The musicians say that, in contract negotiations, management has rejected any cost-of-living increases in pay. (Their salaries have been flat for the past four years.) The company’s season begins on Halloween with the world premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Minita Gandhi. – Minnesota Public Radio

The biggest driver of the BBC crisis is the cut in real-terms funding for its national, regional and local UK services. These are the services that largely account for licence payers’ willingness to pay the fee. The reduction in the real-terms funding of these services has been building up since 2010. – The Conversation

It is not yet clear what specific circumstances or events in the region contributed to the cancellation, which reportedly occurred without the input of the biennale’s curator, Noor Ahmed, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn’s cultural imprint, Images. – Hyperallergic

Well, so says librettist Royce Vavrek. The subject matter — Abraham Lincoln grieving his young son Willie, who is stuck in the place between death and rebirth — would seem grim. So Vavrek and composer Missy Mazzoli took care to include humor and even joy. – AP

The sudden onset of war shuttered commercial galleries in central Tehran, cancelled scheduled solo exhibitions, severed shipping channels and destroyed the fragile domestic market that allows creators to pay rent and sustain studio practices. – The Guardian

In an expected development, shareholders for both Fox Corp. and Roku voted to approve Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of the streaming-video platform company. – Variety

Actor Alan Mandell, who died at 98, helped shape Los Angeles theater as a performer, director, administrator and arts supporter whose influence stretched from experimental stages to the Mark Taper Forum. – Los Angeles Times

The management of Chichester Festival Theatre said in a statement, “We were deeply shocked that a member of the company of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the victim of an appallingly abusive attack, aggressively hounded and physically pursued through the centre of Chichester, … prior to the performance on Tuesday 13 October.” – WhatsOnStage (UK)

the stylistic choice to write in lowercase is a dead horse that’s been beaten, flogged, and beaten again—what my generation calls ran through. and yet, it’s having a moment. i had to investigate. – Wired

Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios

Rosalía left audiences in awe with her Saturday Night Live performance of “Reliquia” over the weekend, appearing to stand en pointe for nearly four minutes while singing. But ballet professionals aren’t convinced she pulled off the feat without some theatrical assistance. And, surprisingly, they don’t seem to mind. – Consequence

If a station’s broadcast license is owned by a public entity, including a state university, then government officials ultimately have power over the station. With the right having made public radio a political target, and with culture wars getting ever hotter, more officials have started using that power to interfere. – Columbia Journalism Review

The steps, known in Chinese as the “flash step”, “prodigal kicking the ball” and “black bear shaking fur,” took off from videos by professional dance instructors, and some people who are picking them up online (rather than in a class) are injuring themselves. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Other Desert Cities starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, and Allison Janney grossed $2.1 million in its first week, behind only long-running juggernauts Hamilton, Harry Potter and Lion King. Other hits include Billy Crystal’s 360, A Few Good Men starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, and Bowen Yang’s turn in Oh, Mary! – The Hollywood Reporter

Le Large is part of the Pointe des Arts, a €450 million cultural development (there are also a cinema, a hotel, and other amenities) on Île Seguin in the affluent inner suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. – ARTnews

Christophe Leribault says that improved security in the wake of the crown jewel robbery is not enough: leaking pipes, collapsing ceilings, and other problems with the deteriorating building could force the world’s most-visited museum to close to the public unless there’s an overhaul estimated to cost €700–800 million. – Euronews

“The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.” It would be the only Smithsonian museum outside metro DC or New York. – ARTnews

Along with Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, and Grace Bumbry, Arroyo was part of the first generation of Black singers to become opera stars on both sides of the Atlantic. A frequent guest on television talk shows, she was arguably the most personally beloved of the four. – The New York Times

The Muppet Show, which turned 50 last month, was made in England because Lew Grade, a British producer with an empty studio outside London, offered Jim Henson $125,000 for one episode, on condition he shoot there. Henson had two failed ABC pilots and a stalled CBS deal behind him (Variety).

Daniel Weiss, 69, became director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art a month after the board fired Sasha Suda; vice chair Osagie Imasogie says a search would have been “performative” (ARTnews).

In 1947 the Minneapolis Institute of Art paid $10,000 for a “King Chak Mool” later exposed as a forgery. The dealer, Earl Stendahl, also ran looted Mesoamerican objects into Los Angeles collections, according to a new Getty Research Institute book (Hyperallergic).

Quebec novelist Thélyson Orélien admits plagiarism in articles he wrote in 2012-14 but denies using AI for C’était ça ou mourir, which the Goncourt jury dropped on September 25 (The Canadian Press).

La Scala’s workers voted to strike on October 20, opening night of Gounod’s Faust, with one vote against among more than 450, over a 15 percent raise (Moto Perpetuo).

One Minnesota school pulled 80 books last year, including The Handmaid’s Tale, after the state outlawed book bans (Star Tribune). South Grand Prairie High School in Texas canceled Little Shop of Horrors because a girl was cast as Seymour (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

All of our stories below.

After the success of Sesame Street, Jim Henson badly wanted to make a his own show. But there were two failed pilots for ABC and development plans at CBS stalled. Things looked hopeless — until producer Lew Grade came along. (One perhaps-surprising fact: all five seasons of the show were shot in England.) – Variety

When we read her work, we come to understand her in part through her acts of self-discovery, how, not unlike Montaigne, she comes to know herself by reckoning with the ways in which she may have remained unknown to herself. – The Point

He has been fixing institutions for his entire career, from his very first job, at the Kennedy Center’s gift shop, to the Metropolitan Museum, which, when he became CEO, had issues not dissimilar to those at the PMA when he became director last year. So far, the staff appears to be happier. – ARTnews

The Stendahl Art Galleries were a key driver in the illegal looting, smuggling, and sale of these objects to its Los Angeles clientele. The Galleries’ archive is now housed at the Getty Research Institute (which published this book), allowing for a deep investigation into the shady dealings of an art dealer. – Hyperallergic