From One Hamburger to Another: Lagerfeld Advises Merkel

The potential fashion offense in Oslo.

"Top designer Karl Lagerfeld has offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel fashion advice, recommending she wear better-designed legwear -- and unbutton her jacket. Merkel, whose typical outfit can be a single-coloured trousers and jackets got the benefit of the German-born designer's knowledge in the pages of Saturday's Focus news magazine. The 57-year-old German leader has been mocked by some critics as a mousy bumpkin from the former East Germany, but she made headlines when she revealed a plunging neckline during an opera performance in Oslo in 2008. 'Overall her dress code is okay but the cut should be more precise,' Paris-based Lagerfeld told Focus. 'And she should wear her jackets open over a blouse with better cut trousers.' Lagerfeld, who like Merkel was born in the northern port city of Hamburg, argued that this would allow her to 'move with more ease.'" [Source]

Hasmik Papian Gets Profiled by the Armenian Mirror-Spectator

In a new interview, soprano Hasmik Papian discusses her life beginning with playing the violin and transitioning to singing, her favorite role, when she will return to Armenia, being the mother of a 10-year old, restrictions of being an opera singer and her upcoming performances in La Gioconda. "'I won four international competitions and after the first one, the son of the great tenor, Mario Del Monaco, Giovanni, who was the head of Opera Bonn, [in Germany] heard me sing. Bonn, at that time, was the capital of Germany. If you sing well [ in a major city like that] it goes around quickly,' Papian said. She got a contract and started singing there. That was back in 1993. She started looking for opportunities at the end of her contract there. She was soon booked for a debut recital at the Vienna State Opera. 'I was there for rehearsals at 11 a.m. There was a big crowd at the artists’ entrance. I thought there must have been an accident, but it was only spectators who had come to my rehearsals. They came to wish me good luck. After

With Karl Lagerfeld

my debut, I decided if I could not live in Yerevan, this is the place I would love to live,' she recalled. While she called Yerevan her 'beloved city,' Papian said that Vienna has, hands-down, the 'best audiences.' In fact, she said, the government does much to promote opera, and the art form is so identified with the city that there are planeloads of Japanese tourists who come for the weekend to attend a single performance. She added, 'I never left Armenia. I almost look at [my absence] as a business trip.' She noted that she goes back every year and added she plans to live in Armenia at the end of her career. As for her favorite stage, she said Metropolitan Opera in New York City 'is one of the best stages in the world.'" [Source] Visit the soprano's official website here.