The Best Classical Music Performances of March 2025

The New York Times’s classical music and opera critics see and hear much more than they review. Here is what has hooked them recently. Leave your own favorites in the comments. Nicole Scherzinger I would not have expected the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, Nicole Scherzinger, to convincingly portray a Hollywood has-been in … Read more

‘Pink Narcissus’: A Home Movie Both Abject and Erotic

As its title suggests, “Pink Narcissus” is something of a hothouse flower. A feature-length movie, shot over a period of seven years on eight-millimeter film and elaborate sets constructed in the filmmaker’s tiny Manhattan apartment, it’s also a labor of love — focusing largely on a single actor. Originally released anonymously, this homoerotic fantasia created … Read more

Getting Loud With Sleigh Bells and Beyond

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube 5. Big Black: “L Dopa” Steve Albini’s punk-electronic band Big Black revved up a relentless drum machine behind ferociously noisy guitars — a favorite Sleigh Bells tactic. The narrator of “L Dopa” is a patient with sleeping sickness, unwillingly awakened by the drug L Dopa — and … Read more

Film at Lincoln Center Chooses Daniel Battsek as Next President

Film at Lincoln Center, the nonprofit organization that programs the New York Film Festival, has named the British movie executive Daniel Battsek its next president. From 2016 until early 2024, Battsek, 66, was chairman of the British production company Film4, overseeing the financing of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) and “The Banshees of Inisherin” … Read more