How Andrea Bocelli’s Easter Concert In The Empty Milan Cathedral Became A Worldwide Megahit

“Roughly 5 million people around the world logged on to YouTube to view the half-hour sacred music concert as it was happening. By Monday night the archived performance had 32 million views. Clearly, it transcended religion, nationality, age demographic and even music preference on its way to becoming perhaps the signature cultural event of the pandemic.” – Variety

How To Reopen Museums – Quickly And Safely

Andras Szanto: “Museums could offer people who have experienced weeks of isolation a safe place to go, or a reprieve from cramped quarters. Their opening would signal the beginnings of a return to normalcy. What’s more, once the public is back, museums can serve as hubs of education, information-sharing, and collective reflection as we work together to surmount this crisis.” – Artnet

How Fear Has Shaped (And Built) New York

Justin Davidson: “New York has been a scary place for most of the past 400 years. Fire, flood, attack, crime, rebellion, drugs, and disease have shaped it. I find that an oddly reassuring thought, because all through its litany of misfortunes and bouts of exodus, the city’s magnetic force field has strengthened. Fear and pain are crucial human responses — without them, we die. At every desperate juncture, New York has grown and transformed as it healed.” – New York Magazine

Disney-On-Broadway Coronavirus Benefit On Again After Musicians’ Union Relents

A benefit concert from last November, in which 79 stage performers did songs from Disney musicals, was going to be streamed online to benefit the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund — until, less than a day ahead of time, the international president of the American Federation of Musicians demanded that the pit band be paid extra for streaming rights. (Equity and SAG-AFTRA had waived such payments.) On Sunday, the musicians involved, backed by the union’s New York local, said publicly that they didn’t want the additional money; in less than 24 hours, the AFM president changed his position. – The New York Times