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Colin Layfield, a University of Malta lecturer, and Lisa Fagin Davis, a medieval-handwriting expert, argue that the Voynich manuscript, the undeciphered 15th-century codex at Yale, has been read in the wrong order. Its sheets were likely stacked as loose “singulions” and mis-bound in the mid-to-late 1400s. Davis says the evidence points to as many as five scribes and a communal object: “the ‘lone genius’ idea is kind of out of the door” (The Guardian).
Harmonium of Texas, a new San Antonio orchestra founded by the pianist-conductor Jeffrey Kahane, debuted Friday with 68 players, many from the defunct San Antonio Symphony, and more than 100 singers for Carmina Burana. Three days before the concert, the San Antonio Philharmonic, which Kahane left as music director in February, sued him over donor and email lists (San Antonio Express-News).
New York is doubling its grants to individual artists from $5,000 to $10,000, the first increase in about 20 years, with roughly $3.5 million going to five borough arts councils. The Whitney’s staff union won raises of at least 14.75 percent over four years hours before a strike that would have hit the Lichtenstein retrospective’s previews (ARTnews, ARTnews).
At the Hollywood Pantages, the touring The Outsiders rains more than 100 gallons of water onto its climactic brawl eight shows a week, and the cast walks the fight through before each performance “at 65,” short of full speed (Los Angeles Times).
All of our stories below.