Olegovna Bovina is a Russian professional female tennis player. On April 4, 2005 Bovina reached her career-high singles ranking: World No.... 14. In June 2005, Bovina sustained a right shoulder injury, which forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon and summer hardcourt tournaments. She was scheduled to return to the tour in New Haven, where she was the defending champion. But, she reaggravated her shoulder injury, and was forced to withdraw from all tournaments through the end of the year. Afterwards her ranking fell to #63, her lowest ranking since 2001. Bovina pulled out of all events she had entered in early 2006, and for some time was unranked in both singles and doubles. She returned to the WTA Tour at the Kremlin Cup in October 2006. She has won 3 career singles titles including the Tier II Pilot Pen Tennis Open, defeating then world number 6 Elena Dementieva en route to the title.
more

Laura Vall is an indie pop artist from Barcelona, Spain currently established in Los Angeles, CA with more than 10 years of experience as a singer... and songwriter. Vall’s lyrical, warm, soulful and hypnotic voice has brought her to work with several renowned artists like Stevie Wonder, Rhonda Smith and Michael Bland and with Grammy winning producers like Jeff Weber and Michael Clark. Despite that Laura Vall’s first solo album “Real” has just been officially released on July 18th, it already has received critical acclaimed reviews, describing it as “stunning”, “off the hook”, “Rich songs with powerful lyrics and musical serenity”, “refreshing change from the overproduced pop” and “unique, powerfully emotional, honest and ethereal”.
more

Carmen Amaya was a flamenco dancer and singer, of gypsy origin, born in the Somorrostro slum of Barcelona, Spain, Vila Olímpica nowadays. She... has been called "the greatest Spanish gypsy dancer of her generation". and "the most extrardinary personality of all time in flamenco dance". She danced from the time she was 4 years old. Accompanied on the guitar by her father, she danced in waterfront bars in Barcelona. A young person who saw her dance as a girl was Sabicas , who later said "I saw her dance and it seemed like something supernatural to me I never saw anyone dance like her. I don’t know how she did it, I just don’t know!". Sabicas became a great flamenco guitarist and accompanied her for many years. He recorded Queen of the Gypsies and Flamenco! with Amaya. In 1929, she made her debut in Paris, to warm acclaims and admiration of her dancing skill. She moved to America in 1936, where she went on to act in several films that broke box office records, including the Romeo and Juliet adaptation Los Tarantos, and the short film Danzas Gitanas .
more

Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas... of Verdi and Puccini. Born in Barcelona, he made his debut on the opera stage at the age of 11 as Trujamán in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro and went on to a career that encompassed over 60 roles on the stages of the world's leading opera houses and in the recording studio. He gained fame with a wider audience as one of The Three Tenors along with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti in a series of mass concerts that began in 1990 and continued until 2003. Carreras is also known for his humanitarian work as the president of the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation , which he established following his own recovery from the disease in 1988. The youngest of three children, Carreras was born in Sants, a working class district in Barcelona, Spain. In 1951, his family emigrated to Argentina in an unsuccessful search for a better life.
more

Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed... music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice, and ballet. His ballet score Cendrillon received over one hundred performances. Sor’s works for guitar range from pieces for beginning players to advanced players such as Variations on a Theme of Mozart. Sor gave concerts throughout Europe, including in England, Paris, Berlin, and Warsaw. Before the early 19th century, the guitar was little-known in England. Sor seems to have created a market for himself there and then met the demand. Sor’s contemporaries considered him to be the best guitarist in the world, and his works for guitar have been widely played and reprinted since his death. As Sor's works were published in various countries, his name was translated, leading to variations in the spelling. Variations have included Joseph Fernando Macari Sors, Fernando Sor, Ferran Sor, Ferdinand Sor, and Ferdinando Sor.
more

Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto... repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. Caballé was born in Barcelona and studied music at the Liceu Conservatory, and singing technique with Napoleone Annovazzi, Eugenia Kemény and Conchita Badía. She graduated with a gold medal in 1954. She subsequently moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she made her professional debut in 1956 as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème. She became part of the Basel Opera company between 1957 and 1959, singing a repertoire that included Mozart and Richard Strauss in German, unusual for Spanish singers, but which proved useful for her next engagement at the Bremen Opera . In 1962, Caballé returned to Barcelona and debuted at the Liceu, singing the title role in Strauss's Arabella. From the fall of 1962 through the spring of 1963 she toured Mexico, at one point singing the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
more

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa is a Catalan Spanish singer-songwriter. Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music... in both the Spanish and Catalan languages. He became involved with music at the age of 17, when he got his first guitar, to which he dedicates one of his earliest songs, "Una guitarra". In the early 60's, the young artist participated in a pop band, playing along with classmates at Barcelona's Agronomy School and performing mainly Beatles songs and Italian 'pop-of-the-era' songs translated to Spanish. In 1965, while singing in a radio show called Radioscope, host Salvador Escamilla helped him secure a record deal with local label Edigsa, where he recorded his first LP, as well as joining the group Els Setze Jutges. Joan Manuel Serrat's first live stage performance in 1967 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, served to establish him as one of the most important artists inside the Nova cançó movement in Catalonia.
more

Frederic Mompou i Dencausse was a Catalan Spanish composer and pianist. He is best known for his solo piano music and his songs. Mompou was born in... Barcelona to the lawyer Frederic Mompou and his wife Josefina Dencausse, who was of French origin. His brother Josep Mompou became a painter; his sketch of a simple farmhouse appeared on the covers of all of Frederic's published music. Mompou studied piano under Pedro Serra at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu before going to Paris, to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, which was headed by Gabriel Fauré, whom Mompou had heard perform in Barcelona when he was 9 years old, and whose music and performing style had made a powerful and lasting impression on him. He had a letter of introduction to Fauré from Enrique Granados, but it never reached its intended recipient. He entered the Conservatoire , but studied with Isidor Philipp, head of the piano department; he also took private piano lessons with Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix, and harmony and composition lessons with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau.
more