The illiberals do not always win.

This is the man in charge of the most powerful military in the world, and he is literally demented.

A reminder, for anyone who may have forgotten, that online public booking for the Glyndebourne Festival opens in a few minutes. (And that the cheapest tickets - restricted-view and standing - go freshly on sale to general public, without first dibs for paid-up members.)

Er, yes, but which academic/musicologist/researcher/writer (even undergraduate) is not already aware of the huge dangers of using *any* AI source for their scholarship or writing? A useful example of how badly it gets things wrong but is is hardly an unknown issue that the article is flagging.

Wow.

440 years ago; snow as captivating as ever. Delightful.

People being people!

Hendrick Avercamp: deaf, mute, but creator of some of the most instantly recognisable, atmospheric and joyous winter scenes in art. A favourite of mine.

Quite a statement by the Republican governor of Vermont

picture of Alex Pretti

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse serving veterans. He died trying to protect protestors being assaulted. A group of anonymous & masked men fired chemicals into his face, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Then his government smeared him & defended his murder.

They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.

It's not the video on the BBC news website; it's a much closer and clearer video of what occurred. It's appalling.

The verified video of the shooting in Minneapolis is truly shocking. There is no 'contested narrative' here: an innocent man trying to help a woman violently assaulted by ICE thugs is beaten to the ground and then shot in cold blood. No threat, no firearm, no violent resistance, nothing.

One of *the* great paintings. Endlessly enthralling.

"With Oliver’s interpretation, this offered a freshness to this perennial work, stripping back accrued layers of its vast performance tradition, and sought the leaner core of Handel’s original inspiration."

A nice review of my Royal Albert Hall debut conducting Messiah with Glyndebourne.

I would love to welcome you to Glyndebourne some time, and perhaps dispel whatever preconceptions you may have about 'country house opera': it is a major international company creating (I think) exceptional opera. Kosky's Carmelites and Saul, McVicar's Cesare, Pelly's Mamelles... Please do come.

RIP Lawrence Wallington, for many years a much-loved Lay Vicar of Westminster Abbey and stalwart of the Monteverdi Choir.

One of the loveliest people you would ever know, and a true friend of so many choral singers, young and old.

With you all the way!

A beautiful gloaming at the close of my 50th birthday in glorious Copenhagen. xx

The US government is now freely killing people at sea, in other lands, and on its own streets.

It is difficult to see what more is needed for Congress and the Supreme Court to exercise their constitutional duty to check and balance what is now a rogue state abroad and a gangster state at home.

Any particular reason why you don't come here when you otherwise travel so widely for opera?

That's a shame. We do create very fine opera on these shores too.

Will 2026 be the year that you review something at a UK opera house?

And while we're at it, we can remind everyone that the punctuation (and sense) in 'O Little Town' should be

'Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in'

(The Carols for Choirs comma *before* 'still' is entirely spurious).

A mesmerising painting - endlessly fascinating and enchanting.

Thank you! And the children were brilliant - you should be very proud.

A woman on a full train recently was using a tablet to play annoying cartoons *at full volume* to her child while she talked to her friend, and when I politely asked her to turn it down she just looked confused and said "What, is this a quiet carriage?" Bizarre.

Exactly this. Strangely the problem seems to have got much worse just this past year: people either look at me like I'm a weirdo if I ask them to turn it down/off, or immediately threaten violence. I'm not quite sure what's changed this year, but it's maddening.

open.spotify.com/track/4usxPG...

from 'One foot in Eden still, I stand', by Edwin Muir.

Set to music by Nicholas Maw as (imv) the most moving unaccompanied choral work of the twentieth century.