Italian opera singers have gone on a hunger strike over proposed government cuts in arts funding. “Culture minister Rocco Buttiglione has threatened to resign over the matter, while opera singers and others in Italy’s theatrical world came up with the idea of hunger strikes. Some people have gone on rotational one-day strikes, while others such as Vignudelli starved themselves for two weeks. She is also angry that Berlusconi claims La Scala employs too many people. Barbara Vignudelli has lost 13lb. ‘I am a person who is healthy and takes care of herself, so to do this is difficult,’ she said. ‘But it shows how strongly I feel’.”