Stories

Berganza won fame in Rossini and Mozart, and of course in Carmen, but her "vast repertoire as a recitalist included German lieder, French and Italian art songs and, most notably, Spanish music — zarzuelas, arias and Gypsy ballads — which she consistently championed." - The New York Times

And glimpses of it in Imelda Marcos' apartment after Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s (shocking, for those who remember the 1980s) presidential win "has added to fears the family will use its now-increased power to brazenly further stifle efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth." - The Guardian (UK)

This is not an easy job in 2022. Let's find out just how not easy. - Slate

Canada’s tidy, modest institutions have lowered the ceiling on its creative professions. There’s also something very stay-in-your-lane about the presumption that a Canadian artist will never get big enough to be one of them. They’d sooner call you dead. So much for assimilation! - The Walrus

In 2018, the facility — a former curling rink-turned-theatre — underwent a $72-million demolition and reconstruction, a project completed in 2020. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's health and safety measures, the theatre's reopening was delayed until this week. - CBC

The world’s biggest music event, famed for bringing Europe together, is happening during the biggest threat to unity on the European continent since the Second World War: the war in Ukraine. - Toronto Star

Before Ukraine gained independence from Russia in 1991, it would have been as natural for a young Prokofiev to head off to Moscow as it might be for a young Angeleno composer to go to New York (a trip that happens to be five times larger than the distance between Kyiv and Moscow). - Los Angeles Times

The musical, which has been posting middling box office numbers during the industry’s crowded spring season, will end its run at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on May 29, producers announced. - Deadline

To summarize the BeReal user experience: once a day, at a random time, the app sends a push notification to its users, granting them two minutes to snap a two-way photo using their phones’ front- and rear-facing cameras. Only after posting the daily photo can users see what their friends have posted. - The New Yorker

The Twitterverse had a high old time when news and photos hit of the final session of the Conference on the Future of Europe at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, wherein members were treated, apparently without warning, to Angelin Preljocaj's Danse l'Europe. - The Independent (UK)

The idea of intelligence without a brain can sound mystical or speculative, but the initiative has attracted quite a lot of human intelligence so I was intrigued. - The New Yorker

"He's an unknowable icon, the internet's adorably tragic boyfriend, a prolific actor who never seems to be acting. ... Wesley Morris and Alex Pappademas discuss memorable examples of Keanu being Keanu (including the time he literally played himself) — and why we see ourselves whenever we look at him." - The New York Times

Unlike the banking industry, the art trade has few rules that govern its dynamics, but for Americans it seems that even these are too many. - Apollo

A look at the layout, functions, and history of machiya, the traditional shop-front-and-courtyard houses of Kyoto. - Bloomberg CityLab

In addition to what was left behind at the office, there was another enormous problem for the publishing house: its warehouses are also located in Kharkiv, from which it is not possible to transfer books because of constant shelling. - LitHub