Matthew Westphal – Page 1019 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Janine Charrat, Ballerina And Choreographer Who Survived Burns, Dead At 93

“[She] stood apart from her generation in being both the only female ballet choreographer in France and the only leading French ballet choreographer not to have emerged from the Paris Opera academy. Jean Cocteau called her a ‘solitary wanderer who goes beyond the stars’.” Yet she was best known for the 1961 incident when, during a television taping, her costume caught fire and she was severely burned. She was back at work in four months.

NYC’s Big Cultural Institutions Still Depend On Telemarketing

With the advent of do-not-call lists and cell phones, concentrated marketing by telephone may seem like a thing of the past. But the likes of Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music continue to do it, and they say that it still pays off. Michael Cooper and Sophie Haigney look at the numbers and talk to some of the workers who’ve made the phone calls.

Orlando Ballet, Finally Stabilized, Is Ready To Move Ahead

“Two years after headlines screamed ‘Ballet in crisis’ – and the company was a hair’s-breadth from shutting its doors for good – the troupe has received coaching from arts turnaround expert Michael Kaiser, hired an executive director and rebuilt its board of directors. And after four years of travails that began when a mold infestation cost the ballet its longtime home, officials say it’s finally time to start moving forward.”

And Broadway’s Next Dolly Levi Will Be –

Bernadette Peters. She and Victor Garber, who’s replacing David Hyde Pierce in the role of Horace Vandergelder, begin performances on Jan. 20, a week after Bette Midler and Pierce leave the production.

New York Daily News Sold To Tronc For $1

“Tronc, the publisher of The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, announced on Monday that it had acquired The Daily News, the nearly 100-year-old tabloid that for decades set the city’s agenda with its gossip, sports and city coverage.”

Louvre Abu Dhabi Has (At Last!) An Official Opening Date

“The opening festivities, from 11 to 15 November, will be marked by cultural events and visits from museum directors from around the world. The café and the children’s museum will also be opened, but it will still take months before all the site’s facilities, which include a scientific center, are fully functional. The first exhibition, entitled ‘From One Louvre To Another’ and curated by Jean-Luc Martinez, will open on 22 December and will deal with the history of the Louvre in Paris.”

Big-Band Leader Larry Elgart Dead At 95

“He played alto sax in orchestras led by Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Red Norvo and Charlie Spivak, some of the biggest-name outfits of the day, and was an adventurous-minded player who also helped compose ballet scores and musical tone poems. … [He later] formed a popular big band with his older brother, Les, co-wrote the theme song to American Bandstand, and had his biggest hit album in 1982, a disco-pulsing medley of 1940s standards called Hooked on Swing.”

European Museum Chiefs To Discuss Returning West African Art Looted In 1897

The artworks were taken by British soldiers who were sacking the capital of the Kingdom of Benin; the art was then auctioned off to pay for the costs of the invasion in which they were taken, and most of the pieces ended up in museums in Berlin and London, where they gave European viewers their first glimpse of African art.

If A.I. Can Paint Pictures and Compose Music, Why Can’t It Tell Good Jokes?

As we’ve seen this summer, artificial intelligence software has written songs and created paintings that many listeners and viewers can’t distinguish from those made by humans. So why have the few attempts at A.I.-created comedy lagged behind> Turns out humor is a lot more complex than music or art.

Author: Matthew Westphal