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☆ After 47 Years, the Emerson Quartet Has One More Weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | More About Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“The sound, the gravitas, the way they treat each other is so beautiful,” the soprano Barbara Hannigan, an Emerson collaborator, said in an interview. I’ve never seen any tension between them. Listening to the Guarneri Quartet, younger but already august, the Emerson took on a polished, burnished, sheerly beautiful tone. (For certain listeners, on certain nights, that beauty could tip into blandness.) “But there was the greatness of the repertoire for string quartet.

Persons: Barbara Hannigan, Emerson, “, I’ve, Guarneri, ” Drucker, Dutton, David Finckel, Finckel, Paul Watkins Organizations: Juilliard Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Locations: blandness

☆ Auction features items from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ Jackie Kennedy, British royals
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Alicia Powell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

“They're very rare,” said David Lowenherz, the owner of Lion Heart Autographs, the collectors running this auction. “They are virtually unheard of in any kind of...private collection,” he said of the printed scores that were using during the production of the 1939 classic. The auction, the largest Lion Heart Autographs has held and due to run until Nov. 1, includes other memorabilia. A holiday card issued by the royal family in 1980 and signed by the Queen Mother shows her standing beside her daughters, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Another item is a 1987 letter by Jackie Kennedy, wife of former President John F. Kennedy, on plans for Pennsylvania Avenue and signed, “affectionately, Jackie.”The auction also features a letter signed by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who founded the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Persons: Oz, ”, Jackie Kennedy, Queen Mother, Ray Bolger, They’re, “, David Lowenherz, Lion, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, John F, Kennedy, Jackie, Israel’s, David Ben, Gurion, Giuseppe Verdi, English, Anna Bishop, Claude Monet, Napoleon Bonaparte’s, Alicia Powell, Christina Anagnostopoulos, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Pennsylvania, Neapolitan Press, Thomson Locations: Oz, Israel, Italian, Russia

NEW YORK (AP) — Sister Helen Prejean remembered when she first spoke with Jake Heggie about adapting her book “Dead Man Walking.”“I don’t know boo-scat about opera,” she told him. It’s established in a lot of these abolitionist countries that there is no death penalty — the government, we don’t kill people for their crimes. The Met and Carnegie Hall plan to present excerpts at Sing Sing on Sept. 28 with DiDonato, Sister Helen as the narrator and inmates as the chorus. There have been 1,575 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty-four states have death penalty laws, 23 do not and three have governor-imposed moratoriums, the center said.

Persons: Helen Prejean, Jake Heggie, ”, “, you’re, Tony, Olivier, Ivo van Hove, Joyce DiDonato, Helen, ” Heggie, it’s, It’s, ” Prejean, Saint Joseph of Medaille, Prejean, Jason Epstein, Knopf Doubleday, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Heggie, Frederica von Stade, Lotfi Mansouri, Terrence McNally, Mansouri, ” McNally, ” “ Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim's, Robbins, McNally, Joe Mantello, Susan Graham, von, ” Joshua Kosman, ” DiDonato, DiDonato, “ I’ve, ” Von Hove, Graham, de, I’ve Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Knopf, UCLA, UCLA's Center, Art, Cal, San Francisco Opera, Opera House, von Stade, San Francisco Chronicle, New York City Opera, Houston, City Opera, Sing, Illinois Youth Center, Carnegie Hall Locations: New Orleans, New York, New, Madrid, Francisco’s, Ossining , New York, Chicago, U.S

☆ Opera Philadelphia Cuts Its Budget, but Not Its Ambition
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

And opera needs works like “10 Days,” which treats the medium with affection and respect while also chafing at its tropes throughout history. For this is an opera that jerks between beauty and terror — seamlessly under the baton of Daniela Candillari, leading an ensemble of about a dozen instrumentalists. The patients (members of Opera Philadelphia Chorus, led by Elizabeth Braden) can sing the same hymn with serenity in one scene and chaotic dissonance in the next, with few indications of which is the truer rendition. The most tragic of the patients is Lizzie (the mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, who sings with a lush and moving elegance that would make her ideal for mid-20th century American opera). Her repetitive ramblings come into logical focus with a long, crushing aria about the death of her daughter.

Persons: Nellie Bly’s, —, Bly, Daniela Candillari, Elizabeth Braden, Josiah Blackwell, Will Liverman, Joanna Settle’s, Andrew Lieberman, Kiera Duffy, Lauren Pearl, Raehann Bryce, Davis, Lizzie doesn’t, She’s Organizations: Opera Philadelphia, Academy of Music Locations: Roosevelt

“The idea of the hysterical woman trope really does persist today,” the soprano said ahead of Thursday night’s premiere of Rene Orth’s musical adaptation at Opera Philadelphia. An all-woman creative team was commissioned to develop the work by Opera Philadelphia and Toronto’s Tapestry Opera. “I have a lot to say about women’s rights being taken away and how women are treated,” director Joanna Settle explained. Bryce-Davis views Roosevelt Island quite differently following her immersion in the traumatic story. “My sister lives on Roosevelt Island and so whenever I’m in New York, that’s where I am,” she said.

Persons: — Kiera Duffy, Nellie Bly, Rene Orth’s, “, you’re, ” Siobhan Duffy Gaffney’s, Bly, Joanna Settle, Britney Spears, Orth, ‘ ” Orth, Hannah Moscovitch, Moscovitch, David Devan, Harold Pinter’s, ”, ” Moscovitch, ” Duffy, Bess, Missy Mazzoli’s, Lars von Trier, “ I’m, Susannas, Mozart, Donizetti, Judith Blegen, Kathleen, I’m, Will Liverman, Josiah Blackwell, Raehann Bryce, Davis, Lizzie, Anthony Davis ’, Malcolm X, ” Soprano Laurel Pearl, Ratched, Daniela Candillari, Jeanine Tesori’s, Liverman, ” Liverman, ” Candillari, Andrew Leiberman, Bryce, Roosevelt Organizations: PHILADELPHIA, Opera Philadelphia, New York, Toronto’s, Philadelphia, Metropolitan Opera, Opera, Washington National Opera, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Wilma Theater Locations: New York, Vegas, Roosevelt, that’s

☆ Don’t Stop Believin’? Considering a TV Golden Age, 10 Years Later
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Was there one show that provoked you to write the book? It felt extremely daring in being one of the first shows where 9/11 was being treated in a fully rounded way. Have any of the shows in the book not stood up as much as you expected? Quite the opposite: The shows you think might have been dated have proven riveting in ways they maybe weren’t even when they were on. Not surprisingly, because the book ends making the point that one doesn’t have to be that difficult to create these wonderful shows.

Persons: ”, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Vince Gilligan Organizations: Teamsters, HBO Locations: America

☆ Review: In Berlin, Opera Scales Up to Fill an Airport Hangar
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | More About Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Benches come together to form the raft and are occasionally detached to use as platforms around the pool. As the shipwrecked passengers first scramble en masse toward the raft, splashing violently in the water, the sight is powerful. But near the end, the hangar’s tremendous door, near the side of the pool opposite the orchestra, slowly slides open. The survivors emerge from the pool and walk out toward the dark, vast expanse of Tempelhof Field, led by an emergency van. The Raft of the MedusaThrough Oct. 3 at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin; komische-oper-berlin.de.

Persons: Jean, Charles, Günter, Gloria Rehm, Idunnu Münch, It’s Organizations: Tempelhof Field, Tempelhof Airport Locations: Tempelhof, Berlin, komische

☆ Vogue World: Stars flock to Britain’s answer to the Met Gala
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Nicole Mowbray | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

London, UK CNN —It was billed as Britain’s answer to the Met Gala, and last night’s inaugural “Vogue World” at the Theatre Royal on London’s Drury Lane didn’t disappoint. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APActress and singer Dove Cameron went back to the future in a shiny silver suit and matching bikini top. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APThe late Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, looked elegant in an emerald silk dress by Fendi. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APKate Winslet went for casual chic in a loose-fit two-piece white suit with a beige bustier underneath. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APRita Ora arrived in a black Alaïa mermaid gown sourced from eBay.

Persons: Lane didn’t, Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful —, Sienna Miller, Miller, Beatrice, Eugenie, Richard Quinn, Fendi, Yui Mok, Sadiq Khan, Baz Luhrmann, Kate Winslet, Jared Leto, Jodie Turner Smith, Maisie Williams, Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, Victoria Beckham, Olivier, Stephen Daldry, John Galliano, Kate Moss, Hongni Wu, Rambert, Stormzy, Sophie Okonedo, Damien Lewis, Cush Jumbo, James Corden, Damian Lewis, James McAvoy, “, Annie Lennox, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Mike Marsland, AJ Odudu, Robert Wun, Vianney Le Caer, Dove Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II's, Princess Eugenie, Fendi . Vianney Le Caer, Princess Beatrice, David M, Alison Mosshart, Alexa Chung, Nicklas Skovgaard, Anna Shaffer, David Fisher, Carrie Mulligan, Henry Nicholls, Jenna Coleman, Peter Pan, May Jagger, Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, Vivienne Westwood, Tom Daley, Gemma Chan, Louis Vuitton, Rita Ora, Hollie Adams Organizations: UK CNN, Theatre Royal, US, British Vogue, London, London’s, BAFTA, National Theatre, Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet, Southbank Sinfonia, Rambert, Getty, Rodarte’s, MTV, Model, eBay, Reuters Locations: London, UK, British, Invision, AFP

“Threats don’t matter, and sometimes people do those things because of personal things and that’s all fine,” McCarthy told reporters. “Whether or not McCarthy faces a motion to vacate is within his own hands. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMcCarthy-Gaetz showdown takes center stage againThis is not the first time that McCarthy and Gaetz have squared off. As part of his deal to become speaker, McCarthy gave any single member the power to call for a floor vote on removing him. But after McCarthy cut a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling this summer, the trust and communication between Gaetz and McCarthy broke down – and the rhetoric has gotten personal.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, don’t, –, McCarthy, ”, ” McCarthy, “, I’ll, “ I’m, Matt Gaetz, Joe Biden, Gaetz, Eli Crane of, Dan Bishop of, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale, Ralph Norman of, Chip Roy, McCarthy’s speakership, “ We’ve, ” Good, Hakeem Jeffries, Gerry Connolly, Alex Wong, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Jim Jordan, Jordan, ” Jordan, Dusty Johnson, ” Johnson, he’s, Tim Burchett, Tony Soprano, Hunter Biden, Matt, I’m, ” Gaetz, Ken Buck, Ken Buck of Colorado, Norman, Andy Biggs, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Anna Moneymaker, wouldn’t, McCarthy’s, Roy, ” Greene, Greene, didn’t Organizations: CNN, ”, GOP, Caucus, Democrat, Republican Conference, Republican, Virginia Democrat, Florida Republican, U.S, Capitol, Biden, Ohio Republican, Tennessee Republican, McCarthy As, Senate, Freedom Caucus, Main, Democratic Locations: Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Texas, Washington , DC, McCarthy’s, Ohio, South Dakota, Gaetz, Ken Buck of, Arizona, Georgia, ”, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia

☆ Review: A Soprano’s Recital Captures Her Brilliant Sincerity
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What the soprano Julia Bullock loves about Kurt Weill’s music, she said during her recital at the Park Avenue Armory on Monday, is how it spins the personal into the universal. Even in her selection of this composer’s work: Weill, an exile artist whose sound exemplified Weimar Berlin before helping to shape Broadway’s golden age, was split between two countries. On the one hand, the evening was quintessentially her, in vocal character and preoccupations with historical and musical connections. The Board of Officers Room at the Armory, one of the most intimate and ideal spaces for vocal recitals, is also particularly well-suited to Bullock’s specific sound. At its fullest, her instrument can engulf an auditorium, but she keeps those moments in reserve; her performances are not defined by their size.

Persons: Julia Bullock, Kurt Weill’s, Weill, Bullock, John Arida Organizations: Armory Locations: Weimar Berlin, Germany

NEW YORK (AP) — A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children. The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded” with composer Jeanine Tesori premieres at the Washington National Opera on Oct. 28 and travels to the Met in the autumn of 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or '28. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared. “It's my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.

Persons: Maxim Kolomiiets, George Brant, Jeanine Tesori, Peter Gelb, Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova, Gelb, Olena, Kolomiiets, Met dramaturg Paul Cremo, ” Gelb, Anna Netrebko, Keri, Lynn Wilson, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Washington National Opera, Met, Orchestra, Lynn Wilson . Works Locations: Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, The Hague, Russian, New York

☆ Lviv's hottest ticket: a concert hall resurrecting Ukraine's repertoire
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Andrea Januta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Ivan Ostapovych, Lviv Organ Hall's co-director and conductor, rehearses with musicians of the Luhansk Philharmonic before a premiere of the opera Zorya at the Lviv Organ Hall, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine August 9, 2023. Performing during the war means tighter budgets, longer hours and quadruple the effort, said the hall's co-director Taras Demko. In early July when 10 people were killed in a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Lviv, the Organ Hall cancelled that night's choral concert. The hall spotlights Ukrainian music, including new compositions and little-known works. It was given its professional world premier at the Organ Hall earlier this year.

Persons: Ivan Ostapovych, Hall's, Alina Smutko, Taras Demko, Demko, Sievierodonetsk, Igor Shapovalov, Shapovalov, Mozart, Viktor Kosenko, Ihor Sonevytsky, Ostapovych, Andrea Januta Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Catholic Church, Performing, Reuters, Luhansk Philharmonic, Orchestra, YouTube, Communist Party, Thomson Locations: Lviv, Luhansk, Ukraine, Rights LVIV, Russia, Sievierodonetsk, Russian, Soviet Union

☆ The Soprano Ailyn Pérez Doesn’t Feel Like a Beginner Anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It helped — a lot — that by then she had met Soloman Howard. In 2016, Pérez starred as Juliette in “Roméo,” and her colleagues included Howard, a bass-baritone, as the duke. At one point, Santa Fe Opera asked Pérez to tape herself singing “Song to the Moon” from “Rusalka,” and Howard said, “‘We are going to make a video,’” she recalled. She doesn’t really remember that night — “I was out of my body” — but others do. Gelb, who said, “You can’t fake Verdi,” remembered her sounding “absolutely magnificent.” Nézet-Séguin, called it “a performance for the ages.”

Persons: Peter Gelb, ”, Pérez, “ Simon Boccanegra ”, Soloman Howard, Juliette, “, Howard, Ball, ’ ”, Gelb, Verdi Organizations: Met, Vienna, Santa Fe Opera, Goods Locations: Santa Fe, Chicago, Santa, “

☆ Did Gérard Grisey’s Music Predict His Own Death?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Jeffrey Arlo Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And in the final two movements, the singer, inhabiting the character of Gilgamesh, describes the myth’s apocalyptic flood and its aftermath. In the fifth and final piece, not a complete song but a short “Lullaby,” a crystalline, pulsing texture is there one second and gone the next. On the early morning of Nov. 10, 1998, Grisey returned from Milan to the Paris apartment he shared with his partner, the mezzo-soprano Mireille Deguy. Deguy returned to their apartment in the evening. Deguy remembers that Grisey removed his watch and asked her to do the same before he collapsed from a brain aneurysm.

Persons: Erinna, Gilgamesh, Grisey, Mireille Deguy, ”, “ You’ll, Deguy Organizations: Paris Conservatory Locations: Milan, Paris

☆ Renata Scotto, Opera Diva Who Inhabited Roles, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Jonathan Kandell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Renata Scotto, the firebrand Italian soprano and Metropolitan Opera favorite who was acclaimed for her acting and insights into opera characters as much as for her voice, died on Wednesday in Savona, Italy. At her best, in roles like Puccini’s Cio-Cio San in “Madama Butterfly” and Mimì in “La Bohème,” Verdi’s Violetta in “La Traviata” and Bellini’s “Norma,” Ms. Scotto achieved a dramatic intensity that electrified audiences and elicited the highest praise from her fellow opera stars. “Renata is the closest I have ever worked with a real singing actress,” the tenor Plácido Domingo said in The New York Times Magazine in 1978. “There is an emphasis, a feeling she puts behind every word she interprets.”Vocally, Ms. Scotto could not match the sensuousness of Renata Tebaldi or the astonishing technique and range of Joan Sutherland. But Ms. Scotto’s charisma and stage presence made critics overlook her shortcomings.

Persons: Renata Scotto, Filippo Anselmi, ” Verdi’s Violetta, Bellini’s “ Norma, ” Ms, Scotto, “ Renata, ”, Plácido Domingo, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Harold C, Schonberg Organizations: firebrand, Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Carnegie Hall Locations: Savona, Italy, “, “ La, The

☆ Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn was accused of groping 2 women at an Arizona club in 2021: 'That Tony Soprano looking dude'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Boris Epshteyn, a Trump advisor, was accused of groping and harrassing two women at a club in 2021. One woman said he had a "fat, ugly, like drooping face" and resembled a "fatter Tony Soprano." Epshteyn worked in the Trump White House and helped coordinate the fake elector scheme in 2020. She also described Epshteyn as "that Tony Soprano looking dude," referring to the main protagonist portrayed by James Gandolfini in the hit TV show "The Sopranos." A Republican political consultant, Epshteyn briefly worked in the White House under Trump, later serving as a strategic advisor for his 2020 re-election campaign.

Persons: Boris Epshteyn, groping, Tony Soprano, Epshteyn, Donald Trump, James Gandolfini, White Ralph Lauren Polo, Epshteyn didn't, Trump Organizations: Trump, Trump White House, Service, Arizona Republic . Police, Republican, House, Electoral College, The New York Times Locations: Wall, Silicon, Scottsdale , Arizona, Arizona, Republic, Republic .

☆ AI is a concern for writers. But actors could have even more to fear
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —How many actors does it take to make the movies and shows produced by studios and streaming services? SAG-AFTRA, the actors union that has had 160,000 members on strike since last week, is afraid that artificial intelligence will lead to far fewer employed actors in the future. And winning limits on AI is an issue for the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike against the same studios and streaming services since May 2. The fight over virtual actors and performancesComputer-generated imagery, or CGI, to create virtual actors and extras is somewhat old hat in Hollywood. “The actors and writers, they’re kind of a canary in the coal mine,” said David Gunkel, a communications professor at Northern Illinois University who tracks AI in media and entertainment.

Persons: ”, Fran Drescher, AFTRA, Tom, “, Duncan Crabtree, AMPTP, don’t, Anthony Palomba, wasn’t, Nancy Marchand, Tony Soprano’s, HBO’s, Rowan Curran, Forrester, Joshua Glick, Bard, University of Virginia’s Palomba, “ I’m, Andrea Schneider, Goldman Sachs, David Gunkel Organizations: New, New York CNN, SAG, Writers Guild of America, Alliance, Motion Pictures, Television Producers, University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, University of Virginia’s, Cardozo Law School, Northern Illinois University, UPS Locations: New York, Hollywood, Ireland

☆ The Women of ‘Don Carlo’ Portray a Moment in History
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( David Belcher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Across the monumental, hourslong opera “Don Carlo,” two female characters take a journey unparalleled in Verdi’s canon of 28 operas. Just two real-life characters from history caught in a love triangle that rocked 16th-century Spain. For her and Yulia Matochkina, a Russian mezzo-soprano, it’s a chance to delve into two of Verdi’s most complicated and fully realized female characters. It portrays a real-life Spanish prince, Don Carlo, and Elisabeth of Valois, a French princess, who are secretly in love, although she is betrothed to his father, King Philip II of Spain. But for many, it’s the women who move the story forward and offer perhaps the richest characterizations in Verdi’s repertoire.

Persons: Don Carlo, ”, Nicholas Hytner’s, Lise Davidsen, Elisabeth of Valois, Yulia Matochkina, it’s, “ Don Carlo ”, Friedrich Schiller, King Philip II of Spain, Princess Eboli, Carlo, Rodrigo Organizations: Royal Locations: Spain, Norwegian, Russian

☆ London Tours Explore the Worlds of Opera and Classical Music
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Farah Nayeri | More About Farah Nayeri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the red velvet curtains at the Royal Opera House? London has a rich variety of tours and collections for opera and classical-music enthusiasts. Royal Opera HouseWho were some of the women who made history at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden? It’s a question that the opera house is answering in detail in a tour that runs through Aug. 12. And in a performance as Violetta in “La Traviata,” she wore a custom gown encrusted with 3,700 of her own diamonds.

Persons: ”, Adelina Patti, Violetta Organizations: Royal Opera, Royal Opera House Locations: London, Covent, Italian, New York, “ La

☆ The Family of a Former Supreme Battles for Control of Her Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Julia Jacobs | Christopher Petkanas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“It has been an open secret among the Motown family, the tragedy of Cindy,” Herman said in an interview. Lander considered but did not agree to an interview, and stopped responding to inquiries. With her gentle manner and polished skills, she was well suited for a daunting role: keeping one of Motown’s premier acts on track. “Cindy had a strong voice and charisma,” Gerald Posner, a Motown historian, said in an interview. “She’s the one who had to make the change look seamless — and she did.”

Persons: Motown, Cindy, ” Herman, Lander, Birdsong, ” Lander, ” Birdsong’s, Patti LaBelle, Ballard, Diana Ross, Ballard —, “ Cindy, ” Gerald Posner, “, ” Organizations: Soup, Motown Locations: Camden , N.J

☆ At 80, Meredith Monk Is Still Seeking Ways to Communicate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Meredith Monk stepped out onto a circular stage, her stride paced yet fluid. She didn’t sing at first, but when she did, she let out a clear, clean soprano sound. This is Meredith Monk at 80 — performing in the staged premiere of her latest work, “Indra’s Net,” at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday — though it could describe her at pretty much any moment in her career, whose trajectory resembles a constellation more than a straightforward path. The first staged performances of “Indra’s Net,” an evening-length work about interconnectedness and interdependence, were delayed by the pandemic. And this fall, the retrospective exhibition “Meredith Monk: Calling” will open at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.

Persons: Meredith Monk, doesn’t, Monk, “ Organizations: Holland Festival, “, Kunst Locations: Amsterdam, ”, Munich

☆ In San Francisco, a Week of Destination Opera
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Frank’s partnership with Cruz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, has been fruitful in the concert hall, but this is their first opera. Their subject is extremely familiar — the love of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera — but the treatment is less biographical and more mythic. But here, instead of the hero traveling to the underworld to retrieve a lost love, the protagonist journeys to the land of the living. In both cases, though, a creative spirit is required to cross borders, and there are dire consequences for any missteps. And rather than tell a life story — which in opera tends to result in episodic, undramatic works — Cruz hews to classical unities, with a focused plot that unfolds on the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Persons: Cruz, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera —, Eurydice, Kahlo, — Cruz hews, Diego —, Alfredo Daza, —, Frida, Daniela Mack, doesn’t, Leonardo, Jake Ingbar, Yaritza Véliz, Lorena Maza, Jorge Ballina’s, Eloise Kazan’s Organizations: Azul

☆ Opinion | Put ‘Succession’ in the TV Pantheon
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Then, too, the show’s judgment on elites can be read in two distinct ways, one more left-wing and one more right-wing. This consciousness came with varying levels of self-delusion, and none of these shows fully forgave their protagonists in the end. But the possibility of redemption existed for them at least notionally, and I think that’s why “Succession” seems like such an outlier among its peers. I think this critique is partially fair, and that, along with the strengths I described above, there is a savage superficiality to some of the characterizations in “Succession” that’s beneath the psychological level achieved on other famous TV dramas. When it comes to the desire for redemption and honesty and love, though, I’m not sure “Succession” is as barren as Phillips seems to suggest.

Persons: Kendall Roy’s, Logan, Tom Wambsgans, Roy, Naipaul, ”, Damon Linker’s, Brian Phillips’s, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper, There’s, Hank, Peggy Olson, I’m, Phillips, Shiv Roy, Shiv, Tom Organizations: “ Locations: Swedish

☆ Kaija Saariaho, Pathbreaking Composer of Singular Colors, Is Dead at 70
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ms. Saariaho, who hadn’t had the desire to write an opera, changed her mind after seeing Mr. Sellars’s 1992 staging of Messiaen’s “St. That experience, Ms. Saariaho told her publisher, “opened my mind to what can be done by telling a story with music,” and led to a series of collaborations with the soprano Dawn Upshaw, one of its stars. And so Ms. Saariaho entered the 21st century with the premiere of her first opera, “L’Amour de Loin,” which was widely celebrated as a masterpiece and considerably raised her international profile. Francois d’Assise” team, including Mr. Sellars and Ms. Upshaw. Her output, Mr. Salonen said, “can be seen as a vast forest where all these plants and trees grow, and they’re in sort of a symbiotic relationship with each other.

Persons: Saariaho, hadn’t, Francois d’Assise ”, “, Dawn Upshaw, Rudel’s, Amin Maalouf, Sellars, Upshaw, Anthony Tommasini, ”, Salonen, Mr Organizations: Salzburg Festival, The New York Times, ” Locations: “ St, Austria, “, Finland

☆ Stream These 9 Shows and Movies Before They Leave Netflix in June
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Jason Bailey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

(Chappelle notoriously walked off the show during production of its third season, with only enough material for three episodes in the can.) ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ (June 30)There may have been better early-2000s romantic comedies, but this 2003 hit from Donald Petrie may be the most early-2000s romantic comedy. Scott’s frequent leading man Denzel Washington brings tormented complexity to the grizzled hero, whose shift at M.T.A. dispatch is disrupted by a madman (John Travolta) whose crew takes over a subway car and holds its passengers hostage. And James Gandolfini is wonderful (and miles from Tony Soprano) as the city’s mayor.

Persons: ‘, Dave Chappelle’s, Chappelle, Rick James, Lil ’ Jon, —, Donald Petrie, Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Kathryn Hahn, McConaughey, Petrie, ‘ Jerry Maguire ’, Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Crowe, ’, Antonio Banderas, ”, Salma Hayek, Guillermo del Toro, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris, Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Scott’s, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano Organizations: Dave Chappelle’s Comedy, verve, Hudson, Fun Locations: Pelham, York City

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