The creator of Hamilton says the show's filmed version o on Disney+ has only increased demand for tickets to the staged production. (If only all shows could be hits like that one …) Lynn Nottage's new play, Clyde's, is streaming as well and could offer more data. - Playbill
When it comes to established and continuously active opera companies in North America, there is the Metropolitan, founded in 1883 ... and then San Francisco Opera. - San Francisco Classical Voice
You can't say that the country is humorless, but the Modi government's laws can have people fined or jailed on mere accusations (even false ones) of insulting the nation or religion, and Hindu nationalists egged on by Modi's party disrupt performances and threaten comedians. - BBC
Hosting platform Acast says that the average episode length of its 100 most popular podcasts is 38'10" — but it's not that simple. Comedy shows average 55½ minutes, news/politics programs 28 minutes. Podcasts aimed at commuters run about 40 minutes, those for people doing chores about 20. - Inside Radio
The 23-foot-wide ornament now sits 453 feet above Barcelona, crowning the basilica's Virgin Mary Tower. Some of the neighbors are mightily irked by the star, and even more concerned about a proposed giant stairway to the church's entrance that could involve demolishing three city blocks. - The Guardian
These changes include replacing rarely-used confession booths in the nave with art installations, installing new lights at head height rather than near the high ceiling, benches instead of the old straw chairs, changing the placement of the baptistery and tabernacle, and reworking the side chapels. - Yahoo! (AFP)
A study that used biometric feedback to measure immersion found that participants were more deeply engaged by content delivered via radio or podcasts than via TV or social media. (The research was commissioned, unsurprisingly, by a radio and podcast company, Audacy.) - Inside Radio
The 1999 memoir, which launched Sebold's career, recounts the rape and beating she suffered at age 18 and Broadwater's subsequent trial and conviction for the crime. Scribner and Sebold will consider how to revise the book before re-releasing it. - Forbes
Excavations in the Lachish Forest, about 40 miles southwest of Jerusalem, have uncovered the remains of a Hellenistic fortress — a structure which the Israel Antiquities Authority says was destroyed by the Maccabees' army during the rebellion commemorated by Hanukkah. (Other scholars aren't so sure.) - Yahoo! (The Daily Beast)
As of January 1, shortly before his 49th birthday, the Peruvian will take the reins at the event where his international career was launched: the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy. He succeeds his longtime mentor and manager, former tenor Ernesto Palacio, now the festival's superintendent. - OperaWire
After “community,” the second-most used word at NFT.NYC is probably “rich.” As in, “Do you want to be rich?” The speakers ask the audience variations on that question a lot. -Artnet
It’s been quite the turnaround. Utah’s largest newspaper escaped the clutches of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital in 2016 only to see its local owner, Paul Huntsman, lay off a third of staff two years later in the face of plunging ad revenue. - NiemanLab
Tied to both the 2011 revolution and, to a lesser extent, the 1952 military coup that reshaped Egyptian society, the works reflect the ways in which those upheavals affected the imaginative lens through which people relate to themselves and each other. - LitHub
The sculptures dating from the second or third century were smuggled into Switzerland in 2009 or 2010, before the outbreak of the Syrian war. Customs officers discovered them, along with one looted piece from Libya and five from Yemen, during a routine check at the freeport in 2013. - The Art Newspaper
The gift represents an important leap forward for the Met project, which is now expected to cost about $500 million and calls for creating 80,000 square feet of galleries and public space with an architect to be announced this winter. - The New York Times
