“In many cities, theaters are encouraging potential patrons to subscribe to their 2016-17 seasons, even though Hamilton won’t arrive until the following season, with the promise that those who subscribe now – and then renew – will be guaranteed Hamilton tickets and can lock in their chosen subscription seats.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
New York City Ballet Dancer Promoted To Principal Right Before Curtain Goes Up
“Peter Martins, the ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet, loves to give his dancers happy surprises. On Tuesday evening, moments before the curtain rose on Hallelujah Junction, Mr. Martins’s brisk, galvanic work set to John Adams, he promoted Taylor Stanley, one of its leads, to principal dancer.”
SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti To Step Down
The 55-year-old conductor announced that he won’t renew his contract when it expires at the end of the 2017-2018 season. He said, “I want the company’s General Director Designate Matthew Shilvock to be able to move freely into the future.”
Arts Funding Bloodbath In Australia: 65 Orgs Lose All Federal Grants
“More than half the applicants failed to receive organisational support from the Australia Council’s four-year funding round, and 65 previously-funded organisations no longer have funding.”
Arts Funding Bloodbath In Australia: Grants For Individual Artists And Projects Fall By 70%
“The 70% reduction particularly hits artists such as writers and visual artists, who mostly work alone.
What Makes An American Essay ‘American’?
“The essay, in its American incarnation, is a direct outgrowth of the sermon: argumentative, insistent, not infrequently irritating. Americans, in my observation – and despite our fetish for the beauties of individuality and personal freedom – are always, however smilingly, trying to convince somebody, somewhere, of something, and our essayistic tradition bears this out.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.18.16
Artists and Relationship Building
There is a lot of work right now on building demand, value and interest in the contributions of art and artists to places, social change, economies and communities. This is the long overdue work … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-05-17
Is This How It Ends?
Tiffany Mills titled her latest work After the Feast, and the program note for its premiere during the annual La MaMa Moves! Festival asks the spectators to imagine: “an urban dystopia caused by vanishing resources.” In my mind, that includes … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-05-18
Art Museum Day’s Odd Couples: Corcoran/GWU, MASS MoCA/Crystal Bridges, Smithsonian/Hebrew University
In the provocative spirit of CultureGrrl, come join me, faithful art-lings, in an unconventional commemoration of Art Museum Day, spotlighting some unlikely pairings that have recently hit the news. Whether conceived in a spirit of … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-18
Recent Listening In Brief, Part 3: Strassmayer & Mondlak
Karolina Strassmayer & Drori Mondlak — Klaro!, Of Mystery and Beauty (Lilypad) From the drama of the album’s opening cymbal splashes to the fading piano notes at its end, alto saxophonist and flutist Strassmayer and drummer Mondlak … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-18
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The Insane Life Of America’s First Famous Nude Art Model
“‘That which is the immodesty of other women has been my virtue – my willingness that the world should gaze upon my figure unadorned,’ Audrey Munson, the favorite nude model of the Beaux Arts movement in the United States, once proclaimed. … Yet following those Gilded Age years as the ‘American Venus,’ she had a failed silent film career …, was caught in a murder scandal, attempted suicide by poison, and was ultimately committed to a mental institution.”
Opera Company Fusses To Editor About Review; Editor Kills Review, Says He Hates Reviews Anyway; Critic Quits; Opera Company Says ‘Don’t Blame Us’
The Canadian Opera Company says that all it wanted was two little corrections to Arthur Kaptainis’s review in the National Post of its current production, not for the review to be taken offline. Michael Vincent reviews the emails between the COC and the editor, and finds that things are not that simple.
‘This Isn’t A Condemnation, But A Challenge’ – Anne Midgette On The Canadian Opera/National Post Review-Spiking Affair
“What it shows is a waning understanding of, and tolerance for, not differences of opinion – those rage happily on in every paper’s Comments sections – but the role of criticism and the arts in a society where they have less dominance. [The National Post features editor] will be vilified in the arts community for his comments, but he’s right: newspaper reviews don’t do well online. This isn’t a condemnation, but a challenge.”