Thomas Morton came to Massachusetts with the Puritans in 1624, but he was there strictly on business. What’s more, he didn’t fear the surrounding landscape as the devil’s dwelling place, he loved it and the Native Americans who lived there. He was a dandy, and one year he even (gasp) put up a maypole. Morton and the Puritans despised each other, and when he let them have it in his New English Canaan, they promptly banned it. – Atlas Obscura
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The Mysterious Alchemy Of How We Generate New Ideas
“It’s not at all obvious how to go about thinking up some new twist on these things—the transformation from test-taker to theorem poser and then theorem prover is difficult to articulate. My ideas have always felt contingent and magical to me. I don’t think I’m alone, at least as far as the magic goes.” – The New Yorker
The Guardian’s New Chief Theatre Critic Is Neither White Nor Male
Arifa Akbar, who will succeed Michael Billington in the new year, has been a contributing reviewer and reporter for The Guardian for several years; she’s currently arts editor at Tortoise Media and spent 15 years at The Independent as news reporter, arts writer and literary editor. – The Guardian
American Theatre Depends On European State Investment
The box-office receipts of commercial theater are not solely attributable to private entrepreneurs and fierce capitalist competition. Broadway producers are buying an artistic sensibility and a talent for provocation honed in state-funded theatrical laboratories across Europe, plus expertise that is the product of working relationships stretching back decades. – The Atlantic
Shell Shock 1919: How World War I Changed Culture
“The shock of the first modern, ‘industrial’ war extended far into the 20th century and even into the 21st, and changed how people saw the world and themselves. And that was reflected in the cultural responses to the war – which included a burgeoning obsession with beauty and body image, the birth of jazz, new thinking about the human psyche, the Harlem Renaissance, Surrealism, and more.” (audio) – WNYC (New York City)
Opera’s Woman Problem: There Just Aren’t Enough Of Them In Decision-Making Roles
The Stage senior reporter Georgia Snow talks to women working as directors, designers, and administrators in opera in the UK — who tell her that things are getting better, but not fast enough. (Opera companies are, after all, large, expensive, slow-moving machines.) Says English National Opera’s new artistic director, Annelese Miskimmon, “Unless we reflect our audience we can’t serve them. According to every statistic I have seen, it’s women who buy opera tickets. So it doesn’t matter what people’s own feelings are – it’s sensible economics.” – The Stage
There Were Women Authors In England Centuries Earlier Than We’d Thought
The first female writers in the kingdom have generally been thought to be Marie de France in the 12th century and Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich in the 14th. But scholar Diane Watt argues in a new book that there were Englishwomen producing serious prose and poetry as early as the 8th century — and that much of their work was “overwritten” by men. – The Guardian
Leonardo And His Lovers: The Opera
The new piece by composer Alex Mills and librettist Brian Mullin, titled Leonardo and premiering this weekend at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, focuses on da Vinci’s relationship with two of his assistants, the rambunctious working-class youth Gian Giacomo Caprotti (whom Leonardo called Salaí, meaning little devil), and the young Milanese noble Francesco Melzi (whom Leonardo called Master Francesco). – BBC
The Half-Billion-Dollar Expansion At Houston’s Museum Of Fine Arts Has An Opening Date In Sight
In the $450 million project announced four years ago, two smaller buildings and a plaza have already been added to the MFAH’s campus. The expansion’s centerpiece, the 183,528-square foot Kinder Building, is now scheduled to open next fall, with a grand atrium, two conference rooms, a 200-seat auditorium, a pair of restaurants, and 15 galleries. – Houston Chronicle
The Massive Embezzlement Scandal That Nearly Brought Down Barcelona’s Most Beautiful Concert Hall
It was ten years ago that the Palau de la Música Catalana’s name was all over Spain’s newspapers: €24 million had disappeared from the hall’s bank accounts in a corruption and kickback scheme that involved the Palau’s director; the president of Orfeó Català, its resident choral society; the transportation and infrastructure giant Ferrovial; and one of Catalonia’s major political parties. Here’s the story of how the crime was discovered and solved and how the Palau and Orfeó redeemed their reputations. – Bachtrack