Author: Matthew Westphal

San Francisco Opera Names Its First Female Music Director

“Eun Sun Kim, the South Korean conductor who made a powerful San Francisco Opera debut in June leading Dvořák’s Rusalka, has been named the company’s next music director. She will be just the fourth person to occupy the position in the company’s nearly 100-year history, and the only Asian woman to hold an artistic leadership role with a major North American opera company.” – San Francisco Chronicle

‘Radiolab’ Co-Host Robert Krulwich To Retire

The 72-year-old public radio and network television veteran has been alongside creator Jad Abumrad at the center of the popular podcast/radio series for 15 years. “No end date has been announced, with Krulwich hinting to one episode being finalized for ‘next week’ and an eventual super-sized episode about ‘a world population puzzle’ as his remaining Radiolab duties.” – Ars Technica

For The First Time In Living Memory, The Met Extends An Opera’s Run

“[Porgy and Bess], which opened the season in September, was scheduled to return on Jan. 8 for seven performances, through Feb. 1. On Thursday, the Met announced it would add three more, on Feb. 4, 12 and 15. Big repertory companies, which plan their crowded schedules years in advance, rarely have the flexibility to add performances to even their most successful shows. But the Met had an unexpected hole in its schedule.” – The New York Times

Australia’s Prime Minister Eliminates Arts Ministry

“The Arts, already an addendum to the Department of Communications and the Arts, will be merged along with the rest of the department into a new one with the unwieldy title of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.” What’s more, Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not consult department head Mike Mrdak — and only notified him the afternoon before the announcement. – Limelight (Australia)

Queering History: How LGBTQ Artists, Playwrights, And Novelists Are Reimagining The Past

Jesse Green: “On the whole, queer art, which fully emerged from the closet in the 1960s and 1970s — around the same time people in great numbers did — has mostly concerned itself with its own moment, as if to say, ‘Here I am.’ … [Yet] another approach has been emerging in tandem. … The watchcry for these works isn’t so much ‘Here I am’ as ‘There we were.’ More trenchantly, they sometimes ask how the two ideas are, or aren’t, related. What is the queer past for?” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Using Digital Media To Preserve Indigenous Australian Storytelling

“For millennia, Indigenous Australian communities have been passing down histories, knowledge, language and customs, largely through oral storytelling. But in a world of digital addiction, where even the most remote parts of the country are being infiltrated by smartphones, telling stories via screens is the new necessary: a way to both preserve tradition and reach out to the young.” – The Guardian