How much Shakespeare do audiences really want these days? What adjustments are required in the performance of his canon to accommodate those who do not buy the line that Shakespeare is the “greatest” playwright of all time? - Washington Post
“In opera, there’s so much attention given to the craftsmanship of the music, the set design, the direction of the singing and choreography, in order to allow human moments to become amplified on stage. But that also means we need to take care of the human beings who are embodying those moments.” - The Guardian
"Horror cinema has long been in the business of mining terror from the everyday, of linking surface scares to primal subtexts ... there’s no denying that Sundance has played a particular role in fostering this latest strain of cinematic scare-making." - Los Angeles Times
Under Franco, the study of Spanish art languished - but Jonathan Brown, art historian, curator, professor, and mentor, brought luminous painters like Velázquez to mainstream attention. - The New York Times
Will we be all right? People ask science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson versions of this question all of the time. Robinson thinks we might be, with a lot of work. - The New Yorker
Baby steps perhaps aren't enough to entice Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and subscribers back: "Spotify announced on Sunday that content advisories will be added to 'any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19.'" - Vulture
Go big or go home? "The rise of streaming video game services ... could sweep Hollywood players into the sector in a bigger way by motivating them to double down on their offerings or, alternatively, exit it for a lack of scale." - The Hollywood Reporter
The actor says, "I think it’s really interesting what happens to you if you grow up thinking there’s something wrong with you because you’re attracted to a certain thing. ... That takes a lot of time and understanding to get over." - The Guardian (UK)
Director Jonas Rasmussed "had been searching for years for a way to tell the story of an Afghan man’s journey as a refugee that the subject ... would be comfortable with. When Rasmussen attended a workshop with animators, the pieces fell into place." - Variety
Questions abound: "Have these institutions acquired any works by Venezuelan artists produced after 2000? How many Venezuelan artists have fled the country? How many Venezuelan curators and scholars live abroad and hold positions in museums in the United States or wherever they have been taken in?" - Hyperallergic
One singer's thoughts: "We share a goal of bringing hundreds or thousands of people together for a few hours in one room. Even if most of our fans remained COVID-free, what if ... our show directly led to the hospitalization of a vulnerable senior?" - The Atlantic
Less than a year after the Israeli airstrikes that destroyed his beloved two-story bookshop, owner Samir Mansour "is now preparing to reopen as both a bookshop and library, in a new location" - with some of the 150,000 books donated from around the world - The Guardian (UK)
The 84-year-old Swiss photographer of the flamenco world fell sometime on the evening of January 19. A homeless person in the area called authorities the next morning, but it was too late. - El Pais
