Free Republic

The 'Mostly Mozart’ festival was canceled in favor of more ‘inclusive’ fare,' -- rappers, pop groups and an LGBTQ mariachi band while hanging a 10-foot-wide disco ball above its fountain.”

… For 44 years, Robert Moses ruled over New York. Unelected, his power drawn from up to 12 concurrent city, state and federal appointments, he used his unparalleled control of public authorities with impunity. Deftly utilizing loopholes and creating new law, Moses had his own shadow government, with his own police force, flag, and an island under the Triborough (now Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge. There is no debate over the sheer magnitude of what he built. His accomplishments bestride New York: 416 miles of highways, 13 bridges, 658 playgrounds and housing for 150,000 people. He constructed parkways, tunnels, beaches, zoos,...

The heads of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall are among dozens of cultural institution leaders quaking in their boots as Mayor Bill de Blasio considers slashing their funds if they fail to meet his staff diversity criteria, The Post has learned.

My great-grandfather was a landowner in southern China prior to the communist takeover in 1949. Possessing about three acres of rice paddies and a lychee orchard placed him squarely in the “landlord” class—a group of people the new regime was determined to dispose of using “the greatest force,” as Mao Zedong put it. Accompanying and legitimizing Chairman Mao’s coming campaign of mass murder was the remolding of national arts and culture. “The Red Detachment of Women,” a 1964 Chinese ballet and one of many works glorifying violent class struggle, opened to New York audiences on the evening of July 11...

The economy is putting a squeeze on the nation's biggest arts complex. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is canceling its holiday tree lighting ceremony in December. The decorated tree erected in the center's main plaza has become an annual tradition, with a live televised ceremony drawing both New Yorkers and tourists. Lincoln Center blames the cancellation on what it calls "the challenging economic climate" -- and also construction at the entrance to the plaza. “[Construction] will be completed by next year, but it is in no shape to hold the group that the tree attracts," Kate Merlino, a...

Have you ever been to Lincoln Center in New York? I had never been there until yesterday, when I was privileged enough to attend an opera at the Met. Although the opera was wonderful, I dare say I was even more impressed with the architecture of the entire center. It seems to me to be the epitome of modern architecture of the second phase of the International Style (that simplified skyscraper style with often-elegant materials, steel beams, and glass). In fact, the beauty and style of Lincoln Center could be said to rival the music created within. I had always...