Entertainment News Roundup: Just one concert at Baalbek Music Festival; Ennio Morricone dies aged 91 and more

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Just one concert held at Baalbek's ancient ruins this year as message of hope

The usually grand Baalbek Music Festival, set among 3,000-year-old Roman ruins in Lebanon, was reduced to just a single concert this year by the COVID-19 pandemic. For maestro Harout Fazlian, however, it was one of the most special of his career.

UK's Royal Mint celebrates singer Elton John with new commemorative coin

Elton John on Monday became the second artist to be honored by Britain's Royal Mint with a commemorative coin paying tribute to the decorated British singer-songwriter. The coin, designed by artist Bradley Morgan Johnson, depicts John's distinctive straw boater's hat, and fashions his trademark glasses out of a pair of musical notes.

UK pledges boost for the arts as it eyes socially distant performances

Britain will invest nearly $2 billion in the arts and hopes to allow outdoor and socially distanced performances at cultural venues as it tries to help a high-profile sector hit hard by the coronavirus. Spanning theatres in London's West End, opera houses and ballet companies putting on big-budget performances to provincial venues up and down the country, the industry is a prominent British export and popular among tourists and locals alike.

Italian film composer Ennio Morricone dies aged 91

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar-winning Italian composer whose haunting scores to Spaghetti Westerns like "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" helped define a cinematic era, died on Monday. He was 91. Morricone broke his femur 10 days ago and died at dawn in a clinic in Rome, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma told Reuters.

(With inputs from agencies.)