Category Archives: Hedonism

After a decade of codependency, flatmates Laura (Holliday Grainger) and Tyler (Alia Shawkat) grow apart when the former starts dating a pianist (Fra Fee). Their millennial ennui and freewheeling hedonism are the driving forces behind Sophie Hydes poignant drama, adapted from Emma Jane Unsworths novel of the same name. Its magic, however, lies in the chemistry between its leads and their depiction of an all-consuming friendship. As they trawl through Dublins dive bars and dingy clubs, you cant help but follow them down the rabbit hole.

How to Watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.

In the first installment of Joanna Hoggs two-part coming-of-age saga, we meet aspiring filmmaker Juliea hesitant, sensitive young student played to perfection by Honor Swinton Byrnewho is in love with a troubled older man. In this ravishing follow-up, we see her finding her feet in the wake of that relationship, honing her skills as a director and attempting to turn her pain into art. Most touching? A moment towards the end when shes surrounded by friends at a birthday party, single and looking more content than ever before.

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8 Anti-Valentines Day Films That Will Make You Happy to Be Single - Vogue.com

TRUE STORY What Reality TV Says About Us By Danielle J. Lindemann

Never in the history of showbiz has the gap between amateur and professional been so small. And never in the history of the world has there been such a rage for exhibitionism, the pop culture critic Albert Goldman declared in 1978. The question is, therefore, what are we going to do with all these beautiful show-offs? For Goldman, the answer was disco, the dance club as Dionysian mother ship, but a year later disco died of derision and white male hetero backlash. Thereafter, the surplus production of narcissists writhing for attention continued to mount, until reality TV arrived to sop up all this human capital and put its antsy energy to use. No talent, no training, no inhibitions? No problem!

PBSs An American Family (1973) is usually given the nod as the pioneer reality TV series, though in technique and tact it hewed to the more traditional, unobtrusive humanism of cinma vrit. It was MTVs The Real World (1992), Laguna Beach (2004) and The Hills (2006), and CBSs Survivor (2000), that established the genre as soap opera, eye-candy revue and behavioral laboratory where every genuine or manufactured slight and misunderstanding could be stoked for maximum friction and eventual psychodrama. Cheap to produce, fast to shoot, exhausting to perform, edited into a sharded crossfire of reaction shots, reality TV proved itself an expedient, maneuverable vehicle optimized for speed, sensation and easy replication. With its rotating clusters of housewives, Kardashians, deck crews, dance moms, teen moms, top chefs, top models, 90-day fiancs, bachelors, bachelorettes, apprentices, house hunters and drag racers, reality TV once prime times tacky, tag-along cousin has mutated into a real-fake pro-am multiverse.

While lacking the prestige and starlight of scripted series, the prospect of Nicole Kidman gracing us with her luminous shimmer, reality TV has exhibited enough influence and durability to earn Serious Treatment on top of the customary snickers and patronizing sneers, and here it is: Danielle J. Lindemanns True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us. A professor of sociology at Lehigh whose previous books have studied commuter marriages and the professional dominatrix excellent preparation for parsing the adventures of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Lindemann contends that, by holding up a mirror to society, reality TV has much to impart once we get past the histrionics. It may seem counterintuitive that a genre focused on zany personalities and extreme cases has so much to teach us about our own ordinary lives, she writes, yet stare hard enough and youll perceive your own warped features goggling back: Were voyeurs, but part of what tantalizes us about these freak shows is that the freaks are ourselves. (I prefer Goldmans designation of beautiful show-offs, better anticipating the buffed hedonism of Vanderpump Rules, Love Island and Too Hot to Handle, but lets not get hung up on nomenclature.) The point is that for Lindemann, reality TV viewing isnt passive ingestion but a subtle preening process, a phantom codependency. Its a phenomenon worth studying, she writes, because of what it does to us. The experience of watching these shows, like looking in any mirror, is interactive. We see ourselves, and then we groom ourselves accordingly.

Here, grooming time at the zoo is broken down into exhaustively researched chapters exploring how the medium depicts, distorts or dodges altogether intricacies of race and gender (the stereotyping of Black women as incipient volcanoes), class, sexuality, childhood, family and so on: the intersectional combo platter. No matter how swingy-dingy the shows appear, there is a conservative underlay that keeps familiar norms in place. Lindemann is instructive on the power differential between men and women in reality TV, how differently theyre regarded and rewarded for their antics and facial calisthenics. With his braggadocio and his penchant for gold dcor, Donald Trump might have made an excellent Real Housewife, she observes. Yet these women are still throwing wineglasses at one another on Bravo, and hes been president. Diverse and inclusive as reality TV has become, male prerogative still occupies the top bunk.

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Reality Stars Are Just Like Us - The New York Times

Boy, I hope I don't wake up a short while from now only to realize that I'm just a head in a jar, because I'd rather be celebrating. The long-dormant animated comedy Futurama, which has been cancelled twice at this point, is now making a newly established comeback. It'll be via streaming this time, as Hulu has stepped in to revive the influential and endlessly hilarious series. But at the moment, it's missing one of its core stars.

At this point, almost the entire main cast is set to return for a 20-episode new season, with that list including Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman. Theres a pretty obvious name missing from that lineup, with John DiMaggio currently not having yet signed on to reprise the beloved role of Bender, he with the kissable shiny metal ass, and others. While there is active hopes from both sides for the actor to join the new episodes when they premiere in 2023, according to Deadline, he apparently held out during contract negotiations, forcing 20th Television Animation to go forward without him.

At this point, the role is being recast ahead of Futuramas first table read, set to take place on Monday, February 14. We can hopefully expect a positive update before that happens, or soon afterward. John DiMaggio can currently be heard on Netflix's Disenchantment Season 4, which is another creation from Matt Groening.

Speaking of the legendary animation giant, Matt Groening and fellow co-creator David X. Cohen will also be returning, with Groening offering the pitch-perfect statement below:

Its a true honor to announce the triumphant return of Futurama one more time before we get canceled abruptly again.

Hopefully that won't happen after this first 20-episode stretch, though obviously stranger things have happened to beloved TV shows. Futurama was first cancelled on Fox after its initial four-season run, and was then revived for a set of direct-to-DVD features before officially returning in episodic form to Comedy Central in 2010, where it lasted for another 52 episodes that concluded in fine form in 2013. Not that it was completely dead at that point, either.

In 2017, the Futurama cast and creative team reunited for an audio podcast, which seemed at the time like it might be fans' last chances to catch up with Fry, Leela, and obviously Calculon and Hedonism-Bot, the true stars of the show. Even after that, though, some of the characters appeared as an easter egg within the aforementioned Disenchantment, where other Futurama easter eggs can also be found.

Futurama made Hulu its official streaming home back in 2018, following its exit from Netflix, and apparently that was a successful enough acquisition to inspire the execs to order up some brand new episodes. And for it to come together seemingly as quickly as it did, since production is already going into effect this month. Considering Hulu also became the official home for Seth MacFarlanes sci-fi dramedy The Orville going into its third season, which also once called Fox its home, its only natural for it to also be behind new Futurama installments.

Until we know more about when to expect new episodes of Futurama, be sure to stay up to date with our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what other hilarious and/or space-faring series are on the way.

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Futurama Has Been Saved From Cancellation Again, But Is Currently Missing One Star - CinemaBlend

As Ellis Hanson points out in the introduction to his book, Decadence and Catholicism, Huysmans was not alone in this trajectory. Many of his fellow aesthetes, among them Aubrey Beardsley, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde, and Walter Pater, showed increasing interest in the Catholic Church the end of their lives. Decadent writing, Hanson observes, is often a continual flux of religious sensations and insights alternating with pangs of profanity and doubt. Like Tantalus grasping at the fruit, for decadents the medieval world increasingly represented an ideal at once essential to their self-understanding yet just out of reach.

Decadent writers, reacting against the utilitarian mindset that pervaded the industrialized world, had long championed the mantra lArt pour lArt art for arts sake. No longer, they argued, ought art to be limited by the constraints of sales or patronage, politics or morality. Instead, artists like Aubrey Beardsley drew inspiration from a variety of local and foreign art forms, cobbling together a style that attempted to untether itself from any meaning beyond itself. Their lives of luxury, in fact, were themselves an art form: an attempt to have as many aesthetic experiences as possible, savoring each new sensation in its turn. In the practical, prudish world of nineteenth-century Europe, such radical hedonism was met with consternation. Yet, despite several obvious differences, there was one way in which the decadents were more attuned to their medieval ancestors than most Victorians would have liked to admit.

Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt, 1892

In the medieval world, the concept of Beauty held a role similar to the decadents concept of Art albeit finding its home in the monasteries rather than the brothels. It was an attribute closely associated with God, and it motivated much of the sacred architecture to which the decadents were at once so attracted and repulsed. As Thomas Aquinas puts it, Beauty andgoodness in a thing are identical fundamentally; for they are based upon the same thing, namely, theform; and consequently goodnessis praised as beauty. Beauty and goodness, in other words, went hand-in-hand. In terms of art, the form of a thing its appearance and its function in the Mass or in society would have been distinct yet inseparable. Therefore, rather than attempting to justify the herculean efforts of generations of workers on grounds of social utility, efficiency of design, or human progress, medievals would not have found any justification necessary for the rich ornamentation and conscientious craftsmanship of their cathedrals, save to highlight the value of the structures themselves. While decadents, of course, did not have any such metaphysical underpinnings to their mantra, in their perception of beauty they certainly found a greater ally in medieval architects than in their own industrialist neighbors.

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The Aesthete and the Cathedral - MutualArt.com

Pedro Almodvar changed movies forever, and he did so by simply following his exact vision and never deviating from it...even a little bit. When he moved to Madrid in 1967 to go to the National School of Cinema, he could have never guessed that infamous Spanish dictator Francisco Franco would have it shut down. Such was Almodvar's brash fearlessness that, as a form of protest, he would make films specifically to challenge Francoist Spain's conservative nationalism and repressive totalitarianism.

After Franco's death, Almodvar became one of the pre-eminent visionaries of La Movida Madrilea, the countercultural movement that rose up during Spain's transition into a democracy. Almodvar's early films are so drenched in joyous hedonism and campy fearlessness that it's easy to miss the ever-present danger lurking in the background. Even the silliest Almodvar films like 1980's "Pepi, Luci, Bom" and 1982's "Labyrinth of Passion" have sexual violence, senseless death and the onset of the AIDS crisis as backdrops to the humor and shenanigans.

Then, 1987's "Law of Desire" saw him start taking even bigger swings by crafting characters who seemed more human and less as delivery systems for his pages and pages of dialogue and intensely complicated plotting. However, it was 1988's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" that became his first critical and commercial success and placed him on the radar of film lovers across the world.

What's so fascinating to me about Almodvar is that most of his films are deeply moral melodramas in which there's a central question of ethics that he attempts to answer through revelation of character and story. Usually, his characters make a terrible choice that negatively impacts themselves and others at the end of the first act, their lives are blown up and destroyed in the second and then some sense of redemption is sought in the third. It's a solid structure to build a film career on, but Almodvar strays from it just enough to never become predictable.

"Parallel Mothers," his eighth collaboration with Penlope Cruz, focuses on two expectant mothers sharing a hospital room right before giving birth, one in her late 40s and the other still a minor. They give birth at the same time and, following a plot reveal I won't give away here, must become incredibly close even as secrets are kept and lives are shattered. There's also a side plot where Cruz's photographer character is attempting to have a world-renowned forensic archaeologist excavate a mass grave that she believes her great-grandfather was buried in during the Spanish Civil War.

That right there shows just a taste of the brilliance of Almodvar: He makes a movie about mothers giving birth to the future while simultaneously telling a story about the darkness and destruction of Francoist Spain. Sometimes within the space of a single scene he meditates on birth, death and the legacy we leave behind, while also being wryly hysterical and profoundly moving. There are more ideas in just five minutes of this movie than most films carry in their entire running times.

"Parallel Mothers" stands beside "Volver" and "Bad Education" as Almodvar's best. Even if you're not a fan of the master (or are completely unfamiliar with his work in general), this might be the movie that changes your mind or makes you a lifetime fan. It's a perfect place to jump into his filmography and all of his trademark colors and textures are on full display. "Parallel Mothers" is another gorgeous love letter to cinema, as only Almodvar can design.

Parallel MothersDir. Pedro AlmodvarGrade: B+Now Playing at Tin Pan Theater and Sisters Movie House

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Maternal Instincts - The Source Weekly

The new McDonalds menu hacks do not actually feature any new items you can order on the menu. Instead, they are permission slips for you to become fast food Ozymandias, building carb-laden meat monuments to hedonism. Look, ye mighty, and despair as these works crumble in your hands because you basically just smashed three cheap sandwiches together -- all because travelers from an antique land called TikTok said it was cool.

To be clear, you get absolutely nothing special if you try to order these items on the menu. If you order a Surf +Turf, all thats going to happen is that the staff is going to hand you a Double Cheeseburger and Filet-o-Fish. Its on you to build it yourself and avoid getting tartar sauce on your pants as you perform meat patty transplants to create McFrakensteins monster.

You will have random buns leftover. Its not entirely clear what youre supposed to do with them. I mean, I guess, Ill just eat the bottom of a Filet-o-Fish with a half-shorn piece of cheese on it while staring blankly out the window. Yes, this is clearly what the cool kids are up to these days.

McDonalds menu hacks

Essentially what McDonalds did was take advantage of the popular trend of mixing menu items together and create a roadmap on the menu to copy some popular hacks. For some reason, half of these involve a Filet-o-Fish, which is the Greys Anatomy of fast food items. It was pretty popular for a while and every now and then you see it and go, Huh, theyre still making that? (Season 18 of Greys is currently on break, with the show already renewed for Season 19.)

Here are the four hacks that make up the new menu:

Sure, its all just reallocating the same ingredients in different ways. But thats basically been Taco Bells entire business model for decades. Might as well try it out.

So what do they taste like?

Trying out the McDonald's menu hacks: the Hash Brown McMuffin. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)

Hash Brown McMuffin

(Building instructions: Place the hash brown between the egg and top bun.)

This is the hack that makes the most sense and keeps to a consistent theme. It really nails the breakfast vibe and actually does something to elevate the original items (besides making it bigger).

The hash brown adds some nice crunch to the whole affair, but also a lot of starch. Adding some hot sauce or ketchup to the equation really helps prevent this from being a brick of bland beige.

Still, it sets off all the familiar pings of what youd expect in a breakfast, popping off at different spots. Youve got the breakfast meat vibes, a crispy potato thing, cheese and then the egg, which gets overshadowed a bit, but the protein inside helps bring it all together.

Id have this again. The added hashbrown does make it a bit heavy, but the crunch and the savory potato flavors really are a nice addition here.

Trying out the McDonald's menu hacks: the Crunchy Double. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)

Crunchy Double

(Building instructions: Place four Chicken McNuggets on top of the bottom bun and drizzle with BBQ sauce. Place the patties and the rest of the burger on top.)

Theoretically, you could put all six McNuggets on this sandwich, but its overload. Four is good.

Similar to the Hash Brown McMuffin, this hack involves adding a crunchy element to the burger, which does serve to make the texture more fun. The interplay between the chicken and beef is interesting. You get flashes of the ketchup and BBQ sauce flashing back and forth as the two meats combine to create a generally tasty protein duo.

This reminds me a lot of the Rodeo Burger from Burger King, just with McNuggets in the mix instead of onion rings. Thats a good thing. Both taste pretty good. Plus with this, you get two McNuggets leftover.

Trying out the McDonald's menu hacks: the Surf +Turf. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)

Surf + Turf

(Building instructions: Separate the Double Cheeseburger in two parts, splitting up the patties. Take the top bun off of the Filet-o-Fish and play the rest on top of the bottom half of the split Double Cheeseburger. Put the remaining half on top.)

Theres so much bread here, and thats not even including the half-bun I have sitting here leftover.

This is where we start to get weird with the building process, smashing sandwiches together and really pushing the boundaries of sanity.

The mix of the ketchup and tartar sauce is interesting -- and vital to keeping this thing from being a fully dry bready mess. You do get a lot of the fish flavor. The burgers get mostly lost in the shuffle, but do pop out every now and then.

The amount of bread is imposing, but it actually makes the whole thing soft and chewy, letting the flavors mellow out. Once I let go of my preconceptions and embraced the bread, I liked it a lot more.

Im still torn on the decision to include the Filet-o-Fish. The fishy element is certainly present, but not overwhelming. Im curious why the Filet got the nod over a McChicken, other than the ability to call it Surf + Turf.

Trying out the McDonald's menu hacks: the Land, Air and Sea sandwich. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)

Air, Land & Sea

(Building instructions: Remove both buns from Filet-o-Fish and McChicken, leaving just the patty and sauce. Open up Big Mac above bottom patty. Iinsert Filet-O-Fish patty. Open up Big Mac again above top patty. Inset McChicken patty.)

What did I just eat? Its a wall of flavors that all yell at you.

Biting into this sandwich is like putting your face five inches in front of a TV and turning it on. Its such a chaotic overload of sensations that your brain cant fully process everything thats going on.

You dont eat this as much as you attempt to perform a controlled demolition of it with your mouth. You need to basically unhinge your jaw to take a bite.

The sauces play well together, with the overall vibe being similar to a chicken salad sandwich, with all the various meats and lettuce. But instead of just chicken, this sandwich involves an ever-rotating carousel of meats that switch in and out and keep your palate guessing.

Its like a funhouse of mystery meats that constantly works to keep surprising you -- or a haunted house, depending on your perspective.

This sandwich is not up to code. Its not structurally sound. Mine fell apart as I ate it, with my McChicken patty squirting out and making a run for it after a few bites.

Are they any good? Which one is best?

Here they are, ranked best to worst:

1. Hash Brown McMuffin

2. Crunchy Double

3. Surf + Turf

4. Air, Land & Sea

Is that the same order that I reviewed them? Yes. Am I just realizing this now as I write out the rankings? Also yes.

The final word

For as goofy a promotion as this is, the hacks menu is a fun idea. It embraces the concept of adding personality to your food order and creating something yourself.

Customers are maniacs and companies are finally starting to embrace it. You can see it in the marketing. Wendys has wisely embraced the concept of dipping fries in a Frosty. Taco Bell has some commercials that endorse putting tortilla chips inside tacos for extra crunch.

Its 2022. There are no rules anymore. Go out and create your own monster sandwich. McDonalds said it was cool.

I just wish that they didnt keep trying to get us to include the Filet-o-Fish so much.

---

I ate it so you dont have to is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday-ish at noon-ish.

You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all criticisms and thoughts about the effect the poem Ozymandias has had on the modern pop culture zeitgeist to tsanzo@masslive.com. You can check out the rest of the series here.

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McDonalds menu hacks review: I ate them all so you dont have to - MassLive.com

February 4, 2022

Between last year's "Bergman Island" and the forthcoming Sundance premiere "Resurrection" a Tim Roth rebirth at the box office is underway as the veteran actor delivers absorbing performances playing tepid characters. The hot streak continues with the latest feature from writer-director Michel Franco ("New Order") reuniting the filmmaker and actor after the two collaborated on "Chronic" in 2015. "Sundown" is about a man disconnected from his family while vacationing in Acapulco. The film is vexing to watch as the narrative remains shrouded in mystery.

Franco spent a good portion of his youth in the Mexican resort town, so Acapulco has a special place in the director's heart. In "Sundown" it is depicted as a tropical paradise with bottomless buckets of cerveza, a climate soaked in hedonism, and beautiful senoritas waiting for middle-aged Brits to come along and sweep them off their feet. But when someone is gunned down on a beach crowded with tourists and locals, and a man seems to effortlessly give up everything that should be important to him, perhaps a closer inspection is needed.

Roth plays Neil the paternal unit of a family on a luxurious vacation. Everyone seems to be having a great time (except Neil). Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) takes advantage of the hotel's first-class amenities including massages and meditation, while teenagers Colin (Samuel Bottomley) and Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan) enjoy the beach and live entertainment.

Neil, on the other hand, is distant. He seems disenchanted with the vacation. At times one gets the feeling that he is being forced to have a good time. This is how Franco hooks us. For most of the film, we are left trying to figure out what is going on in Neil's head. It's like trying to solve a puzzle without any clues. Roth's absorbing performance keeps the audience engaged even when his character's actions seem irrational and harsh.

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Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.

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'Sundown' Review: Watching Tim Roth Deliver A Listless Performance As His World Falls Apart Is At Times Frustrating - Patch.com

BERLIN The Whore of Babylon, in a grotesque fat suit, belts out a hymn to hedonism midway through the Deutsche Opers new production of Antikrist here.

Ersan Mondtags riotously colorful, boldly stylized staging of what this works Danish composer, Rued Langgaard, called a church opera is a near-breathless swirl. Nodding to various early-20th-century art movements, including Symbolism, Expressionism and the Bauhaus, it is only the third full staging of the work, which was written and revised between 1921 and 1930, but which remained unperformed at the time of Langgaards death, in 1952.

Inspired by the Book of Revelation, Antikrist premieres Jan. 30 and runs through Feb. 11. It is the latest in a series of operatic rediscoveries at the Deutsche Oper, which, in recent decades, has made a point of highlighting works from outside the canon. In recent seasons, it has lavished attention on Meyerbeers Le Prophte as part of a series devoted to that once-renowned 19th-century composer, as well as two early-20th-century titles, Korngolds Das Wunder der Heliane and Zemlinskys Der Zwerg.

Along with the Deutsche Opers commitment to commissioning new operas, these rediscoveries are a way of refreshing and enlarging operas notoriously narrow repertoire. An essentially unknown work like Antikrist presents a host of logistical challenges, from training singers to attracting audiences, but it can provide its director with rare creative license. The absence of entrenched performing traditions can be artistically liberating.

Its totally crazy, Mondtag, who also designed the sets and helped design the costumes, said of the piece. Its something between Schoenberg and Wagner, and like a sacred opera without linear narration. So you have the freedom to do whatever you want.

Mondtag, one of Germanys leading young avant-garde directors, was putting the finishing touches on Antikrist when the pandemic locked the country down for the first time, in March 2020. Since then, hes staged two other rarely performed 20th-century works, Schrekers Der Schmied von Gent and Weills Silbersee, both for Vlaamse Opera in Belgium. A relative newcomer to opera, Mondtag said it was hardly surprising that hes been getting assignments like these, rather than war horses like Tosca.

Its considered more experimental to do unknown things, Mondtag said. In his short time working in opera, he added, he has acquired something of a reputation as an expert of unstageable or unknown operas. I didnt choose that; it just happened that way.

When the Deutsche Oper returned to live performance in the summer of 2020, it concentrated on a new production of Wagners four-opera Ring. All four titles premiered at the house during the pandemic, but after the Ring played its last performances earlier this month, the company turned its attention to the delayed Antikrist premiere.

Its such impressive music that I think its necessary to do it, said Dietmar Schwarz, the Deutsche Opers general director. He added that while he would love it if Mondtags production inspired new interest in Antikrist, he was mostly focused on finding a curious and open audience in Berlin.

Were not necessarily doing it for the survival of this old opera, he said.

Isolated productions of rediscoveries rarely catch fire. One exception was David Pountneys acclaimed staging of Bernd Alois Zimmermanns punishing 1965 work Die Soldaten, which was first seen in 2006 at the Ruhrtriennale festival in Germany and traveled to the Park Avenue Armory in New York two years later. A spate of productions followed in Berlin; Munich; Salzburg, Austria; and elsewhere.

Yet even if rediscoveries are confined to a single production, German opera administrators have increasingly made them a priority. This contrasts with the United States: These days, it is more common for the Metropolitan Opera or the Lyric Opera of Chicago to present an attention-generating world premiere than to dust off a forgotten work. (Leon Botsteins full-production revivals at Bard College in New York are a notable exception.)

There is a treasure trove of stuff out there, said Barrie Kosky, who leads the Komische Oper in Berlin. Since arriving at that company in 2012, he has scored some of his greatest hits with productions of long overlooked works, including operettas by German-speaking Jewish composers like Paul Abraham and Oscar Straus.

Lets face it, we cant survive on just a diet of the 20 most famous titles, Kosky said.

Of course, its always a risk because sometimes you bring back a piece and it doesnt work, he said. Or, he added: You say: Look, were bringing this back. Its not a perfect piece, but this score is still worth hearing. I think thats also very legitimate and valid; I dont think everything has to be a masterpiece.

Kosky pointed to his own eclectic programming at the Komische Oper where, before the pandemic, the house was selling 90 percent of its seats as evidence that theaters can be filled with works by composers other than Mozart and Puccini.

All of thats been blown out of the water when I see that we can sell out The Bassarids completely, he said, referring to Hans Werner Henzes 1965 opera, which Kosky staged in 2019. Or we can have incredible advance sales for an operetta where people dont even know the title or the music.

When Matthias Schulz, the general director of the Staatsoper in Berlin, programmed a Baroque festival in his first season leading the company, he didnt go for the usual suspects.

I wanted to do everything except Handel, he said.

The centerpiece of the festivals first edition, in 2018, was Rameaus Hippolyte et Aricie. Since then, two rarities have followed: Scarlattis Il Primo Omicidio and, this past fall, Campras Idomne, far more obscure than Mozarts later Idomeneo.

Hidden in the corners of opera history, Schulz said, there are real masterworks and we have a responsibility to find them. We need to convince the audience that what we do is interesting, and to challenge them.

That process looks different in Berlin, with a rich opera landscape thanks to three full-time companies, than it does in smaller cities. Laura Berman, the artistic director of the Staatsoper in Hanover, in northern Germany, said that drawing an audience with obscure titles can be a challenge. But, she added, the right work and the right production can also put a smaller house on the map.

In her first season in Hanover, Berman scored a hit with Halvys religious potboiler La Juive which, like Meyerbeers grand operas, faded from the repertory by the early 20th century. Lydia Steiers production conjured a historical survey of antisemitism, starting in post-World War II America and working back to 15th-century Konstanz, Germany, the setting specified by the libretto. The 2019 staging was acclaimed, and helped the company earn the title of Opera House of the Year from Oper Magazine.

Berman said she wasnt surprised that a production about the need for tolerance had resonated in Hanover, a religiously and ethnically mixed city she that called extremely diverse.

People have always talked in the theater about hooks: how to get the audience hooked into going to see something, she added. I truly feel today that the topic is major, especially for younger audiences, more than the title.

She added that works like La Juive were excellent for convincing people that an opera house is a forum for social and political discussion which, in the end, it always has been, for at least several hundred years.

The Staatsopers next big premiere in Hanover will be Marschners Der Vampyr in late March directed by Mondtag. His visual world is really special, Berman said. But for me, the main factor is being able to think through works and being able to bust them open.

That is less terrifying, she added, if you do a work where there are no preconceived notions.

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Reawakening the Antichrist (and Other Lost Opera Gems) - The New York Times

Jason Bateman has addressed what an interviewer has labelled his lost decade in the 90s, when he partied instead of focusing on progressing his acting career.

The Ozark actor and director explained in a new interview that he used the time to catch up on what he called inabilities that stemmed from missing out on normal parts of growing up, thanks to his early stint as a child actor in Little House On The Prairie.

It was a combination, he told The Guardian about the factors in his decision to trade acting for hedonism. Me stopping everything on purpose, to catch up with all these inabilities I had as a kid, because I was always working.

I wanted to get the wiggles out, he added, referring to the need he felt to live-out his so-called lost childhood and teenage years.

Marty and Wendy try to save their family once more in Ozark season four (Picture: Netflix)

The Guardian noted that in the past the Arrested Development stars wife, Amanda Anka, had given him an ultimatum about his partying in his 20s.

Bateman added of his partying decade: Having thought, This is really fun, and staying at the party a little bit too long, Id lost my place in line in the business; it was a case of trying to claw that back towards the end of the 90s, and not getting a lot of great responses.

US sitcom Arrested Development, which first aired in 2003, ended the actors dry spell after the turn of the century, with roles following in Juno (2007) and elsewhere.

In Ozark news, part one of the fourth and final season has now launched on Netflix, with part two slated for release later this year.

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Jason Bateman on his 'lost decade': "I stayed at the party too long" - NME.com

Theres no better antidote for the winter blues than envisioning yourself surrounded by the cerulean seas of the Greek Isles, snacking on fresh-grilled fish and sipping tsipouro. But this Mediterranean country serves up so much more for daydream fodder than its beaches alone. In Athens, a slew of new art galleries, cultural institutions, and ambitious architectural projects are heralding a cultural renaissance in the ancient capital. In Greeces mountainous interior, one of Europes most underrated ski destinations has fostered an aprs-ski scene that may one day rival Courchevel or Vail. Though the most popular Greek Islands remain perennial favorites for first-timersMykonos for its ravenous hedonism and Santorini for the one-of-a-kind landscapethere are (literally) hundreds of others scattered across the Ionian and Aegean seas that can host a Grecian getaway of mythic wonder.

While Greece has plenty of dazzling resorts, booking an Airbnb is generally much more affordableespecially in the summer high seasonand lets you more acutely experience the cultural nuances of each region. Weve pored over the dizzying array of listings to bring you 11 of the best Airbnbs in Greece right now. Most of the properties featured are run by Superhosts, meaning they have a rating of 4.8 or above, zero cancellations, and at least a 90 percent response rate. Act fast if you are planning to travel in late July or August, when tourist arrivals in Greece reach peak numbers and great vacation rentals are all booked up.

While we have not stayed in every Airbnb featured, unless otherwise stated, these listings are vetted based on Superhost status, amenities, location, previous guest reviews, and decor.

All products featured on Cond Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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11 Best Airbnbs in Greece, Whether You're Visiting Athens, Santorini, or Hydra - Cond Nast Traveler