“[A]fter years of negotiations proved fruitless, a planned London musical about the rags-to-riches game show contestant is now being developed without the participation of any of the film’s key creators, including director Danny Boyle and composer A.R. Rahman.”
Month: May 2012
Here’s One Major Critic Who Really Likes The New Barnes Foundation
Roberta Smith: “Against all odds, the museum that opens to the public on Saturday is still very much the old Barnes, only better. … And Barnes’s exuberant vision of art as a relatively egalitarian aggregate of the fine, the decorative and the functional comes across more clearly, justifying its perpetuation with a new force.”
The Essence Of Science, Explained In 63 Seconds
“Here it is, in a nutshell: The logic of science boiled down to one, essential idea. It comes from Richard Feynman, one of the great scientists of the 20th century, who wrote it on the blackboard during a class at Cornell in 1964.”
And Here’s Another Definition Of Science
“Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson may well be the Richard Feynman of our day, a ‘Great Explainer’ in his own right … In this short video, Tyson contributes a beautiful addition to this omnibus of notable definitions of science and explores subjects as diverse as the nature of originality and the future of artificial intelligence.”
Turkish Prime Minister Threatens To De-Fund Nation’s Theatres Over ‘Insult’ To His Daughter
“In a tale which could have come straight from the time of the sultans, when one wrong word could seal your fate, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is threatening to withdraw state support from the country’s theatres after his daughter said she was insulted by an actor during a play.”
The Next Finland? The Czech Republic Is Producing Crops Of Classical Stars
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, some exciting musicians have emerged from Prague and Brno, led by mezzo Magdalena Kozena, the Pavel Haas Quartet, and (more recently) the terrific Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704. And that’s just the first generation.
Meet The Father Of Chinese Rock ‘n’ Roll
Cui Jian, now 50, was trained as a classical trumpeter; he took up electric guitar and singing in the 1980s and became the People’s Republic’s first rock star. Awkwardly for his relations with the Communist Party, one of his biggest hits, “Nothing to My Name,” became the unnoficial anthem of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising.
Audra McDonald On Playing Gershwin’s Bess
“The last melody in the show, after an entire night of [Bess] singing and being raped and kicked and beaten and all of this stuff, is ‘Summertime,’ … And it freaks me out that after all this, I have to sound high and pretty and fresh. And I’m always holding onto that baby, going, ‘I know you’re just a doll, but help me.'”
Finding The Politics In Joan Miró’s Art
“Miró’s world of art was so special – with stars and moons, biomorphs and delightful dogs and sly monsters and wonderful color – that it has always been difficult to find much politics there.” It’s a matter of knowing where to look.
Andrew Davis Named Melbourne Symphony’s Chief Conductor
The 68-year-old Briton is currently “principal conductor at Lyric Opera of Chicago after having been one of the longest-serving chief conductors of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.” The MSO has lacked a chief conductor for three years, following the early and sudden departure of Oleg Caetani.