Aurelia Butler

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    Sean Combs’s White Parties Were Edgy, A-List Affairs. Were They More?

    The events helped the music mogul raise his profile. But one woman who worked at them has said in court papers that the parties had a dark side, too.In the 2000s, few events held the cultural cachet of the White Party thrown by Sean Combs — fetes in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons and other playgrounds of the rich, studded with famous names and fabulous tableaus.At the 2009 party, Demi Moore made the scene with Lil’ Kim, dancers gyrated in giant plastic balloons alongside tottering stilt walkers, and Ashton Kutcher swung, Tarzan-like, across a swimming pool as models in white bikinis lounged beside it.And at the center of it all was Mr. Combs, the billionaire hip-hop mogul also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, invariably toasting the scene with a glass of Cîroc vodka, and welcoming comparisons of his revels to those of lore.“Have I read ‘The Great Gatsby?’” Mr. Combs once told The Independent. “I am the Great Gatsby!”Today, Mr. Combs’s fortunes again invite comparison to Gatsby, though now through scandal. Prosecutors say Mr. Combs enlisted employees, enablers and prostitutes to stage far darker soirees than White Parties called “freak-offs” — drug-heavy, sometimes days-long hotel parties during which investigators say he abused and coerced participants into sexual acts, which he sometimes filmed and masturbated to.The criminal indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court this month has invited something of a reappraisal of the White Parties for some of those who reveled or worked at them. Were they merely innocuous, press-conscious branding events at which to see and be seen? Or was there, beyond the all-white facade, a darker element?Indeed, a recent lawsuit claims misdeeds occurred at those events, too: In July, Adria English, who was hired by Mr. Combs to work a series of White Parties in the mid-to-late 2000s, sued him, asserting she was plied with drugs and ecstasy-laced liquor at the events, and commanded to have sex with certain guests, making her into “a sexual pawn.” Jonathan Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, denied in July that his client had ever “sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Opera Is Still Obsessed With the Suffering of Women

    Two new works, “The Listeners” and “Grounded,” echo the age-old spectacle of female disintegration and show the tension of fitting modern stories into old forms.Opera’s job is to show us what’s bigger, wilder and more intense than ordinary life. It’s a terrarium in which we watch a condensed version of ourselves, with more ecstatic loves and more savage suffering.It’s no secret that a disproportionate amount of that suffering has been endured by women. With its bounty of female mad scenes, wasting sicknesses and tragic deaths, opera has been viewed with suspicion by some feminist critics. In a classic 1979 book, the French theorist Catherine Clément observed that “on the opera stage, women perpetually sing their eternal undoing.”“Glowing with tears, their décolleté cut to the heart,” Clément wrote, “they expose themselves to the gaze of those who come to take pleasure in their pretend agonies.”Opera, in this reading, is the product of a male-dominated society that has both celebrated female beauty and limited female action: hence the virtuoso singing paired with the punishing downfalls. There’s a dark aspect to the fact that women losing their minds and their lives is clearly central to what bewitches so many of us about “La Traviata” and “Madama Butterfly,” “Elektra” and “La Bohème,” “Faust” and much else in the standard repertoire.Not every opera, and certainly not every contemporary one, revolves around suffering women. But two major new works — Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded,” which opened the Metropolitan Opera’s season on Monday, and Missy Mazzoli’s sly, poignant, darkly funny “The Listeners,” which had its American premiere at Opera Philadelphia on Wednesday — are reminders that this fascination is strong enough to have lingered into our own time.Neither of these works has a traditional opera heroine. Jess in “Grounded” is a fighter pilot (no décolleté for her) and Claire in “The Listeners” teaches high school. And unlike Carmen or Salome, they don’t die; these new operas end with their main characters in a position that can seem a lot like composure. But the main spectacle of both plots — the climactic meat of the action — remains the same as in “Lucia di Lammermoor”: a woman coming undone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    National Symphony Orchestra Players Reach Deal After Brief Strike

    The musicians won a raise of about 8 percent over two years after a short work stoppage, the Washington ensemble’s first in 46 years.The musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington reached a deal with management for a new labor contract on Friday after a tense, short-lived strike threatened to disrupt the season.Under the agreement, the players will receive a raise of 4 percent this season and another 4 percent increase in the 2025-26 season. They had previously rejected an offer of a 13 percent raise over four years.In an escalation after months of labor talks, the musicians walked off the job on Friday for the first time since 1978. They picketed in red shirts outside the Kennedy Center, which oversees the ensemble, holding signs that said, “No pay, no play!” The strike lasted from about 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.After the strike began, the National Symphony Orchestra’s managers said they would cancel the opening gala, a major fund-raising event scheduled for Saturday. But they reversed course once the deal was reached, saying the gala would go forward.Edgardo Malaga Jr., the president of the players’ union, Local 161-710 of the American Federation of Musicians, said the players were relieved by the agreement.“The musicians are very happy,” he said. “We felt we were successful. We’ve got some good gains here that we can be proud of.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Kevin Mazur, the Ultimate Celebrity Photographer

    When Taylor Swift opened her Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz., in March 2023, Kevin Mazur was granted full access to photograph the show.When Beyoncé opened her Renaissance Tour in Stockholm, Sweden, two months later, Mr. Mazur captured the performance from directly in front of the stage.That fall, when Madonna opened her Celebration Tour in London, Mr. Mazur was once again in position for the best shots.At the Met Gala and Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, Mr. Mazur, 63, roams freely while photographers from major news outlets are given a short amount of time to shoot the goings-on away from the red carpet.Bob Dylan has let him into the recording studio, Barbra Streisand has had him in her home, and Kurt Cobain invited him on a Nirvana tour. He took some of the last photographs of Michael Jackson, on the night before his death.His motto — “Why wouldn’t you want to make people look good?” — helps explain how he became the John Singer Sargent of live-action digital photography, a go-to chronicler of rock gods and movie stars.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Chappell Roan Cancels a Pair of Big Shows After Tumultuous Weeks

    The pop star said things had “gotten overwhelming” and bowed out of festivals in New York and Maryland after a period in which her politics came under scrutiny.Chappell Roan, the pop star who has rocketed to stardom over the summer, abruptly canceled a pair of major festival performances scheduled for this weekend, citing “pressures” and the need to prioritize her health.The sudden cancellations of the shows in New York and Columbia, Md., come after a tumultuous few weeks for Roan, in which she called out aggressive fan behavior, engaged in a verbal spat with a photographer on the red carpet at MTV’s Video Music Awards and became entangled in politics as fans scrutinized her leanings in the 2024 presidential election.In a statement posted on her Instagram Stories on Friday, Roan said she had become overwhelmed by it all and needed to bow out her performances at the All Things Go festival.“I apologize to people who have been waiting to see me in NYC & DC this weekend at All Things Go, but I am unable to perform,” Roan said. “Things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks and I am really feeling it.“I feel pressures to prioritize a lot of things right now and I need a few days to prioritize my health. I want to be present when I perform and give the best shows possible. Thank you for understanding.”In the festival’s own statement, which was placed at the end of an Instagram Story that included posts from fans sharing their eagerness to see Roan, All Things Go said it was “heartbroken” by the news but supported “artists prioritizing their well-being.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    With Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in Jail, He Faces Another Lawsuit

    The latest lawsuit includes accusations of drugging and coerced sex as recently as this year. Mr. Combs’s lawyers have said the claims are attempts to obtain quick settlements.A woman filed a lawsuit against the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs on Friday alleging that he repeatedly coerced her into forced sexual encounters over a period of several years, in part by compelling her to take drugs that caused her to fall unconscious.The suit, which was brought in state court in New York by an anonymous plaintiff who describes herself as a business owner and a model, recalls a relationship that continued on and off between 2021 and this year, in which Mr. Combs and his employees would arrange for her to travel to his homes.“Combs would make her ‘perform a show’ for him and would ply her with alcohol and substances until she passed out — she would wake up with bruising and injuries but with no recollection of how she sustained her injuries,” the lawsuit says.Representatives for Mr. Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The latest complaint against Mr. Combs comes as he faces federal racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges; he has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have adamantly denied the charges, accusing prosecutors of manipulating sexual encounters between consenting adults into a sex trafficking case.As he awaits trial, detained in a Brooklyn jail, the civil suits against Mr. Combs have continued to grow. The lawsuit is the eighth filed over the past year by a woman accusing him of sexual assault; three other lawsuits have made allegations of sexual misconduct. Mr. Combs’s lawyers have been seeking dismissals of the other suits in court and have described them as false claims cobbled together to try to secure a financial settlement from Mr. Combs.The newest lawsuit said the plaintiff, who lives in Florida, met Mr. Combs overseas in 2020 and began seeing him regularly in 2021. Drivers would pick her up, the suit says, and she would be taken to his homes in Los Angeles, New York and Florida.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker,’ and a Tour of Musical Clowning

    Clowns, harlequins, jokers and Pierrots have served as the main characters in countless songs over the years, but they’re rarely there to conjure cheap laughs.Dear listeners,Today — after announcing it just a few days ago — Lady Gaga released “Harlequin,” a companion album to the forthcoming film “Joker: Folie à Deux,” in which she stars as the troubled Harleen Quinzel. Fans clamoring for the next “Bad Romance” will have to wait a little longer: She’s promised that her next album, slated for release in February 2025, will be her return to pop. In the meantime, “Harlequin” is a satisfying showcase for the jazzier and more traditional side of Gaga — and another example of music’s continued obsession with clowns.Clowns, harlequins, jokers and Pierrots have served as the main characters in countless songs over the years, but they’re rarely there to conjure cheap laughs. More often, the musical clown is a tragic figure, whether he’s shedding tears like Smokey Robinson or hanging his head like the titular fool in an Everly Brothers classic. Gaga’s “Harlequin” fits into this lineage in its own way: There’s a manic brightness to many of her performances (which include standards like “Smile” and “Get Happy”) that barely conceals an underlying darkness and despair.Today’s playlist is a brief tour through the musical history of clowning, sans the abrasive sounds of Insane Clown Posse. (My apologies; I’m just not a Juggalo.) It contains one of my favorite tracks from Lady Gaga’s new album, along with material from Jenny Lewis, Emeli Sandé and a certain timeless ballad written by Stephen Sondheim. On the off chance you’re one of those people who is afraid of clowns, I sincerely hope it does not inspire any nightmares.Just like Pagliacci did,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Lady Gaga: “The Joker”One of the most striking tracks on “Harlequin” is this rendition of “The Joker” — no, not the Steve Miller Band song, but a showstopping number from the 1964 musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint — The Smell of the Crowd.” (It’s been covered by quite a few artists over the years, perhaps most memorably the great Shirley Bassey.) Gaga can of course nail a theatrical tune like this in her sleep, but she brings a fresh energy to “The Joker” by giving it a kind of rock operatic arrangement, complete with electric guitar and a punkish growl in her voice. “Perfect Illusion” apologists, our moment has once again arrived.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Cure’s First Fresh Music in 16 Years, and 9 More New Songs

    Hear tracks by Lady Gaga, Rosalía, Stevie Nicks and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.The Cure, ‘Alone’“This is the end of every song we sing,” Robert Smith laments in the stately, dire, seven-minute “Alone.” It’s the first preview of “Songs of a Lost World,” the Cure’s first studio album since 2008, which is due Nov. 1. The first half of the track is instrumental, establishing a lugubrious pace with thick, sustained chords punctuated by slamming drums. It sets up Smith to deliver a threnody for just about everything: not just music but love, nature, hope, dreams, even the stars. “Where did it go?” Smith wonders amid the emptiness.Stevie Nicks, ‘The Lighthouse’Stevie Nicks has re-emerged, righteous and adamant, with “The Lighthouse,” a post-Dobbs call for action on women’s rights. “You better learn how to fight,” she sings. What starts as a dirge — “All the rights that you had yesterday are taken away” — quickly snowballs into a march, a latter-day sequel to “Stand Back” that insists on standing up instead.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More