"At a Lagos cultural centre, a rapt audience listened to baritone John Onosolease perform an operatic song in the Yoruba language about a hapless soldier being admonished for his failure to cook a flavoursome dish of beans." - Reuters
Let's not downplay the true connections people find online. "I could introduce you to dozens (if not hundreds) of other people who have met many of the most important people they know — their best friends, their partners, their chosen families, their communities — because of Tori Amos." - HuffPost
Dion has not performed since before the pandemic because of her condition. "Stiff Person Syndrome is a progressive neurological and autoimmune disorder that affects the brain and the spinal cord. Symptoms include muscle rigidity or spasming. ... There is no cure." - Variety
"The former home of composer George Frideric Handel has reopened to the public following a two-year renovation project costing £3 million. The property is now known as the ‘Handel Hendrix House’ (HHH), as the adjoining flat was occupied by US rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix in 1968." - The Strad
His departure this summer comes four years ahead of what had been the end of his contract as music director of the Opéra national de Paris. His resignation statement says, in those words, he's stepping down "in order to spend more time with my family." Okay. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
In an often-cited letter to his father, he wrote that his piano concertos offered a happy medium between the easy and the difficult. There are passages, he said, that only the connoisseur can fully appreciate, “yet the common listener will find them satisfying as well, although without knowing why.” - The New Yorker
"In interviews, orchestra leaders around the country (said) that things had been deeply disappointing early on this season for them, too — and that their panic had calmed amid winter and spring sales that were, if not boffo, at least not devastating." - The New York Times
The orchestra "owns more than 5,000 sets of scores and parts, some dating back a half century or more, with even older ones from the earliest days of the orchestra now kept in the orchestra’s historical archives." - Chicago Sun-Times
Much of the research indicates that it can take years for the brain to adjust to the new mode of input via hearing aids. It’s a process that varies from person to person, and can’t be rushed. - Ludwig Van
In April, the Pops filed an antitrust lawsuit claiming the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center used tactics intended to force the company out of business and create a monopoly in the city. On Wednesday, the orchestra amended its lawsuit in hopes it can begin playing shows again at Verizon Hall. - Philly Voice
“Let’s not forget that the word ‘climax’ is a common musical term,” the soprano Renée Fleming told me. “It has to do with musical tension and its release.” She said Rachmaninoff and Liszt “had it down” when it comes to sexy pieces. - The New York Times
"I love Puccini’s auspicious score, its bustling crowd of little melodies that converge and mature into themes that seem to hold a whole life. I love its clutter of everyday sentimental stuff: Mimi’s lost key, Musetta’s pawned earrings, Colline’s surrendered coat, Marcello’s unfinished painting." - Washington Post
This is the paradox of sad music: We generally don’t enjoy being sad in real life, but we do enjoy art that makes us feel that way. Countless scholars since Aristotle have tried to account for it. - The New York Times
John McWhorter on musicologist Philp Ewell's new book: "The assumption, then, is that the “whiteness” or “maleness” of any given proposition must automatically be a mere power play rather than a reasoned aesthetic or logical conclusion." - The New York Times
