Everyday Music

When Harry met Sarah … well, let’s just say he roared, while she whispered. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the climax to the eight-film franchise from the J.K. Rowling saga, grossed a wizardly $168.55 million, according to early studio reports, to win the box office weekend and quite a few other records besides. Meanwhile, the Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated, playing on about a dozen screens (compared with DH2‘s 11,000) in such conservative bastions as Grapevine, Texas; and Orange County, California, amassed perhaps $75,000 though it’s hard to tell because the film’s distributor hasn’t released actual or estimated totals.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet is often typecast as a French pianist. The term denotes not only geographical origin – he is a native of Lyon – but an ensuing repertoire specialty as well. Never mind that he plays a wide array of music, including brilliant performances and recordings of Liszt, Gershwin, and Mendelssohn, among others. The stereotype is this French thing that I have been battling since I was a baby, the pianist said with a laugh recently.

When Thibaudet appears at Tanglewood this week, he will play nothing but Ravel – the French composers entire corpus of piano music. First the solo music, spread over two evenings at Ozawa Hall (July 20 and 21); then both of the piano concertos, part of an all-Ravel Boston Symphony Orchestra concert on July 24, with Emmanuel Krivine conducting.

If theres one composer in all thats special to my heart and always will be, its really Ravel, Thibaudet said.

The pianists connection to the French composer goes back to his early years at the instrument and runs through his career.

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Rapper 50 Cent is determined to use his position of influence to help the world’s needy and has set himself a five-year goal to feed one billion Africans.

The In Da Club hit-maker famously turned his life around from being a drug dealer in New York to becoming one of the world’s biggest-selling hip-hop artists, and has built himself a huge fortune since his debut in 2003.

Now, the star is eager to give back, and is focusing his philanthropy on Africa’s hungry.

In a post on his Twitter.com page, he writes, “I want to impact people’s lives more.

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We all know that Rihanna brings the heat on the stage, but no one expected her concert to literally burst into flames Friday night.

The singer was performing her Loud Tour in Dallas at the American Airlines Center when some pyrotechnics went haywire during her song, ‘California King Bed,’ according to Celebuzz.

Rihanna left the stage when a fire broke out above her stage fireworks began to fall down — cutting her set list short and ending the show early. Due to the obvious safety concerns, the entire crowd was evacuated from the building and no injuries were reported.

The singer took to Twitter to address the incident.

“DALLAS!!! We set the stage on FYAH tonight!!! LITERALLY!!! I’m so pissed, I was havin so much fun wit yall too!!! Read more…

Harry Potter has conjured up a tidy sum from the first overseas debuts of his final film on its way to a potentially record-shattering opening weekend.

Distributor Warner Bros. says “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ took in $43.6 million in 26 countries outside the United States on its first day Wednesday.

Studio executives said Thursday the franchise finale had the biggest opening day ever in several countries, including Australia with $7.5 million, Italy with $4.6 million and Sweden with $2.1 million. In France, the studio said “Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ had the biggest Wednesday opening ever at $7.1 million.

In the countries where the film opened Wednesday, total revenues were 82 percent higher than they were on the first day for “Deathly Hallows: Part 1″ last November, according to Warner Bros.

The finale got a boost from the franchise’s first 3-D installment.

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