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Here’s The First Woman To Be Named Music Director Of A Major Italian Opera House

Oksana Lyniv, the 43-year-old Ukrainian who this summer became the first female conductor at Bayreuth and who last year finished a term leading the orchestra and opera of Graz (Austria's second city), takes over at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in January. - OperaWire

The Difference Between Random And Chaos

Randomness, like cards or dice, is unpredictable because we just don’t have the right information. Chaos is somewhere between random and predictable. A hallmark of chaotic systems is predictability in the short term that breaks down quickly over time, as in river rapids or ecosystems. - The Conversation

Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Utopian Ideal For A 21st-Century Museum

"I keep returning to an unrealized project of the late philosopher, public intellectual, and curator Édouard Glissant, who consistently told me that what matters is the production of reality." - Artnet

The Horrific Contest In “Squid Game” Reflects A Real-Life Crisis In South Korea

"The wildly popular dystopian drama pits the heavily indebted against each other … for an unimaginably large cash prize. But (the) desperate situation is real – (there's) a large and growing number of ordinary South Koreans who find themselves choked by debt." - The Guardian

One Of The World’s Most Notorious Art Forgers Is Releasing His Own NFT Collection

"Fittingly, the artist (Wolfgang Beltracchi) — infamous for his uncanny ability to mimic the work of others — is making 4,608 versions of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, in a variety of different artistic styles." Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Pop Art … - Artnet

Hollywood Has A New Champion Boss-From-Hell: Sharon Waxman Of TheWrap

Move over, Scott Rudin. As one former staffer put it, "I don't say this lightly. Sharon Waxman is one of the most awful people that I have known in my life." - The Daily Beast

Is Releasing A Movie Only In Theaters Elitist And Unfair?

"How is it that a quintessentially democratic cultural activity — buying a ticket and some popcorn and finding a seat in the dark — has been reclassified as a snobbish, specialized fetish?" A.O. Scott has an answer to that question. - The New York Times

More Than Half Of British Theatres Have Gone Back To In-Person-Only Performances

"Research has found that 56% of publicly subsidised theatres that had at least one online performance during the first 18 months of the pandemic have none scheduled for the autumn season." - The Guardian

Progress: Italy’s Arts Venues Allowed To Open At Full Capacity

"After months of struggling with an income from 50% houses the Council of Ministers has decided that theatres, cinemas, and cultural venues in the white zones (and currently all of Italy is in that category), can augment their capacity to 100%." - Gramilano (Milan)

The Real Problem Of Instagram

The platform’s erasure of certain kinds of work has the net effect of discouraging the making and exhibiting of that work. It erases art that is confrontational, that expresses points of view outside of the mainstream, while promoting art that is decorative and/or unchallenging. - ARTnews

What Are The Rules For Politicians Using Music In Their Campaigns?

The campaigns can buy licensing packages from music rights organisations like BMI and ASCAP, that give them legal access to millions of songs. Some, including The Rolling Stones, have opted out of those deals - but many artists are taken by surprise when their music becomes a politician's theme song. - BBC

One Billion Users: Time To Take TikTok Seriously

It’s not that social-media platforms aren’t newsworthy—Facebook consistently dominates headlines. But TikTok is all too often regarded as an unserious thing to write or read about. That’s a mistake, and it’s one that Congress is making as well. - The Atlantic

Our Complicated Ideas About Work And Identity

Why do we continue to cling so hard to our work-based identities, in spite of an inner nature that tells us not to work so much? - The Nation

How COVID Killed Criticism

Pauline Kael would be appalled at the spectacle of film writing nowadays. Journalists meet actors and gasp in awe. The wise editor has given up on demanding hacks ask good questions, and just invites actors to interview other actors. - The Spectator

Researchers: Hit Pop Music Increasingly Relies On Harmonic Surprise

The researchers found that the most popular songs had a high level of harmonic surprise, including the use of relatively rare chords in verses, for example, instead of just sticking with, say, a standard C major chord progression (C, G, F). The best songs follow up that harmonic surprise with a catchy common chorus. - Ars Technica

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