“[Terrence] Orr’s vision included growth for the entire organization. Ticket sales, PBT School enrollment and the organization’s physical footprint in the Strip District all increased while he was artistic director.” So did the size and range of the company’s repertoire (previously heavy on Balanchine), and Orr encouraged a number of company dancers to choreograph as well. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Author: Matthew Westphal
At Last, A Major Opera House Has Returned To Full-Scale Production
In Barcelona, they performed for plants. But at Madrid’s Teatro Real, it’s a real staging for a real (though smaller) audience. “The opening scenes of merriment have taken on a sombre tone, with the chorus clad in black and white and spaced exactly 2 metres apart. Minutes into the staging of La Traviata, the surgical masks come off, timed with the rising notes of an orchestra led by a conductor standing behind a plastic screen.” – The Guardian
‘Translationese’ — What Japan’s Most Important Modern Novelists Have In Common
Haruki Murakami famously wrote his first novel in English and then translated it into his mother tongue himself, resulting in a plainspoken, “neutral” (his word) style far removed from standard literary Japanese. Several critics referred to that style as “translationese.” Masatsugu Ono (both a translator and a novelist himself) makes the case that Murakami, Kenzaburo Oe, Yoko Tawada, Minae Mizumura all write in other languages and translate foreign literature into Japanese, and that this is what has made their work so distinctive. – The Paris Review
The presence of the absence
I don’t know how I’ve managed to survive the simultaneous losses of my beloved spouse and the art form to which I have devoted more than a decade and a half of my life. But I’m still here, and if Hilary’s death and the closing of America’s theaters didn’t kill me, then I figure I’m in it for the long haul. I hope you are, too. – Terry Teachout
Why NPR’s ‘Code Switch” Is Now Number One On The Podcast Charts
“It’s precisely because Code Switch has spent years interrogating the effects of race and identity on society that it’s the podcast many listeners are now turning to. Launched in 2016, Code Switch has a back catalog of episodes that are just as prescient today as they were when they were first recorded.” – The Hollywood Reporter
People Either Adore Or Despise The Rothko Chapel — Could Its Restoration Change The Haters’ Minds?
“The space, which features fourteen dark paintings by Rothko, is famous for being dim and moody. It’s a sensory deprivation chamber that also functions as a theological deprivation chamber.” For its “devotees,” it’s “a space that seems sacred for a post-religious world” and can induce truly spiritual experiences. Others, well, disagree: one artist called it “a place where art and life and imagination go to die” and one critic who loved Rothko’s work called it “at worst a well-designed crematorium.” But the artist committed suicide well before construction in Houston was complete, and it has never looked as he imagined it — until now, say those who’ve just spent $30 million fixing the place. – Texas Monthly
Freddy Cole, Jazz Great Who Came Out From His Famous Brother’s Shadow, Dead At 88
“With his charming, easeful baritone and a crisp, efficient touch at the piano, Cole carved out a professional career of more than 65 years. … Because of a familial resemblance in vocal timbre, and a fondness for some of the same material, Cole endured a lifetime of reflexive comparisons to his most famous sibling — Nat ‘King’ Cole, about a dozen years his senior.” – WBGO (Newark, NJ)
How Can A Full Orchestra Place Itself Onstage Safely While COVID’s Still Here? Tokyo Scientists And Musicians Have Been Figuring That Out
Conductor Kazushi Ono and the players of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra spent two days at the Bunka Kaikan concert hall in mid-June with researchers from a university and medical school in the Japanese capital. They experimented with various seating schemes, measuring aerosol spray from the musicians’ faces and working out how to balance hearing each other with keeping each other safe. Ono writes about the results. – Maestro Arts
Under New Director, Ballet San Antonio Will Go Ahead With New Season
“The coronavirus had barely arrived in Germany just before Sofiane Sylve was hired Feb. 1 as the new artistic advisor for Ballet San Antonio. Her experiences there in May with strict coronavirus protocols at the Dresden Semperoper Ballett, where she is principal dancer and ballet master, gave her insight into how BSA will adapt its teaching and performances to keep dancers and audiences safe.” – Rivard Report (San Antonio)
Kirill Serebrennikov Gets Three-Year Suspended Sentence In Controversial Embezzlement Case
“[The decision is] a surprise legal victory in a fraud case his supporters say was politically motivated and a test of artistic freedom in Russia. Suspended sentences are widely seen as the lightest punishment in Russia’s legal system, which rarely issues not-guilty verdicts. The sentencing was met with applause by the hundreds of supporters gathered outside.” – The Moscow Times