Under Pressure - The Royal Ballet and Opera is under pressure from numerous Ukrainian creatives and UK MPs to remove the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko from its upcoming season. Signatories of a letter to the Guardian describe the singer as a “longtime symbol of cultural propaganda for a regime that is responsible for serious war crimes”. They are urging the RBO to reconsider Netrebko’s starring role in its production of Tosca beginning next month, as Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continue throughout the summer.
Netrebko, a leading Russian soprano who has performed all over the world including multiple stints at the Royal Opera House, was photographed holding the pro-Russian separatist flag beside a pro-Kremlin former Ukrainian politician in 2014 when Russia captured Donetsk. The singer later said she did not understand the meaning of the flag, and has since condemned the war in Ukraine on social media and denying that she was allied "with any leader of Russia".
On The Move - A music and motoring festival set to be held in Hampshire next weekend will be the last in the county before it moves to Silverstone next year, organisers have said. CarFest, founded by radio presenter Chris Evans in 2012, is due to be held at Laverstoke Park Farm in Overton from Friday to Sunday with headliners Travis, Rita Ora and Madness. But organisers said it would move to Northamptonshire for its 2026 edition "which means that no one from either north or south has an excuse not to join us".
It said despite the change, its aim to deliver "the ultimate family festival" and raise money for children's charities, including Children in Need and the Teenage Cancer Trust, would stay the same.
From The Vaults - Dame Vera Lynn's audition records are to be released for the first time, 90 years after they were first recorded. The late singer's first records were discovered when her daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, donated her mother's record collection to the British Library's Sound Archive. The donations were made when she moved out of her home in Sussex, where Dame Vera had lived with her husband Harry Lewis for 40 years.
Along with the three silver aluminium audition records, which are labelled by hand, a copy of Dame Vera's first record, It's Home, recorded in 1935 with bandleader Howard Baker, was also found.
In The Saleroom - Handwritten lyrics and chord charts for one of Fleetwood Mac's earliest hits are set to go up for sale at auction. The composition sheet for Man of the World, which was a UK chart number two in 1969, was written by the group's co-founder, vocalist and lead guitarist Peter Green. Green formed Fleetwood Mac with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie in 1967 but left the group in 1970. Ewbank's auction house in Woking, Surrey, which is selling the document on Thursday, says it hopes it will reach £15,000.
Farewell - Ronnie Rondell Jr - who was famously set alight for the front cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album cover - has died at the age of 88. The Hollywood stuntman and actor died on 12 August at a care home in the US state of Missouri, according to an online obituary. Rondell was involved in the production of a number of films and TV shows during his long career, including Lethal Weapon, Thelma and Louise and Star Trek: First Contact. RIP.
(Jim Evans)