Aurelia Butler

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    Edith Mathis, Radiant Swiss Soprano, Is Dead at 86

    Known for her interpretations of Bach, Mozart and Weber, she was praised for her clear, bright voice and her perfect intonation even on the highest notes.Edith Mathis, a light-voiced Swiss soprano who sparkled in Bach, Mozart and Weber and was the agile-voiced favorite of several of the conducting giants who dominated mid-20th-century concert halls, died on Sunday at her home in Salzburg, Austria. She was 86.Her death was announced by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she sang throughout the 1970s and ’80s.But she was also a star in all the world’s other major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, illuminating roles like Cherubino and Susanna in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” Ännchen in Weber’s “Der Freischütz” and Marzelline in Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” which she sang five times at the Met in 1971 under Karl Böhm. She was a favorite of his, as she was of his rival for conducting pre-eminence in the last century, Herbert von Karajan.The dozens of opera, oratorio, cantata and song recordings Ms. Mathis left behind illustrate why: a clear, bright voice, perfect intonation even on the highest notes, an unaffected manner and absolute service to the text — “the voice so reliably radiant and clear, the musicianship so reliably impeccable,” the British critic Hugo Shirley wrote in Gramophone magazine in 2018, reviewing a CD collection released by Deutsche Grammophon in observance of her 80th birthday. She was, the dramaturg Malte Krasting wrote in a tribute for the Bavarian State Opera, “the epitome of an ideal Mozart singer.”She was also ideal in the German lieder repertoire — Schubert, Schumann and Hugo Wolf — many of whose songs she recorded with all-star partners like Christoph Eschenbach and Graham Johnson.When, for instance, she sang the Schubert song “Schlaflied” in a 1994 recording with Mr. Johnson, she gave a slight, barely perceptible push to the German word “jedem” (“all” or “every”), in the line “And is healed of all pain.” The extra measure of reassurance for the poem’s subject, a young boy, adds a dramatic point to the whole song.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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    Chiwetel Ejiofor on the Shakespeare Play That ‘Revolutionized’ Him

    The “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” actor talks about the ways John Coltrane, Paul Cézanne and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie influence him.Chiwetel Ejiofor went to see “Bridget Jones’s Diary” back in 2001, fully expecting to be bombarded by female energy.Instead, he left the theater stunned by how much he related to her, he said: “feeling all of that chaos and a little bit out of step with the world but somehow with optimism and hopefulness and a sort of fake-it-till-you-make-it spirit.”So when the director Michael Morris asked him to discuss “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” the franchise’s latest installment, over tea in London, Ejiofor didn’t have to fake anything.“I loved the whole world of it,” he said.This time around, Renée Zellweger’s Bridget is a widowed mother of two, and Ejiofor is Mr. Wallaker, her son’s science teacher and a potential love interest.Not that he would dare attempt to replace Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). “They’re iconic,” he said.But portraying a distinct character at a different, perhaps more challenging time in Bridget’s life “made it incredibly fun to play,” he said — if occasionally poignant. “You can’t hold onto your 30-something self obviously, but if you still maintain a bit of that quality, it assists you in navigating these waters.”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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    Jay-Z Accuser Drops Rape Lawsuit Against Him and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

    The anonymous plaintiff’s account was attacked as inconsistent after an NBC report called details from her account into question.The anonymous woman who accused Jay-Z and Sean Combs of raping her when she was 13 years old dropped her lawsuit on Friday against the hip-hop moguls.Jay-Z’s lawyers had pointed to what they described as “glaring inconsistencies” in the woman’s account, citing information that came to light in an NBC report that called details from her allegations into question.Jay-Z’s lawyers had asked a judge to dismiss the complaint, but the plaintiff’s lawyers at that time stood by the accuser in court papers, writing that being a victim of sexual abuse can cause memory lapses. Court papers submitted by the plaintiff on Friday said the suit had been “voluntarily dismissed with prejudice,” meaning that it cannot be refiled.In a statement, Jay-Z, who vehemently denied the claims from the outset, celebrated the decision, writing that the suit was “never going anywhere.”“The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims,” he said. “I would not wish this experience on anyone. The trauma that my wife, my children, my loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”Lawyers for Mr. Combs, who is in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, said in a statement on Friday that the dismissal was “yet another confirmation that these lawsuits are built on falsehoods, not facts.”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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    A Night at the Kennedy Center, Just After Trump’s Takeover

    It’s still called the Kennedy Center. But after President Trump’s takeover, drag performers protested outside while audience members inside worried about what might be in store.It was the night after President Trump had officially taken over the Kennedy Center and made himself its chairman, and two well-dressed Washington women were wandering along the plush red carpet inside its Grand Foyer, so grand it could fit the Washington Monument laid on its side. They reached the eight-foot-tall bronze head of John F. Kennedy that lords over the hall and looked forlornly into his eyes.How much longer, one woman joked to the other, until the statue of the 35th president gets torn down and replaced with one of the 47th? They laughed bitterly.It was just last week that Mr. Trump announced his plan to purge the Kennedy Center’s board of its Biden appointees and to install “an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He named one of his most fiercely loyal apparatchiks, Richard Grenell, interim president and proclaimed that there would be no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA” shown. He complained about drag queens performing there and said it had all become too “wokey.” Some artists canceled shows. “Welcome to the New Kennedy Center!” Mr. Trump said on social media, posting an A.I.-generated image of himself waving his arms like a conductor in a concert hall.Most of the people who turned up at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night to see performances in its various theaters had purchased their tickets long before any of that was set in motion. Now they found themselves at an arts center on the cusp of becoming something different — something Trumpian.Some speculated what that might look like.“I feel like we might just have ‘Cats’ on rotation moving forward,” said Pamela Deutsch, a documentary film producer who once worked as an usher at the Kennedy Center. (Mr. Trump, who once had dreams of becoming a Broadway producer, is a longtime fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber.) She was there to catch a set by the comic W. Kamau Bell. So was Louis Woolard, a 73-year-old psychotherapist from Maryland. What sort of cultural programming did he envision under the artistic stewardship of the 47th president? “I don’t know,” said Mr. Woolard. “I guess country music.”At the other end of the Grand Foyer, American Ballet Theater was putting on a production of “Crime and Punishment,” an effort to make dance out of Dostoyevsky. A 75-year-old real estate investment banker named Wayne Koonce waited in line to have his ticket scanned. “Maybe the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi will be invited back now that he’s cozying up to Putin,” he said.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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    Sabrina Carpenter Flirts With Country, and 12 More New Songs

    Hear Dolly Parton duet with the young star and tracks from Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, plus Drake and PartyNextDoor.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.Sabrina Carpenter featuring Dolly Parton, ‘Please Please Please’Sabrina Carpenter teases out the latent country elements of her slick synth-pop smash “Please Please Please” on this rework from the new deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning album “Short n’ Sweet.” Lightly brushed percussion replaces the original’s insistent, syncopated smacks, while fiddle embellishments take the place of electric guitar licks. But what’s most interesting about this version is how little needs to be changed to make “Please Please Please” work as a convincing country tune — although it certainly helps to have none other than Dolly Parton providing high harmony. “I beg you, don’t embarrass me like the others,” Carpenter and Parton sing together on a cleaned-up rewrite of the chorus’s most irreverent line. Which is to say that although Parton is willing to meet the young star on Carpenter’s turf, she still has decorous boundaries. LINDSAY ZOLADZSelena Gomez and Benny Blanco, ‘Scared of Loving You’Billie Eilish’s brother, Finneas, is behind the scenes as collaborating songwriter and producer on the quietly imploring “Scared of Loving You.” It’s a folky ballad, with a glockenspiel tinkling behind an acoustic guitar and piano, as Selena Gomez sings — just above a whisper — about an obsessive infatuation. “How could they love you as much as I do?,” she sings, along with a worrisome line: “Don’t let ‘em send me back.” Is this a romance or a stalking situation? JON PARELESPartyNextDoor and Drake, ‘Somebody Loves Me’It’s unlikely that many people were clamoring for a Valentine from Drake this year, but he’s offering one up just the same: “Some Sexy Songs 4 U,” a 21-track collaborative album with longtime Canadian collaborator PartyNextDoor. These 74 minutes are heavy on amorphous braying, broken up by several interesting genre experiments: Drake and Party fully embrace traditional Mexican sounds on “Meet Your Padre,” which features the young urban sierreño star Chino Pacas; and they’re joined by the R&B singer Yebba on “Die Trying,” a bouncy, acoustic-guitar-driven pop number. The single “Somebody Loves Me” isn’t exactly a standout, but it’s representative of much of the album’s mid-tempo, melancholic sound. “Who’s out there for me?” Drake croons through auto-tune; the question echoes unanswered in the song’s cold, nocturnal atmosphere. ZOLADZObongjayar, ‘Not in Surrender’The Nigerian-born, England-based songwriter Obongjayar celebrates a deep connection in “Not in Surrender,” declaring, “I only want this, this hallelujah / For the rest of my life.” He starts out singing over a brisk bass riff and snappy drums, and Karma Kid’s production keeps adding layers of percussion and guitars to stoke a mounting euphoria. PARELESAlessia Cara, ‘Dead Man’The resentment keeps increasing in “Dead Man,” an I’ve-had-enough song from Alessia Cara’s new album, “Love & Hyperbole.” As it does, the music grows more retro, moving through boom-bap drums to piano-pounding neo-soul, all the way to a brassy big-band arrangement that gives her annoyance some muscular swing. PARELESWe 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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    An Assortment of 7 ‘Valentine’ Songs

    Hear tracks from Laufey, the Replacements and Fiona Apple that share a title but vary in tone.LaufeySteven Senne/Associated PressDear listeners,Every once in a while, I like to compile a playlist composed entirely of songs with identical titles. You may recall that, last October, I sent out a newsletter about six different tracks vying to be the greatest “The Greatest.” Today, in honor of a certain loved-and-occasionally-loathed holiday, I made a playlist of seven songs with the same timely, evocative name: “Valentine.”While most of these tracks are about romance, they vary widely in tone. Some — like the witty ditty from the precocious musician Laufey or a sloshed-but-smitten album cut from the Replacements — are rather heartfelt declarations of love. But, as Valentine’s Day can stir up some sharp pangs for the heartbroken among us, a few of these songs — like wrenching tracks from Snail Mail and Fiona Apple — are also full of longing and loneliness.This is certainly not a complete list of every song ever titled “Valentine,” but it is a sampling of seven of my favorites. Whether you’re buying roses for yourself or someone else this year, I hope you find at least one track that reflects your mood.I’m a tulip in a cup,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Laufey: “Valentine”On this endearing 2022 single, the old-soul Icelandic jazz-pop musician Laufey captures the strangeness of suddenly falling in love after many years of celebrating Valentine’s Day solo. OK, not that many years, as she reveals in the second verse: “Maybe I should run / I’m only 21 / I don’t even know who I want to become.” But she ultimately chooses to stay put — at least for now — concluding in her weightless croon, “Honestly, I can’t believe I get to call you mine / I blinked and suddenly I had a valentine.”▶ 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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    Isabella Rossellini: “Conclave” Scene Stealer and First-Time Oscar Nominee

    “Her name is Georgia O’Keeffe,” Isabella Rossellini said, as she dove her hands into the outrageously fluffy and dense coat of a Lincoln Longwool sheep, a rare English breed. Next up, weaving around the patio furniture, was Toto, a fleecy Finn. “Toto always wags his tail,” she said, giving him a pat. Rossellini’s flock of heritage animals had eagerly come trotting over as soon as they spotted her: The matriarch and founder of Mama Farm was home.Rossellini, the model turned actress turned animal behaviorist (“ethologist” is the term she uses), was giving a tour of her operation, nestled on 30 acres in a village in the middle of Long Island, one bright afternoon last week. There were goats and ducks and 150 chickens, now kept safely in their coops to protect them from bird flu. Before she picked me up at the train station, she had checked on the bees personally — “because everyone’s afraid of them,” she said — making sure they had food and were warm enough. “They have to keep themselves at 97 degrees, even if it is 20 outside,” Rossellini said. “They do like the penguins — they create a ball, and vibrate to create heat.”Rossellini’s mother, Ingrid Bergman, was nominated for seven Oscars and won three. If Rossellini wins on March 2, they would become the first mother-daughter pair to win.Thea Traff for The New York TimesBesides being a caretaker and trove of animal facts, Rossellini is also, at 72, a first-time Oscar nominee, as a supporting actress, for her small but pivotal role in “Conclave.” As Sister Agnes, an alert Mother Superior who holds her tongue until her morals lead her otherwise, Rossellini has some of the best lines in the movie. The Vatican-set dramatic thriller, about choosing a new pope, is also up for seven other awards, including best picture.For Rossellini, who imagined that notable acting jobs were in her rearview, it was an unexpected, and overwhelming, recognition. She is now in the record books, as one of the few mother-daughter pairs to be nominated: Her mother, Ingrid Bergman, was up for seven Oscars and won three, starting in 1944. If Rossellini goes home with the prize, it would make them the first winning mother-daughter twosome in history. Rossellini’s father, the neorealist filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, also landed one nomination, in 1950.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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    Review: Karina Canellakis Hushes the New York Philharmonic

    Some of the most memorable moments in the orchestra’s program this week, led by Karina Canellakis, were extremely soft.The New York Philharmonic is capable of playing quietly; the orchestra just hasn’t always seemed to enjoy it. Particularly under their last music director, Jaap van Zweden, the musicians tended to approach soft dynamics unwillingly, as if they were waiting impatiently for the next explosion.So it was noteworthy that some of the most memorable passages in the Philharmonic’s excellent concert on Thursday evening at David Geffen Hall, conducted by Karina Canellakis, were the most delicate ones.There was the spooky haze at the start of Kaija Saariaho’s “Lumière et Pesanteur.” The somberly gentle woodwinds echoing the tune of a Bach chorale in Berg’s Violin Concerto. The hovering transcendence of the strings drawing to a nearly inaudible hush at the end of Messiaen’s “Les Offrandes Oubliées.” The haunting melody in a duo of flute and oboe that emerges from a mist in the third section of Debussy’s “La Mer.”The players didn’t seem like they wanted these moments to end as soon as possible; they reveled in them. That attests, of course, to the musicians themselves — and, perhaps, to their continued acclimation to the renovated Geffen Hall, in which even the most fragile sounds register clearly.But it also speaks to Canellakis’s leadership on the podium. Throughout the concert, she elicited playing of poise and patience, inspiring the ensemble to relax into phrases — which gave the music more organic energy than pressing relentlessly forward would have.For all the bits of breathtaking stillness in the performance, there were also forceful climaxes, but Canellakis arrived at them with naturalness. At the end of the first section of “La Mer,” the volume swiftly swells from pianissimo to fortissimo. While some performances land flat on the loudness, she drew out the speed ever so slightly, making the rise in dynamics feel like a thrilling wave rather than an abrupt boom.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