George Loomis on “Un ballo in maschera,” at the Paris Opera.

The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind,” by Michael Scott.

Music has long depended on its benefactors, including commissioners. Think of the three string quartets that make up Beethoven’s Op. 59. They’re known as the “Razumovsky Quartets,” because Count ...

Populism in the United States and Europe strikes many as an affront to decency and good government, but what prompted it? If a few populists such as New York’s Zohran Mamdani have emerged from the ...