Author: Laura Collins Hughes

City Opera Actively Courts The Black Audience

“There are relatively few operas that explore the African-American experience…. Perhaps partly as a result, opera is not a common entertainment choice among African-Americans. Even at City Opera, known as ‘the people’s opera’ because of its relatively low prices and focus on contemporary work, the audience is overwhelmingly white. City Opera, however, is making a three-pronged effort to change that.”

Enough With The “Icon” Already: Let’s Ditch The Word

“Memo to architects and your enablers: It’s time to put ‘icon’ to rest. The word should be banished from the world of design, and with it the notion that the worth of new buildings is measured by how much they stick out – vertically, stylistically, you name it. This doesn’t mean tall buildings are bad, or that startling looks are to be shunned in favor of architectural deja vu. But the idea that you grab attention by making people gawk? It is so 2002.”

Now Batting For David Halberstam: Didion, Hersh, Et Al.

“The command post is a set of Manhattan publishing offices, and the foot soldiers include Joan Didion, Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward, Anna Quindlen, Alex Kotlowitz, Paul Hendrickson, Samantha Power and Bill Walton. They are going on David Halberstam’s book tour for him. Five months after Mr. Halberstam’s death in a car accident on April 23, some of this celebrated journalist’s closest friends and colleagues will be banding together to cover different legs of a nationwide publicity tour for his final book.”

How Architecture Could Help Heal New Orleans

“In the two years since Hurricane Katrina, what has the rebuilding effort produced? … There have been only a handful of earnest, grass-roots proposals to preserve what’s left of the historic fabric. Amid this atmosphere of malaise, two recently announced projects for downtown New Orleans stand out as the first truly creative attempts to foster the city’s resurrection. The first, an extravagant proposal for a new New Orleans National Jazz Center and park by Morphosis, is the most significant work of architecture proposed in the city since the Superdome.”

Citing Shakespeare For Bush’s Purpose

“The Washington Post recently featured a column in praise of Shakespeare’s plays,” written by former Bush speechwriter and current Bush adviser Michael Gerson. “In a way, Shakespeare has hovered over this administration from the beginning. After the 2000 recount, plenty of us hoped – we really had no choice – that Bush would turn out to be Prince Hal in Henry IV, the layabout brat who, on succeeding to his father’s throne, finds the maturity to lead. His presidency has indeed turned out to be like Henry V, but in reverse.”

Where The Twain Do Meet: Theatre In Religious Spaces

“Churches and theaters have been at odds for most of the last 500 years. So why are so many Dallas theaters moving into churches?” Not, of course, that “theaters designed to bolster faith” are unusual. “What’s different about the current crop of church-housed theaters is that they aren’t specifically religious in their programming. You can now put on your Sunday best, go to church, and see a play that doesn’t preach.”

S.F.’s Planned Skyscraper: Good Or Bad? Discuss.

“Now this is exquisite timing: Barry Bonds’ 756th home run and the unveiling of rival designs for San Francisco’s tallest tower and a new transit station came just 28 hours apart. Voila! Bay Area residents have something new to debate in what otherwise would be the doggiest days of summer. … Does San Francisco really need a modernistic ‘icon’ as tall as the Empire State Building?”

Van Gogh Letters Deny Genius-Madness Link

“A new collection of Vincent van Gogh’s letters casts doubt on the popular notion that his mental illness was also the source of his artistic genius. A curator at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Leo Jansen, and two Dutch colleagues are working on a complete annotated edition of the artist’s more than 800 extant letters. The new edition will also include around 2,000 illustrations, artwork by van Gogh himself and by other artists that he refers to in his letters.”