Jackson’s smash “Billie Jean” premiered on MTV in March 1983 and integrated what had been almost exclusively a format for white rock artists. By STEVE KNOPPER “Michael,” the new biopic about Michael Jackson’s triumphant but traumatized life, underwent costly reshoots when Jackson’s estate discovered a legal agreement from the ’90s preventing the film from depicting a child who had alleged the star sexually abused him at the time. Instead, the movie’s central conflict is betwe

A cantata, “Las troyanas” (The Trojan Women), will present a contemporary version of the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides about women’s resistance after the Trojan War. The piece is to be staged with premier actors by Vicente Castro. (prpop.org) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR The iconic Casals Festival, now heading into its fifth decade, will offer an exciting program honoring the legendary Catalan cellist, composer and conductor Pablo Casals. The classic work “Las

Nieves González, a 29-year-old painter who once worked in relative obscurity in Andalusia, at a favorite antiques store in Granada, Spain on March 24, 2026. A Baroque-style portrait of Lily Allen, used for an album cover, has made González an overnight art sensation. “It’s like a dream I always had, but times 50,” she said. (Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times) By JASON HOROWITZ The shushing of brush strokes stopped as Nieves González, painting her latest baroque-style portra

The art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in one of the galleries of the arts complex she created on the island of San Giacomo in Paludo, in Venice, Italy, on April 19, 2026. Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has turned a former gunpowder store into a showcase for her contemporary art collection. (Matteo de Mayda/The New York Times) By SCOTT REYBURN From a distance, across the opalescent waters of the Venetian lagoon, the cluster of low redbrick buildings looks like a factory

By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi first presented his “Requiem” on May 22, 1874, the first anniversary of the death of his idol, novelist and patriot Alessandro Manzoni, symbol of Italian unification. In fact, Italy’s greatest opera composer was so devastated at the departure of his country’s national hero that he was unable to go to the funeral. The work is a monument to the memory of Italy’s unification by that country’s greatest opera c

Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Dávila (rafael-davila.com) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR For opera fans, Giuseppe Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” is a pathway to heaven via the miracle of the human voice. For the faithful, this 150-year-old masterpiece memorializing an Italian national hero is one of the greatest paeans ever created. For the living? For every vision, from every seat, the presentation cannot fail to have an impact. The show will take place on Sunday at 4 p.m. in

Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in a scene from “Michael” (Lionsgate Films/Universal Pictures) By ALISSA WILKINSON Of course his songs are great. Of course his dancing is sublime. You might be lulled into thinking that’s the point of “Michael”: to spend a couple hours basking in a string of showstoppers, reveling in the transcendent talents of the King of Pop, from his days fronting the Jackson 5 to — well, to performing “Bad” at Wembley Stadium in London, anyhow. But that

Brad Pitt plays a former racing phenom in search of redemption in “F1.” (2025) (Warner Bros. Pictures/Apple Original Films) By ROBERT DANIELS Not too long ago, movie stars generated Hollywood’s cultural cachet and powered its economic engine. A movie star’s aspirational visage, honed for public appeal, could turn sometimes even small-scale movies into large-scale hits garnering over $100 million. For the last couple of decades, those days have felt like a faint memory. The bo

The set for the Rimsky-Korsakov ballet “Shekherezada” (Scheherazade), according to a pre-1917 sketch by L. Bakst (Wikimedia Commons) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Scheherazade. If you can spell it you’ve won half the battle. But there’s another lesson in this famous ballet by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, one the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), under the baton of Karlo Flores, will serve up on a special plate complete with dancing and narration for

By ALISSA WILKINSON One of the first lessons of economics is that money is made up. Put another way, it’s a construct: Money is only worth what we say it’s worth. That means its value is based on trust. And when that trust evaporates — say, when the price of cryptocurrency collapses — things can go south quickly. That’s the crux of “Everyone Is Lying to You for Money” (in theaters), a new documentary directed by Ben McKenzie about the strange universe of cryptocurrency. On fi