Curtain Up on a New Era
The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s incoming music director, Enrique Mazzola, strives for golden-age excellence—and a new populism
Opera Pick of the Week
From La Scala, a timeless account of Verdi’s Un Ballo In Maschera led by Riccardo Muti, his supreme living interpreter
Working Girls
A former U.S. Army major general brings the untold stories of the women who changed the course of World War II to light
Short List
What to read this week, from a history of British musical theater to an account of the World Trade Center’s rebuilding and an inside look at the deep sea
Paging Picasso!
A new book traces the painter’s life—Paris, women, wars, and all
Isaac Benigson
The British artist’s colorful work made it to London’s Royal Academy of Arts before he graduated from high school
The Way of the Jackal
Before Edward Fox made the Jackal a household character, Frederick Forsyth wrote the book. Fifty years on, The Day of the Jackal still thrills
White Man for the Job
Jeremy Clarkson gets out the Farrow & Ball. Sort of …
The Wonderful Wizard of Dyson
Eight questions with the inventor James Dyson, who has a new memoir, on electric cars and the thinking behind the $399 hair dryer
Opera Pick of the Week
The certain something in this pandemic Don Giovanni from Prague is the unique aura of the theater in which it was filmed
Inside Afghanistan
At the core of the current Afghanistan disaster is the West’s misunderstanding of a country and its people. These books offer a good place to start
Family Feuds
The story of famed U.K. department store John Lewis rivals that of the Murdoch clan in its similarities with Succession
The Art of Subtlety
To attract readers but stump libel lawyers, 20th-century magazine writers alluded to sordid gossip instead of printing it
The Bright Side of Life
A swarm of musicals open in London’s West End, proving that both the fun and the show must go on
So Long, Summer
Whether you’re over the season or clinging on for dear life, tracks from the likes of Willie Nelson, the Kinks, and Rosemary Clooney will serve you well
