Actor Ralph Fiennes will make his opera directing debut in Paris next season with Tchaikovsky's “Eugene Onegin.”
The Paris Opera said Wednesday the production will run from Jan. 26 to Feb. 27 at the Palais Garnier and will star Boris Pinkhasovich in the title role, Ruzan Mantashyan as Tatiana, Bogdan Volkov as Lensky and Susan Graham as Madame Larina.
Fiennes, 62, has been nominated for three Academy Awards — most recently, this year, for “Conclave” — and one Emmy Award. The British actor won a Tony Award in 1995 for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Fiennes starred in the title role of the 1999 movie “Onegin,” based on the same Alexander Pushkin novel as the opera. The film was directed by his sister Martha Fiennes.
Semyon Bychkov will conduct most of the performances. Michael Levine designs the sets and Annemarie Woods the costumes.
The Paris Opera 2025-26 season will have new productions of Verdi's “Aida,” Wagner's “Die Walküre and ”Siegfried" and Antonia Bembo's “Ercole amante.”
Revivals include Claus Guth's staging of Puccini's “La Bohème,” moved to a spaceship and planet surface and John Adams' “Nixon in China” with Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson.
FILE - Ralph Fiennes appears at the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 23, 2025. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Denny Hamlin took the lead coming out of the pits before a final overtime finish and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.
Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville and for the fifth time overall at Darlington, the most of any current driver.
Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.
Hamlin looked like he'd have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.
It was then time for Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.
Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin's JGR teammate Bell in third.
“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.
Reddick was fourth and Blaney was fifth. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch.
Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.
“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It's all about them.”
Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson's spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won."
So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.
“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.
But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.
Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.
Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.
Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.
“I went to the hangar and the power was out,” Biffle said. “We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place."
Biffle then flew the next 11 days from “sunup to sundown."
“It was incredible,” Biffle said. “It was pretty tough going for the first week.”
Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.
The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.
AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing
Former driver Greg Biffle checks out the pace car before the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo/Scott Kinser)
Former driver Greg Biffle poses with the pace car before the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo/Scott Kinser)
NASCAR crew chief Matt Kelley walks out to pit road before the Goodyear 400, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo/Scott Kinser)
Fans sign the start/finish line at before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo/Scott Kinser)
