Stories

Stars Flock To Join London Production Of Gisèle Pelicot Trial

Director Milo Rau’s documentary staging of the trial of Pelicot’s husband, who repeatedly drugged her and invited men to rape her, will be produced and livestreamed by the Young Vic, with a cast including Kate Winslet, Brian Cox, Indira Varma, Tobias Menzies, Rosie O'Donnell, Suzy Eddie Izzard, Juliet Stevenson, and others. - WhatsOnStage (UK)

Why Musicians Are Touring Less

Attending a concert is no longer always just a night out. With the rise of music residencies and select-city tours, artists can save on travel costs while fans are shelling out for what's being sold as the trip of a lifetime. - CBC

Soprano Angel Blue Cancels All Remaining Opera Engagements This Season

She didn’t specify a reason in the announcement she made on social media, though she did state that she would keep her concert dates, which she made sure to list on her post. - Opera Now

What Makes Music “Russian”

The question at stake was how Russian composers could create their own tradition while drawing on established European musical culture. - The Conversation

Robert Wilson, An Explanation (By The Artist)

“I like to tell stories,” Wilson declares early in his book, and he is very good at it. - BookForum

Conservators Figure Out One Of Michelangelo’s Best Secret Techniques

Restorers working on the recently-completed cleaning of The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel have deduced that Michelangelo crafted his own special paintbrushes with multiple heads so that he could paint parallel lines quickly — and that he used them for crosshatched strokes that give the fresco a singular dynamism. - Artnet

Survey: Broad Worry About How Museums Will Use AI

Just 9 percent of respondents accepted the use of AI in museum shows. Nineteen percent were unbothered by the notion that AI could used for brainstorming but not exhibition texts, meanwhile, and 29 percent said they felt no reservations about the usage of AI to write emails sent by museum officials. - ARTnews

Arts Education Incubator “The Crucible” Shuts Down In Oakland

The layoffs deepen the uncertainty surrounding the 27-year-old nonprofit, which closed its 56,000-square-foot West Oakland facility Oct. 25 and canceled classes and events. The board has said it cannot yet say when, or whether, the organization will reopen. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

And Now… Your Classical Music Concert In Virtual Reality

"In 45 minutes, I swam through oceans, plodded through snow, saw a cathedral grow around me and watched as a craggy mountainside spawned a gang of nefarious gremlin creatures. It was unrelentingly stimulating." - The New York Times

Long-Unseen Old Master Landscape Revealed, Could Fetch $4 Million To $7 Million At Auction

“A Thickly Wooded Landscape With a Rainbow Behind the Trees and a Distant Outcrop to the Right Beneath a Cloud-Laden Sky,” completed around 1520 by Albrecht Altdorfer, is one of the oldest surviving landscapes in European art. It’s expected to sell for £3 million to £5 million next month at Sotheby’s. - The Guardian

How Canada Is Benefitting From Trump’s American Brain Drain

For Canada, Trump’s war on facts presents a window of opportunity. “As other countries constrain academic freedoms and undermine cutting-edge research, Canada is investing in—and doubling down on—science,” Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said when announcing the initiative in December 2025. - The Walrus

Our Primal Need To Be Needed

We have a real need to be needed. And yet many forces—thinking machines, aging, economic and social dislocation—appear to be making us feel redundant. Are we building a world in which no one is particularly necessary? Do we already live in such a world? - The New Yorker

K-Pop’s Firm Control Of Its Young Star Performers

The contracts banned such behavior as having an “insincere attitude,” entering “inappropriate romantic relationships” or criticizing the record label.  - The New York Times

Baillie Gifford Prize For Nonfiction Goes To Edmund Richardson’s “Alexander: God, King, Man”

The “immersive” biography of Alexander the Great, which includes Richardson’s translations of source material from 12 different languages, is the first work about ancient history to win the £50,000 ($67,000) award. - AP

The Former Director Of The Paris Opera Ballet Is Now Choreographing For The Folies Bergère

Said ex-director is Benjamin Millepied, also known as a former New York City Ballet star, founder-director of L.A. Dance Project, choreographer for the movie Black Swan, and Natalie Portman’s ex-husband. He’s staging three shows, each built on the music of great singer-songwriters, at the Folies this month. - The Times (UK)

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