Author: NY TIMES

Sometimes you just need a few great singers.Two weeks ago at the Metropolitan Opera, a superb cast in “La Forza del Destino” outshone a new, somewhat confused staging by Mariusz Trelinski. And now, Bartlett Sher’s handsome yet unconvincing 2016 production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” has returned to the house with a pair of singers in splendid form.Sher’s staging situates the action on a raised platform surrounded by stone facades and colonnades. Each sharply etched scene from Shakespeare’s tragic romance — the ball, the balcony, the bedroom, the tomb — occurs more or less in a town square.Beautifully lit by…

The Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda said on Sunday that its leader, Khaled Batarfi, had died.Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as A.Q.A.P., released a video announcing Mr. Batarfi’s death, showing images of him wrapped in a white funeral shroud overlaid with a black Al Qaeda flag. It did not explain how he had died.The United States government once considered Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations. The group tried and failed at least three times to blow up American airliners, and has been targeted by American drone strikes for…

Streets and squares are being changed from Ukrainian names to those from the Soviet era. Only Russian passport holders will have access to health care and social services. Teachers have been forced to switch to Russian curriculums.The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been a symbol of Russia’s brutal invasion and occupation of vast areas of Ukrainian territory. But as the war drags on and Moscow tries to turn the city into a model of Russification, Mariupol’s fate risks slipping away from the world’s consciousness.So it was with satisfaction and hope that Ukraine on Monday celebrated winning its first-ever Oscar…

Pamela Anderson has done some “life-ing” as she calls it. No longer strictly an object of adolescent fantasies, she has become a seasoned version of the girl next door — albeit with a lot more oomph.“I’m enjoying the process of getting older,” Ms. Anderson, 56, said on a video call late last week. “The things that are happening to my face — a little elasticity is leaving — I’m finding humor in that.” She continued: “I feel sexier now that I have some secrets and some mystery. We don’t learn that until later in our lives.”The call was about her…

“Queen!”It was a Friday night in January, and Snoop Dogg had just rolled into a cocktail party hosted by Donna Langley, NBCUniversal’s chief content officer and studios chairwoman. His shouted greeting, paired with a jaunty deferential dance, seemed to leave her a bit embarrassed. “We’re here to celebrate filmmakers and films,” Langley told the room a few minutes later. “This is not about me.”For an executive who ardently prefers to stay in the background — she declined to be interviewed for this article and dispatched a lieutenant to try and kill it — the 2024 Oscar trail has been an…

Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” was already a chart monster. The album, released last March, spent its first 12 weeks at No. 1, then notched another four by the fall, and two more early this year. Thanks to consistently huge streaming numbers, it was the most popular album of 2023.Now Wallen has another feather in his cap. “One Thing” has hit No. 1 for the 19th time, breaking Billboard’s record for most weeks at the top for a country album — surpassing Garth Brooks’s 1991 classic “Ropin’ the Wind,” which had era-defining country hits like “Shameless,” “What She’s…

President Biden, marking the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said he would press for a cease-fire in Gaza and more humanitarian aid for the territory, and noted that many American Muslims were grieving for family members killed there.The war has inflicted “terrible suffering” on the Palestinian people, Mr. Biden said in the statement, released Sunday night, adding that “more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, including thousands of children.” In addition, nearly two million people have been displaced and need food, water and shelter, he said.Mr. Biden’s comments were part of a tradition…

A team of 21 scientists set off on an expedition in the largely uncharted waters of Bounty Trough off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand in February hoping to find a trove of new species.The expedition paid off, they said on Sunday, with the discovery of 100 new species, a number that was likely to grow, said Alex Rogers, a marine biologist who was a leader of the expedition.“I expect that number to increase as we work through more and more of the samples,” Dr. Rogers said. “I think that number is going to be in the…

John Cena’s ‘streaker manqué” routine at the Oscars was pretty funny. In an obvious setup, host Jimmy Kimmel asked, “Can you imagine if a nude man ran across the stage today?” upon which a seemingly undressed Mr. Cena popped his head out from behind the curtain to say, “I changed my mind, I don’t want to do the streaker bit.” When Mr. Kimmel reminded him that it was all for comedy, Mr. Cena replied with faux seriousness, “the male body is not a joke.”But it was a joke. And soon, an entirely naked, and remarkably buff, Mr. Cena came onstage…

To celebrate his wife’s birthday in 2022, Brian Azara, a mechanical engineer in New York City, booked a table for two at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Brooklyn. But when their son was suddenly hospitalized with severe asthma, Mr. Azara had to cancel the reservation. A few minutes later, he checked his credit card account and saw a $200 fee.“It was probably 23½ hours before we were supposed to be there,” Mr. Azara said, yet the restaurant refused to reverse the charge, citing its 24-hour cancellation deadline. While he sympathizes with the financial challenges restaurants are facing, he said the charge…