His easy stage presence, comic timing and small but perfectly formed voice (combining lightly-sprung agility with a distinctive sweetness of tone), were ideal for what became his signature role, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. He was widely admired as well for his Mozart and bel canto roles. - Presto Music
CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism. - The New Yorker
With open letters and festival speeches referencing Gaza, the Trump administration, the Ukraine war, and #MeToo in France’s film industry, an event which used to make a point of avoiding politics in favor of cinema for its own sake “appears to be storming the barricades.” - The Hollywood Reporter
In other words, positive music increased the likelihood of recalling stories with added positive elements, and negative music increased the likelihood of negative elaborations. - PsyPost
Australia’s largest performing arts company confirmed its Sydney winter season and its much-hyped run of Sunset Boulevard failed to meet box office forecasts but it had sold out its summer season off the back of La Traviata and The Magic Flute. - Sydney Morning Herald
British historians were able to verify the document’s true authenticity after an academic stumbled across the item while looking through Harvard Law School’s online archives. - CNN
Unsurprisingly, considering his decades with New York experimental-theater legends the Wooster Group (which will perform at the Biennale), Dafoe is focusing on the avant-garde, with work by directors Thomas Ostermeier and Milo Rau. Says Dafoe, “Some of these pieces will sail, some won’t. What’s important is people talking about stuff.” - The Guardian
In L.A. he has a venue like no other in Disney Hall. The L.A. Phil is an orchestra more flexible than any other, and in L.A. Salonen has benefited from daring administrations able to afford Salonen’s effort to create an orchestra for a new era — a promise the San Francisco Symphony couldn’t, or wouldn’t, deliver....
Specifically, the bill, HB 1375, authored by state Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, would hold bookstores legally liable for the "distribution, transmission, or display of harmful material to a minor." - WFAA
Used-book stores or vintage-record shops, where hidden gems lurk like geodes waiting to be split open, play a role, too. Such venues don’t just preserve art; they bring enthusiasts together, spark conversations and cultivate new audiences. - The New York Times
“A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February. … Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the (stabbing) of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event.” - AP
When students, and school boards, ask, Why history? What are we supposed to be getting out of this? the best answer is still that one word: judgment. We demand it of all professionals: doctors, lawyers, chefs, and quarterbacks. And we need it most in the profession of citizen.
That might seem like an obvious rule for voters of any award: View the works you’re judging. But when I recently spoke with several Academy members about the new condition, the lack of consensus about how to judge a movie was striking. - The Atlantic
Among those amendments, buried on page 380 of the draft, is a section that would enable Trump’s secretary of the Treasury to denounce any nonprofit as a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip it of its tax-exempt status. - The Intercept
“It was 5:45 pm on Friday, May 2, when Megan Kiskaddon, executive director of Seattle’s On the Boards, learned that the grant for that night’s performance had been rescinded. … The National Endowment for the Arts was now taking back the $20,000 they’d pledged for the co-commission.” - Dance Magazine
“The Kunstmuseum Basel …, which has housed Self-Portrait with Glasses (1903) since 1945, is re-examining the work following claims that it may have been painted not by Gauguin, but by a Vietnamese revolutionary and close acquaintance after the artist’s death.” - Artnet
“Organisers of the Picture from Auschwitz project said they have harnessed ‘cutting-edge 3D scanning technologies’ to build a digital model of the concentration camp … ‘down to every single brick’.” Yet to come are accurate digital replicas of the gas chambers and crematoria as well as scanning the adjacent Birkenau site. - The Guardian
“The union, which they’re calling the ‘Kennedy Center United Arts Workers,’ would be in partnership with … the UAW. It would consist of nonsupervisory employees from artistic programming, education, marketing and development departments, along with administrators of the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
Charter Communications is the country’s second-largest cable company after Comcast; Cox is also among the largest. … Charter’s footprint includes New York City and Los Angeles, while Cox is a major player in Boston, Phoenix and New Orleans.” The company will be called Cox Communications; Spectrum will be its consumer-facing brand. - The Hollywood Reporter
“In a career that spanned more than 50 years, (the three-time Tony winner) wrote more than a dozen Broadway musicals, as well as film scores and ‘Those Were the Days,’ the theme song for the sitcom All in the Family,” starring Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker. - AP
In other words, positive music increased the likelihood of recalling stories with added positive elements, and negative music increased the likelihood of negative elaborations. - PsyPost
When he started at Columbia as a sophomore this past September, he didn’t worry much about academics or his GPA. “Most assignments in college are not relevant,” he told me. “They’re hackable by AI, and I just had no interest in doing them.” - New York Times (MSN)
For what it’s worth, most Americans share this sense of declinism when it comes to movies, music, and TV, telling pollsters that these things peaked somewhere between the 1970s and the 2000s. - Noahpinion
Even our educational institutions often teach critical thinking as a weapon to dismantle others’ arguments rather than a tool for examining our own. The skill we most desperately need is the very one we’ve neglected to cultivate: the ability to hold our own certainties in suspension. - Psyche
There are many in the humanities, and even more outside the humanities, who would argue that what is important to assess are thoughts, ideas, creative capacity itself, and that being nitpicky about ChatGPT wrongly shifts the focus to what is essentially just a matter of words. - The Point
Among those amendments, buried on page 380 of the draft, is a section that would enable Trump’s secretary of the Treasury to denounce any nonprofit as a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip it of its tax-exempt status. - The Intercept
“The union, which they’re calling the ‘Kennedy Center United Arts Workers,’ would be in partnership with … the UAW. It would consist of nonsupervisory employees from artistic programming, education, marketing and development departments, along with administrators of the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
In an ongoing attempt to erase victims’ stories of Argentina’s dictatorship under Jorge Rafael Videla, President Javier Milei has started closing art spaces. - The Art Newspaper
The $15 million donation from billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin will support the creation of two new galleries focused on America’s founding principles, the separation of powers, and federalism, said Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center president and CEO. - Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
We are in a cultural moment where critical thinking has become synonymous with cynicism. Our government and larger media have spent decades telling us that the anxiety and desperation and deep loneliness that characterize most of American life doesn’t ultimately matter when the economy is doing great. - Harper's Bazaar
The decision, issued in a case brought by 21 state attorneys general, ruled that Trump’s executive order to close the agency violates the separation of powers doctrine and Administrative Procedures Act and ordered the rehiring of all terminated employees and restoration of all cancelled funding. - Publishers Weekly
Australia’s largest performing arts company confirmed its Sydney winter season and its much-hyped run of Sunset Boulevard failed to meet box office forecasts but it had sold out its summer season off the back of La Traviata and The Magic Flute. - Sydney Morning Herald
In L.A. he has a venue like no other in Disney Hall. The L.A. Phil is an orchestra more flexible than any other, and in L.A. Salonen has benefited from daring administrations able to afford Salonen’s effort to create an orchestra for a new era — a promise the San Francisco Symphony couldn’t, or...
While viewers watch the introductory videos known as postcards, dozens of people swarm the stage. Thirty-five seconds to get one set of performers off and put the next ones in the right place, make sure everyone has the right microphones and earpieces and the props are in place and tightly secured. - BBC
A growing wave of performers — like German pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati and Canadian folk singer Bells Larsen — have canceled shows in the States, either in protest of President Donald Trump’s policies or due to fear that they could be stopped or detained at the border amid confusing changes to immigration and visa practices. - WBEZ
Alexander Shelley, who was just 35 when he succeeded Pinchas Zukerman in 2015, will leave Ottawa in the summer of 2026 and begin his next job, music director of the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California. He is also artistic director of the arts center and orchestra in Naples, Florida. - Ottawa Citizen
The German conductor, currently Generalmusikdirektor of the Theater Freiburg, succeeds Martyn Brabbins, who resigned in 2023 to protest ENO management’s proposed elimination of 19 orchestral positions. While he starts immediately as Music Director Designate, de Ridder fully assumes the job in September 2027. - Opera Now
“The Kunstmuseum Basel …, which has housed Self-Portrait with Glasses (1903) since 1945, is re-examining the work following claims that it may have been painted not by Gauguin, but by a Vietnamese revolutionary and close acquaintance after the artist’s death.” - Artnet
“The imposing structure ... is visibly uneven in places, particularly the grand dome, which for hundreds of years has sat atop four columns of different dimensions. … The team will remove the lead covering the main dome and look for ways to strengthen the fragile joints between the semi-domes and the main cupola.” -...
Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent almost two years in a Russian penal colony as punishment for a notorious performance at Moscow’s Orthodox cathedral, will spend nine days inside a replica prison cell installed at the museum. Visitors can watch her eat, sleep, and so on through peep holes and a security camera feed. - The...
Some HBC records have provided a window into Canada’s climate history and ecology, offering valuable long-term data to environmental researchers. Others show evidence of Indigenous trade, land occupation and cultural presence relevant to genealogical research, band membership documentation and land claims. - The Conversation
The project — “Canal Café” by Diller Scofidio + Renfro — filters water from Venice’s notoriously polluted canals and lagoon through a series of filters that mimic the natural cleansing effect of a tidal wetland. Once the water is made drinkable, it’s used to make a classic shot of espresso. - Artnet
It was long thought the giant reflective pool in front of the statue of Athena acted as a mirror, sending light shimmering across its golden surface. The 3D model, however, showed the light barely reached her shins. - Artnet
British historians were able to verify the document’s true authenticity after an academic stumbled across the item while looking through Harvard Law School’s online archives. - CNN
Specifically, the bill, HB 1375, authored by state Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, would hold bookstores legally liable for the "distribution, transmission, or display of harmful material to a minor." - WFAA
Used-book stores or vintage-record shops, where hidden gems lurk like geodes waiting to be split open, play a role, too. Such venues don’t just preserve art; they bring enthusiasts together, spark conversations and cultivate new audiences. - The New York Times
When students, and school boards, ask, Why history? What are we supposed to be getting out of this? the best answer is still that one word: judgment. We demand it of all professionals: doctors, lawyers, chefs, and quarterbacks. And we need it most in the profession of citizen.
“’The Shameful Dream’ … is a short story about a Londoner named Caffery Bone. Fleming’s protagonist is the literary editor of Our World, a periodical designed to bring power and social advancement to Lord Ower,’ its owner. … (It) appears in this week’s Strand Magazine along with another obscure work, … Graham Greene’s ‘Reading at Night.’”...
On Capitol Hill, Democrats said Tuesday they did not believe that Blanche was the acting librarian — and Republicans, who have repeatedly deferred to Trump even as he has wrested control of federal spending from authorities, indicated that they wanted to maintain their power around the library. - Washington Post
With open letters and festival speeches referencing Gaza, the Trump administration, the Ukraine war, and #MeToo in France’s film industry, an event which used to make a point of avoiding politics in favor of cinema for its own sake “appears to be storming the barricades.” - The Hollywood Reporter
That might seem like an obvious rule for voters of any award: View the works you’re judging. But when I recently spoke with several Academy members about the new condition, the lack of consensus about how to judge a movie was striking. - The Atlantic
“Organisers of the Picture from Auschwitz project said they have harnessed ‘cutting-edge 3D scanning technologies’ to build a digital model of the concentration camp … ‘down to every single brick’.” Yet to come are accurate digital replicas of the gas chambers and crematoria as well as scanning the adjacent Birkenau site. - The Guardian
Charter Communications is the country’s second-largest cable company after Comcast; Cox is also among the largest. … Charter’s footprint includes New York City and Los Angeles, while Cox is a major player in Boston, Phoenix and New Orleans.” The company will be called Cox Communications; Spectrum will be its consumer-facing brand. - The Hollywood...
Efe Cakarel founded Mubi in 2007 to stream independent art films (“the auteurs’ platform”). Now it's a studio with an Oscar winner (The Substance) under its belt and four titles at Cannes this year. Cakarel wants to make Mubi into a full cinema ecosystem, with production, publishing, streaming and brick-and-mortar theaters. - Variety
“The future of our cohesive, democratic society feels for the first time in my life at risk. We have so much to be proud of in the UK: our tolerance, our innovative spirit, our creativity, our humour, our sense of fairness. But unless we act, we will drift, becoming weaker, less trusting, less competitive.”...
“It was 5:45 pm on Friday, May 2, when Megan Kiskaddon, executive director of Seattle’s On the Boards, learned that the grant for that night’s performance had been rescinded. … The National Endowment for the Arts was now taking back the $20,000 they’d pledged for the co-commission.” - Dance Magazine
Demis Volpi succeeded longtime director John Neumeier only last summer. Now almost half the company’s principal dancers have resigned, and more than half signed a letter to the city’s chief culture official complaining of bad management and a toxic working atmosphere. - Tageblatt (Stade/Hamburg) (via Google Translate)
The complaint itself alleges that children as young as 13 years old worked grueling 15-hour training schedules at least six days a week, in exchange for little pay and inadequate education. - NPR
“The identikit all-female spectacle we know so well is the opposite of how the cancan first began in the working-class dancehalls of Paris, where it was a social dance full of spontaneous improvisation – and performed primarily by men. It was much later that it became a theatrical spectacle for the well-to-do.“ - The...
“Liz Roche, Artistic Director of Luail, Ireland's all-island dance company, (writes) about the beginnings of the company, as it prepares to make its highly anticipated debut this May with Chora, a triple bill of new dance works.” - RTÉ (Ireland)
CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism. - The New Yorker
Unsurprisingly, considering his decades with New York experimental-theater legends the Wooster Group (which will perform at the Biennale), Dafoe is focusing on the avant-garde, with work by directors Thomas Ostermeier and Milo Rau. Says Dafoe, “Some of these pieces will sail, some won’t. What’s important is people talking about stuff.” - The Guardian
“Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan is donating $40,000 to Berkeley Repertory Theatre — the same amount the company was set to receive from the federal agency to support the Ground Floor, its new play development program.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
“Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company plans to ‘suspend’ producing shows (next season), taking a possible step toward closure. The company hopes to continue to exist in some form, Artistic Director Josh Costello (said, noting) a $500,000 operating deficit and a 50% decrease in the company’s subscriber count compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
“Included in the $254 billion budget is an expansion of the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit, known colloquially as the downstate tax credit. The new budget increases the program’s allotment to $400 million (up from $300 million in the preceding budget) and extends the program into 2027.” - Broadway News
His easy stage presence, comic timing and small but perfectly formed voice (combining lightly-sprung agility with a distinctive sweetness of tone), were ideal for what became his signature role, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. He was widely admired as well for his Mozart and bel canto roles. - Presto Music
“A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February. … Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the (stabbing) of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event.” -...
“In a career that spanned more than 50 years, (the three-time Tony winner) wrote more than a dozen Broadway musicals, as well as film scores and ‘Those Were the Days,’ the theme song for the sitcom All in the Family,” starring Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker. - AP
A tall, broad-shouldered Texan, he portrayed heroes and villains during his career as a leading man in the 1970s and ‘80s, most notably in the surprise hit Walking Tall and in two James Bond movies. He went on to become a busy character actor in both film and TV. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“Her Jane Doe identity was finally cast off on the trial’s splashy opening day, when she revealed herself to be a Polish former runway model turned psychotherapist named Kaja Sokola.” She has had a complicated life, and that complicates her accusation. - The Hollywood Reporter
Of the nine films he wrote and directed, the best-known are the two for which he won Academy Awards: Kramer vs. Kramer (for screenplay and direction) and Places in the Heart (screenplay). Among the other films he co-wrote are Bonnie and Clyde, What’s Up, Doc? and the 1978 Superman. - Deadline
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Vice President/General Manager (GM) is a member of the senior leadership team and has overall responsibility for the management of orchestra operations.
While viewers watch the introductory videos known as postcards, dozens of people swarm the stage. Thirty-five seconds to get one set of performers off and put the next ones in the right place, make sure everyone has the right microphones and earpieces and the props are in place and tightly secured. - BBC
The project — “Canal Café” by Diller Scofidio + Renfro — filters water from Venice’s notoriously polluted canals and lagoon through a series of filters that mimic the natural cleansing effect of a tidal wetland. Once the water is made drinkable, it’s used to make a classic shot of espresso. - Artnet
Ben Davis: “I think it’s important for NEA advocates to actually understand the spectrum of arguments ranged against them, and not rely on dated or off-target counter-arguments. So I thought I would put down, here, replies to each of Heritage’s “Ten Good Reasons to Eliminate Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.” -...
The German conductor, currently Generalmusikdirektor of the Theater Freiburg, succeeds Martyn Brabbins, who resigned in 2023 to protest ENO management’s proposed elimination of 19 orchestral positions. While he starts immediately as Music Director Designate, de Ridder fully assumes the job in September 2027. - Opera Now
“For over half a century, (he) stood as a towering figure in French cinema, a titan known for his commanding physical presence, instinct, sensitivity, and remarkable versatility. … His fall from grace was completed Tuesday when a Paris court found him guilty of sexually assaulting two women on a movie set in 2021.” - AP
“It’s a show where you’re always thinking about the other people onstage. … Everyone is both lead and chorus, and you really can’t have an ego because it requires five minds to work as one.” - The New York Times
“A brief statement from the show , which earned seven Tony nominations this month, said that it had decided not to perform at the library ‘upon learning of the termination of Dr. Carla Hayden.’” - The New York Times
The Baltic nation’s submission this year is “Espresso Macchiato,” in which Estonian singer-rapper Tommy Cash (who bills himself as the “Kanye East” of Europe) piles the stereotypes high. Many Italians are angry at the mockery, but Estonia’s ambassador to Italy says he hears the song played there often enough. - BBC
All 10 directors who oversee grants in various disciplines of the arts — such as museums, theater, design, and folk and traditional arts — are leaving the agency, according to a review of emails obtained by The Washington Post. - Washington Post (MSN)
“The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies ‘to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS’ and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations.” This is funding already approved by the U.S. Congress. - AP
Just days after musicians leafleted the audience at Michael Tilson Thomas’s last-ever concerts, management released an open letter pointing out that the orchestra is facing down years of large deficits and charging that musicians’ attitude during negotiations has been “counterproductive and even immature at times.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Oh Mary!, Sunset Boulevard, John Proctor Is the Villain, George Clooney, Nicole Scherzinger and others are among the nominees. (Conspicuously missing are Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal for Othello.) And, of course, Audra is nominated for, and may well win, her seventh Tony. - TheWrap
