“‘There is a code of conduct for Cannes and it must be respected. Those who don’t respect the code will never come back to Cannes.’ The message is clear: obey the code and, yes, you may look upon the face of Indiana Jones. Break it and you will be cast out like Satan.”
Month: May 2012
A Banksy Goes Down The Drainpipe (Actually, It’s The Reverse)
“A Melbourne builder has inadvertently destroyed a valuable piece of street art by British graffiti artist Banksy, by drilling a hole through it to put in a bathroom pipe.”
What Charles Dutoit Meant For The Philadelphia Orchestra
As the Swiss maestro completes his four-year term as chief conductor, David Patrick Stearns observes that Dutoit’s decades-long relationship with the orchestra, his high standards and his reliable professionalism kept the Philadelphians sounding like one of the world’s great ensembles through the most unstable period in their history.
American Heresy: Death Of A Salesman Is ‘A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Mediocrity’
Giles Harvey: “I found myself squirming in my seat from boredom and exasperation, amazed at how much glaringly conventional stagecraft Salesman was able to pack into its two acts. The rising action, the dramatic irony, the laborious, grandstanding speeches … I kept wanting to exclaim, ‘It sounds like a play!'”
Salman Rushdie: ‘No Writer Ever Really Wants To Talk About Censorship’
In a post to help launch The New Yorker‘s expanded books blog, the most famously censored author of the 20th century reminds us (wittily) of all the things writers would rather talk about – and reminds us why we do need to discuss censorship every so often.
Australia’s Arts Funding Body Needs Major Reform: Report
“The Australia Council needs $21 million more in funding and should overhaul its grants application process to welcome emerging art forms, reversing the perceived prejudice towards big arts organisations such as theatres and opera companies.”
Watching Australia’s Performing Arts Companies Release Their Financials
“For those who take an interest, it’s a spectator sport. Watch the Sydney Symphony rebound with a $1 million surplus after a $1m loss two years before. And will the Australian Ballet, whose results are out this week, continue to pirouette above the line, or stumble into the red?”
A Tenor To Run Finland’s Top Opera Festival
“More Finnish soloists, the premiere of a new Finnish opera to mark the centenary year of Finnish independence in 2017, and another new Finnish opera already before that – these are some of the plans put forward by 53-year-old tenor Jorma Silvasti, who has been named to be the next artistic director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival.”
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Preserving Outdoor Murals?
“Art preservation is tricky even under ideal circumstances, which generally involve close controls for light, temperature, humidity and other hazards. Eliminate those and you have some idea of the challenge that street-mural preservation faces.”
Is Hollywood Wrong To Treat Dictators As Comic Figures?
“What is it with our obsession with satirising dictators? Was Aristotle correct when he suggested that the right genre for dramatising bad men is comedy not tragedy, or should it be beneath us to find power-crazed nutjobs funny?”