Aurelia Butler

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    Production Company for Katy Perry’s ‘Lifetimes’ Video Under Investigation in Spain

    Local authorities opened an investigation into the production company for filming in a protected area without clearance, according to a news release.The production company behind Katy Perry’s music video for her single “Lifetimes” is under investigation in Spain for filming in a protected area without clearance, the authorities said Tuesday.The government of the Balearic Islands, an archipelago off eastern Spain, said in a news release that its Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment has opened an investigation into the filming in the Parc Natural de Ses Salines. It is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage nature reserve that stretches across the islands of Ibiza and Formentera.According to several published reports, part of the video was apparently filmed within the dunes on the islet of s’Espalmador, a preserved area that Balearic Islands tourism authorities say is “highly valuable” ecologically because of the plants and animals that live there.“In no case had the production company requested authorization from the Regional Ministry to carry out the filming,” according to the news release, which is in Spanish.The government agency also said that filming was not an environmental crime and is permitted with appropriate authorization. Authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Tuesday evening.“Lifetimes,” which premiered on Thursday and is a single off Perry’s upcoming studio album “143,” features the star singing and dancing on a beach and on a boat, cliff jumping and performing in a crowded nightclub. The video was directed by Stillz and produced by WeOwnTheCity, according to the end credits. Perry teased the video’s release in several posts on her Instagram account in recent days. “Sending love from Ibiza,” Perry wrote on Instagram on Thursday, the day the video premiered, using an orange heart emoji for love. The post features “Lifetimes” lyrics and a series of postcards from locations including Ibiza and Formentera, where the national park is, set against images of what appears to be seaside cliffs. The postcards appear to be outtakes from Perry’s video.WeOwnTheCity did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for Katy Perry had yet to comment.According to Formentera Island Council Tourism’s website, the park includes rich, biodiverse land and marine habitats stretching from southern Ibiza to northern Formentera. The park is also a nesting area for more than 200 species of migratory birds and is home to Posidonia, a seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean Sea that plays an important role in maintaining and protecting the water and marine life. The park has been listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO since 1999, the tourism agency said.The islet of S’Espalmador is part of the park and has “one of the best-preserved and most amazing beaches,” with crystal-clear waters and a forest of pine trees and junipers, according to the Balearic Islands tourism authorities.Perry’s “143” album is set to be released in September.Jesus Jiménez More

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    Vienna Bids Farewell to Magnate Who Brought Stars to Its Opera Ball

    Sophia Loren, Kim Kardashian, Priscilla Presley and Jane Fonda were among the stars Richard Lugner enticed, and often paid, to appear at the Vienna Opera Ball.The Vienna Opera Ball, a glittering, glamorous affair, always attracts politicians, business executives, artists and socialites. But in a high-profile crowd, none reigned quite like Richard Lugner, a billionaire Austrian construction magnate who died this week at 91.Lugner was famous for showing up at the ball each year with megawatt Hollywood stars, whom he often paid to appear with him. His guests over the years included Sophia Loren, Goldie Hawn, Brooke Shields and Kim Kardashian. They were usually, but not always, women: He brought Harry Belafonte one year, and Roger Moore another. When Jane Fonda went in 2023, she was quoted as explaining that he had offered to pay her “quite a bit of money” to appear as his guest. At this year’s ball in February, Lugner appeared with Priscilla Presley, the former wife of Elvis Presley.Karl Nehammer, the chancellor of Austria, wrote on X that Lugner, who also tried his hand at politics, was “an Austrian original.” In a statement, the Vienna State Opera expressed its “sincere condolences to Richard Lugner’s family.”Here’s a look at Lugner’s appearances at the Vienna Opera Ball over the years.Faye Dunaway and Lugner in 1999.Herwig Prammer/ReutersKim Kardashian, Lugner and Kris Jenner in 2014.Gisela Schober/Getty ImagesPriscilla Presley danced with Lugner at this year’s ball.Christian Bruna/EPA, via ShutterstockLugner, in 2000, flanked by the actress Jacqueline Bisset, center, and the television presenter Nadja Abd el Farrag. His fourth wife, Christina, is on the left.Pool photo by ReutersAndie MacDowell and Lugner in 2004.Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesFarrah Fawcett, center, drinking wine with the Lugners in 2001.Miro Kuzmanovic/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLugner and Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls arriving at their opera box in 2005.Leonhard Foeger/ReutersRaquel Welch and her husband Richard Palmer joined the Lugners in 1998.Herbert Pfarrhofer/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesElle Macpherson, left, accompanied Lugner and his companion to the Vienna Opera Ball in 2019.Florian Wieser/EPA, via Shutterstock More

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    9 Great Songs Recorded at Electric Lady Studios

    A new documentary spotlights the Greenwich Village creative hub. Listen to tracks by Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith, Frank Ocean and more that were recorded there.Patti SmithVagabond Video/Getty Images.Dear listeners,I’m a sucker for any documentary that features scenes of people at a recording studio’s mixing board, isolating tracks from a great, intricately layered song.* Over the weekend, I watched a new film that, I am happy to report, features plenty of such footage: “Electric Lady Studios — A Jimi Hendrix Vision,” a recently released documentary that charts the origins of the famed, still vital Greenwich Village landmark.Located at 52 West 8th Street and formerly an avant-garde nightclub, the property that would become Electric Lady was purchased by Jimi Hendrix and his manager in 1968. Over the next two years, they poured somewhere around $1 million of their own money into its construction. (When the cash flow dried up, Hendrix would go play some live gigs and return with enough dough to pay the contractors.) Hendrix initially dreamed up Electric Lady as his own personal recording studio, a place where he and his friends could experiment freely without incurring exorbitant hourly rates. But, tragically, Hendrix did not live long enough to use it much at all. Construction was finally completed in August 1970; Hendrix died, at 27, on Sept. 18 of that year.Word had already gotten out that Electric Lady was special, combining state-of-the-art technology with a groovy atmosphere that made it a more comfortable place to hang out than most cramped, sterile recording studios. Thanks to some early bookings by marquee artists like Carly Simon, Led Zeppelin and Stevie Wonder, Electric Lady managed to stay afloat in those precarious first years after Hendrix’s death. More than 50 years later, it has survived ownership changes, gentrification and huge shifts in recording technology, remaining a crucial link between popular music’s past and present. Today, it’s arguably as busy as it’s ever been: Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan and Sabrina Carpenter are just a few stars who have recently laid down tracks there.Today’s playlist traces Electric Lady’s decades-long history via nine very different songs recorded within its hallowed walls. I’ve arranged them in chronological order, so you can gradually hear the way the sounds of pop music have changed over time. I hope that you’ll also hear certain echoes between now and then — similarities in the soft-rock confessions of Simon and Swift, or the genre-blurring explorations of Wonder and Frank Ocean.These are, of course, just a sampling of the thousands and thousands of songs that have been recorded at Electric Lady throughout the years. Next time you find yourself scouring a favorite LP’s liner notes or Wikipedia credits, don’t be too surprised if you see that familiar address.This is our place, we make the rules,Lindsay* (The Fleetwood Mac episode of “Classic Albums” where Lindsey Buckingham pulls up individual vocal and instrumental tracks from “Rumours” is my personal gold standard.)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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    ‘Scarface’ Actor Ángel Salazar Dies at 68

    He first made his mark doing stand-up in New York, but he was best known for his role as Chi Chi opposite Al Pacino in the hit 1983 movie.Ángel Salazar, a dynamic stand-up comedian who became well known for his wild routines and an actor best known for his role in the hit 1983 film “Scarface,” died on Sunday at a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn. He was 68.His death was confirmed by a representative, Roger Paul, who said Mr. Salazar had an enlarged heart and was found unresponsive.Mr. Salazar built his career in New York City comedy clubs after fleeing Cuba when he was young.As an actor, he was seen onstage, on television and in films including “Carlito’s Way” in 1993. But none of these roles would surpass the renown he achieved in “Scarface” as Chi Chi, a henchman of the drug lord Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino. In that film, directed by Brian De Palma and loosely based on the 1932 movie of the same name, Chi Chi backs Montana, a fellow Cuban refugee, on his violent campaign to reach the top of Miami’s cocaine trade.More than 30 years later, in 2017, after the film had secured generations of fans, Mr. Salazar told The Record of Bergen County, N.J., that he still answered to “Chi Chi” and didn’t mind when people brought copies of the “Scarface” DVD to his comedy shows to be signed.Ángel Salazar was born on March 2, 1956, in Cuba. He acted in plays there before fleeing the country in the early 1970s, swimming across Guantánamo Bay to reach the U.S. naval base there, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1996. From there, he was flown to Miami and then moved to New York, where he was placed in a foster home in the Bronx.Information on survivors was not immediately available.Mr. Salazar, left, with Al Pacino in the 1983 film “Scarface.” He played Chi Chi, a henchman of the drug lord Tony Montana, played by Mr. Pacino. Photo 12/Alamy Stock PhotoIn New York, he had trouble finding acting jobs, but he could make people laugh and at age 18 decided to test how far that could get him by performing at a comedy club’s open mic night.“I had 10 minutes,” Mr. Salazar told The Inquirer. “And I think I had one joke. The rest of the time I said, ‘Check it out,’ over and over again.”He eventually became a comedy club regular, and “Check it out” was a staple of his high-energy routines, which included costumes, props and impersonations of celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Tina Turner.Mr. Salazar lived between New York and Florida. Earlier this month he performed at the Laugh Factory in Reno, Nev., and Mr. Paul, his representative, said that they had talked last week about a possible show in Chicago.In Vanity Fair’s 2016 oral history of the famed New York City club the Comedy Cellar, the comedian Jim Norton said: “Auditions were typically done during the Friday late show, which meant you could get stuck following Ángel Salazar or some other guy who killed so hard the walls would shake.”Mr. Salazar at an event celebrating the release of “Scarface” on Blu-ray in Los Angeles in 2011.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images More

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    Has the Composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Time Finally Come?

    With an opera at the Salzburg Festival and recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, the music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg may be taking root.It’s difficult to define a comeback in classical music. A neglected composer may be championed by the artists of one generation only to be ignored by the next, or resurface during an anniversary only to return underground.Take the works of Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-96), a Polish-born composer who found refuge in Soviet Russia, but whose reputation in the West is largely overshadowed by that of his good friend Dmitri Shostakovich. There has been increasing interest in Weinberg this century, and there are signs that his music is finally taking root in the repertoire.The latest milestone is an excellent revival of his opera “The Idiot” at the high-profile Salzburg Festival in Austria under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, a conductor with a Deutsche Grammophon contract who has, with scholarly authority, brought Weinberg’s works to something like the mainstream.Still, as a figure in music history he remains mostly unknown to modern listeners: a Jewish composer who wrote with unwavering beauty and peace in the face of some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities; whose identity and experiences suffused more than 150 works, as well as dozens of soundtracks that await attention and interpretation; who, under no outside pressure, according to his family, converted to Christianity at the end of his life.Weinberg was born in Warsaw but fled in 1939, after hearing on the radio that a German invasion of the city was imminent. (He traveled alone; it wasn’t until the 1960s that he learned his family had been murdered in a concentration camp.) He went to the Soviet border, and settled in Minsk. Nearly two years later, he left there as the Nazis pushed eastward, joining the wartime refugee community in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.He ultimately made it to Moscow, with the help of composers including Shostakovich, who had secured an invitation for Weinberg from the State Committee on the Arts. He enjoyed some modest prosperity and rising prominence, but a Stalinist crackdown on music, combined with institutionalized antisemitism, led to his arrest in early 1953.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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    Missy Elliott, Pop World Builder, Brings a Hip-Hop Fantasia to Brooklyn

    For her first headlining tour in an innovative three-decade career, Elliott unleashed a relentless and exhilarating display of theatrical and visual ambition.It’s nearly impossible to fathom that until this summer, almost three decades into her career, Missy Elliott had never headlined an arena tour. One of the most influential hip-hop and pop performers, songwriters and producers of all time, she built a career on hyperreal imagery and music that suggested an intergalactic, quirky, sensual future that even now feels fanciful and far-off.And judging by the performance Elliott, 53, delivered at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday night, it would have been impossible to ascertain that she’d never toured at this level before. The deftness and imagination on display suggested a performer with a hyperdeveloped sense of image-making, a bone-deep understanding of her catalog, and a desire to make up for lost time and opportunity.The tour, titled Out of This World — the Missy Elliott Experience, was a taut, relentless and exhilarating 75 minutes full of theatrical and visual ambition. At times, it had the complexity and density of recent peak pop spectacles, like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, or the Weeknd’s 2021 Super Bowl halftime show. But it was also kin to the films of Baz Luhrmann, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics — events in which precision, creativity and absurdism comfortably coexist, and actually rely upon each other.The show was less a conventional concert than a dynamic carnivalesque D.J. set of strung-together Elliott smashes (her own, mainly, but at one point late in the night, some which she wrote or produced for others, like Aaliyah). It presented as one grand adventure — the front-loaded section of hits like “Sock It 2 Me,” “I’m Really Hot” and “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” (which was preceded by a quizzical nod to “Singin’ in the Rain”) wasn’t much more distinctive than the mid-show run of sex romps “Get Ur Freak On,” “One Minute Man” and “Hot Boyz.” And neither of those sections was more commanding than the sometimes choppy closing run, peppered with laser-beam bouncers like “Work It” and “Lose Control.” The less effective songs sprinkled throughout worked as accent pieces, but also at times undermined the potency of her biggest hits.But Elliott was trying to make a point: Like all the most memorable and durable pop heroes, she has built a worldview much bigger than any one of her songs.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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    Haley Joel Osment, ‘Sixth Sense’ Star, Is Content 25 Years Later

    Haley Joel Osment’s childhood memories are not like other people’s. He remembers the kindness with which Tom Hanks treated him, when he was 5 and playing Hanks’s son in “Forrest Gump.” And the time Russell Crowe adjusted his bow tie at an awards show when Osment, not yet 12, was Oscar-nominated for his breakout performance in “The Sixth Sense.” The in-depth conversations he had with Steven Spielberg about the future as they were filming “A.I.” that same year.A phalanx of Osment clones, made for that movie, are still floating around — he heard they might have ended up stockpiled in Peter Jackson’s trove of memorabilia in New Zealand. If the apocalypse happens, Osment jokes, that preteen version of him will survive.It is, in any case, the form in which many fans know him best — especially as the notably named Cole Sear, the teary-eyed center of “The Sixth Sense,” M. Night Shyamalan’s blockbuster supernatural thriller from August 1999. Osment’s indelibly whispered line, “I see dead people,” went from the trailer to the canon of cinema to pop culture infamy long before memes even existed to codify it (though they have now). It was a phrase so potent that, 25 years after its arrival, it is a Kendrick Lamar lyric — on a Drake diss track, no less.With its final-act twist, “The Sixth Sense” also, some cineastes argue, started “spoiler culture” — meaning that mass moviedom as we know it, with entire publicity campaigns and prickly fan bases fiercely safeguarding plotlines, sprang from that moment. A 10-year-old paired with an action star (Bruce Willis), playing against type as a child therapist, spooked audiences into repeat views, and today we scour the screen for Easter eggs and hope for the thrill of a shock.Osment with Bruce Willis in “The Sixth Sense.” When the boy auditioned, M. Night Shyamalan recalled, “I turned to the casting director and said, ‘I don’t think I want to make this without him.’”Buena Vista PicturesOsment is now 36; he has been a working actor for nearly nine-tenths of his life, in drama, comedy, fantasy, animation, period pieces, video games and oddball stuff. He has enough credits that when a cast was made of his arm for the Amazon superhero series “The Boys,” he was able to use it again, seasons later, to beat someone in the FX vampire satire “What We Do in the Shadows.”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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    Esa-Pekka Salonen: A Conductor at the Top, and at a Crossroads

    Salonen, who will soon be a free agent for the first time in decades, could do pretty much anything at this stage. What will it be?On a late afternoon in May, pop and classical music luminaries gathered in the neo-Gothic sanctuary of a 19th-century church-turned-Soho House in Stockholm. With drinks in hand, they listened as the media personality Cilla Benkö asked Esa-Pekka Salonen, “So what’s going on in your head at the moment?”“Well, I’m at a crossroads,” said Salonen, the composer and conductor, who is a year away from becoming a free agent for the first time in decades. “I’m kind of figuring out what to do, if anything.”Salonen is in a good position to choose what comes next. He is a conductor at the top of his field, and the kind of composer who can bring on not just one high-profile commissioner but several for each new piece he writes. The day after his interview with Benkö, he received the Polar Music Prize, an honor that has been called the Nobel Prize of music, directly from the hands of the Swedish king.Salonen, center, rehearsing with the San Francisco Symphony in 2022. The announcement that he would leave when his contract is up in 2025 came as a surprise.Ulysses Ortega for The New York TimesThe award is given to a classical and a pop artist annually; Salonen’s counterpart was Nile Rodgers, the mind behind songs like “We Are Family” and “Le Freak” and albums by Madonna, David Bowie and Beyoncé. Guests at the ceremony included the royal family, the megaproducer Max Martin and a member of ABBA, all gathered for a televised evening of tributes and black-tie diners dancing in the aisles to music related to the prize winners.With royalty grooving to Daft Punk but also listening attentively to Salonen’s “Concert Étude for Solo Horn,” it was a fitting celebration for Salonen, one of the most open-minded, open-eared and fundamentally cool artists in classical music, who at 66 is beloved and respected across the field.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