Fiction or not, the sort of backstage backstabbing depicted in “Tár” is, alas, very real. We conductors do not generally like our colleagues, and we delight in denigrating one another — that is, until one of us dies. - The New York Times
"A new documentary ... brought together musicians, artists and journalists who used music and art to rebel against their imprisonment and to assert their right to a multicultural identity amid Serb nationalist attempts to destroy them and their cultural heritage." - The Guardian
“He brought the attitude of a businessman and an entrepreneur to a sector that, as you well know, is much less focused on that than on the present moment.” - Artnet
"It seems particularly odd that the Academy would give an award for Best Visual Effects but not for Best Stunts. Visual effects could be said to be the flip side of stunts: Both are disciplines designed to make the people onscreen look like they're doing the impossible." - Vulture
"(These honors have been) created from a desire to not only highlight great stunt work over the past year (and there was great stunt work this year), but to underscore the obvious awards-worthiness of action storytelling. To do so, we created our own academy of voters." - Vulture
"(In Florida and) along other fronts of the culture war, bookmobiles are motoring around the country to bring banned books to all, especially in Texas, which has censored more books than any other state." - WBUR (Boston)
Artist Leo Villareal's "Bay Lights" was supposed to be up for two years, and it wasn't designed to withstand the elements for a decade. Enough lights had burned out that it was taken down — to be redesigned and reinstalled, if $11 million can be raised to do so. - The New York Times
"Alda, who hosts a podcast called Clear+Vivid, had decided to ask the tool to write a scene for M*A*S*H in which Hawkeye accuses B.J., his right hand man and fellow prankster, of stealing his boxer shorts. ... Did it work? Not quite." - The New York Times
The BBC Singers, the UK's only full-time professional vocal ensemble, will cease operations this summer, and the Corporation is offering voluntary buyouts to reduce headcount by a fifth in the BBC Symphony in London, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, and the BBC Concert Orchestra. - The Guardian
"Organizers called Chipperfield's work — more than 100 projects over four decades ranging from cultural, civic and academic buildings to urban planning to residences, and including a recent addition to Berlin's famed Museum Island complex — 'subtle yet powerful, subdued yet elegant.'" - AP
At its core updating Roald Dahl’s children’s books is really about the rights and control copyright grants to authors and copyright holders. Those rights are exercised to update children’s books more frequently than many of these critics may realise. - The Conversation
The conference in New Orleans was equal parts group therapy and war room, as nearly 2,000 librarians from throughout the country strategized on how to protect their patrons and themselves, and how to get the public to wake up to the urgency of the threat. - Washington Post
Enormous is right; with more than 80 percent of the show consisting either of musical numbers or underscoring, Sweeney Todd’s 26-person orchestra rivals the 30-person cast both in size and scope. - Playbill
Blurbing has always had discontents. In 1936, George Orwell decried the use of blurbs in his essay “In Defense of the Novel.” He feared for the novel’s “lapse in prestige,” for which he partly blamed “hack reviews” and “the disgusting tripe that is written by the blurb-reviewers." - The Millions
Reputedly the grand pedagogue Dorothy DeLay had her piano tuned to 443Hz, maintaining that it would make her pupils’ violins sound more brilliant; there is even the case of a US concertmaster insisting that his orchestra tune to precisely 440.5Hz. - The Strad
