kevin
@kevinng.bsky.social
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I write about music and culture.
pinned post!
It’s been a busy 2025, and here are some of the favourite things I’ve written! I started off the year covering the Met’s Aida for
@thetimes.com
, which was marred by a sick tenor and a director who hadn’t read his Edward Said:
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Aida review — the Met’s tacky show is Las Vegas meets ancient Egypt
Angel Blue’s impassioned singing as the heroine of Verdi’s opera is the highlight of a dispiriting night at the Metropolitan Opera in New York
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/aida-review-the-met-dpkkr7tmf?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqck7wKWHxoHVVUSqKVAQAWlB6nVK3Gj8upG19mZXL1z2yNRe701qS5FIPwZuiQ%3D&gaa_ts=695450e3&gaa_sig=uTXYOCTNTIxlMvuoI1FgKWZ3UajbfIksGI6SeDARmo1tGFQiszd_PPm0IBZm7QYbD33UQpeOv8c9LzPZGCBN7w%3D%3D
4 months ago
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My interview with Barbara Hannigan, for
@parterrebox.bsky.social
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Breaking up is hard to do - Parterre Box
Before her one-woman La voix humaine with the New York Philharmonic, Barbara Hannigan talks to Kevin Ng about her career, her artistry, and whether or not there's a voice on the other line.
https://parterre.com/2026/04/23/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do/
about 5 hours ago
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On Luca Guadagnino’s Death of Klinghoffer, for
@thetimes.com
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The Death of Klinghoffer review — Luca Guadagnino unveils a masterpiece
The Call Me By Your Name and Challengers director’s stage production in Florence brings immense skill to John Adams’s controversial opera about a Palestinian terrorist atrocity
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/the-death-of-klinghoffer-review-luca-guadagnino-unveils-a-masterpiece-0ktw68z0h
3 days ago
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The operatic event of the year
4 days ago
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On Weimar, French chanson, and Anne Sofie von Otter’s long and varied career, for
@bachtrack.com
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https://bachtrack.com/interview-anne-sofie-von-otter-cadogan-hall-april-2026
6 days ago
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On Susan Sontag, La Bohème, and the aestheticization of illness
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Beautiful Deaths: How 'La Bohème' Transformed Tuberculosis into Art
From Mimì's consumption to Rent's AIDS crisis, opera has long aestheticized illness—revealing both our deepest fears and our most troubling biases
https://vancouveropera.substack.com/p/beautifuldeaths
7 days ago
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Marie Le Conte
11 days ago
went to check out the techno rave outside Parliament and I don't think I have the data allowance to share a video from it but let me tell you: there sure is a techno rave outside Parliament right now, celebrating Orban getting ousted
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Nicholas Thompson
13 days ago
Viktor Orbán has ruthlessly clung to power since 2010. J. D. Vance just flew across the world to help make sure it stays that way. And yet, there's a real chance Orbán loses on Sunday. Then it becomes a question of whether he’ll accept defeat.
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Viktor Orbán Could Actually Lose
The Hungarian leader faces an energized opposition—and questions about whether he would accept defeat.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/viktor-orban-hungary-election-magyar/686732/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=ntatl&utm_medium=social
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Mina Kimes
13 days ago
I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.
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Quinn Slobodian
18 days ago
Well at least things are more rational and just on the other side of the p-
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes
18 days ago
A lovely tribute to Stephen Lewis, by
@stephanienolen.bsky.social
. Despite his years working in systems and institutions, Lewis never became lost to them. To the very end, he was fiercely passionate about justice for people
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/w...
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Stephen Lewis Was a Singular Man on a Mission
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/world/canada/stephen-lewis-aids-africa-canada.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YVA.QvI9.zu_ycPyFWzDx&smid=nytcore-ios-share&login=email&auth=login-email
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My piece on navigating the Orientalism of Turandot, for
@nytimes.com
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Is It Possible to Solve the Ending of Puccini’s ‘Turandot’?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/arts/music/turandot-opera-revised-ending.html
29 days ago
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Steve Smith
about 1 month ago
Not a surprise—but an affirmation of solid, meaningful, and progressive leadership at my place of employment,
@bambrooklyn.bsky.social
.
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After Period of Instability, BAM Names New President
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/arts/music/bam-brooklyn-president-tamara-mccaw.html
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Seedy E
about 1 month ago
Remembering the ancient ways
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Claire Willett
about 1 month ago
I’m finally watching the gay-ass “Importance of Being Earnest” and it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen
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Joshua Rivera
about 1 month ago
my favorite form of discourse is “auteur theory is bad unless the auteur has politics I can’t stand”
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VAN Magazine
about 1 month ago
Beatrice Venezi's appointment as music director of La Fenice has been confirmed by the opera house's board of directors. Which brings us back to
@kevinng.bsky.social
's question: Is her conducting any good?
van-magazine.com/mag/beatrice...
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Is Beatrice Venezi’s Appointment Really Based on Merit?
Everywhere you look, politics are seeping into opera. In New York, Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, accompanied onstage by Democratic senator Chuck Schumer, gave a rousing opening-night ...
https://van-magazine.com/mag/beatrice-venezi-conducting-meri/
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My thoughts on the Met’s new Tristan
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Tristan und Isolde review — the Met has a pair who stand with the greats
Lise Davidsen’s titanic voice is made for Isolde and she blends beautifully with Michael Spyres’s marvellous Tristan in the Metropolitan Opera’s eagerly awaited new production
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/tristan-und-isolde-review-the-met-has-a-pair-who-stand-with-the-greats-z8gk8ltjx
about 1 month ago
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My thoughts on the Met’s new Tristan
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Tristan und Isolde review — the Met has a pair who stand with the greats
Lise Davidsen’s titanic voice is made for Isolde and she blends beautifully with Michael Spyres’s marvellous Tristan in the Metropolitan Opera’s eagerly awaited new production
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/tristan-und-isolde-review-the-met-has-a-pair-who-stand-with-the-greats-z8gk8ltjx
about 1 month ago
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Tristan, at last
about 1 month ago
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The Onion
about 2 months ago
From The Archives:
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Chuck Schumer: ‘The American People Deserve A President Who Can More Credibly Justify War With Iran’
WASHINGTON—In a pointed critique of President Trump’s foreign policy leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated to members of the press Thursday that “the American people deserve a presid...
https://theonion.com/chuck-schumer-the-american-people-deserve-a-president-1835697625/
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new met tristan
about 2 months ago
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princesscore
3 months ago
clearly she was onto something seeing as how they fucking killed her
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In These Times
3 months ago
"...No nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits, or less dignity for doing lifesaving work. Our nurses have kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable.” —New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
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The Largest Nurses Strike in New York City History Just Kicked Off
Nearly 15,000 healthcare workers across New York City are on the picket lines demanding safe staffing and workplace protections.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/largest-nurses-strike-in-new-york-city-history-zohran-mamdani
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Ben Miller
3 months ago
It’s out in German and will be soon in English: Jeff Brown and I considered the new Matthias Pintscher opera DAS KALTE HERZ at Staatsoper Berlin.
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Zach Schonfeld
3 months ago
I went to see Hamnet and found it pretty tedious, though I may be allergic to this genus of weepy period piece:
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A ★★ review of Hamnet (2025)
I think I'm pretty allergic to weepy 16th-century period pieces populated by it-boy movie stars with perfect teeth and chiseled beards and Oscar fantasies, though I tried to approach this one with an ...
https://letterboxd.com/zach_schonfeld/film/hamnet/
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Reece
3 months ago
BREAKING: Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife has made a “transformational” donation to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group. This large gift comes just months after the Trump administration shut down counseling services for queer youth. My latest for
@wired.com
:
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MacKenzie Scott Donates $45 Million to the Trevor Project
Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife has made a donation to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group that the organization calls “transformational.”
https://www.wired.com/story/mackenzie-scott-45-million-dollar-trevor-project-donation/
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Tim Ashley
3 months ago
Really saddened and shocked to hear of Andrew Clements' death. A wonderful critic, matchless on 20 and 21st century music, and a great colleague and friend to whom I owe an immense debt of gratitude for his role in giving me my own break as a critic. It's a huge loss. And he will be greatly missed.
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Anjali Dayal
3 months ago
we’re in the vet’s office waiting room and they just called for Agamemnon. we all looked at the Great Dane but it turns out Agamemnon is an orange kitten in a backpack that makes him look like an astronaut cheese puff
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Mother Jones
3 months ago
Immigration agents have shot at least nine people since September. All of them have been in cars.
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Cops are taught not to shoot into cars. ICE keeps doing it anyway.
Immigration agents have shot at least nine people since September. All of them have been in cars.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/renee-good-minneapolis-shooting-ice-trump-cops-taught-not-shoot-at-cars/
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Mike Masnick
3 months ago
If calling a state secret police agent a murderer for committing murder will lead to more murder by the state secret police, it sure seems like the problem is with the secret police
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Alejandra Caraballo
3 months ago
"In America, when a officer murders an innocent person, billionaires give them a cash bonus."
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Joshua J. Friedman
3 months ago
The American Dialect Society's Word of the Year is SLOP! “Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms newcompounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop,” Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright said. “This productivity has no end in sight.” 🧵
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public health guy
3 months ago
excuse me
@mayor.nyc.gov
, will you invite the unhoused basement bear to live in the greatest city in the world
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On Festen, my favourite opera of 2025
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The best thing I saw in 2025 was Festen - Parterre Box
It's a dazzling, shocking, and entertaining 100 minutes - one of the best new operas I've seen.
https://parterre.com/2026/01/10/the-best-thing-i-saw-in-2025-was-festen/
3 months ago
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Papa Fazuul
3 months ago
Gonna have to rename the Streisand Effect the Bari Weiss Effect
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Wurmpth Furdber
3 months ago
Can you believe I paid less than a dollar for all these hits?!??!
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Carl Quintanilla
3 months ago
Not the Onion. Literally, NOT the Onion.
@bencollins.bsky.social
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Peter Baker
3 months ago
The storied Washington National Opera decides to leave the Kennedy Center where it has played since 1971, perhaps the most significant artistic rebuke yet to Trump’s campaign to remake the facility in his image and attach his name to it.
@adamnagourney.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/a...
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Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/arts/music/washington-national-opera-kennedy-center.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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Karen K. Ho
3 months ago
I will read every interview with Heated Rivalry writer and director Jacob Tierney because his quotes are truly a reporter's dream:
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
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Bill Grueskin
3 months ago
Looks like ICE is now cracking down on … Native Americans. This letter was just posted by the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North/South Dakota: “Our Nation is a sovereign government and our members are not immigrants. We are not subject to immigration enforcement on our own lands.”
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Noah Shachtman
3 months ago
Great
@vanityfair.com
story about how wealthy Upper East Side "liberals" have gone full QAnon about Mamdani.
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/m...
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Bradford Pearson
3 months ago
In a
@phillymag.com
exclusive, here's the inside story of how Sasha Suda's reign at the Philadelphia Art Museum fell apart so spectacularly, and the board of directors who made it happen.
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Inside the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Epic Meltdown
The exclusive story behind the brutal ouster of Sasha Suda and the new civil war at Philadelphia’s premiere cultural institution
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2026/01/09/philadelphia-art-museum-sasha-suda/
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Law Dork
3 months ago
A photo essay from
@chrisgeidner.bsky.social
on Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street protest on Thursday evening. “The people, united, will never be defeated.“
www.lawdork.com/p/dc-ice-pro...
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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD
3 months ago
Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan to Make N.Y. Child Care Universal in a rational world, this policy should make natalists happy, but it probably won't
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/n...
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Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan to Make N.Y. Child Care Universal
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/nyregion/mamdani-hochul-child-care.html?smid=bs-share
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Edouard Machery
3 months ago
More violence. It is not an accident. The goal is to scare us.
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jamelle
3 months ago
this guy is a fucking hero
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Steve Smith
3 months ago
Music, non-stop. Get ready for the biggest week in contemporary music, plus listings for recommended new-music performances Jan. 8–13, 2026. Photograph: Gelsey Bell by Maria Baranova
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Music, non-stop.
Get ready for the biggest week in contemporary music, plus listings for recommended new-music performances Jan. 8–13, 2026.
https://open.substack.com/pub/nightafternight/p/music-non-stop-563?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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this is just a correlation but there has been a sharp rise in men using the hip abduction machine at the gym ever since the gay hockey show came out
3 months ago
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Jeff Sharlet
4 months ago
Here is a poem Renee Good, under her earlier name Renee Macklin, wrote, "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs." It won a prize. It's really good. "it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge."
poets.org/2020-on-lear...
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2020 Academy of American Poets Prize
On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs by Renée Nicole Macklin
https://poets.org/2020-on-learning-to-dissect-fetal-pigs
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