“The Metropolitan Opera faces growing operating losses as it prepares to sell bonds for the first time since its founding in 1883. Losses from operations swelled 7 percent last season to $135 million, according to bond documents. It was the third consecutive operating-loss increase.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Of Course Children Can Act! Go Ahead And Nominate That Girl For Best Actress
Beasts of the Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis, aged six at the time of filming, is widely expected to land an Oscar nomination. Some observers find this ridiculous, seeing her performance as “the result of first-time director Benh Zeitlin’s superb handling of a sweet young child.” Don’t believe them.
Can One Really Celebrate The Holidays Without Celebrating Religion?
“Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or both or none of the above, religion is hard not to notice at this time of year. Even so, many Americans observe the holiday without mentioning God. But can you really give and receive holiday gifts without attaching some religious significance?” A New York Times debate.
Oliver Sacks On The Neurology Of Seeing God
“Both [Out-of-Body Experiences and Near-Death Experiences] … cause hallucinations so vivid and compelling that those who experience them may deny the term hallucination, and insist on their reality. … But the fundamental reason that hallucinations – whatever their cause or modality – seem so real is that they deploy the very same systems in the brain that actual perceptions do.
Was Robert Schumann Insane? Or Just An Echt-Romantic?
“The life and death of Robert Schumann is, to most appearances, a case history of romantic excess. The composer did his best to embody the spirit of the age, placing emotion above reason, venerating nature and creating the art that the Zeitgeist demanded.” He also threw himself into the Rhine and ended his life in an asylum.
Britain’s 100 Most Influential Postwar Plays, According To The V&A’s New App
“After acquiring a new collection of theatre photography, the Victoria & Albert museum has launched a new interactive app that picks out the 100 most influential plays in postwar Britain.”
Danish Lawmakers Want To Make Public Names Of All Artist Grant Applicants – Including Rejects
“[The] country’s former culture minister … hopes that making this information public will quash the misconception that cronyism plays a part in the grant-making process. … Artists fear the stigma associated with a failed application and are concerned that it will be difficult to secure funds elsewhere if their project is perceived as not worth public money.”
Runaway Sergei Polunin To Return To UK In A Most Unlikely Ballet
“Sergei Polunin, the Ukrainian prodigy who stunned the dance world by walking out on the Royal Ballet, is to return to the UK for a brutal show ‘as far away from Swan Lake as you can get'” – an adaptation of Midnight Express, the story of an American drug-smuggler in a Turkish prison.
A Slave’s-Eye View Of Rome’s Caracalla Baths
“‘This is our glimpse at maniacal Roman perfection, at incredible hydraulic technology,’ said archaeologist Marina Piranomonte, as she descended and waved at a network of high and wide tunnels, each measuring six metres (20ft) high and wide, snaking off into the darkness.”
The Sex Life Of Zeus: An Infographic
The king of the ancient Greek gods was, of course, notoriously randy, with a long and confusing roster of paramours and offspring – just the sort of thing to appeal to inventive and geeky data-visualization designers. The team responsible for this graphic managed to include Zeus’s ancestors and relatives as well, along with the sources in which each liaison is mentioned.