We reported a while back that the debt-ridden city of Florence was giving half a million Euros to the IMG Artists owner Barett Wissman, a self-confessed New York fraudster, to transfer his Tuscan Sun festival to the city.
The money, it seems, has gone straight down the drain. A Slipped Disc correspondent reports that Angela Georghiu’s festival recital was more than half-empty, even though though organisers had been ringing around town all day with offers of free tickets. Other events were equally dismal.
La Repubblica headlined: ‘Il flop a metà del Tuscan Sun festival’ – which needs no translation. Wissman: ‘we’re not disappointed, we’ve barely begun’.
The article is not available online (we’ve seen a print copy). If anyone cares to send us an English version, we’ll happily post it up.
Can’t find an English version, but Google can be allowed to make an attempt:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fricerca.repubblica.it%2Frepubblica%2Farchivio%2Frepubblica%2F2012%2F06%2F20%2Fil-flop-meta-del-tuscan-sun-festival.html&act=url
I luuuuv Google translate:
” Pogorelich is regarded as a star on Sunset Boulevard and Nigel Kennedy a jester pop.”
as well as:
“I want to take Chaz Palminteri.”
Now THAT is artificial intelligence!
–Sixtus