The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the entire audience will hear such descriptions, within a groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling. - The Guardian
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football stadiums used to be more bike shed than cathedral but their time has now spectacularly come. - The Guardian
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their fears and longings, their sense of wonder and dread. Linguists have reconstructed dead languages. Why not try to do the same for lost stories? - The New Yorker
Beane was in his hometown — Reading, Pennsylvania — scouting locations for his first feature film when he learned that the Genesius Theatre, where had his first stage experiences while growing up, had both money troubles and a leadership vacancy. Now he’s artistic director, with plans to stabilize the finances and revitalize programming. - Playbill
Theatre in itself is an elite cultural form. There are of course exceptions, many wonderful theatre companies that manage to put on affordable performances for everybody. But the great thing about the cinema is that everyone could – maybe not so much these days – but everyone could buy a ticket. - The Guardian
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans." - Washington Post
“The only question is what genres it will take over next, and how quickly it will do so. From talk shows to scripted dramas to, yes, live sports,” — including the NFL — “there are signs that the platform’s ambitions will collide with the traditional TV business sooner rather than later.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the pandemic … (and) it’s arts and culture programming that’s ‘driving the bus at the moment,’” said Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards. - WBEZ (Chicago)
A Tulane anthropologist was clearing out underbrush when she came upon a stone slab inscribed with Latin text. She called an archaeologist colleague, who investigated and learned that it was a first-century tombstone for a sailor in the Roman navy and had been missing from an Italian museum for decades. - Smithsonian Magazine
“The business made a loss from operations of $41.8m in the year ending 29 December 2024 and a total net loss before taxes of $48.1m. This followed a reported loss of more than $30m in 2023. In the (first half of) this year, the (newspaper) made a further $17.3m loss from operations.” - Press Gazette (UK)
The British conductor is the first person ever to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award twice. The Record of the Year prize went to the Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon release of Bach’s Mass in B minor. Awards were made in 17 additional categories. - The Guardian
Members of the orchestra’s volunteer chorus received an email from management notifying them of the “difficult but necessary development” just hours before a performance last Friday. Bruffy also leads the Grammy-winning professional choir the Kansas City Chorale, which is making no comment on the matter. - The Kansas City Star
Active as a concert singer as well as in opera, she was for some years a mainstay at the Met, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and especially the Netherlands Opera. She was known for Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini as well as a landmark portrayal of the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa. - Moto Perpetuo
The actor who brought so much manic energy to Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Rocky Horror), Wadsworth the butler (Clue), and Pennywise the clown (Stephen King’s It) talks about his career, his recovery, and his mother (on whom Curry based Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s exit from the refrigerator with the bloody axe). - The Guardian
A recent study published by the Urban Libraries Council explores the idea that libraries can draw people to city centers that have been suffering from the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. - Bloomberg
