The hunt is on for Spain's missing €4.7m lottery winner

A Good Samaritan found the winning ticket and handed it in to authorities, rather than claiming the huge winnings. Now the search is on in the Galicia region of Spain for the actual lucky winner.

The lucky numbers were 10, 17, 24, 37, 40 and 43 and the prize a whopping €4.7 million ($6.27 million).

The search is on for the lucky lottery winner in the city of La Coruña in north-western Spain whose ticket was found by an honest man on a different lottery stand in the city.

The numbers were drawn on June 30, 2012, but prize has gone unclaimed ever since. Now everyone in the region of Galicia is wondering who the lucky winner actually is.

According to Spanish daily La Voz de Galicia, the honest man who handed in the winning ticket is one Manuel Reija González, who might just be rewarded for his honesty if the true winner is not found within the next two years.

 Strangely, Rieja himself has been a lottery ticket seller for 30 years, and unless someone can provide key information on the winning ticket itself, he will be a lucky man indeed and will receive the full payout.

 To discourage false claimants, Spain’s National Lottery has revealed very little on the multimillion euro ticket in a bid to make absolutely sure they have the right person.

All that is known about the unsuspecting millionaire is that he or she probably played regularly and did the rounds when buying lottery tickets, as the ticket was found at a different shop to that which originally sold it.

So far, only one man has "tried his luck" to claim the prize and, as the police in Galicia have come to expect, was not the actual winner.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/358517

National Library of Spain discovers rare fragment of Vicenzo Bellini score

Spain's National Library (BNE) announced on Wednesday the discovery of a rare fragment of an opera score, handwritten by 19th century Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini - an outline of seven bars of notes from a duet in the opera "Il Pirata" (The Pirate).

The manuscript was found lying within the archives in "La Biblioteca Nacional de España", Spain's National Library (BNE).

According to BNE, the find, consisting of a single page, shows an outline of seven bars of notes from a duet in the opera "Il Pirata" (The Pirate) and was a rough draft for a small part of the duet scene 'Tu m'Apristi in Cor Ferita' (the original version of which is included below).

The opera debuted at Milan's "La Scala" on October 27, 1827.

An image of the manuscript is included at the foot of this article. 

As proof of its authenticity, the manuscript has annotations at the bottom of the page and a phrase written in the right-hand margin: "Manuscript of Vincenzo Bellini and his brothers Mario and Carmelo". 

The library said in a statement (in Spanish) that this phrase was commonly used as a form of authentication on manuscripts sought after by 19th century collectors of "relics" of the most memorable composers. 

This newly discovered Bellini manuscript is unusual, as the notes do not correspond exactly to the final score of "Il Pirata", even though there were barely any changes.

"This rarity makes it of even more interest from a musicological point of view," the library said. The statement continued that this fragment was found after the library's catalog service requested identification of a "sheet of music bound in an album of 19th century photographs and drawings with landscapes of Malta and Sicily." 

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) was born in Catania, Sicily and is said to have composed his first pieces at six years old. Bellini wrote sacred and chamber music but his greatest popular successes came with operas such as "Il Pirata", "La Straniera" (1828) and his most famous work "Norma" (1831). Bellini died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33 on September 23, 1835, nine months after the premiere of his last opera, "I puritani."

With this important find, Spain's National Library has joined the ranks of Catania's Museo Belliniano, New York's Pierpont Morgan Library and the British Library as custodians of Bellini manuscripts. 

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/358637