“There is little in the way of a narrative arc – just a steadily growing pile of bodies. … There is no one to root for, but there is little to root against, and the play just gets subsumed in a not particularly interesting form of misery. … And yet however much I scorn Macbeth, I’ll keep going back.” Jane Howard explains why (and, in the process, gives a critic’s credo).
Author: Matthew Westphal
Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes: Hollywood Blames Review Website For Its Rotten Summer
Rotten Tomatoes has become the enemy for many studio bosses, writes Brooks Barnes: “Over lunch last month, the chief executive of a major movie company looked me in the eye and declared flatly that his mission was to destroy the review-aggregation site.” The site’s editors claim they love movies and movie fans and just want to help them. “How did a clunky website that has been around for 19 years amass such power?” Barnes explains how.
How Three Great Choreographers Set Work To Beethoven’s ‘Grosse Fuge’
Lucinda Childs, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Maguy Marin talk about their approaches to Beethoven’s strangest music.
This Out-Of-The-Way Keith Haring Mural Wasn’t Meant To Last 30 Years, But It Has
Haring painted We the Youth on the side of a South Philadelphia row house in 1987 after his first plan – to paint a city garbage truck – didn’t pan out. The mural faced a vacant lot, and both Haring and his sponsors always expected another house to be built on it eventually. Then, of course, Haring became famous, and the mural is still there.
Comparing The Costs Of Being An Emerging Artist In New York, Los Angeles, And Berlin
“To better understand how to get by as an emerging artist, Artsy spoke to 11 of them from New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin about their overhead costs, the tradeoffs they make, and the financial strategies they employ to stay afloat at the pivotal early stage of their careers.”
Opera And Symphony Audiences Used To Make Lots Of Noise – What Made Them Get So Quiet?
“When the first public opera houses were founded in the mid-17th century, they were designed more as venues for social interaction than as sites of aesthetic experience. … [Audiences] might perhaps listen to an aria, or watch the ballet (if there was one), but no more; and, if they did not like what they heard, they would make their displeasure known.” When and why did they quiet down? Historian Alexander Lee explains.
How A Little Indiana Company Town Became A Mecca Of Modernist Architecture
“Located 50 miles south of Indianapolis, Columbus owns dozens of architectural masterworks by internationally renowned designers from the era. Eliel and Eero Saarinen, and more than a handful of Pritzker Prize Laureates, including I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, and Robert Venturi, began developing projects there with sudden regularity in the mid-1950s.” Why were all these heavyweight architects making buildings there? Because of the owner of this company town’s company.
Salvador Dalí Is Not That Tarot-Card Reader’s Father, DNA Tests Show
“Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader and fortune teller from Girona, has spent the past 10 years trying to prove that she is the fruit of a liaison between her mother and Dalí in 1955. In June, a court in Madrid ordered the artist’s body to be exhumed after previous attempts to determine paternity had failed.” This attempt, alas for Ms. Abel, was definitive. (At least we know that Dalí’s mustache remains intact.)
Underwater Ruins Of Lost Roman City Discovered Off Tunisian Coast
“Neapolis is believed to have been submerged after a tsunami in the 4th century AD destroyed most of it, as recorded by Roman soldier and historian Ammien Marcellin. The natural disaster also badly damaged Alexandria in modern Egypt and the Greek island of Crete.”
Houston Ballet Will Begin Its Season In New Location
“Executive director Jim Nelson said the company will stage four performances of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling Sept. 22-24 (including two evening shows and two matinees) at the Hobby Center for the Arts’ Sarofim Hall. It also will stage two evening performances of its postponed ‘Poetry in Motion’ mixed repertory program there Oct. 26 and 27.”