Lydia Tár, Metrosexual Metronome

Lydia Tár is great at being Lydia Tár. This constant and controlled performance – she’s just finished a book called Tár on Tár – appears to exhilarate her while taking a toll, leaving her tired, calcified, blocked. She’s trying to compose, but we only see her at the piano, playing a note or two, staring into space, pursing her lips, getting up, making tea, wandering off, beginning again. Tár tells Gopnik that for her, discoveries only happen during rehearsal and never during performance. For all her disdain for her shallow juniors, she herself is somewhat robotlike.