The opera house issued a public appeal to the Riigikogu Cultural Affairs Committee on Thursday, stating that if the current lack of funding continues as it is, the sustainability of the national opera is in serious danger. - ERR (Estonia)
“Everybody in the business is talking about this right now,” said Robert Wittman, a former art-crime investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who runs his own art-recovery practice. By everybody, he means both jewelry thieves and the private investigating firms who make a living hunting them down. - The Wall Street Journal
Under the new policy, Ticketmaster says it will limit all individuals and entities, including professional resellers, to a single verified account tied to a unique taxpayer ID. Accounts that appear duplicative or fraudulent will be canceled. - TicketNews
Approximately one billion-with-a-b was the figure reported when longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson decided to sell and basically retire from the 007 business. However, a recent earnings report for Wilson and Broccoli’s company Eon Productions revealed a purchase price which was nowhere close to ten figures. - Variety
By adapting the community land trust model — a strategy long used to preserve affordable housing for teachers, city workers, and other essential labor sectors — the group is securing permanently affordable, community-owned homes and creative spaces for artists. - NextCity
Eric Lu, a 27-year-old pianist from Massachusetts, won the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, becoming the first American since 1970 to receive the top honor in a contest regarded by some as the Olympics of classical music. - Washington Post
“Poems from an Attic: Selected Poems, 1936–1995, to be published on 6 November, brings together decades of work that Murdoch largely kept private, stored for years in a chest in her Oxford home.” - The Guardian
As one producer said about the mandatory location inspection by a fire marshal, "As a resident, I understand the need for fire protection and to preserve our parks, especially now. But ... I'm paying almost $1,500 a day for a guy to sit in his car for most of the time." - TheWrap (MSN)
There are actually some good, and even practical, reasons not to insure the Louvre or its contents. By law, in fact, such items are insured only when they travel. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
“(One expert) said that high-visibility safety jackets had become such a ubiquitous symbol of authority — like a clipboard or a reporter’s microphone — that they were like ‘a cloak of invisibility.’” (Not to mention that the screaming yellow or orange fabric distracts the eye from the wearer’s face.) - The New York Times
Alan Fletcher took the helm at the festival and school in 2006, oversaw the construction of the $80 million Bucksbaum Campus, and established several new education programs as well as (with Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers) the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program. He retires at the end of 2026. - Aspen Public Radio
“Misty Copeland took one last spin on her pointe shoes Wednesday, showered with golden glitter and bouquets as she retired from American Ballet Theatre after a trailblazing career in which she became an ambassador for diversity in an overwhelmingly white art form.” - AP
AFM Local 802 announced that a deal with the Broadway League at 4:30 Thursday morning, saying in a statement that “this three-year agreement provides meaningful wage and health benefit increases.” - The Hollywood Reporter
String player and early music specialist Kivie Cahn-Lipman writes about how — when given the right parameters and prompts — ChatGPT helped him decipher the, um, idiosyncratic handwriting of the scribe in a 17th-century manuscript which he simply couldn’t figure out on his own. - Early Music America
