Mark Pullinger finds that, while venues' staff may be masked themselves, they're not requiring patrons to have face coverings or proof of vaccination (to be clear, they're following the lead of Boris Johnson's government), and he looks with envy at safety measures in Europe and New York. - Bachtrack
"People who are normally hired by organisations abroad are being told, 'I'm sorry, we just don't have the capacity to bring somebody from the United Kingdom, it is too complicated and too expensive." - London Evening Standard
His term as music director was set to expire next summer, but with the pandemic having shut down CSO concerts for the period when guest conductors would have auditioned to succeed him, Muti will stay on until August of 2023. - AP
Online discussion has created a new landscape for the consumption and production of poetry. To outsiders, there is either a swarm of names or a narrow row of critically-touted volumes; to insiders, as in any subculture, the little differences are everything. - The Drift
In many interviews I’ve included a simple question: Apart from a pandemic-necessitated lockdown and now a tentative reopening, have you actually seen change in the industry over the past year? Too often the answer has been a simple “no.” - American Theatre
I learned a lot about myself as a critic while live-tweeting, and a lot about criticism: about how and when opinions are formed, and about the effort we critics often put into shaping our initial reaction into more polished and professional forms. - American Theatre
The Ahiamwen Guild of artists and bronze casters says it wants to change the terms of the debate by giving the British Museum contemporary artworks, untainted by any history of looting, that showcase Benin City’s modern-day culture. - Reuters
Only the fifth person to serve in this capacity, Debra Lew Harder follows in the footsteps of former legendary voices of the Met, Milton Cross (1931-1975), Peter Allen (1975-2004), Margaret Juntwait (2004-2015), and, most recently, Mary Jo Heath (2016-2021). - Broadway World
The company's certainly had opportunities before: William Grant Still submitted scores in 1919 and 1935; both were casually dismissed. So Terence Blanchard was astounded to get a call from Peter Gelb asking to stage Fire Shut Up in My Bones after its 2019 premiere. - The New York Times
It's that humor, a sense of optimism and her beloved piano that have buttressed and comforted this centenarian through an often difficult life. Maze has just released her sixth album at the age of 107. - NPR
Archaeologists report that the destruction, circa 1650 BC, of the city of Tall el-Hammam was caused by a large meteor disintegrating in the atmosphere — a blast, 1,000 times larger than Hiroshima, that would have fit the Biblical description of fire raining on the evil cities. - Smithsonian Magazine
At least five companies — including, controversially, one major museum — have stepped up with immersive exhibits based on the life and work of the famous Dutch painter. Nearly 40 different Van Gogh rooms have opened (or will soon) across the U.S. so far. - Bloomberg
"Looking at Johns's work, I sometimes almost no longer feel like a person. I wonder if I have died in the instants between synapses of looking, knowing, then not knowing again. I step outside myself and become more than one person seeing in different ways." - New York Magazine
The album represents a moment in time when everything about Seattle culture changed. The very words “Seattle music” meant something different afterward, both in the Northwest and in the world. - Seattle Times
The script, along with 100 pages of unusually detailed notes for the actors, comes from the pre-Broadway New Haven tryout in the fall of 1947. - Gothamist
