Author: NY TIMES

To understand the role of the Broadway orchestrator, seek out the composer Stephen Sondheim’s piano demo for the song “Losing My Mind” from the musical “Follies” and then compare it to the version on the original cast recording. The demo’s tone is wistful and resigned, with a touch of the whiskey bar about it. In the finished version, the song sounds transformed: Ascending notes on the strings, interjections from the brass and crashing cymbals build to a powerful climax, evoking the heartache and inner turmoil contained in the lyric.What happened? The short answer: Jonathan Tunick.“I seem to have a nose…

After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, spoke by phone with Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and later had to explain that the discussions were centered on providing humanitarian aid to Gaza. .South Africa’s case against Israel could generate a backlash globally and at home. U.S. officials have supported Israel, calling the case meritless. And some in the small but outspoken community of South African Jews, a group that played a key role in the anti-apartheid struggle, have criticized their government over the genocide case.Giving voice to those criticisms, Zev Krengel, the president of…

Even before his unexpected voyage, Hvaldimir’s behavior had been changing. Beyond his newfound wanderlust, he became less interested in following boats and hanging around humans compared with previous years. He appeared to be growing wilder all on his own. Because of this evolution, the escalating threat to Hvaldimir’s well-being and the absence of a suitable sanctuary, OneWhale revised its strategy. In partnership with the Norwegian animal rights organization NOAH, OneWhale is now petitioning Norway’s government to relocate Hvaldimir directly to Svalbard, an archipelago about halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole, with the nearest resident population of wild…

On a not-at-all red carpet inside Cipriani 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night, Da’Vine Joy Randolph was glowing.“The fact that these people actually even seen my work is just mind-blowing,” said the actress, a star of “The Holdovers,” who was being honored with the National Board of Review’s best supporting actress prize at its annual film awards gala, just days after she had won her first Golden Globe on Sunday for her role in the film.A few feet away on the gray carpet was Celine Song, who came to accept the prize for best directorial debut for “Past…

“Grey’s Anatomy” is “soapy” and “emotional.” “Emily in Paris” is “campy” and “quirky.” “Our Planet II” is “relaxing” and “captivating,” while “Gravity” is “suspenseful” and “visually striking.”Words such as these — displayed near the synopsis and movie-poster-style tile for each one of the thousands of titles on Netflix — appear to be scooped out of a grab bag.In fact, they are a critical tool to induce viewers to click play, and a key to Netflix’s dominance.The two- or three-word tags, meant to convey the gestalt of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service’s nearly…

Tech companies would like us to believe that their products tell a story about progress. Faster phones! Better cameras! Brighter screens! Yet despite all the improvements, there are pieces of tech that have been flawed for years.Text messaging technology, which created what many call the “green vs. blue bubble” disparity, has made texting between Apple and Android phones a subpar experience for nearly as long as smartphones have existed. Newer inventions, such as self-driving cars and cryptocurrency, continue to put people in harm’s way.To give credit where it’s due, there were some improvements last year that were big wins for…

There is a problem with the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. It can remove some of the amyloid that forms brain plaques that are hallmarks of the disease. But most of the drug is wasted because it hits an obstacle, the blood-brain barrier, that protects the brain from toxins and infections but also prevents many drugs from entering.Researchers wondered if they could improve that grim result by trying something different: they would open the blood-brain barrier for a short time while they delivered the drug. Their experimental method was to use highly focused pulses of ultrasound along with tiny gas…

Born in Upper Austria as Franz Leopold Maria Möst — the stage name came later, with “Welser” taken from his hometown, Wels — he got his start in music by learning violin from a nun named Sister Gerburga, who liberally slapped her students’ hands with a ruler. When a new secondary school for music opened nearby in Linz, he auditioned, was accepted and began studying with an eye toward a career at the Vienna Philharmonic.But in 1978, on the way back from a performance of Schubert’s Mass in G, he was in a car accident that left him with three…

Whatever its outcome, the accusation of genocide leveled this week against Israel at the world’s top court is an epochal intervention imbued with profound symbolism for both Israelis and Palestinians.In the granular sense, the case at the International Court of Justice is a chance to assess three months of devastation in Gaza. Israel stands accused of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in a military campaign that has killed roughly 1 in 100 Gazans and displaced nearly two million others.But the case, brought by South Africa to the court in The Hague, has also taken on a broader resonance: Among…

The Emmy Awards are on Monday, after being postponed four months because of Hollywood’s labor disputes.I’m tuning in to see the actors and creators of “The White Lotus” and “Succession” walk the red carpet in fancy dress, after which they will, with any luck, make some witty or inspiring speeches when they win their awards. These are two shows that I loved obsessively while they were on, and mourned ridiculously when they were over.One of the most common criticisms I’ve heard from those who can’t stomach these shows is that they’re devoid of likable characters. The navel-gazing vacationers of “The…