Anne Midgette Explains Bel Canto

“I could tell you that bel canto operas tend to have dated plots, filled with romance-novel-ish retellings of history, and heroines who keep going mad at inopportune moments. Or I could tell you that bel canto can be intoxicating, and that just trying to find examples to play for you led me to hours of bingeing on old YouTube videos, grinning like an idiot. But I’m not sure that will help you, either. Bel canto, I realize, is a little bit like a drug: Descriptions tend to sound either clinical or loopily subjective.” – The Washington Post

30 Years On, Looking Back At The Fights Over The Louvre’s Pyramid

I.M. Pei’s glass structure may be a beloved icon now, but from the time the design was revealed to opening day, the resistance was ferocious. “A foreign body, showing such disregard for history.” “It’s not Dallas here!” One Académie Française member wrote an “appeal for insurrection.” And when Pei showed his design to the relevant national commission, his interpreter burst into tears. – The Art Newspaper