What Jean-Michel Basquiat knew—what he paid attention to—frequently surprised me. In 1977, I was in public high school with Jean at the somewhat experimental City-As-School, in Brooklyn. Hanging out with him at his father’s house, I picked up an issue of Newsweek and pointed to a photo of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who was considered, I told him, the world’s greatest male dancer. “I thought it was Nureyev,” Jean said. READ ON

Who cares about an opera company’s business model? Tomer Zvulun, the visionary general and artistic director of the Atlanta Opera, for one. “Don’t hire this guy,” Gallup warned the board of directors in 2013. “He’s not prepared.” Well, look at him now. In place of the conservative-leaning season originally announced, Zvulun has cooked up a whole new one, tailored to the pandemic. His “Big Tent” series, beginning next week, offers six experimental, open-air boutique operas for boutique audiences. Expect videos of the shows in short order. READ ON