“She was popular in Poland, which tends to make romantic heroes of poets, but she was little known abroad. Her poems were clear in topic and language, but her playfulness and tendency to invent words made her work hard to translate.”
Month: February 2012
An All-Black Waiting For Godot – What Does (What Can) It Mean?
“Of all the things the play has been interpreted as – a howl of existential angst, a rueful tribute to music hall, quite deliberately about nothing at all – how it relates to race remains an intriguing, and controversial, question.”
Britain’s Young Black Actors Should Go To America, Says Top British Black Actor
David Harewood, Birmingham-born star of US cable series Homeland: “Unfortunately there really aren’t that many roles for authoritative, strong, black characters in this country. We just don’t write those characters, that’s a fact. … I would encourage, particularly young, black actors, to get to America … as quickly as they can.”
Israeli Nationalist Group Campaigns Against Arab-Israeli Actor
Im Tzirtu, an organization created after the second Lebanon war which “acts to strengthen and promote Zionist values in Israel”, is running pickets and media protests against a Tel Aviv theater’s engagement (to play Bernarda Alba!) of Mohammed Bakri, who made a controversial 2002 movie about the Israeli Defence Forces’ actions in Lebanon’s Jenin refugee camp.
After 50 Years, Dictionary Of American Regional English Is Finished
“From whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived the Dictionary of American Regional English is finally about to reach the end of the alphabet. The fifth volume of the dictionary, covering ‘slab’ to ‘zydeco’, is out in March.”
Barcelona’s Liceu, Short Of Cash, To Close For Eight Weeks
With two successive years of major funding cuts and a deficit now estinated at €10 million, the Gran Teatre del Liceu will close down from March 20 to Apri 10 and again from June 5 to July 8. Seven programs have been cancelled, including two opera productions and a ballet.
Restored And Glittering, Bolshoi Theater Still Has Problems
“In the three months since its reopening” following a long and troubled $700 million renovation, “performers have criticised the renovation, audiences booed its operatic premiere and complained about ticket prices, two Bolshoi ballet stars decamped to a rival theatre and other dancers suffered injuries.”
Bolshoi Ballet Academy To See First U.S. Graduate
This spring, Joy Womack, a 17-year-old from California and Texas, becomes the first American to complete the famously rigorous training program that produces the Bolshoi’s Russian dancers. She says, “The technique and the artistry and the passion is something that is worth moving thousands of miles away.”
Patricia Neway, 92, Soprano Star Of Opera And Broadway Stages
For 15 years a principal at New York City Opera, Neway was particularly known for her work in contemporary operas. Her two most famous triumphs, both on Broadway, were as Magda Sorel in Menotti’s opera The Consul and as the Mother Superior in the original run of The Sound of Music.
Philadelphia Orchestra Expects Early Exit From Bankruptcy
Despite a 90-day extension of bankruptcy protection, orchestra management “expects a plan of reorganization to be filed with the court in February, with an exit from bankruptcy in late April or early May.”