Some say the world of musical shows are something bland, banal, less than meaningful nowadays. But what makes so many musicals still to be staged? What encourages it? To what audience is it directed to? Long questions with long answers. Musical show  provides  entertainment for affluent masses, that is, to go to a musical  costs a lot… or not so necessarily. That if it is worthwhile of course, is relative to the capabilities of your pocket and that what you’re looking for on stage, staging, music playing, the unfolding of the story…

Today, musicals opts for a wide audience, one could say tailored made for families. Going to a musical can be an event that everyone of all ages can enjoy. These days, some of the musicals you can find in Madrid are:

“Over 100 lies”, this musical was inspired by the popular singer Joaquin Sabina. The musical shows the underground world of Madrid where thieves, criminals and poets live, this universe itself is the result of the lyrics Sabina has developed. The story is about three friends who work for the mob and after some trouble, they decide to start their own little mafia. Their ex boss knowing about their planes prepares them a thousand pranks , and after many misfortunes the three buddies decide to take revenge on the Capo. All this, of course, has the background music of Sabina as its soundtrack. Obviously recommended for fans of Sabina, who seemingly in this world has too many. On until  April 8th at the  Rialto Theatre.

The Lion King, we all know the story of this fascinating fable that was adapted by Disney Studios. A love story, of growth and maturing, to last in time and learn responsibility, the Lion King continues to move adults and children worldwide. This great musical runs until July 15 at the Teatro Lope de Vega.

Alice in Wonderland, another classic story adapted many times into film and animation, this time it reaches the space of psychedelic music to tell the adventures of Alice, through a world of dreams and outlandish events, she crosses the infinite possibilities of the unconscious with magic pills, hallucinogenic cats and rabbits that want to catch time. An essential book of Lewis Carroll that has also been and remains a source of inspiration for many artists. On until March 24 at the Teatro Figaro Adolfo Marsillach.

Pretty Woman My Love, with the best soundtrack of the 80′s, this festival tells the frivolous story of a girl who is part of a “reality show” who is not going to stop until she is  the most beautiful queen and loved by the whole world, a stardom unattainable for millions. Only for true fans of 80′s best trashy moments. On until April 1 at the Teatro Nuevo Apolo.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Madrid and enjoy some great musicals. Cultural life in Madrid is diverse and entertaining. Do not hesitate to seek the best of art, literature and music in every style.

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Until the 19^th of February 2012, MAPFRE Foundation will exhibit a retrospective of the photographer Gotthard Schuh. The exhibition presented at the newly remodeled Azca showroom is organized with the collaboration of Fotostiftung Schweiz, owner of the photographs.

The director of Fotostiftung Schweiz, Peter Pfunder, curates the exhibition. Among the 113 photographs that make up the sample, 93 belong to Gotthard Schuh. These photos were taken between 1929 and 1956. Werner Bischof, Robert Frank, René Groebli and Jakob Tuggener, all of them, members of the distinguished Swiss Kollegium of photographers in the 50s, took the other twenty photographs.

Although his parents were Swiss, Gotthard Schuh was born in Berlin in 1879. His main contribution to the art world was the creation of poetic realism that revolutionized photography and European photographers in the twentieth century. He started his career as a painter, but in 1930 he interrupted his promising career to devote himself to his passion for photo images.

Schuh was actively involved in the aesthetic changes that occur during the late twenties in the photograph. Like many other great photographers, he found in the photojournalism the opportunity to carry out his experiences in the field of imaging. It is in this area, where speed and charm of reality produce a multiplicity of situations captured with the camera, which together produce great and interesting works. He worked as a photographer for prestigious publications like Paris Match, Life, Berlin Illustrite, among others.

Paris attracted him, because the city matched his hectic life. He worked with the lights and shadows of the city, while capturing with his camera, everything what the common eye misses, developing what is called poetic realism, which is related to capture the subjectivity implicit in a situation to display bare emotions and the psychology of the characters and the density of the environments in a single image.

In 1941 he was appointed photo editor of the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. This opened him a window, both to his work, as well as to other emerging photographers internationally known as Robert Frank or the Hungarian Gyula Halász, better known as Brassaï. From that moment, his works began to be structured in more complex ways, giving life to his book Islands of the Gods, which was published on his 11 months touring Bali, Singapore, Sumatra and Java.

His constant struggle to give the photography a prominent place among other arts, led him to participate in the formation of the Kollegium Schweizerischer Photographen, through he sought to position the photography as a proper expression of arts, since it works primarily in aesthetics, requires a long creative process and creates a tension in the viewer. Many photographers enrolled in the Kollegium, including a host of top Swiss photographers who accompany Schuh’s work in this retrospective of his work, for  the first time presented in Spain.

For more information: http://www.exposicionesmapfrearte.com/schuh/

Nancy Guzman

It’s a wonderful time of year to rent apartments in Madrid make up your mind and take those vacations that you deserve!

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Translated by: Hans
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Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was one of the leading figures of the Romanticism, revolutionary artist, innovator of classical and neoclassical style, which led him to earn harsh criticism at the beginning of his career, is without doubt one of the greatest French painters of the early twentieth century and of all time.

Delacroix was a so important artist that he was the first painter of the century, who challenged the strict rules of neoclassical art, inspiring painters such as Van Gogh. Delacroix was therefore a founding artist of style, and a great influence for the Impressionists. He was initially classified as neoclassical, although later he was recognized as the founder of the Romantic Movement, which took place in the first 30 years of the twentieth century. Two of his most famous works are: “Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi” painting that is part of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Bordeaux, and the “Women of Algiers in their apartment” which is part of the Louvre Museum, these two works are featured in the exhibition you can visit from the 23rd of October in Madrid CaixaForum. Besides these pictures, there are about 100 works by the painter, which also includes lithographs and his famous paintings done in North Africa.

The exhibition is part of a collaboration agreement between “la Caixa” and the Louvre Museum, the largest ever conducted in Spain so far, it exposes almost all of the artist’s work with some lectures and specialized guides. If your next destination is Madrid, do not miss it, as it will be on display until the 15^th of January, so you have plenty of time to get to know the work of this great French artist.

For more information visit: http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforummadrid/eugenedelacroix_es.html

Luz Obscura

Spending your holidays this year in Madrid, is an excellent idea, considering that you can visit the CaixaForum and get to know all the work of Delacroix. Rent apartments in Madrid and enjoy the city like you’re in your own home.

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Translated by: Hans
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December is a month for a family trip and Madrid is the ideal place to stroll around looking at the beautiful decorated windows and lights of the city that are multiplied. So if you’ve made your decision, here we will make recommendations on how to make this trip a fun and unforgettable adding of great moments.

To start a true urban adventure, the Plaza Mayor is the ideal place, because that is the heart of Madrid and the origin of its history, so the guys will be glad to know  if you tell them that it  was the epicenter of the time of the Inquisition, when any disobedience to authority was a matter of accusation of witchcraft, therefore, subjected to punishment. their curiosity will be satisfied knowing that the surrounding buildings were built in the eighteenth century.

The churros, chocolate and Madrid are one single thing, so you can not refuse to take them to the famous San Ginés chocolate factory, located in the gallery that bears this name, in the center. Here they can enjoy the thick chocolate drippings of  these wonderful culinary creations.

To add excitement the children have the Madrid Amusement Park located in the Casa de Campo. There fantasy lives the with more daring rides. For that there are five areas full of interesting diversions: Grand Avenue, the area of ​​nature, the machine zone, a children’s area and the space of Tranquility. With your children can enjoy the dazzling roller coaster, the flying chairs and the  classic carousel dating from 1929. For the smaller ones there are the mini pirate ship or the mini shuttle as well as other fun mini games. Buying tickets online will get you a small discount which is not bad in these times of crisis

A place that has thought of everything to give you privileged attention over lunch or dinner, is the family restaurant. Here adults and children enjoy eating what they like best. For children there is a special menu that has a bit of everything: pasta, chicken, French fries, croquettes, etc.., While adults eat gourmet Mediterranean specialties. Parents can have dinner and rest from a tiring day as  kids can retreat to the playground where there are play stations, pool balls, stories and entertainers that will keep them entertained. It also has a lactation room and toilets for the children. This wonderful place  is located in the Plaza de las Encinas 10 /11 and do not worry about the prices, because they are adapted to a normal pocket.

If kids are old enough to ride a bicycle, one of the best ways to visit the city is to take a city tour that takes them to see the major milestones of the city  in a safe and fun way. For that there are several companies that provide this services, including BravoBike, which can take you by the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, the  Plaza Cibeles, Puerta del Sol, Puerta de Alcalá, among other many  wonders of the city.

Nancy Guzman

Do not delay renting apartments in Madrid fun is waiting in this wonderful city that is elegantly dressed up in December.

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Translated by: Marc
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The need to revise classic painting today serves as a trail to understand how the outlooks that we had and have articulate still on some key political factors, especially understanding that the work and its processes are already paused, or even, frozen in the matter of the object, which don’t have more to give unless they’re physically intervened by other characters. This will never happen to a Picasso, Rembrandt, Manet or Delacroix. Let’s say, there’s no way to have carte blanche to intervene the works that are, as of today, classics of painting.

We’re then left with manipulating the look if we can’t manipulate the work, recognizing that everything is invented in all arts, but that our explorations, interpretations and perspectives are the ones that change. Once a work of art is accomplished, they unleash it to the world and, facing the world, it doesn’t do more than sustain itself in a long corridor of mirrors which self-reflect facing oblivion. There isn’t a mistaken interpretation but there are different resources with every generation to deal with the works of art in another way, and manipulate them with discourses.

The exhibition of Delacroix at the Caixa Forum is an interesting chance to get to know closely the work of this important painter. As well as some classic pieces, we have to mention a series of engravings on the story of Faust. In these images, Delacroix unravels the story of Dr Faust and his efforts to conquer Margaret. Maybe these are some of the most interesting pieces of the whole exhibition, because they show with great detail the precision of the drawings of Delacroix and his huge symbolism. Also, the exhibition at Caixa Forum presents different notes from bigger paintings; exercises in progress, drawings, stains, paintings and volumes where you can get to see closer and better the processes of the artist.

In this sense, maybe the mistake of the exhibition is that they only present annotations without their original counterparts. Having a perspective of the progress of creation of the artist is undoubtedly essential to get to know his interests and aesthetics better. However, without the end product of these exercises, it’s a bit difficult to have better understanding of the aforementioned process.

Any exhibition, museum or gallery, is an ideal space to understand the mechanisms of contemporary art, classic art or ancient art. The disposal of the works in the space also calls for attention on the interests of the museum, the loans made, their origin and the history of the object itself and its translations, which in these cases is pretty important to take into account. For more information on the exhibition, visit the official Madrid Caixa Forum webpage by clicking here: http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforummadrid/caixaforummadrid_es.html

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Madrid and enjoy its great range of galleries and museums. Delacroix is one of the most important French romantic artists of the 19th century, don’t miss this chance of getting to know his work better.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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On the 21^st of December the electronic pop band Junior Boys will offer a concert at the Penelope room in Madrid. This concert by these Canadian musicians in Spain, is part of the end-of-the-year touring. They come with the best their repertoire to delight their fans.

Junior Boys, is the duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark. Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, they began in 1999 the musical adventure of creating a sound that would unleash a sophisticated style of electro-pop music. After years of work, adverse situations, failures, twists and turns, they managed to create a good demo and distribute it up to the KIN Records 2002. What they saw in that demo was the creative and musical quality that has led them to be among the best known bands of electro. But Johnny Dark resigned from the duo for consider it an economic failure and was Jeremy who continue the Junior Boys’ journey alone.

A meeting with the engineer Matt Didemus, led Jeremy to create new songs that he gathered in an album, famous for its perfection in sound and tone. In 2003 they surprised the music market with their album Birthday Last Exit.

The following year they released a new album High Come Down, which reaffirmed their ability to work with the creation of a quality product, two successful albums in a row. While keeping on working, they launched a new edition of that album with Manitoba (caribou) with whom they have embarked on several tours.

During mid-2006 they released the remix The Loving Sounds of Statics of the Mobius Band. In this album the Idol Tryouts2 compilation appeared, and the song Ghostly International, songs that have marked the road map of this group in the electro-pop scene.

Their next album, So This Is Goodbye was successfully launched in August 2006 by the Records label. Creativity has been a constant in the history of Junior Boys, that they even created a video contest among their fans for the album’s release. The idea was that the video creators used  their creations with any song soundtrack from the album and the winner won a thousand dollars in cash.

For more information http://www.nvivo.es/conciertos/Junior+Boys-Madrid

Nancy Guzman

If there is something good to do in December, that is to rent apartments in Madrid and enjoy unrestricted access to the beautiful days of late fall and early winter, while taking advantage of holiday shopping.

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Translated by: Hans
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At the scene of male homosexuality there are no beauty standards, but there are various subcultures with very different styles. One of the most active, are the bears and hypermasculine gay, both muscular and with a prominent fat belly, but in any case, with a considerably hairy face and body. The bears have their own premises in most European cities, who come not only hairy bears but also “admirers of bears” (known as hunters and chasers), who have nothing to answer themselves about bear aesthetic criteria, but admiration for the show look normal male hairy bears.

Spain celebrates several festivals dedicated to bears and chasers, but one of the most famous, takes place every December in Madrid and it is called Madbear 2011 (or, more precisely, the 11th International Meeting of Bears, Chubbies, Chasers and Admirers ). The party will take no less than five nights and six days from Tuesday the 6^th to Sunday the 11^th of December. The chosen dates are not accidental, but respond to the traditional holiday of the Constitution, the longest of the year – Tuesday and Thursday holidays.

This will certainly make this event to attract, as every year, more than 4000 bears and admirers from all over Europe, making the meeting in the most important bearish event of the year. The big party on Saturday is usually the busiest, by having performances, gogos, darkroom and a certain number of different surprises.

The program Madbear 2011 offers a number of cultural and festive activities, contests, trips, gastronomic events, visits to bars, clubs and saunas. The route through bears bars in Madrid include venues such as Fuel, the Bears Bar, Fraggel Pop, The Cage, Odarko, The Paso and many others … And among the clubs that will be collaborative: But The But room, the Coco Room and the famous Chang room, Located at Covarrubias street, where the big party on Saturday will take place this year. No shortage of opportunities to dance, not only thanks to the guest DJs (like the always spectacular DJ Binomio, who is the resident DJ), but also during the concert on Friday, the Ejector, electronic duo consisting of Ben Holder and Ricky Terry, 2010 winners of the best live in San Francisco.

A curious event held every year is the Osobus route, a tourist minibus reserved exclusively for attendees of the event through the streets of Madrid for two hours allowing a different and original visit to the city.

Josep Lapidario

Madbear is expected to be especially crowded this year, so we recommend to all readers with a taste for gay hairly bodies and hypermasculinity, not to wait too long to purchase your tickets on the website of the organizers … After this procedure, find apartments in Madrid to ensure an unforgettable week with good company!

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Translated by: Hans
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Andreas Fogarasi is a contemporary artist. Born in 1977 in Vienna,  today he is known in the art world for his achievements as an architect, designer and above all, as an innovator.

This artist has won several international awards for art such as a Lion d’Or in the 52e Biennale de Venice, among others. That is why his works are exhibited throughout the world. This time, the exhibition “The city of color – Vasarely Go Home” has come to Madrid and will be exhibited at the Museo Reina Sofia from September 2011 to January 2012.

There, visitors can admire the work of Andreas Fogarasi and understand his concept of man, society and life in general. The wonderful thing is how the artist relates simplicity with complexity, big things with small ones  by presenting installations and sculptures which can be as minimalist as they are extravagant.

Another very valuable feature of this young artist is that he gives a tremendous value to the story. Although his works are modern, they reveal a sublimity that crossed several centuries of different arts, of great tragedies and wonderful inventions. This is what distinguishes Fogarasi of many other artists.

The name of his exposition is determined by history and by the unconditional love that Fogarasi feels for art and artists. “Vasarely Go Home” is the centerpiece of this show, a documentary about the opening of Vasarely’s work in Budapest. There, another artist also wanted to be a protagonist making the environment change by  lifting a sign reading “Go Home Vasarely.”

For more information on the exhibiting times.

http://vasarelygohome.museoreinasofia.es/esp/andreas_fogarasi.html

d.b

Visiting the Reina Sofia Museum by the hand of the Andreas Fogarasi exposition “The city of color – Vasarely Go Home” is a beautiful gift you can give to yourself if you rent apartments in Madrid and you find yourself longing for a good refreshing cultural ride

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Translated by: Marc
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The Sorolla Museum, which is located in Madrid, presents an exhibition where they show the influence that Granada had on the work of Joaquín Sorolla. At the exhibition you’ll be able to enjoy 24 paintings that the artist from Valencia made of this particular city and the Alhambra, although they’ll also present the original letters that he sent and received from his wife and friends that he had in the region.

Joaquín Sorolla went to Granada on four occasions. Firstly in 1902, then in 1909 and, finally in 1917. Despite that in 1902 he was in the city for a brief period, he totally fell in love with it and it left a big mark in his interior. For that reason he decided to go back the other times to be able to capture the place in his work. In total he ended up painting 50 of them which had the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada as main protagonists. Out of those 50, the Sorolla Museum possesses 24.

But the city didn’t only leave a print in his interior and heavily influenced his art, but it also influenced his everyday life. It did in such a way that one of the gardens that Sorolla designed and that ended up surrounding his home was inspired in the Generalife. He himself decided to buy the myrtle for his hedges (some of them are still there today).

More information: http://museosorolla.mcu.es/exposiciones_temporales.html

Museo Sorolla: General Martínez Campos 37, 28010, Madrid

MiLK

All of these reasons give us an indication of how important the city was for Joaquín Sorolla. Those who want to enjoy the exhibition and see not only the 24 works of art but also the letters and other works at the Sorolla Museum, all they have to do is rent apartments in Madrid and, also, get to know one of the most beautiful cities in the world with a large quantity of places to see, like museums, different interesting activities and one of the best nightlifes in Europe, where you’ll be able to have a great time.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Without doubt, the return to musical activity of Noel Gallagher, who will offer his only concert on Spanish soil on the upcoming 26th of November in La Riviera in Madrid (http://www.salariviera.com/), together with the High Flying Birds, formed ex profeso for the occasion, could well be presented as one of the most highly awaited musical events of the year. But the question is, especially taking into account the crushing failure of Beady Eye, the band of his brother Liam, in the charts, that is there anyone who really expects anything of any substance today from the old leaders of the 90s superband Oasis.

Naturally, at least on the basis of his statements, so sadly predictable and unsubstantial, nobody could ever convince Noel Gallagher that he’s not one of the five or ten best songwriters of all time, and that the importance of Oasis could also be comparable to that one of The Beatles. But the truth is that, just as he explained in his first interview after two years of silence being away from the studios and the stages, people have stopped listening to his music. Noel thinks that the only reason for it is to attribute it to the fact that when someone acquires such great fame like Oasis did, the importance of the band in question is sociological, iconic, legendary even, so that the interest was in seeing them and listening to them, in having their albums and going to their concerts, and not in putting detailed attention into their work.

Basing himself on this argument, and despite the infused fears by the already mentioned catastrophe of Liam’s personal adventure, he relies and hopes that the public will now listen to his songs again, all of which seem so fabulous to him that he’s decided to go back to work releasing two albums in practically one go (it’s not important what can be said about him, because the fact that Noel has always been an amazingly prolific creator is undeniable).

What’s true is that, however, Oasis never were a band to listen carefully, but more of a band with catchy songs, all of which sounded like something already known, to sing along with friends in a bar in an advance drunken phase of the night on a weekend, and they had the luck or the bad luck to be used by the crushing media machine of Tony Blair’s New Labour to create a tailored sophisticated image of his very own Cool Britannia, turning the stimulating and incipient phenomenon of Brit Pop, lead by such brilliant bands like Suede, Pulp or Blur, into a parody of itself with great market projection.

Despite that Noel wrote the songs, it’s not easy to deny that the wild personality of the rebellious and incontrolable Liam was were the immense magnetism of the band resided, which means that Noel, taking into account his huge megalomania, is facing what’s probably the biggest challenge in his career.

Paul Oilzum

Check out for yourself if Noel, who has already shown his discontent for having to abandon the world of stadium concerts, will be up to the challenge when you rent apartments in Madrid on those dates.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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