Here, at the WQXR office, we read about, watch and listen to a lot of classical music. Our favorite stories from this week include an tour of Philadelphia's decaying Metropolitan Opera House by drones, why choreographers avoid Mozart, a first-time visit to Bayreuth and more. Please tell us what you are reading and watching in the comments below
Congratulations to Philip Glass and Audra McDonald who are recipients of National Medals of Arts, as well as Wynton Marsalis, who has won a national humanities medal.
Fort Worth Symphony is the latest orchestra to succumb to labor strife. (Fort-Worth Star Telegram)
A 75th birthday gift inspired Cerise Lim Jacobs’s Ouroboros opera trilogy, which was staged in Boston last weekend to glowing reviews. (Boston Globe)
The founder of an Amazon subsidiary that distributes digital comic books is a Juilliard-trained singer, who uses his opera training in his business. (Fast Company)
How Kurt Vonnegut’s opera, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, made its way to the stage. (The Daily Beast)
Oliver Mears, 37, has been appointed the next director of the Royal Opera House in London; he will be the youngest person to hold the position. (The Guardian)
In defense of the glass harmonica. (The Economist)
What happens when you're no longer considered a “young composer.” (NewMusicBox)
Francine Prose assesses David Lang’s opera The Loser, which premiered at BAM last weekend. (New York Review of Books)
Campaigners handed out thousands of European Union flags to compete with the flurry of Union Jacks during the Last Night of the Proms. Meanwhile, tenor Juan Diego Florez wore 13th-century Incan garb to sing "Rule, Britannia!" (The Guardian)
