“Less than four months after a double resignation plunged the company into turmoil, the Royal Danish Opera has filled its two top vacancies. Michael Boder has been named as the company’s new principal conductor and artistic adviser while Sven Müller becomes artistic director.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Scottish Opera’s Maestro Agrees To One More Year
“Scottish Opera’s music director is to step down in 2013 after extending his contract by a single year to see out its 50th anniversary season. … The company was keen for him to stay on, but Corti had been considering his future ‘in the light of resources at the company’, one source said.”
Why Almost All Of Us Lie And Cheat A Little Bit – And Why Most Of Us Stop There
“Except for a few outliers at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest, honorable people.”
Why Some Of Us Choke At The Big Moment
“In theory, big rewards ought to spur people to great performances, but that often doesn’t happen. A recent study drew on neuroscience to explore why so many people choke.”
Scholars Realize That The Modern British Monarchy Is Worth Taking Seriously
While it’s true that Queen Victoria and her successors have reigned but not ruled, “[the] modern monarchy is not just a subject for biography,” says one historian. “It has so much more use as a window onto broader cultural trends, attitudes and the way people imagine themselves as citizens.”
In Praise Of The Internet’s Longest Tubes
“If the Internet is a global phenomenon, it’s because there are tubes at the bottom of the ocean. A look at the undersea cables that connect us.”
Rereading Kurt Vonnegut As A Grown-Up
“[The] syllabus of adolescent male samizdat … used to go like this: Mad magazine at 13, Vonnegut at 15, Salinger at 17, Hunter Thompson at 18, Kerouac at 20. (When you got real big, you read Kundera.)” William Deresiewicz returned to Vonnegut’s novels at age 48. “Some of them are worse than I remembered, but some of them are even better.”
The Killer App: Designing The First Fly Swatter
In 1900, Robert R. Montgomery of Illinois “was issued Patent No. 640,790 for the Fly-Killer, a ‘cheap device of unusual elasticity and durability’ made of wire netting, ‘preferably oblong,’ attached to a handle. The material of the handle remained unspecified, but the netting was crucial: it reduced wind drag, giving the swatter a ‘whiplike swing’.”
Critics Hit Back At Playwright’s Attack On Critic In Australia
Ashleigh Wilson, on Douglas Day Stewart’s attack on The Australian‘s critic for panning his musical An Officer and a Gentleman: “And some say theatre critics no longer have the power to provoke.”
Even Playwrights Join In Scolding An Officer and a Gentleman Author’s Whinge About Bad Review
James Millar: “Suck it up, buddy. She just didn’t like it.”