We seem to have hopped from winter (warm coat and thick tights last week) straight into summer (sundress and sandals) in a matter of days. I'm enjoying the warmer weather but it's a bit odd to have had little sense of there being a spring.

These are desperate times for the Arts in Wales. My friend and colleague Elizabeth Atherton is leading the fightback 👇🏻 Please follow and do whatever you can to support her campaign:

We are recruiting for a part-time Director of Music at #TeddyHall . Music is an important aspect of Hall life & this vacancy represents an exciting opportunity to continue to develop an inclusive, vibrant music scene. Apply by 3 June, 12:00: seh.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/dire…

Robert Doisneau.
Café de Flore, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
1949. Paris

If this country stands for anything, it stands for meeting some apparently totally ordinary person who never talks about themselves and then later finding out by accident that they won the VC or captained Cambridge to victory in the Boat Race or won a Nobel Prize or something

There is nothing more admirable than someone doing something genuinely creditable or achieving something noteworthy while remaining entirely modest & unaffected and making no attempt to gain credit or parade their achievements. How I detest a show off

We really need to rediscover concepts such as understatement, humility and 'wearing it lightly'. I fear that the relentless culture of self-promotion, narcissism and exhibitionism that characterises the USA is our latest cultural import...heaven help us

Lissa Evans Is there anyone left on British TV, who HASN’T written a children’s book, or a “quirky” novel?

Permit eating in libraries and this is what you get.

Isn’t it great that the Arts Council is run by people who have never seen a musician play a stringed instrument?

(The bow is usually in the right hand. Look next time you go to a concert in, say, the year 2050).

The top of the Chrysler Building from the top of the Pan Am Building - 1963

ChatGPT has impressed a lot of people because what it produces is impressive *for a machine*. But that very same writing is frankly shite for a human, and once you strip away the context of “a computer wrote this”, the text is very poor indeed.

Why does Il segreto di Susanna revolve around smoking? ⚡️

Learn about the life of composer Wolf-Ferrari and the fascinating reasons why he created a heroine who smokes in this article: bit.ly/3wt8k4H

Catch the stunning #OHPSusanna #OHPPagliacci double bill from 17 July

More universities should mark their anniversaries with historical reconstructions. 😁

To celebrate ⁦David Nicholls⁩’s hitting No1 with #YouAreHere , here’s a Hardback #Giveaway !

RT by noon tomorrow (Wednesday) for a chance to win the copy.

#competition #books ⁦Curtis Brown Books⁩

Anonyme.
Place de l'Opéra
1951. Paris

Elizabeth Atherton DaoudF Neil Fisher GOV.UK Welsh Government Welsh National Opera BBC Front Row Arts Council England Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Arts Council of Wales Rhianon Passmore MS Delyth Jewell AS / MS The demand that “relevant”contemporary issues and concerns be foregrounded is to wholly misunderstand the nature of art. As Fran Lebowitz observed of literature, “A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door.”

Here's hope that the reduction of our attention spans makes more of us realize what a great privilege experiences such as that of the concert are, allowing you to focus your attention on one thing and one thing only despite the 353 notifications vying for your attention.