- Jimmy saddles up! The American conductor prepares his comeback tour after two years of bed rest and physical therapy. Levine speaks about his spinal injury aftermath and upcoming NYC performances with Marilyn Horne on WQXR’s Operavore.
- Springtime for Hitler in Düsseldorf -- To help rinse the taste of genocide and gimmick out of our mouths after that (sh*t-canned!) Tannhäuser, The Guardian's stitched together a list of the top ten most shocking opera productions, with a predictable shout-out to Calixto Bieto (but no mention of Robert Carsen's scandalous, provocative 2007 Candide, heavily censored by Scala's Intendant during its Milan run.)
- Music at The Other Met: The New Yorker addresses this season's musical highlights at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Glamming-Up Umbria: The House of Fendi has sunk $1.5 million into Gian Carlo Menotti's 56-year-old Festival dei Due Mondi festival, which takes place in Spoleto in late June/early July. In the run-up to this year's festival, Carla Fendi's on a mission to sex-up the post-legendary fesival and woo dollar-flush Americans, who make up less than 10 percent of ticket sales.
- Men in (shiny, metallic) Tights: The latest fashion designer to battement frappé onto the ballet stage is Joseph Altuzarra, who debuted his costumes at Wednesday's season opening curtain-up of New York City Ballet's Spring Gala for the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's A Place for Us. Queen Latifah shone bright for Gershwin's The Man I Love set to a romantic pas de deux. Welcome back, ballerinas!