The centenary of the death of Isaac Albéniz, one of Spain's greatest composers, has been something of an anticlimax. But if you are a music lover and find yourself on Madrid's Gran Vía, you could take a moment to seek out this plaque marking the house which was his family's home at Calle San Onofre, 4, off Calle Fuencarral. The plaque was unveiled today by Madrid's mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, about whom I have many bad things to say - the public works for which he is responsible have been a major bane in my life for several years, now - but who is a real melomaniac. This is fitting, for he is in fact the great-grandson* of Isaac Albéniz.

No, that's nothing to do with Iraq. The Sala Bagdad, Barcelona's cathedral of erotic entertainment, is to open a branch in Madrid in November, reports El País. It will fill a gap, for however mind-boggling Madrid's nightlife may be, Barcelona has always had the edge on it when it comes to "adult" entertainment, and the Bagdad is legendary even there.

Entrance to Spain's Prado Museum is now cheaper if you book over the Internet or by phone than if you turn up on the doorstep. From May 15th, 2009, the charge at the door changes from €6 to €8, while the remote booking fee is being lowered from €9 to €7. The new price structure is both more rational and fairer, so three cheers for the Prado management. See the next page for more of this story.

The Sleeping Beauty. Victorian Painting from The Museo de Arte de Ponce
Prado Museum, Madrid. February 24 - May 31, 2009.

Visitors to Madrid's Museo del Prado have the chance to see a small collection of top-class nineteenth-century British paintings and other works from the Museum of Art of Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded by the remarkable engineer, industrialist and politician, Luis A. Ferré, in 1959. Ferré's achievements as an art collector include the acquisition of the enormous The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon by Edward Burne-Jones, a magnum opus in every sense, and the rescue from oblivion of the painting Flaming June by Frederic, Lord Leighton, when the Tate Gallery, in its own words, "turned down the chance to buy it for £1000" in the 60's. These and other works are out on loan while the Ponce Museum of Art is closed for re-modelling and, in 2008, Flaming June was ironically on display at the Tate. More of this story.