Peter Paul Rubens: Loves in Art and Matrimony
Rubens's paintings employ bravura brushstrokes, dynamic movement, rich color, and dramatic lighting effects. They commemorate heroic stories from mythology, venerate Catholic iconography, and portray royals from throughout Europe.
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Buzz Feed
2 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
15 People Who Had Celebrity Or Rich Classmates
We recently wrote a post where people who went to school with celebrities and the ultra-rich revealed what it was like, and the stories were absolutely wild. In the comments, more readers revealed their experiences with wealthy (or famous) classmates, and it's fascinating. Here's what they had to say: "I went to multiple exclusive private schools in the LA area, and there were multiple celebrities and children of celebrities who attended. The most prominent one that comes to mind is when I was in the same class as Emma Roberts in fifth and sixth grade. She was out of school for a few months because she was filming Blow. She was a really nice girl and well-liked overall." "I went to a private high school with a member of the Kennedy family. This person was quite literally high all of the time, reeked of weed, rarely went to class, and broke every single code of conduct rule. Anyone else would have been expelled. It was tough for the rest of us who were highly motivated, hardworking, and just trying to make the most of the opportunity our education could give us." "I met a guy the first week of college who said he was still living with his parents. 'Doesn't that kind of cramp your style?' I asked. 'We have a big house,' he shrugged. It turned out that his father was a billionaire. He was fairly low-key about it, although he bought a new Mercedes every year." "I went to an international school in Asia for high school where the tuition was around $50,000 a year, so most of the kids were wildly rich (or, like me, had parents with jobs at embassies or companies that paid directly for their children's tuition). The kids I went to school with were generally the worst. I once overheard a guy complaining that he had to use all his 'spending money' to fix a table he had jumped on and broken while drunk. This was at a villa in Thailand that his parents had rented and paid for him to fly to for spring break. His spending money was like $3,000 (USD)." "I went to high school with someone who was in the NFL. He's retired now. He was super sweet. I was a freshman when he was a senior. I had my nose in a book, carrying more while walking down the hallway, and LITERALLY ran into him. I thought I hit a wall or a door. The force knocked me down, and all the books I held were scattered. He apologized to ME and immediately bent down to help me gather my books and help me up." "I grew up in a town with many wealthy families, so the public school was almost as snooty as a private school. We also had two private schools in the town. All the kids from one of the private schools looked at us 'townies' like we were dirt. They had uber-wealthy and famous people's rich kids. The other private school was full of rich, genius kids who were generally much nicer. My school was looked down on if you didn't have the newest fashion." "I went to an all-girls Catholic boarding school where some were rich and the others worked on campus to pay their tuition. I was the latter. There was a girl whose father gifted her a Bentley convertible on her 16th birthday. She totaled it within a couple of months, so he bought her another one. This continued until she was on her fifth-plus Bentley, so her dad just arranged to have a private driver ready for her at all times." "In my freshman year of college, there was a geography course taught in a big lecture hall. The TAs would have a few classes of 10–20 each, and I sat in the front of the class, but I noticed a classmate behind and across from me who was being asked for autographs and quietly signing a few for other students. I didn't recognize him, but I realized that he might have been a basketball or football player (this was a Division A school)." "Went to high school with someone who became a bona fide supermodel and married into royalty. In school, she was kind, quiet, and nerdy. She did well in class and was very, very low-key (came from a middle-class family). Great things happened to a great person; no notes." "In the '70s, my mom attended a prestigious private high school in Los Angeles, but was given scholarship funds to attend. We have a family story: My mom started wearing a UCSD sweatshirt after visiting her sister at UC San Diego. She lost it, and the next day, she saw it being worn by Jamie Lee Curtis!" "My bestie is actually pretty rich. She would never act like it, except when we go to the mall together, and she buys, like, 10 different things from Lululemon that all cost $100. Her house is huge, but she is the sweetest person alive." "My high school was one of the top 10 in income and testing in the country. Still, many kids went to private schools nearby in the same suburb. The wealthiest families bought real estate, books, and art — stuff that could be passed down to future generations — and made donations to cultural and religious entities, often anonymously. Many of the kids who had cars worked for them, usually at family businesses during the summer. None had office jobs or were made supervisors. They sweated and appreciated how money was made." "One time in high school, the son of a representative locked a substitute teacher out of the classroom. Then, he climbed out the window to play soccer on the roof with the rest of the class. The sub spent the whole class period knocking on the classroom door, but no one let her in because they were all on the roof messing around. The representative's son was the ring leader of that incident." "I don't come from a super wealthy area, but some families here were able to grow their wealth or have generational wealth. Of course, one of the biggest indicators of wealth here is what kind of car you drive, especially when you're a teenager. You could always tell whose parents had a lot of money by what car the kid drove to school. There was one kid I remember: He was two grades below me and drove a brand-new Ford F-350 — diesel, long bed, extended cab — probably one of the biggest trucks on the market at the time. It was lifted and had aftermarket wheels on it. Honestly, it was ridiculous and stood out in the parking lot like a sore thumb. This kid was obnoxious, always yelling in the hallways, either at his friends or the school staff, taking up four parking spots at a time, or whipping donuts in the back of the parking lot." And finally... "My family isn't particularly wealthy, but my siblings and I all went to private school for at least a few years and brushed elbows with some exceedingly rich people. One family was redoing their house (by knocking it down and restarting from scratch), but instead of renting another place to live like normal people, they bought a nearby house to live in for the year, then sold it for a profit when their original construction was completed. Another family bought all three houses on a cul-de-sac, knocked them down, and built a giant mansion across all three properties. My brother had a kid in his grade whose family is obscenely wealthy. For his 13th birthday, he had a huge party with monogrammed barstools and personalized duffel bags as party favors." Honestly, wow. If you went to high school or college with the wealthy or famous, what was your experience like? Tell us in the comments, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can use the form below.
New York Post
8 hours ago
- New York Post
Fashion model learning to be a man after being pushed to transition at age 15: ‘I was really crazy on the hormones'
In Catholic churches across Manhattan and Brooklyn, Salomé captivated the congregation, uplifting the faithful with her soulful singing and skilled organ playing. The New York Archdiocese Organist Training Program enrollee's musical gifts had her booking gigs across the city. But for years, Salomé's bashful smile and angelic voice concealed a secret — one not even known in the shadows of the confessional. She was a he; Salomé was born Miles. His story is one that's becoming all too familiar: A child with unconventional interests, swayed by strange ideologies on the Internet, is hustled by doctors into a life of medical dependency — only to find himself questioning everything years later. 8 Miles Yardley, aka Salome Evangelista, walks the runway at New York Fashion Week in 2023. Getty Images 'They very quickly put me on hormones without really any discernment. Looking back, if I were a doctor, I would think this is a much larger decision than the kid thinks that it is,' he tells The Post. Miles Yardley, as his female persona Salomé, arrived in the Big Apple in 2022 from his native Pennsylvania. He (then she) quickly became the toast of New York's downtown fashion scene. Yardley signed a modeling contract, was featured in a Marc Jacobs perfume ad shot by famed photographer Juergen Teller, exhibited for Enfants Riches Déprimés, and strutted Fashion Week runways for designers Batsheva and Elena Velez — all while singing in parishes and mentoring Catholic schoolchildren in music. Soon Yardley was a regular bohemian socialite, a fixture on podcasts, even flown to Romania to meet the Tate brothers, with virtually everyone unaware of Salomé's secret. 8 Yardley signed a modeling contract soon after moving to NYC in 2022. @DollPariah/X But a deepening Catholic faith and a medical scare led Yardley to question how he'd been living his life. Just as quickly as he'd burst onto the scene, early this year Yardley gave it all up and ditched Manhattan's trendy underbelly for a fresh start in sunny California. 'I had to move to LA to detransition because I was like, I don't want to have this conversation with people. I don't want to tell the people hiring me or the parents of the students that I teach that I'm actually a man. I just couldn't deal with that,' Yardley, now 27, tells The Post from his new home in Los Angeles. At 15, Yardley found himself a patient in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's gender clinic. He'd been late to start puberty and had interests in singing and dancing. Classmates began to ask if he was gay or a girl. He'd never heard of transgenderism. 'I had not questioned my own identity before other people started asking me questions and putting that on me,' he says. After only his second appointment, a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia doctor put Yardley on androgen blockers and later estrogen therapy, calling him 'the perfect example' of a transgender child. 8 Yardley left NYC for California to detransition. 'I was like, I don't want to have this conversation with people. I don't want to tell the people hiring me or the parents of the students that I teach that I'm actually a man. I just couldn't deal with that,' Yardley told The Post. John Chapple for NY Post 'I thought that there would be less social friction for me if I looked like a female because so many people were assuming me to be that way. And I was not super comfortable with people assuming I was gay,' Yardley says. For many years, everything seemed fine. He graduated from high school, taught music at a West Philadelphia Catholic school, and enrolled in Temple University to study music. In fact, he felt that being transgender gave him an edge. As a singer, his voice remained a soprano. He then met an in-crowder from New York who persuaded him to move to the city and pursue modeling — 'but only if you lose 20 pounds.' 'I think I benefited from the [trans] identity in terms of being a model, being a socialite, a party attendee in New York City, and it was a cool, cosmopolitan, artistic thing to be doing with your body,' Yardley says. 'I had entered a different world, where everyone thought I was really cool.' In April 2024, Yardley was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma — a type of brain tumor — and has hypothyroidism. Both conditions have suspected links to hormone therapy. 8 A 15-year-old Yardley was put on androgen blockers after just two visits to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's now suing the hospital for malpractice. JHVEPhoto – At the same time, Yardley was becoming closer to people at his church, which he found a welcome reprieve from the cattiness of couture life. 'I realized that I'm hurting myself. I'm poisoning myself. I'm sterilizing myself. The normal things that bring meaning to normal people's lives I'm shut off from because I can't have children in this state. I can't do the normal things that bring normal people meaning,' Yardley says of the moment he began to question the experts and trans ideology. 'When you're 15, you think, 'Well, I'm a weird person. I don't need to worry about that.' The long-term consequences were unimaginable to me.' Since quitting estrogen in January, he's come to recognize other negative side effects. 'I was really crazy on the hormones,' he said. 'I was mentally unstable and cognitively impaired. And generally fatigued, tired, not strong at all in ways that I'm only now coming to really understand.' 8 A deepening Catholic faith and medical issues led Yardley to question his transition. John Chapple for NY Post Yet the path has been a solitary one. The medical establishment abandoned Yardley on this new journey to live authentically. While doctors were all too eager to put him on life-changing medications, there's no protocol for what to do if a patient stops treatment. When that happens, doctors seem to simply lose interest. 'I've asked multiple doctors for advice, and they don't know what to do,' Yardley says on stopping hormone treatment, a process that 'makes you feel [physically] awful. It's been difficult.' 'They just say, 'You should ask someone else.' At a certain point, how many other people can I ask before I just figure it out on my own?' Even before President Trump's second term — in which the backlash against childhood gender transitioning has been swift and damning — the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Australian state of Queensland had moved to ban or restrict puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.x In a landmark June ruling, the US Supreme Court upheld a state ban on so-called gender-affirming care for minors. This month, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into more than 20 doctors and gender clinics for minors. The nation's largest youth-gender clinic, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, closed up shop Tuesday, citing the Trump administration. 8 In April 2024, Yardley was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma — a type of brain tumor. He also has hypothyroidism. Both conditions have suspected links to hormone therapy. @DollPariah/X The White House also just announced it will cut federal funding for hospitals that provide minors with gender-transition procedures. Yardley has joined the fight, although he's never thought much of himself as an activist. He's suing the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for medical malpractice. Yardley's hair is now cut short and dyed a brassy blond. He says both old friends and strangers are sometimes confused about how to address him — a problem he never had when he lived as Salomé. 'I've tried to enter the men's restroom a few times, where someone was like, 'Hey! The women's room's over there!' ' he says. 'It was super awkward. Nobody ever redirected me as a woman.' He doesn't know yet if his medicalized youth has rendered him permanently sterile. But it's not all gloom. 8 Yardley says doctors have been of little help as he's detransitioned and stopped taking hormones. John Chapple for NY Post At his new home, Yardley has started a band, Pariah the Doll (he's calling the debut album 'Castrato'), and launched a clothing line, Eunuch for the Kingdom. He'd like to meet a nice Catholic girl and settle down — but he's also preparing for a life of celibacy, should it come to that. 'Having spent 10 years in the female role, I don't really know how to be a man. That's a scary jump for me,' Yardley tells The Post. Still, he holds no ill-will toward those who set him off on this course — and that includes his own mother. 'I wouldn't even say that she was supportive of it. It was just, like most parents, she trusted doctors because if you are a boomer, like she is, you have no reason to distrust doctors. Their legitimacy is pretty firm in your mind as someone of that generation. So I don't blame her.' 8 A bright spot in Yardley's new life has been starting a band called Pariah the Doll. The debut album is 'Castrato.' Spotify As for those doctors, Yardley is surprisingly merciful. 'I don't believe, as a Christian, that people are setting out to do evil for evil's sake. I don't think anyone has that in their heart,' he said. 'But I think it has a lot to do with an overreach of professionals and a lot to do with money. Hospitals make a lot of money from these procedures. They benefit from having lifelong patients, which is what transgender people are. You need the hormones to maintain the identity.' If he could go back, would he change any of it? 'There's no way to live your life without making mistakes or going down the wrong path,' Yardley says. 'My life would be totally different if I made different decisions at 15 years old, so I can't really conceive of a different path. I don't live in a regret state. In many ways, I'm extraordinary lucky.' He does, however, wish that doctors would learn to be more open-minded. 'If you're a gender-nonconforming kid, you should be allowed to be yourself. I think that was the biggest problem. I didn't feel like I could be confident in who I was. And if that person happens to like singing and dancing and cooking and Barbie dolls, who really cares? You can be a boy who likes that,' Yardley says. 'At the time, nobody in my life told me that was possible.'
Hamilton Spectator
2 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Will Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo revives Verdi's ‘Macbeth' with period instruments
NEW YORK (AP) — Verdi can be played on original instruments, too. While historically informed performances of Baroque music are not surprising, Will Crutchfield and Teatro Nuovo are using period pieces for the rarely heard initial version of 'Macbeth.' 'You wouldn't think that architecture from the mid-19th century would resemble the architecture of today,' cellist Hilary Metzger said. 'The instruments and the way they had to make music back then were very different.' 'Macbeth' and Bellini's 'La Sonnambula' were presented by Teatro Nuovo last weekend at Montclair State's Kasser Theater in New Jersey and repeated this week at New York City Center. 'La Sonnambula' will be performed Thursday. 'I feel like I'm in Scotland,' said soprano Alexandra Loutsion, the Lady Macbeth. 'Modern instruments have a sharpness to them and a pristine quality that period instruments don't.' Crutchfield, 68, was a music critic for The New York Times in the 1980s. He established Bel Canto at Caramoor in Katonah, New York, in 1997, then launched Teatro Nuovo as general and artistic director in 2018, showcasing scholarship and furnishing foundations for singers. 'I got bitten with the bug of historical recordings, and I realized very early on, oh, we think are doing traditional Italian opera nowadays but really what we call traditional means the 1950s,' he said. 'What they were doing in the 1900s was totally different, radically just night and day different from the 1950s. ... and that just made me really curious. OK, if it was that different in 1910, what was happening in 1880, what was happening 1860?' Verdi emerged from Bel Canto era Crutchfield noted Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi all were born from 1792 to 1813, and early Verdi is in the Bel Canto manner. 'The only reason we think of Verdi as belonging to another era is because he was still composing in his 80s and writing masterpieces after the others were long gone from the scene,' Crutchfield said. 'He is based on the same tradition. He learned his craft from hearing their operas.' 'Macbeth' premiered at Florence's Teatro della Pergola in 1847, just before Verdi's middle-period masterpieces. Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave revised it for a run at Paris' Théâtre Lyrique in 1865 that was performed in French. The latter version, translated into Italian for Milan's Teatro alla Scala later that year, is the most common score used. Jakob Lehmann conducted the original version from the University of Chicago/Casa Ricordi critical edition. At Wednesday night's performance, Loutsion sang a high-octane 'Trionfai! Securi alfine,' a coloratura showpiece that Verdi replaced with the more dramatic 'La luce langue,' and baritone Ricardo José Rivera was menacing and mellifluous in 'Vada in fiamme,' which ended the third act and was dropped in 1865 for a duet between the Macbeths. 'The lady is a bit more unhinged in this one,' Loutsion said. 'It's basically about how she's gotten everything that she wants and she's triumphed, and nothing's going to stop them now.' Orchestra seated in early 19th century arrangement First violins were seated with backs toward the audience, facing the second violins, whose backs were to the stage. Cellos, double basses and brass were split on sides of the woodwinds in a seating Crutchfield adopted from Naples' Teatro San Carlo. 'Back in Verdi's day, the first violins were the teachers and the second violins were their students,' Metzger said. Double basses have three strings instead of four, string instruments use gut instead of metal, woodwinds are made of wood and brass have no valves. 'There's a certain clarity to it and there's a certain specificity,' chorus master Derrick Goff said. 'The English horn and the oboe sound even more plaintive to me. You can really hear the way that the composers had to write very specifically for those instruments.' An orchestra of about 53 was used for 'Macbeth' and 47 for 'Sonnambula,' accompanied by a chorus of 28, and the pitch was lower than used by modern orchestras. Men in the cast wore mostly tuxedos and women were dressed in black on a stage with a screen showing projections. Majority of money comes from donors, not ticket sales Two performances of each opera cost a total of about $1.4 million, according to general manager Cindy Marino. Ticket sales generate roughly $160,000, with the remainder raised from donors. 'We obviously want bigger choruses. We want a little bit larger orchestra,' Marino said, 'but we know financially we are trying to take it easy on increasing what we need to raise and not just jumping half a million dollars in order to grow the company.' Orchestra rehearsals started about four weeks out. The cast worked intensively on the period techniques. 'Now that I'm leaving here, I feel like I have a whole other color palette,' Loutsion said. 'The luxury of being able to dig in and all of us nerd out is awesome.'
