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This Opera Lampooning Trump Features Zombies, Vampires, And A Libretto By A Nobel Prizewinner

Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, and composer Olga Neuwirth, who received the 2022 Grawemeyer Award, have created Monster’s Paradise — now premiering at the Hamburg Opera — with an Ubu-like President-King who looks very familiar and gets eaten by the monster Gorgonzilla. (Yes, there are also zombies and vampires.) - AP

Hollywood Unions express Concerns About Netflix’s Warner Buy

“Both proposed transactions raise significant issues that impact stakeholders across the media sector, including our members,” the DGA’s statement read. - Deadline

Ukraine Punishes Two Prominent Ballet Dancers For Performing In “Swan Lake” Abroad

“The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture slammed Serhiy Kryvokon and Natalia Matsak’s performance as ‘promoting the cultural product of the aggressor state’. The National Opera of Ukraine cancelled Kryvokon’s next scheduled performance – as well as his exemption from compulsory military service and permission to travel.” - The Spectator

Judge Stops More Changes To Displays At George Washington’s Philadelphia House

It orders “no further removal and/or destruction” of the site “until further order of the court.” That would appear to cover other parts of the memorial that include mentions of slavery and civil rights, including a stone wall with the names of nine enslaved people who served Washington’s household. - The New York Times

New Exhibitions Are Upending The Ways We Look At Indigenous Art

Somehow, modernist aping of Indigenous models got told as a story of increasing originality, while Indigenous adaptation of Western models was seen in terms of decreasing authenticity. The logic was clear enough: The proper job of Western art was forever to point to the future; that of Indigenous art was forever to repeat the past. - The Atlantic

How Imagineers Reimagined Burned Out Altadena’s Community Centers

After last year’s Eaton Fire tore through town, incinerating community infrastructure and scattering residents across the region, the importance of such places has grown dramatically — not only as centers of gathering, but as sites of refuge, planning and healing.  - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Author Neil Gaiman Breaks Silence To Insist That Sexual Assault Allegations Are “Completely And Simply Untrue”

The accusations were made in 2024 podcast from Tortoise Media and a New York magazine article early in 2025; several media adaptations of Gaiman’s books were consequently dropped. His new statement calls the allegations a “smear campaign” and says that the evidence he has to refute them has been dismissed or ignored. - Variety

Too Close To Home: Philip Glass’ Lincoln Symphony

The specific outrages Lincoln recounts—lynchings, burnings, mob executions—belong to his era. But his insight is structural. The deepest danger of mob law, Lincoln explains, lies not in the immediate violence but in the example it sets. - The New Republic

How Miss Piggy Became A Star

A sow in opera gloves would have been a decent gag in itself, but it soon became clear that the character was destined for greater things. - The New York Times

Lessons From The Adelaide Festival Meltdown: Arts Governance Has A Ways To Go

Australia’s arts and cultural sector still has much to learn in terms of fiduciary duties and duty of care, risk and crisis management, communication and response, and navigating the difference between censorship and cultural safety. - ArtsHub

A New Fund For Training The Arts Teachers Now Required In Every California School

Since Prop. 28, the Art and Music in Schools Act, passed in late 2022, California has struggled to locate enough qualified arts teachers to place in every school in the state. The five-year, $11.3 million Arts Education Accelerator Fund will develop teacher training, credentialing and apprenticeship programs to help fill the gap. - EdSource (Oakland)

Did Plato Espouse Ideas Leading To Totalitarianism?

In his massive The Open Society and Its Enemies—published just before his return to Europe in 1945—Popper in effect identifies Plato not just as the father of western philosophy, but also the father of the forces that had wrought the gulags and the gas chambers. - The American Scholar

Copyright Wins: Meet The Judge Who Presided Over The Anthropic/Writers Case

Winning legal copyright battles may force tech companies to curb their blatant piracy. But copyright alone can’t halt AI’s advance. - AI Humanist

How The Arts Sector May Be Misreading The AI Revolution

"The sector is responding to AI as if it were a tool to be adopted responsibly within existing organisational life, often through skills development, guidance, and policy, rather than an environmental shift that invalidates many of its default ways of deciding, governing, and acting." - Tammy Lee (LinkedIn)

Founder Of Chicago’s Invictus Theatre “Steps Away” Following Accusations Of Bullying

The company’s board said that there will be a third-party investigation into social media allegations that founder/artistic director Charles Askenaizer engaged in aggressive behavior during rehearsals. Last week, in solidarity with the accuser, four actors dropped out of Askenaizer’s now-postponed staging of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. - Chicago Tribune

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