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☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ Why Do We Listen to Sad Songs?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Oliver Whang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Maybe sad songs have a similarly dual nature, thought Dr. Knobe and his former student, Tara Venkatesan, a cognitive scientist and operatic soprano. Certainly, research has found that our emotional response to music is multidimensional; you’re not just happy when you listen to a beautiful song, nor simply made sad by a sad one. In 2016, a survey of 363 listeners found that emotional responses to sad songs fell roughly into three categories: grief, including powerful negative feelings like anger, terror and despair; melancholia, a gentle sadness, longing or self-pity; and sweet sorrow, a pleasant pang of consolation or appreciation. (The researchers called their study “Fifty Shades of Blue.”)Given the layers of emotion and the imprecision of language, it’s perhaps no wonder that sad music lands as a paradox. “All our lives we’ve learned to map the relationships between our emotions and what we sound like,” said Tuomas Eerola, a musicologist at Durham University in England and a researcher on the “Fifty Shades” study.

☆ Listen to the Mother of All Playlists
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Listen along on Spotify as you read. Kacey Musgraves: “Mother”The shortest, sparsest song on Kacey Musgraves’s 2018 album, “Golden Hour,” is also the most emotionally piercing. “I’m just sitting here, thinking ’bout the time that’s slipping and missing my mother,” the country renegade sings with heartbreaking plaintiveness, before zooming out a generation and imagining that her own mother is probably doing the same. Musgraves has said that “Mother” is one of the “Golden Hour” songs she wrote while tripping on LSD — but don’t tell her mom that part. Merle Haggard: “Mama Tried”“Instead of life in prison I was doing one-to-15 years,” Merle Haggard once admitted of the slight embellishment as to how he spent his 21st birthday in one of his most famous (and semi-autobiographical) songs.

☆ When ‘Homicide’ Hit Its Stride
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Saul Austerlitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Dallas Cowboys demolished the Buffalo Bills, 52-17, and the broadcast was followed by the premiere of a new NBC drama, set in Baltimore, studying the work of the city’s homicide detectives. The series was called “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and it was based on a book by David Simon, then a Baltimore Sun reporter who had spent a year tagging along with the police department’s homicide squad. Post-Super Bowl premiere notwithstanding, “Homicide” was never a ratings success, but it stayed on the air for seven seasons, winning four Emmys and three Peabody Awards. The show’s fifth episode, “Three Men and Adena,” which first aired in March, was a stark, dramatic example of what made “Homicide” different from other cop shows. Pembleton and Bayliss prod, provoke and rage, but “Homicide” refuses to grant the audience the resolution they crave.

☆ How the Star of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Found Beauty in Her Voice Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Laura Collins-Hughes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

from Yale is in music. She followed up that show with two more Broadway musicals, “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” (2013) and “Gigi” (2015). Around 2018, she set aside a solo show she’d been making about the impact of music on her life, worried that she might run out of voice onstage. “I had to fall in love again with myself and figure out how to love myself as I was changing,” she said. But it’s not that she can’t hit the high notes anymore, even if only one song in the pop-style “Kimberly Akimbo” asks her to.

☆ Grace Bumbry, Barrier-Shattering Opera Diva, Is Dead at 86
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alex Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Grace Bumbry, a barrier-shattering mezzo-soprano whose vast vocal range and transcendent stage presence made her a towering figure in opera and one of its first, and biggest, Black stars, died on Sunday in Vienna. She was 86. Her death, following a stroke in October, was confirmed in a statement by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she was long a mainstay, performing more than 200 times over two decades. Growing up in St. Louis in an era of segregation, Ms. Bumbry came of age at a time when African American singers were a rare sight on the opera stage, despite breakthroughs by luminaries like Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson. But with a fierce drive and an outsize charisma, Ms. Bumbry broke out internationally in 1960, at 23, when she sang Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Paris Opera.

☆ Opera singer Yende 'too excited to be nervous' at king's coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Matteo Witt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"It's an incredible time of my life as a young girl, as a South African, as an artist, only joy floods my heart." "This was my audition I guess," said Yende, recalling the evening at Windsor during a backstage interview at the opera house. Yende grew up singing gospel music in church in her hometown of Piet Retief in eastern South Africa. At the coronation, Yende will perform "Sacred Fire", a piece written by composer Sarah Class for the occasion. "Whether you're a king, a princess or just a girl from the tip of Africa singing for the coronation of the king."

☆ Hundreds of pounds of pasta dumped in Old Bridge, New Jersey
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Adrienne Vogt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

This question had residents of Old Bridge, New Jersey, scratching their heads over the past few days, although part of the mystery may have been solved. Uncooked spaghetti found along a stream in Old Bridge, New Jersey, in a photo taken by resident Nina Jochnowitz, who said all kinds of things are dumped in the Jersey woods. The Old Bridge Department of Public Works mopped up “what appeared to be 15 [wheelbarrow] loads of illegal dumped pasta along a creek in a residential neighborhood,” Shah said. Full disclosure: Old Bridge is my hometown. Two Old Bridge residents (again, full disclosure: my parents) made a previously unplanned stop on Thursday afternoon near the scene, and my dad walked through the wooded area.

☆ Singer Renée Fleming: I wanted to be the first woman president of the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Tania Bryer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSinger Renée Fleming: I wanted to be the first woman president of the U.S.Grammy Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming tells Tania Bryer about her first ambition and how she overcomes bouts of stage fright.

☆ Singer Renée Fleming discusses the power of music and its impact on health, community and culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Tania Bryer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSinger Renée Fleming discusses the power of music and its impact on health, community and cultureGrammy Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming speaks to Tania Bryer about her work to explore the benefits of arts, health and neuroscience.

☆ Pretty Yende, South African opera star will perform at King Charles' coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gertrude Kitongo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —“Pretty, are you sitting down?” South African soprano Pretty Yende was performing in Vienna last December when she received a call from her manager. She had just been booked for the biggest gig of her life: a performance at the coronation of King Charles III. As one of three soloists at the ceremony, it’s thought that Yende is the first African to be invited to perform solo at a British coronation. The coronation will not be the first time King Charles has watched Yende perform; he saw the soprano sing at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary gala, held at Windsor Castle in April 2022. Pretty Yende performs in "Lucia Di Lammermoor" at the Bastille Opera House in Paris in October 2016.

☆ Spotlighting Lady Macbeth’s Anguish: Can What’s Done Be Undone?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Oussama Zahr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Macduff, the chorus, Macbeth’s big Act IV aria — all scrapped. In typical stagings, Lady Macbeth comes across as an unsubtle, unrepentant harridan whose abrupt crisis of conscience in the opera’s final act stretches credulity. Heartbeat starts with Lady Macbeth’s breakdown as the essential truth of her character and then molds the narrative to fit it. The show begins with Lady Macbeth in bed, sobbing uncontrollably, full of remorse for all the blood she has helped to shed. In Heartbeat’s telling, Lady Macbeth, no longer the scapegoat for her husband’s foul behavior, is the one who is led astray by an avaricious spouse.

☆ The Broadway Star Phillipa Soo Sings Her Favorite Pop Song
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Nancy Coleman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Phillipa Soo enjoys fantasy stories: “Lord of the Rings,” “House of the Dragon,” anything magical with kings and queens involved. That’s partly why, she says, she was drawn to this season’s Broadway revival of “Camelot,” based on the Arthurian legend and opening April 13 at Lincoln Center Theater. Soo, 32, stars opposite Andrew Burnap as Guenevere, King Arthur’s wife and ally — a role that’s long been associated with Julie Andrews, who originated the role onstage in 1960. Soo’s goal, then, is to make Guenevere “a real person,” someone driven above all by a desire to be loved. But this past year, she joined the “Into the Woods” Broadway revival as Cinderella, and then did a brief run as Sarah in “Guys and Dolls” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

☆ Blockbuster pushed HBO to start investing in original content, cable giant's ex-chief says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

What's less known is it was also the catalyst for HBO's pivot toward original programming, according to former HBO and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. HBO, at the time led by Michael Fuchs, decided the answer was original programming. Source: HBO | YouTubeEven after "The Sopranos" debuted, HBO still faced a dilemma over how much to invest in original shows. HBO's TV schedule was always shifting, based on the length of feature films. Had HBO's early investments in original programming not hit, Bewkes acknowledged he's not sure what HBO would have done to fight off Blockbuster.

☆ Atlanta DA Fani Willis loves using a law designed for going after the mob. She may use it to charge Trump.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The law — designed for going after the mob — makes sense for her investigation into Donald Trump, experts say. In her time in the district attorney's office, Willis has aggressively used Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute. One sprawling 56-count RICO case, against the rapper Young Thug's alleged gang, is in its second month of jury selection ahead of what's expected to be a nine-month trial. But if she were to bring a case, experts believe RICO charges are likely. Rahmani cautioned that a RICO case may make Willis look too aggressive.

☆ Wayne Shorter, master composer of jazz, dies aged 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] U.S. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter performs onstage during a 'tribute to Miles Davis evening' at the 45th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux July 13, 2011. REUTERS/Valentin FlauraudMarch 2 (Reuters) - American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who wrote some of jazz's most acclaimed compositions and whose often plaintive playing changed the sound of jazz in the 1960s before he explored rock-fusion, died on Thursday aged 89. "The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter," the keyboardist said. "Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn't get changed." Other hit records included "Native Dancer" featuring Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento which mixed jazz, rock and funk with Brazilian rhythms.

☆ How Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president, went from perceived pro-West reformer to virulent warmonger since the invasion of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Russia's former president has become one of its most vitriolic figures amid the Ukraine invasion. When Dmitry Medvedev was elected, some saw him representing a more liberal future for Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, in December 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during the United Russia party congress in Moscow, Russia, in December 2017. Putin became president again once Medvedev's first term was up, and Medvedev duly became his prime minister, serving until 2020.

☆ Robert De Niro was almost my 50-50 partner in MoviePass — and he showed me the 'Raging Bull' boxing ring to try to seal the deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Stacy Spikes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

One night, I said to Marianne, "What if we made a Netflix for the movie theater industry? I tried to push my subscription idea, but it fell flat. I continued to tread water on my subscription idea, but things were slow going. One Saturday, a dear friend of ours named Peter called and asked how the movie subscription idea was coming. They're interested in buying both the Urbanworld Film Festival and the movie subscription company for one million dollars.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

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