“For 3½ years, Michael Heaston, 37, has been an artistic power behind the throne at the Washington National Opera, running the Domingo-Cafritz program and the American Opera Initiative … As of this month, he has started in an advisory capacity as executive director of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and will take over the position full time Aug. 29.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Compromises David Adjaye Had To Make To Get The National Museum Of African-American History And Culture Built
“Like so many things in Washington, it has been debated, refined and amended. In the process, it has become both a better and a worse building than the 2009 winning design concept presented by the team of Freelon Adjaye Bond.” Philip Kennicott gets into the details.
More Art On Rails: Paris-Versailles Suburban Trains Decked Out Louis XIV-Style
The new decor “feature[s] details such as bookcases, sconces, decorative wall and ceiling panels, and scenes from the sumptuous gardens” – all made and installed with a new specialized plastic film developed by 3M. The company has also partnered with the Musée d’Orsay to create Impressionism-themed cars for several intercity trains.
Is There No Accounting For Taste? The Complex Psychology Of Why People Like Things
Tom Vanderbilt, author of the new book You May Also Like, says that taste is partly “a way of filtering the world, of ordering information” and partly “another form of social learning” – but “always a mixture of exposure, of culture, of a person’s personality. And none of these are particularly static or fixed.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.16.16
This Week In Audience 05.15.16 – New Audience V. Old Audience Edition
A confluence of stories this week that rocket between new and old, digital and physical. Physical books making a comeback while e-book sales fall. Downloads collapsing as streaming takes hold. Transitions sure are messy … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-05-15
An Asterisk for Twombly Record* at Sotheby’s? Bloomberg Reports Payment by Art-Swap
When is an “auction record” not really an auction record? That’s a question that may be raised regarding a wobbly Twombly benchmark set at Sotheby’s last November. In her Bloomberg report on that auction house’s … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-16
Cattle And Kenny Dorham
A cycling expedition this morning found me in cattle country. As I pulled over to enjoy the bucolic scene, who should pop into my mind but Kenny Dorham. A native Texan who spent considerably more … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-16
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The Man Who Invented The Psychological Novel (He Was A Moralistic Prig)
“His self-serious moralizing and the ostentatiousness of his characters’ rectitude make Richardson difficult to embrace. Yet, unlike the more urbane and congenial Fielding, Richardson has a knack for psychological realism and an ability to craft characters whose clamorous inner lives continue, almost three centuries later, to feel real to us.”
Bend, Curtsy, Or Dip? Broadway Actors Talk About How They Bow
Laura Benanti, on when she was in the 2003 revival of Nine: “I’d scurry out onto the stage, tip my head for one second, then walk backward to my place in line and turn my face from the audience. Chita [Rivera] was like, ‘You look crazy.’ … She told me I needed to be in the tabletop position for three whole seconds. She’d stand in the wings during my bow and yell ‘One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand! Release!'”
Why Americans Tend To Discount The Role Of Sheer Luck In Success (And Get Furious When You Remind Them Of It)
“Part of the problem is hindsight bias, of course – hard work and merit constitute a tighter, more linear and straightforward story, and therefore one that’s easier to process cognitively. The other problem is that people tend to react very poorly to any ideas that chip away at their sense of who they are.”
Art At 200 MPH: Exhibitions On High-Speed Trains
Japan sets up an actual art gallery in one of its shikansen bullet trains, while France’s SNCF has partnered with the Musée d’Orsay and 3M to project images of Impressionist landscapes on the ceilings of select train cars.
Seeking Leonardo Da Vinci’s DNA (They Want To Sequence It)
“Anthropologists, art historians, geneticists, genealogists, microbiologists, and other researchers will collaborate on the project to uncover new physical evidence linked to da Vinci. The plan includes studying the microbiomes of da Vinci paintings and tracking the inventor’s descendants, both living and dead. … Researchers will also try to verify da Vinci’s fingerprints and search for them on his works.