The dancer is Marcelo Gomes, who resigned from American Ballet Theater in December of 2017. Sarasota Ballet’s artistic director, Iain Webb, only wanted to talk about the former principal’s artistry. “Asked whether he had discussed the allegation against Mr. Gomes, he replied: ‘We didn’t go into the details. Whatever’s gone on, it hasn’t been made public, and he didn’t need to tell me.'”
Month: July 2018
The Woman Who Turned The LA Children’s Chorus Into A Powerhouse Is Stepping Down
Anne Tomlinson has been at the helm for 22 years, taking the chorus numbers from 100 to 450 and from three ensembles to six. Though she’s firm with the kids at rehearsal, “it is quite clear that plenty of fun is being had. The fun, however, is in the execution of the craft. And craft is elevated above all else.”
New York’s Music Scene Suffers As The Frick Museum Expands
Anthony Tommasini: “For 80 years, New York audiences — and critics, including me — have felt as much affection for the Frick’s music room as the artists who have performed there, even ones of international renown. It truly is the closest thing to a 19th-century music salon this city has to offer. But the beloved room is, sadly, now on borrowed time.”
Can British Film Move Into The Modern Era, Or At Least The 1960s?
The bullseye is the 1940s, of course. Why? The audience. “What’s been bubbling for a while, probably since The Iron Lady and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel came out [in early 2012], is the conviction that the most reliable cinema-going audience are the over-50s. And a period movie falls into the category of films that audience will go to see.”
Movie Stars In China Take A Government-Mandated Pay Cut
Actually it’s a pay cap – the Chinese government says it’s necessary to prevent tax dodges and also to curb “excessive paychecks and waste.” Top actors are not exactly thrilled.
Long Live The Trashy Summer Read
Sure, there’s a place for the literary work we all read in the winters. But “sometimes, in place of a two-page long vivid description of a wooded area or a contemplative soliloquy, all you really want — nay, all you really need — is simplicity. In summer— when one is most consumed by a uniquely ceaseless craving, for a good story, a delicious meal, skin against skin; when patience for artifice is low and the thirst for a fast and painless escape is high — this is particularly true.”
Three Orchestras, Three Conductors, 109 Players, And One Just Slightly Ambitious Symphony
When you want to perform Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Gruppen” in the Tate Modern, and you really, really, don’t want the three orchestras to fall out of sync, you have to take rather a lot of meetings. The three conductors: “Pencils in hand, they laid out their scores on a table and mimicked their orchestras’ parts in a cacophony of hummed notes, whoops, grunts, bleats and birdlike sounds — and every once in a while, in unison, a triumphant’Bang!'”
What Does The Met Museum’s New ‘Social Practice’ Initiative Mean For The Artists It Supports?
One of the artists: “Part of me has always thought of the Met, as an institution that is very traditional, Eurocentric, very much one of the elite/elitist institutions in the city, and it holds up that history. It has for a very long time. I think that is dramatically shifting right now.”
Helping Netflix Yield Up Its ‘International’ Gems
The streaming behemoth has quite the foreign film library. It takes a little work to find the films, but they’re worth it for most tastes: “The sheer amount of material may be the most impressive thing about the category. And for a mainstream platform like Netflix, international doesn’t mean art house.”
The Pre-‘Hamilton’ History Of History Musicals (And Operas)
Here’s a journey that starts 100 years ago: “A remarkable centennial few are paying attention to is the premiere of the first meaningful American opera to have any real national success: The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Charles Wakefield Cadman’s ‘Shanewis (or The Robin Woman).’ The 1918 opera is about a Native American singer who leaves her reservation in Oklahoma to study voice with a Santa Monica socialite at a ‘bungalow by the sea’ (I’m not making this up).”