For governments, the quip that "a language is a dialect with an army and navy" is more-or-less true — so Czech and Slovak, Hindi and Urdu, Serbian and Croatian are different languages. For linguists, dialects are mutually intelligible and languages are not. So what of Cantonese — or Ukrainian? - The Conversation
Few places now seem to epitomise Russia’s cultural decoupling from the west better than the large, empty walls of GES-2, created as Moscow’s answer to Tate Modern. - The Guardian
Jeremy Gerard: "There are so many reasons to mourn its passing, but I will dedicate my Kaddish to this: We critics tend to be solo fliers. ... We rarely play well with others. But the Festival was an exception, demanding collegiality." - American Theatre
Joseph F. Kahn, currently managing editor (the number-two position in the newsroom), and previously Beijing bureau chief and then international editor, will succeed Dean Baquet as executive editor this summer. (Kahn is the oldest son of Leo Kahn, co-founder of the Staples office supply store chain.) - The New York Times
"The story is old, the steps are old, and that's all part of Swan Lake's endurance – it's a classical ballet. So how does a ballet company make their Swan Lake different from the Swan Lake next door?" Here's how four prominent choreographers have differentiated their versions. - New York Observer
“There’s no way I could ever be in denial of what is happening in Ukraine,” he said during a series of interviews over the past week. “Russia is not a place where I want to raise my son. It’s not a place where I want my wife to be anymore. It’s not a place I want to be anymore.”...
Andrés Rubio, travel editor at El País, has just published a book arguing that Spain's natural beauty and historic cities and towns have been blighted by hasty, often chaotic real estate development with architecture that's often hulking, dull and even downright repugnant. - The Guardian
Lucas Mann, an English professor at a UMass branch campus: "For a professor at a school like mine, ... the trick isn't convincing students to drop their dogmas. It's convincing them that the stuff we're talking about could matter in lives already complicated by many other things." - Slate
"428 in all are closed, half of which are publicly owned. ... The (Ministry of Culture) has financed €420 million for performances in 2022, but nothing for infrastructure. The separate Reconstruction and Resilience Plan in Italy has not allocated anything for theatres, and many are waiting to collapse." - Gramilano (Milan)
The orchestra's board made the surprise decision — the stated cause being breach of contract — after Lang-Lessing announced that he will conduct the San Antonio musicians, who have been on strike since late September, in two benefit concerts next month. - Texas Public Radio
"Conservative activists in several states, including Texas, Montana and Louisiana have joined forces with like-minded officials to dissolve libraries' governing bodies, rewrite or delete censorship protections, and remove books outside of official challenge procedures." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Rachel Saltz, who joined the newspaper in 2003 and became dance editor in 2015, will now supervise classical music coverage as well. Her predecessor, Zachary Woolfe, was named the staff classical music critic earlier this month. - The New York Times
The artwork spent 150 years at a school in the Blue Mountains that's now owned by the National Trust of Australia, which sent the painting for conservation. Once the varnish was removed, conservators discovered the signature of Gerrit Willemszoon Heda (1624-1649), and the painting is worth several million dollars. - Artnet
Birtwistle's work was widely championed by many notable conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Christoph von Dohnányi and Oliver Knussen, as well as soloists like violinist Christian Tetzlaff (who premiered his Violin Concerto in 2011) and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. - NPR
