Musical stars to shine on behalf of UNICEF
UNICEF will celebrate 50 years of commitment to the world's needy children on November 20 with a "gala evening" at the Great Hall of Istropolis in Bratislava. Peter Dvorský, the world-renowned opera tenor who resigned from the Slovak National Theater last month, will host a panoply of pop-stars and an astral array of artists, from composer Max Menšík, playwright Tomaš Janovic and opera soprano Lúbica Rybárska to pop-singers Vašo Patejdľ, Peter Nagy, and Palo Habera. Also performing will be children's dance groups and a children's choir. The one-and-a-half-hour show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets cost 120-350 Sk for different sections of the auditorium, and may be purchased at Istropolis starting November 6, tel. 07/215-515, or drop by the Great Hall at Trnavské mýto 1, Bratislava.
International Christmas Bazaar to aid charities
C The International Women's Clubwill host a global crossroads of cultural crafts and cuisine at the 6th Annual Christmas Bazaar at Bratislava's Hotel Danube on Sunday, November 17. Emilia Kováčová, the wife of President Michal Kováč and an activist in her own right, will open the day's program, which includes an exotic bake sale, international and Slovak art and crafts, and a second-hand clothing sale. An hourly raffle will draw anything from a free case of beer to dinner for two at the Hotel Danube's Pressbourg Restaurant. The grand prize drawing, for 50 Sk, is a pair of round-trip tickets to "any destination in Europe" on the Hungarian airline, Malev, courtesy of Academia Tours.
Last year's bazaar raised 200,000 Sk for Slovak charities including Slovak Children's Hope, a civic association for neglected and abandoned children, and Children at Risk, a foundation centered in Petržalka to provide drug counselling for teenagers. For more information, contact Nancy Trautman at tel. 07/531-5954 or Gail Klevana at 531-3979.
American choreographer's ballet hits Bratislava
The Slovak National Theater (SND) this month presents "Children of The Titanic," the first ballet by acclaimed American choreographer Christopher d'Amboise to premier in Europe. Conceived by Slovak composer and film director Dušan Rapoš, the ballet is "a tragic love story with an anti-drug sub-plot, created especially to speak to young people." Bratislava's Steps Foundation organized the project, the first collaboration between SND and a choreographer of D'Amboise's international repute. The show opens on November 15 and closes the following night at the SND. For more, contact Robert Meško, director of the Steps Foundation, at tel. 07/534-0000.
Canadian ambassador tours central Slovakia
Alain Dudoit, the Prague-based Canadian Ambassador to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, pays a visit to the heart of Slovakia November 5-7. Dudoit's trip to Banská Bystrica and to nearby Banská Štiavnica includes meeting with Banská Bystrica's mayor Igor Presperín, and with the rector of Mátej Bel University, where Dudoit will offer Canada's perspective on European Union integration and NATO enlargement in a lecture to students.
E-mail bulletin available from the British Council
The British Council extends its operations into cyberspace this fall with an e-mail bulletin. Eva Sodomová, information and systems manager at the Bratislava Council, says the service will provide bytes on seminars and English language courses, professional conferences, post-graduate scholarships, study-stays, and new acquisitions in the Management and Information Center (MAGIC) to complement the Council's nationwide archive of reference materials. "I hope it will help people who were complaining about delays," said Sodomová. For more, contact her on-line: Eva.Sodomova@bc-bratislava.sprint.com.
SAIA book-gifts program
The Slovak Academic Information Agency (SAIA), in conjunction with the Sabre Foundation, has embarked on a nationwide book-gifts program. New titles in the catalog of books for sale at each of SAIA's six offices around the country take up four pages of the brochure, and embrace every conceivable human interest. Marcela Doceková, the program's coordinator in Bratislava, says overseas donor-organizations this year supplied enough literary provender to keep the horn of plenty brimming through November. For more, contact her at tel. 07/533-5215.
