“The majestic [Darul Aman palace] was built in the 1920s on a hilltop overlooking the city by King Amanullah, who defeated the British to gain full Afghan independence. It was gutted by fire, then restored and served as the defence ministry in the 1970s and 1980s. When civil war broke out, it was used as a base by militias and suffered heavy shelling.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Met Opera Has A Long Wait For Yannick – Is It Worth It? Asks Anthony Tommasini
“What is surprising, though, and concerning, is how long the Met is willing to go without a music director, even an interim appointment. After becoming director designate in 2017, Mr. Nézet-Séguin does not officially begin his tenure until the start of the 2020-21 season.”
Laurie Anderson: ‘I Didn’t Want To Be The Artist Who Was Playing Concerts For Dogs. Now I AM The Artist Who Does The Concerts For Dogs.’
“So we did the show [for the first time] and we thought a few hundred dogs would show up. Thousands. They were all up the steps to the Sydney Opera House. … And there are a lot of Australian dogs who just. Want. To. Rooooock.”
Has This Been A Good Year For Women On Broadway? Yes, But …
“On Broadway, it has been a year of women: waitresses, shopgirls, concubines, Revolutionary sisters, a literary editor, a morphine addict and many victims of abuse. Is this cause for celebration or despair? Or pie? … Laura Collins-Hughes and Alexis Soloski recently discussed the role of (and roles for) women this year, on Broadway and off. Here’s an edited version of their conversation.”
The Lonely Island: How Andy Samberg And His Bros Changed Comedy, Online And On TV
“1. Cut a hole in a box.
The Lonely Island disrupted the distribution and aesthetic of filmed comedy.”
Seth Meyers And The Staff Of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Pick The Greatest Lonely Island Digital Short Of All Time
“In March of [Andy] Samberg’s final season, Seth Meyers, SNL‘s head writer at the time, had an idea: a bracket, voted on by the staff of the show, to determine the greatest digital short of all time.” As it turned out, one of the most popular of them all (over 150 million online views) didn’t even make it past the first round of voting. (And “Andy Popping Into Frame” didn’t even make the ballot, so feh!)
It’s Official: Yannick Is Met Opera’s Next Music Director – But Met Must Share Him With Philly For At Least Ten More Years
“Nézet-Séguin, 41, will phase in his Met duties gradually, becoming music director-designate in the 2017-18 season with two productions, and music director in 2020-21 leading five, the opera company announced Thursday. In a simultaneous development, the conductor and the Philadelphia Orchestra have extended his contract with a deal keeping him in the post through 2025-26 – at least.”
Beach Reading For Classical Music Fans: Anne Midgette’s Crowdsourced Guide
When she asked followers on social media to suggest works of fiction that did a good job of treating classical music, Midgette “got back a veritable flood of titles: short stories and novels, popular fiction and Nobel Prize-winners, and many books I’d never even heard of. So here you go: your summer fiction reading list, suggested and annotated by several dozen people.”
European Union Youth Orchestra Saved By Order Of EU President
“Last month, the EUYO announced that it would close this summer after EU funding was withdrawn.” Weeks of protests followed, and on Tuesday it was revealed “that President Jean-Claude Juncker had asked commissioners to find ‘immediate solutions that can be sustainable.'”
New York Times Drops Its ArtsBeat Blog
The number and frequency of posts on the blog had been falling rapidly in recent weeks; since the most recent redesign of nytimes.com, most of the content that would have appeared on ArtsBeat has simply been posted directly to the site’s main Arts page.