Soprano Martina Arroyo, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera dressed for her role as the heroine Elizabeth of Valois for Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” in New York, Nov. 24, 1965. Arroyo, a soprano whose rich voice carried with ease through the scores of Giuseppe Verdi and who was one of the first Black singers to have a major operatic career, died on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at her home in Manhattan. She was 90. (Sam Falk/The New York Times) By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER Martina Arroyo, a sopran

“Transcending Dimensions” By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI In this month’s picks: killer A.I., mysterious cults, alien horror, postapocalyptic survival and zany dimensions. ‘C.O.G.’ Kaya (Piper Curda), a former hacker who has sort of gone legit, works for Ethan (Noel Fisher), a grinning, amoral tech tycoon. Kaya believes in artificial intelligence’s potential to solve the world’s problems, but even she is horrified when Ethan decides to fast-track the company’s new AI chatbot, CognAI

The Javits Center during Comic Con, in Manhattan, on Oct. 8, 2026. The fan-driven presence of anime is one way in which New York Comic-Con has evolved over its two decades. (Lucia Vazquez/The New York Times) By MAYA PHILLIPS When you think of a comic convention, you may envision a convergence of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, all promoting their upcoming TV series and films to eager fans. But that’s not quite right, at least not for New York Comic Con, whic

A 360-degree projection room at the Goya Museum in Zaragoza, Spain on Oct. 5, 2026. The artist’s portrayals of uncertainty and social upheaval are likely to resonate with visitors to the expanded museum. (Emilio Parra Doiztua/The New York Times) By RACHEL CHAUNDLER The new facade of the Goya Museum in Zaragoza, Spain — which reopens Friday after an ambitious remodeling and extension — features 126 slabs of limestone engraved with stark images of firing squads, winged beasts,

Mikey Madison as Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as Jeff Horwitz in “The Social Reckoning” (2026). (Sony Pictures Releasing) By MAHOHLA DARGIS The most indelible image of Mark Zuckerberg isn’t of him wearing “pervert glasses.” It’s of the fictional Mark that closes “The Social Network,” the 2010 drama about the fraught creation of Facebook. By that point, Mark has turned friends into enemies, strangers into friends and is about to become the world’s youngest self-made b

By ASH WU The National Book Foundation announced the finalists for the 2026 National Book Awards on Tuesday across the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. Winners will be announced during a ceremony in New York on Nov. 18. The foundation will also honor novelist Salman Rushdie, who was grievously injured during a stabbing in 2022, with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and pediatrician, wr

Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director of “Digger,” a roiling satire about climate change, corporate overlords and propaganda that stars Tom Cruise as an unrepentant, larger-than-life oilman, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., Sept. 29, 2026. Iñárritu reflects on the ups, downs and risks in the making of the polarizing film. (Sinna Nasseri/The New York Times) By MELENA RYZIK “We have confused, in my point of view, reality with truth,” filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárri

Donna Summer performs at the taping of the VH1 special, “VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross” in New York, April 9, 2000. A new box set strives over seven CDs or 10 LPs to capture the musical breadth Summer spent much of her career trying to prove. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times) By STEVE KNOPPER The story of how Donna Summer’s heavy-breathing “Love to Love You Baby” expanded to 16 minutes, 48 seconds, is one of the classic yarns of the disco era. Neil Bogart loved th

Peppino Mazzullo and Topo Gigio in 1961 (Wikipedia) By KAJA ANDRIC Peppino Mazzullo, an Italian actor who for more than 40 years provided the endearing voice of floppy-eared mouse puppet Topo Gigio, a TV character beloved by children all over the world, died last Wednesday at his home in Santo Stefano di Briga, Sicily. He was 100. His death was confirmed by Matteo Arrigo, a journalist and family spokesperson. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mazzullo performed in

“Verity” (Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Releasing International) By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR Until this year, Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway had not appeared in a major studio film in nearly a decade. But when she returned, she did so in monumental fashion. Since April, Hathaway has starred in five major films, and after this past weekend’s success of “Verity,” she appears to be the first woman to have leading roles in three films that opened at No. 1 at the box office