Recent video from Ukraine shows a bulldozer tearing down the back of the ruined theater, which Russian fighter planes bombed last March while hundreds of families were sheltering in its basement; over 300 people died. The city's mayor, currently in exile, says the occupiers plan to leave the façade intact. - BBC
"It cracked. It creaked. It leaked. Ever since (it was designed), it's been a source of wonder. It's also been a cause for worry and woe, requiring seemingly endless repairs. After a painstaking three-year, $17 million rehabilitation ... the dome's 113-year-old aches and pains have been tended to." - The New York Times
The local affiliates have always insisted on doing the fundraising themselves, so that listeners don't bypass the stations, which already pay dues to NPR. The new NPR Network is aimed, say executives, at millions of podcast listeners who bypass the radio stations entirely. - Current
"The vandals entered Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain (in South Australia) and scrawled graffiti across the heritage-listed site, writing 'don't look now, but this is a death cave'. Authorities say the vandals dug under a steel gate to gain access to the site." - The Guardian
Robert Beaser, who was chair of the school's composition department from 1994 to 2018, was placed on leave last Friday, following a report in VAN detailing numerous allegations of misconduct. Juilliard had investigated claims against Beaser twice in recent decades. - Yahoo! (AFP)
Considered by many the greatest living ballet choreographer, Ratmansky will have been artist-in-residence at American Ballet Theater for more than 13 years when he steps down upon expiration of his contract next June. - AP
Instead of writing boilerplate corporate memos, managers will soon assign them to bots. Insight and beauty are still rare, but serviceable prose isn’t. - Virginia Postrel
These systems are master imitators of human creativity. They have been trained on millions upon millions of human artifacts such as documents, articles, drawings, paintings, movies, or whatever else can be stored in databases at scale. - Big Think
Not only does it seem like a fait accompli that broadcast TV is dead, no one seems to be the least bit sad about it — unless you’re a fan of, say, Days of Our Lives and Dancing With the Stars. - Deadline
Culture in Boston was encrusted in past practice and inflated self-esteem. The musicians did not take kindly to proposed changes or hard truths. Artistic director Anthony Fogg, a James Levine loyalist, stiffened their resistance. Music director Andris Nelsons was not open to her ideas. - Slipped Disc
The dealer and collector Giuliano Ruffini, who is suspected to be the mastermind behind a major Old Master forgery scandal, has transferred to France following his arrest in Italy last month. - The Art Newspaper
Since 2019, Ms. Hager, 41, has highlighted nearly 50 books as part of her “Read With Jenna” book club promoted on “Today.” Most became chart-toppers almost immediately, selling over a million print copies in total. Since fall 2021, Ms. Hager’s picks have outpaced the overall adult fiction market by almost 60 percent. - The New York Times
Debate in the Lords focused on the term “grand opera”, which fans of lyric theatre believe was deliberately used by ACE to imply that the art form is overblown and irrelevant. - The Observer
"It's the best thing I've done in my career, in terms of bringing people to the instrument," says Anna Lapwood, who has 420,000 followers on the video app, including a few major classical music figures and even a rock star or two. - The New York Times
You can tell it to write a 500-word essay about “The Great Gatsby” or the Spanish Inquisition. So I did what any masochistic tech journalist would: I pulled a “Billy Madison” and went back to school. - The Wall Street Journal
