Taylor Swift Apologizes To An Ex On 'Back To December' - MTV.com

On her new track "Back To December," which was released to digital-music outlets on Tuesday (October 12), Taylor Swift wants an ex to know she is really sorry for not giving him the love that he deserved.

While fans — who are already eager for her third album Speak Now, which comes out October 25 — will probably focus on guessing the subject of the ballad, it's important to note that "December" reveals a shift in Swift's songwriting. She laments the way she messed up her relationship with a seemingly perfect boyfriend, who now finds it hard to trust her.

She sings, "You've been good, busier than ever/ Small talk, work and the weather/ Your guard is up and I know why/ Because the last time you saw me/ It still burns in the back of your mind/ You gave me roses and I left them there to die."

When the chorus kicks in, Swift tries to make amends. "So this is me swallowing my pride/ Standing in front of you saying 'I'm sorry' for that night/ And I go back to December all the time/ It turns out freedom ain't nothing/ Missing you, wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine/ I'd go back to December, turn around and make it all right/ I go back to December all time."

Even Swift admits that this song reveals a new side. She told E!, "It addresses a first for me in that I've never apologized in song. The person I wrote this song about deserves this. This is about a person who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him."

This is the fourth song released in advance of Speak Now's late-October release. The release of the album's first official single, "Mine," was followed by the debut of "Innocent" at the VMAs in September. The album's title track debuted on October 5.

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Soprano's outsize voice dazzled the opera world - Washington Post

Joan Sutherland, one of the greatest operatic sopranos of her generation and creator of a legacy of recordings that remain unassailed benchmarks in the field, died Oct. 10 at her home near Geneva of undisclosed causes. She was 83.

Dubbed "La Stupenda" by Italian critics after her 1960 debut in Venice, the Australian-born Sutherland combined the vocal heft of a Wagnerian singer with the agility and high notes of a coloratura soprano.

She created powerful interpretations of great bel canto roles - the early 19th-century operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini - that had lain dormant for decades when Maria Callas began exploring them in the 1950s.

When Ms. Sutherland burst onto the scene with "Lucia di Lammermoor" in 1959, the repertory was hers for the taking.

One significant force in her development as a bel canto artist was Richard Bonynge, a pianist, vocal coach and fellow Australian with whom she performed in her youth.

After she went to London with prize money from a vocal competition to continue her studies, she re-encountered Bonynge, who helped her unlock and develop her upper register and rock-solid technical ability. He recognized that her voice, huge though it was, was better suited to the lyrical flights of a coloratura soprano than the belting of a Wagnerian one.

She married Bonynge in 1954, and he remained her artistic partner throughout her career, conducting most of her appearances and the majority of her legacy of recordings: Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Bellini's "I Puritani" and "La Sonnambula," and Handel's "Alcina" among them.

After rocketing onto the world stage with her "Lucia" successes, Ms. Sutherland was an immediate superstar - and therefore a target for critics. She was often taken to task for her poor acting and mushy diction, and for her insistence on appearing with Bonynge. But audiences seldom tired of her glorious floods of sound, supported by spot-on intonation, musicianship and breath support.

"Her trill, ah, there is her chief joy," wrote music critic Paul Hume in The Washington Post in 1961, when she arrived in town to give a recital of opera arias shortly after her triumphant debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. "She flashes it like a beacon guiding to safe harbor those who have longed to hear so even and natural a perfect thing."

Marilyn Horne, the American mezzo-soprano, Monday reminisced about Ms. Sutherland, with whom she appeared frequently throughout her career. "You have to know that it was an enormously big voice," Horne said. "In my entire life there were only a couple" of voices like that, she added. "When she sang and I was sitting in the hall, her voice went straight to my ear, as if she were singing in my ear."

Horne remembered sitting next to Ms. Sutherland before the concert performance of Bellini's "Beatrice di Tenda" that marked both singers' New York debuts. "Her [debut] was considerably more anticipated than mine," Horne observed dryly. "I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, her head is twice as big as mine. That unbelievable head, and all that resonance ruminating around in there."

Ms. Sutherland was somewhat sensitive about her size. In the early years of her stardom, she was delighted to encounter a lumpy young Italian tenor who had just made his debut in England, and who happened to be tall. His name was Luciano Pavarotti.

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‘Dancing With the Stars’: Week 4 is liiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Image Credit: Kelsey McNeal/ABCWelcome back, DANCMSTRs! It’s week 4, and the ballroom has been transformed for the series’ first-ever Acoustic Week! The contestants have traipsed through the audience instead of down the technicolor stairs, Corky Ballas has adopted Nicole Scherzinger’s “hang loose” hand gesture to show he is ready to go, and Bristol Palin forgot to put on pants! It’s going to be a Week 4 like never before!

Anyway, I need to go focus on the show. Come back in the morning for my full recap. [UPDATE: Click here, as my full recap is liiive!] Discuss the week 4 performances of Dancing With the Stars here and nominate your Hidden Gems of the Week in the comments. And don’t miss Derek’s weekly EW.com check-in!

Read more:
Week 4: Derek Hough on choreography methods, mirrorball storage
Hidden Gems of the Week: The finest reader-submitted ridiculata in all the land!
Week 3 Elimination Recap: Waste the Rainbow
Week 3 Performance Recap: The Hills are Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett

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Oprah 'disappointed' over trial - The Press Association

Oprah 'disappointed' over trial(UKPA) – 4 hours ago

Oprah Winfrey has said she is "profoundly disappointed" after a woman accused of abusing teenagers at the talk show host's school for girls in South Africa was acquitted.

Prosecutors had accused former school matron Tiny Virginia Makopo of trying to kiss and fondle the girls. Among the 14 charges, she also accused of assaulting one of the teens as well as a fellow supervisor.

"She was found not guilty on all of the charges," said prosecutor Etienne Venter, adding that the state would not seek an appeal, according to Sapa news agency.

Mthunzi Mhaga, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, said: "The magistrate indicated that the state did not prove itself case beyond reasonable doubt on all the charges. We won't be appealing the judgment."

The scandal erupted at Oprah's 40 million dollar Leadership Academy near Johannesburg soon after it opened in 2007.

Oprah said she appreciated efforts by the prosecutor and police and treating the girls with utmost care and respect.

At the time, Oprah said she had been "shaken to the core" by the sexual abuse claims, calling the episode one of the most devastating of her life.

She said on Monday the school's staff are "committed to providing a nurturing educational environment so that all of our girls may continue to flourish. And they are indeed thriving".

Copyright © 2010 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

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'Chase': Worth a second look?

After poking fun of Chase for being a generically titled adventure show, I have a confession: I’ve watched every episode. I know what it’s trying to be — Justified with a woman, complete with daddy-issues — and I know that on those terms, it’s a failure. But if you watch it just for the (duh) chase scenes, which are skillfully staged, and for the way star Kelli Giddish’s mouth turns as southward as her twangy accent, it can be fun.

Grim fun, to be sure, as was proven this week, when House refugee Jennifer Morrison guest-starred as a rootin’-tootin’ delusional woman. On the lam, clutching a gun and little girl’s hand, Morrison was very good in a tricky role.

It’s unlikely that Giddish’s U.S. Marshal Annie Frost is going to last longer on Monday nights at 10 p.m. than Alex O’Loughlin’s   Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O — Hawaii is way more popular, and it’s got a far more lively supporting cast than the collection of cliches that surround Marshal Frost. But Chase always features at least one amusingly elaborate chase scene, such as this evening’s climactic moment when Annie hung from the cab of a big truck as though she was acting in a silent-film comedy choreographed by Buster Keaton.

And in one guest spot on Chase, Morrison was given more opportunities to display various emotions than she was during her final seasons on House.

Is anyone watching Chase?

Follow: @kentucker

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