Stage union members took over the Opéra Garnier yesterday as part of a long-running dispute over changes to pension entitlements. The occupation was, happily, peaceful.

If ever you want a sign of how out of touch the music biz can be, catch this upcoming Billboard award where the Italian pop-and-wouldbe-opera singer is categorised in antediluvian record shop terms.

Or do they think Andrea Bocelli sings in the language of the unreformed Church and ancient Rome?

A contemporary human tragedy from upstate New York. Danielle Conner-Willowglade, 30, admitted stealing instruments for several months and disposing of them at pawnshops. She was arrested in possession of a tuba. Her boyfriend was also charged. Full story here.

She hasn’t set foot on the road since 1979. And we haven’t got a day older.

Nice to see you back, Kate. But whatever happened to your record label?

The isolated president of the Minnesota Orchestra will leave in August, it was announced last night. His picture in the Star Tribune shows a man worn and weary by two years of incessant conflict in a situation that was not of his making. It is hard not to feel a twitch of sympathy.

Henson after. photo: Jerry Holt, Star-Tribune

Henson, then manager of the Bournemouth Orchestra in England, was signed in 2007 on a mission to renovate the hall and rationalise the finances after excessive spending by his predecessor. He raised $50 million for the first cause and fell heavily  to that conflict. He managed to alienate  not only the musicians but the media, the community and the wider industry in which he served. At times he seemed barely in control of the musician-free organisation he supposedly ran. He was accused of lying to the State Congress. His handling of the conflict will be taught for years in college as a negative object lesson in arts management.

His departure, however, is not the end of Minnesota’s woes, not even the beginning of the end. The local newspaper believes it could pave the way for the return of Osmo Vänskä as music director, but that is far from a foregone conclusion. Whether Vänskä’s return is in the orchestra’s best interests, or his own, is now a matter for more thoughtful reflection.

Henson before