His sleek designs are notoriously high maintenance, over budget, and prone to failure. Here’s a short list of his debacles. – D Magazine
Author: Douglas McLennan
Blackface Opera Controversy In Verona This Summer
Tamara Wilson: “Operas like Aïda and Turandot were written for and performed by white European singers in, what was at that time acceptable, theatrical makeup to make them appear African or Asian. In theatre history, the terms blackface and yellowface would be applied, but today, especially in the U.S., these terms also have historic racist connotations. It is more and more difficult for opera to navigate this line between depicting race versus negative stereotype because they are viewed differently depending on where you are in the world and the individuals in the audience.” – Forbes
Have We Stopped Opera From Evolving?
Imagine if Hollywood were to issue shot-for-shot remakes of D.W. Griffith’s gauzy history of the Ku Klux Klan, “The Birth of a Nation ,” every few years. Imagine Tom Hanks re-creating Mickey Rooney’s infamously slant-eyed Mr. Yunioshi in a new “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or Morgan Freeman cast in a live-action remake of Disney’s “Song of the South.” This is the reality of opera-house programming year after year. – Washington Post
125 Artists, Gallerists Protest Plans To Sell Off Di Rosa Foundation Collection In Napa
On Wednesday Robert Sain, the director of the di Rosa center, responded with a letter that repeated claims that the center did not have sufficient funds to maintain the collection. “It would … have been wonderful if additional donors beyond our board, membership, and strong base of supporters had responded to our fundraising efforts,” he wrote. The letter cites what it calls an “unfortunate” circumstance, “that we finally had to face the reckoning … or close our doors forever.” – San Francisco Chronicle
In A Parallel Universe, The Onion Imagines Football Programs Jealous Of Funding For Theatre
“I understand that this is a live-theater town. Parents move to this school district just to get their kids in front of a director to potentially get cast as Meg. The JV boys haven’t had new uniforms in 10 years and yet the school spends $250,000 on dance training for Newsies. Football has value—it’s an outlet for so many misunderstood kids, and to see it constantly pushed to the side like this is disheartening.” – The Onion
Just What Qualifies As A “Millennial Novel”?
“As any digital marketeer with their crosshairs on millennials will tell you, the way we “consume” culture has fragmented. Put in less depressing terms, we have a greater range of representative voices to choose from than in Brett Easton Ellis’s decadent brat-pack days. The aim of publishing now should be to widen that range further.” – The Guardian
Michael Feinstein On Championing Music
Feinstein has been unique in advocating for this music not only onstage and via albums but also through his books, PBS specials and NPR broadcasts, plus his Great American Songbook Foundation and eponymous cabarets and, of late, his work as principal pops conductor for the Pasadena Symphony. – Chicago Tribune
What The Music Presidential Candidates’ Play Says About Them
The music booms as people enter the rallies, and then candidates take the stage to a “walk-up” song that can become associated with their platforms. The New York Times analyzed playlists used by nine Democratic candidates and President Trump to see how they help set the tone for each campaign. – The New York Times
Study: Republicans Are Turning Against Higher Education
As the Pew Research Center finds in a new survey, there’s been a sharp increase in dissatisfaction with America’s colleges and universities among Republicans in recent years, and it makes perfect sense for right-of-center policy makers to want to do something about it. – The Atlantic
Study Of Violinists Debunks The 10,000-Hour-To-Mastery Rule
The work is the latest blow to the 10,000-hour rule, the idea promoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book, Outliers, which has been taken to mean that enough practice will make an expert of anyone. In the book, Gladwell states that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness”. – The Guardian