Trump, Donald J

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      in Music

      Detroit Opera Steps Into Trump’s Cross Hairs With ‘Central Park Five’

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      A rehearsal of “The Central Park Five,” an opera about the Black and Latino boys wrongly convicted of raping a Central Park jogger, was just a few days old this month when the tenor who plays Donald J. Trump began to sing.“They are animals! Monsters!…Support our police! Bring back the death penalty!” he bellowed.The opera, which chronicles how the young men were forced to confess and later were exonerated, depicts President Trump as an inflammatory figure who, in 1989, bought several full-page newspaper ads that demonized “roving bands of wild criminals,” adding, “I want them to be afraid.”When the work — composed by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Richard Wesley — premiered in California in 2019, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings were low and Democrats were itching to challenge him.Now, as a new production opens next month at the Detroit Opera House, the setting is quite different. Mr. Trump is a resurrected, emboldened political force who, since returning to office, has wielded power to shutter federal agencies, cut grants and strong-arm law firms and universities, all of which has led some opponents to worry about retaliation.None of this has been lost on Detroit Opera, as the company braces for blowback and hopes for applause. Its leadership team understands the perils of mounting a production that waves a red cape at a pumped-up, reactive presidency.Surprisingly, the opera is partially financed by the National Endowment for the Arts, with some $40,000 of the production’s $1 million cost coming through a federal grant. It was awarded, and paid, before the agency canceled most of its existing grants at the Trump administration’s direction.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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      Under Trump, Kennedy Center Fires More Staff Members

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      At least a half-dozen staff members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts were dismissed on Friday, according to two people with knowledge of the changes, as the Trump administration continues to strengthen its control of the institution.The fired employees worked on the center’s government relations, marketing, social media and rentals teams, said the two people, who were granted anonymity because the dismissals had not been publicized. They said roughly 20 employees had been dismissed since President Trump took over the institution in February.The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Trump stunned the cultural and political worlds when he made himself chairman of the Kennedy Center and purged its previously bipartisan board of Biden appointees. He ousted the longtime chairman — the financier David M. Rubenstein, who was the center’s largest donor — and stacked the board with his own aides and allies. Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president for more than a decade, was fired and replaced with a Trump loyalist, Richard Grenell.The president’s actions have prompted an outcry, leading some artists to cancel engagements there in protest. The musical “Hamilton” scrapped a planned series of tour performances there next year.Mr. Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, has moved swiftly to cull the Kennedy Center’s ranks, saying the institution faces serious financial problems. He has promised to cut executive pay and reduce the staff “where possible.” He has also denounced some of the center’s efforts to embrace diversity, saying the center should promote “common sense programming.”Last month, Mr. Grenell fired several employees who had been part of a community outreach program known as Social Impact. The program had worked to expand the audience for opera and symphony performances, to commission works by underrepresented voices and to “advance justice and equity.”Critics say that the Trump administration is exaggerating the Kennedy Center’s financial problems and that the cuts are meant to help advance the president’s political agenda. The center has been in relatively stable condition in recent years, though like many arts organizations, it has faced financial woes. While fund-raising has been robust recently, the endowment, at $163 million, is relatively small for an institution of its size. More

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      in Television

      Trump and ‘The Residence’ Share a Fixation on Water Pressure

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      Paul William Davies, the creator of “The Residence,” talks about overlapping themes between his series and the actual Trump administration.This week, as the global economy struggled to adjust to whipsawing tariff policies, President Trump signed an executive order to address another national crisis: weak shower head pressure.The order, aimed at reducing bureaucracy and regulation, reverses limits on how much water can pour out of a nozzle per minute, which were implemented by the Obama and Biden administrations in an attempt to conserve water.Mr. Trump, while signing the order, noted that, in particular, he doesn’t appreciate that weak pressure hinders him from getting a good hair wash.“In my case I like to take a nice shower, to take care of my beautiful hair,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.”Weak shower pressure has been one of Mr. Trump’s longstanding pet peeves. But the whole thing may have sounded familiar — a little too familiar — for anyone who has been watching Netflix’s recent screwball mystery series, “The Residence,” in which President Perry Morgan, played by Paul Fitzgerald, has a similar pet peeve, with a White House usher explaining that he demands “pressure like a fire hose.”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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      in Television

      Lionizing Mark Twain, Conan O’Brien Subtly Skewers Trump

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      In accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the comedian mounted a bristling political attack artfully disguised as a tribute.Conan O’Brien faced a thorny question when accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday night.In the headlining speech for the most-high-profile event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since President Trump purged Democrats from its board, cashiered its leaders and made himself chairman, how political should he be? Considering artists like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Issa Rae have said they are boycotting the Kennedy Center in protest, should he even show up?Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the puppet voiced by Robert Smigel, who was on the original writing staff of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” captured the dilemma of his position when he welcomed the audience in a gravelly voice: “Thank you for coming and shame on you for being here.”The assignment was especially tricky for O’Brien, because unlike past recipients like Jon Stewart or Dave Chappelle, his comedy has always steered clear of ideological fervor. But moving out of his comfort zone, O’Brien delivered what amounted to a bristling attack on the current administration artfully disguised as a tribute to Mark Twain.“Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance,” O’Brien said, steadily, soberly. “Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America, but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote: ‘Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.’”O’Brien’s speech, which along with the rest of the show, will air on Netflix on May 4, followed a murderers’ row of comedians — who put on the best Twain Awards in recent memory. Among those gushing about O’Brien were father figures (David Letterman), peers (Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Stephen Colbert) and his comedic children (Nikki Glaser, Kumail Nanjiani, John Mulaney).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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      in Music

      Touring Kennedy Center, Trump Mused on His Childhood ‘Aptitude for Music’

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      During his first visit to the Kennedy Center since making himself the chairman of its board, President Trump had a lot to say about Broadway shows, dancers in silk tights, the Potomac River and Elvis Presley.But in a private discussion at the start of a meeting of the center’s board on Monday, Mr. Trump offered something he usually steers away from in bigger settings: a personal anecdote about his childhood.He told the assembled board members that in his youth he had shown special abilities in music after taking aptitude tests ordered by his parents, according to three participants in the meeting.He could pick out notes on the piano, he told the board members, some of whom he’s known for years and others who are relatively new to him. But the president said that his father, Fred Trump, was not pleased by his musical abilities, according to the participants, and that he had never developed his talent. One person in the room said Mr. Trump appeared to be joking about his father. “I have a high aptitude for music,” he said at one point, according to people at the meeting. “Can you believe that?”“That’s why I love music,” he added. Mr. Trump’s remarks have not been previously reported. They were not part of an audio recording of the board meeting obtained by The New York Times earlier this week.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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      Amid Kennedy Center Upheaval, a Maestro Decides to Stay On

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      As the center goes through changes after President Trump’s takeover, Gianandrea Noseda is extending his tenure at the National Symphony Orchestra, one of the center’s main groups.The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington has gone through big changes since President Trump’s recent takeover of the institution.But there will be at least one constant in the coming years: The conductor Gianandrea Noseda will stay on as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, one of the center’s flagship groups. Mr. Noseda has extended his contract through at least 2031, the ensemble announced on Wednesday.Mr. Noseda, 60, the ensemble’s maestro since 2017, said that he felt he still had more to accomplish with the orchestra. He wants the ensemble to tour more often, to commission more pieces and to perform more opera.“We have established this kind of mutual trust in our relationship,” Mr. Noseda, whose contract had been set to expire in 2027, said in an interview this week. “It would have been a pity to stop.”Mr. Trump took over the Kennedy Center last month, purging its board of all Biden appointees and installing himself as chairman. Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president for more than a decade, was fired. She was credited with luring the highly esteemed Mr. Noseda to the orchestra in what was widely seen as a coup.After the president’s takeover, Ben Folds, the singer and songwriter, resigned his post as an adviser to the orchestra. The orchestra has stayed largely quiet about the changes; its musicians issued a statement saying they were “proud to perform for our patrons, our community in our nation’s capital, and the country at large.”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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      Dismayed by Trump, the Star Pianist András Schiff Boycotts the U.S.

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      Mr. Schiff, who has refused to play in Russia and his native Hungary because of strongman rule, said he was alarmed by President Trump’s “unbelievable bullying.”András Schiff, an eminent concert pianist who has boycotted strongman rule in Russia and his native Hungary, said on Wednesday that he would no longer perform in the United States because of concerns about President Trump’s “unbelievable bullying” on the world stage.Mr. Schiff, 71, a towering figure in classical music, said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s admonishments of Ukraine; his expansionist threats about Canada, Greenland and Gaza; and his support for far-right politicians in Germany. Mr. Schiff, who was born to a Jewish family in Budapest that witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, said that Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportation reminded him painfully of efforts to expel Jews during World War II.“He has brought an ugliness into this world which hadn’t been there,” Mr. Schiff said in a telephone interview this week from Hong Kong, where he is performing. “I just find it impossible to go along with what is happening.”So Mr. Schiff decided to stop performing in the United States. He said that he was canceling appearances next spring with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a recital tour this fall with a stop at Carnegie Hall.Mr. Schiff, revered for his interpretations of the music of Bach and Mozart, is the latest artist to boycott the United States because of Mr. Trump. Last month the German violinist Christian Tetzlaff announced he would no longer perform in the country, citing Mr. Trump’s embrace of Russia, among other concerns.The small but growing cultural boycott is a jarring reversal. In the past, it was American performers who often canceled engagements overseas to protest war, autocracy and injustice. Now the United States is seen by some as a pariah.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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      Trump Reimagines the Kennedy Center: Elvis, ‘Cats’ and Babe Ruth

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      A recording of President Trump’s private remarks at a Kennedy Center board meeting shows that he mused about bestowing honors on dead celebrities and people from outside the arts.The new chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had a question for the board. Which musical is best, “The Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Misérables”? (Several trustees seemed to agree it was “Phantom.”)He mused about how great it could be if he hosted the Kennedy Center Honors (“The king of ratings,” he called himself). And he floated the idea of giving awards to dead figures in culture and sports, including Luciano Pavarotti, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth.Monday was President Trump’s first visit to the Kennedy Center since he took it over last month by replacing all the Biden appointees on the board of the once bipartisan institution and having himself elected chairman.As he gathered members of the new board on the stage of its opera house he expressed strong and sometimes surprising opinions on a variety of matters, according to an audio recording of his private remarks obtained by The New York Times, which was confirmed as authentic by a participant.Asked about the recording, a Kennedy Center official pointed to a social media post by its new president, Richard Grenell, which said that Mr. Trump wants to save the center and “ensure it is the premier Arts institution in the United States” and a place where “EVERYONE is welcome.”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