The Death of Klinghoffer review — Luca Guadagnino unveils a masterpiece The Call Me By Your Name and Challengers director’s stage production in Florence brings immense skill to John Adams’s controversial opera about a Palestinian terrorist atrocity

On Luca Guadagnino’s Death of Klinghoffer, for @thetimes.com

The operatic event of the year

On Weimar, French chanson, and Anne Sofie von Otter’s long and varied career, for @bachtrack.com

Beautiful Deaths: How 'La Bohème' Transformed Tuberculosis into Art From Mimì's consumption to Rent's AIDS crisis, opera has long aestheticized illness—revealing both our deepest fears and our most troubling biases

On Susan Sontag, La Bohème, and the aestheticization of illness

went to check out the techno rave outside Parliament and I don't think I have the data allowance to share a video from it but let me tell you: there sure is a techno rave outside Parliament right now, celebrating Orban getting ousted

Viktor Orbán Could Actually Lose The Hungarian leader faces an energized opposition—and questions about whether he would accept defeat.

Viktor Orbán has ruthlessly clung to power since 2010. J. D. Vance just flew across the world to help make sure it stays that way. And yet, there's a real chance Orbán loses on Sunday.

Then it becomes a question of whether he’ll accept defeat.

A guy asking ChatGPT to review a series of fart sound effects and getting a serious kiss ass response that calls it atmospheric

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

Well at least things are more rational and just on the other side of the p-

Stephen Lewis Was a Singular Man on a Mission

A lovely tribute to Stephen Lewis, by @stephanienolen.bsky.social. Despite his years working in systems and institutions, Lewis never became lost to them. To the very end, he was fiercely passionate about justice for people

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/w...

omg i know

I actually love the Berio!

Is It Possible to Solve the Ending of Puccini’s ‘Turandot’?

My piece on navigating the Orientalism of Turandot, for @nytimes.com

After Period of Instability, BAM Names New President

Not a surprise—but an affirmation of solid, meaningful, and progressive leadership at my place of employment, @bambrooklyn.bsky.social.

Screenshot from a BBC educational website. The expanded section reads: "10. How to be polite and show respect In the old days of feudal Japan, a samurai warrior would shout You are trying to view Flash content, but you have no Flash plugin installed."

Remembering the ancient ways

I’m finally watching the gay-ass “Importance of Being Earnest” and it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen

🙃🙃🙃

me yelling about the state of criticism today

my favorite form of discourse is “auteur theory is bad unless the auteur has politics I can’t stand”

Is Beatrice Venezi’s Appointment Really Based on Merit? Everywhere you look, politics are seeping into opera. In New York, Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, accompanied onstage by Democratic senator Chuck Schumer, gave a rousing opening-night ...

Beatrice Venezi's appointment as music director of La Fenice has been confirmed by the opera house's board of directors. Which brings us back to @kevinng.bsky.social's question: Is her conducting any good?

van-magazine.com/mag/beatrice...

Tristan und Isolde review — the Met has a pair who stand with the greats Lise Davidsen’s titanic voice is made for Isolde and she blends beautifully with Michael Spyres’s marvellous Tristan in the Metropolitan Opera’s eagerly awaited new production

My thoughts on the Met’s new Tristan

me too omg

Tristan und Isolde review — the Met has a pair who stand with the greats Lise Davidsen’s titanic voice is made for Isolde and she blends beautifully with Michael Spyres’s marvellous Tristan in the Metropolitan Opera’s eagerly awaited new production

My thoughts on the Met’s new Tristan

Tristan, at last

Chuck Schumer: ‘The American People Deserve A President Who Can More Credibly Justify War With Iran’ WASHINGTON—In a pointed critique of President Trump’s foreign policy leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated to members of the press Thursday that “the American people deserve a presid...

From The Archives:

new met tristan

clearly she was onto something seeing as how they fucking killed her

The Largest Nurses Strike in New York City History Just Kicked Off Nearly 15,000 healthcare workers across New York City are on the picket lines demanding safe staffing and workplace protections.

"...No nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits, or less dignity for doing lifesaving work. Our nurses have kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable.” —New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani

It’s out in German and will be soon in English: Jeff Brown and I considered the new Matthias Pintscher opera DAS KALTE HERZ at Staatsoper Berlin.

omg!!!

A ★★ review of Hamnet (2025) I think I'm pretty allergic to weepy 16th-century period pieces populated by it-boy movie stars with perfect teeth and chiseled beards and Oscar fantasies, though I tried to approach this one with an ...

I went to see Hamnet and found it pretty tedious, though I may be allergic to this genus of weepy period piece: