In Brief: Tax Edition

• Marion Lignana Rosenberg pointed me towards Rufus Wainwright's cover of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah. I have long been a fan of Jeff Buckley's version, but I gave Rufus a try and liked it, too. MLR also drew my attention to her observance of the anniversary of the death of Primo Levi. Gros merci, ma biche! [Vilaine Fille]


• Context is always good. For a different take on the future of New York City Opera, check out Justin Davidson's assessment of the company's outgoing music director, Paul Kellogg. [The Rest Is Noise]


• The Bibliothèque nationale de France has opened an exhibit, Trésors carolingiens (through June 24), featuring 60 manuscripts from the Carolingian era. Anne-Marie Romero writes, "Carolingian minuscule is so pretty at first sight that one thinks it is machine-printed, its round and plump charcters are so regular and well shaped. For the most part, with a few differences, it is the same as our cursive writing today." Thank you, Charlemagne! [Le Figaro]


• Anne-Carolyn Bird has her name up on the Met poster for Il Trittico. We will be tuning in this Friday, via Sirius radio, for opening night. She also has a new recital project in the works. [The Concert]


• Philip Glass is 70 years old this year. English National Opera has mounted a new production of his opera Satyagraha, and the reviews are in. The dish:

  Open-mindedness is not enough when listening to Glass's music. What is required is absolute belief. Inexorable adjustments to the instrumentation - an extra flute here, a further octave in the bass line there - register without breaking a stillness in which major is ineffably tinged with minor, and minor similarly tinged with major. It is, when sung in tune and executed in perfect ensemble, very beautiful. But Satyagraha quickly makes you wonder just how interesting beauty is without its obverse, ugliness; without tension, ambiguity, or sensuality, and without the intellectual engagement that Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians - to pick just one example from another minimalist composer - displays and demands.

  The author: Anna Picard. [The Independent]


• The city of Paris has only one skyscraper, the phenomenally ugly Tour Montparnasse, which most Parisians think is an eyesore on their beloved skyline. With the craze to build taller and more outrageous skyscrapers right now, will Paris give in and allow more skyscrapers? Marie-Douce Albert analyzes French attitudes on the issue, including architect Jean Nouvel, who is quoted as saying, "La verticalité n’est pas une abomination." [Le Figaro]