Articles on Carmen

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Bad Bunny’s characteristic reggaeton rhythms are derived from “the tresillo,” a distinctive pattern created by two groups of three beats followed by a group of two beats. Bad Bunny at the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

How ‘catchy’ music is driven by rhythmic patterns

Catchy rhythms like the tresillo are examples of how our musical perception and preference negotiate between simplicity and complexity.
Cio-Cio-San (centre) during a dress rehearsal of Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney in 2019. Works such as this are attracting criticism from some modern audiences. Stephen Saphore/AAP

Opera is stuck in a racist, sexist past, while many in the audience have moved on

Opera companies around the world are grappling with an ever-widening gap between a repertoire frozen in time and an increasingly critical audience.

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