Renée Fleming departs The Kennedy Center

Reporter: Why do you want to be chairman of Kennedy Center board?

Trump: Some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace.

Reporter: Have you seen any shows there?

Trump: No, I didn’t go.

Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic advisor to the NSO.
Not for me.
It’s been a wonderful 8 years working with Kennedy Center President Deb Rutter, fellow artistic advisor Renee Fleming, NSO artistic administrator Justin Ellis, and the entire NSO

Andrew Mellor: “The Royal Danish Opera has snagged one of the world’s most in-demand conductors. Who is she, and what has she got planned for Copenhagen?”

Read the full interview (now in English) at thenorthernsilence.net/game-set-mat...

"AI is a cruel technology. It replaces workers, devours millions of gallons of water, vomits CO2 into the atmosphere, propagandises exclusively for the worst ideologies, and fills the world with more ugliness and stupidity."

Still trying to marshal the inner turmoil after this extraordinary success. Perfect cast, conductor, director - and composer: this time Turnage has pulled it off. theartsdesk.com/opera/festen...

"Horrendous things are going on and nobody speaks up. That encapsulates what seems to be happening today." As the curtain goes up on Festen tonight at the Royal Opera House, its composer Mark-Anthony Turnage talks to Richard Morrison.

www.thetimes.com/article/4287...

Brutal subject for brutal times. Would definitely go see this if I lived across the pond.

In ‘Festen,’ a Nightmare Birthday Becomes an Opera www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/a...

All ready for a 60th birthday party 🥳
What could go wrong?
World premiere of Festen at The Royal Opera

“Let’s start viewing opera as an engine for empathy and awe, and decide to attend a performance with an explorer’s mindset. … What would happen if we approached opera on those terms, actively developing our curiosity about things we can’t fathom but long to know?”
- Yuval Sharon

I couldn’t think of a worse visionary of the arts. Terrifying times. #kennedycenter

Peter Bastian beskriver ret godt, hvad der er musikkritikerens problem:

“De endeløse diskussioner om godt og skidt viser hvor magert og uudviklet sproget er, når vi forsøger at anvende det på musikken. Selve musikkens væsen smutter os af hænde som et stykke vådt håndsæbe, når vi klemmer for hårdt.”

Sune Anderberg har anmeldt “A New Philosophy of Opera” af Yuval Sharon i Seismograf. Utrolig spændende læsning.

“For ham handler opera ikke om at iscenesætte en libretto så forståeligt som muligt, men om at aktivere en reel lytning – et mere ægte ritual – i salen.”

seismograf.org/artikel/oper...

Jacqueline du Pré was born on this day 80 years ago.

Here she is performing Elgar's Cello Concerto in 1967 together with Daniel Barenboim and the London Philharmonic: youtu.be/UUgdbqt2ON0?...

“Yesterday we witnessed the inauguration of a man whose ideology embodies everything the EU was founded to reject.”

Powerful speech by Aodhán Ó Ríordáin 🙏

Satie also took one of Debussy and Stravinsky.

Thought my first post here should be the most popular one on my late X account.

It’s Claude Debussy and Erik Satie hanging out by a Buddha. Photographed by Igor Stravinsky. What a house party.

Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde doing God's work and showing more strength and courage than billionaires.

Bishop at inaugural prayer service urges Trump to 'have mercy' on LGBTQ children, immigrants nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...

Wow. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde fearlessly calls out Trump and Vance to their faces. This is heroic.

(posting in 3 parts due to Bluesky's 1 minute limit)