“[Robert] De Niro reunited with director Martin Scorsese, co-stars Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd and Harvey Keitel, screenwriter Paul Schrader, and producer Michael Phillips for an onstage chat moderated by the director of the New York Film Festival, Kent Jones. They talked about everything from how they came up with Bickle’s mohawk to Foster’s fear of hot pants and Keitel’s improvisations with a pimp. Then Vulture typed it all up for you.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Chaos At Bucharest’s National Opera House: Latest General Manager Lasted One Day, Performances Cancelled, Musicians And Dancers Split Into Factions
Last week, in an attempt to win back Johan Kobborg, the house ballet’s artistic director – along with his superstar fiancée, Alina Cojocaru, and all the company’s non-Romanian dancers – the culture minister brought back the former general manager whose replacement led to the crisis. But that general manager, George Călin, had been removed because of corruption charges; when he returned, the opera side of the house and the orchestra went on strike (shutting down ballet performances as well). Călin stepped down the next day, and the house has been leaderless since; the culture minister has tried to convince legendary Romanian-American stage director Andrei Serban to return to Bucharest and turn the company around, as he did with the National Theatre after the Ceaușescu regime fell. Now the pro- and anti-foreignerKobborg sides (which roughly but not entirely align with the ballet and opera sides) are bitterly hurling accusations at each other, with the deputy prime minister attempting to mediate. (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)
Johan Kobborg And Alina Cojocaru Barred From Entering Bucharest’s Opera House Unescorted
“In a letter dated April 25 that was sent to the Bucharest National Opera’s security department, Cojocaru, Kobborg” – who is supposed to have been reinstated as artistic director of the house’s ballet company – “and seven others can only enter if they are permanently supervised by security.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen Nails A Big Problem With Classical Music Marketing
“We have been so apologetic in this, what we call classical music, that we say: ‘You don’t have to know anything, you don’t have to have any background, you don’t have to have any frame of reference, just come with an open mind, and you’ll love it. It doesn’t quite work like that. Because if I go to an American football game not knowing anything about the rules – as, I have to admit, I don’t – it’s totally meaningless.”
Anna Netrebko Decides Not To Sing Norma After All, Leaving London And New York In The Lurch
New productions of Bellini’s Norma built around Netrebko were planned as season opening galas at Covent Garden this fall (her debut in the role) and the Met in the fall of 2017. However, she has announced, “I have come to the unfortunate conclusion my voice has evolved in a different direction.”
Freelance Arts Workers Occupy Ten Theatres In France, Including The Comédie-Française
Angry about impending changes to the country’s generous system of unemployment insurance for performers and backstage personnel between gigs, protesting intermittents du spectacle (as they’re called in France) have occupied the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris (where this set of protests began, and where performances of Racine’s Phèdre starring Isabelle Huppert have had to be cancelled). Demonstrators say they’ve also occupied the major state theatres in Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Rennes, Caen, Lille, Toulouse, Grenoble, and Montpellier. A disastrous string of protests over the same issue in the summer of 2003 devastated the nation’s summer festivals, causing cancellations even at Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. (in French; Google Translate version here)
The Award-Winning Radio Show Broadcast Live From A Women’s Prison
Palabra Libre (“Free Speech”) is “hosted and produced by female inmates from a studio inside the Center for Social Rehabilitation. The prison, which holds approximately 700 inmates, is in Latacunga, nestled close to Cotopaxi, the world’s most monitored volcano.”
A Flute That Plays Itself, From 9th-Century Baghdad
It was invented by three scholarly brothers named Banū Mūsā, and it has been reconstructed according to their treatise by a museum in Germany. (The brothers also invented an automatic hydraulic organ that could play with punch cards similar to player piano rolls.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.26.16
Relationships and Public Policy
by Karen Gahl-Mills
I had an interesting conversation with a smart colleague today, on the topic of the role of cultural organizations in civic affairs. We were talking about the current, polarized state of public discourse and what role, if any, arts organizations should play by bringing residents together to celebrate differences and share views. He asked something simple yet profound – “Yeah, but what if I just want to run my ballet company and dance? Can’t I just do that?” … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-04-26
Lookback: on being out of touch with pop culture
From 2006: I took a look yesterday at a list of the twelve top-grossing movies in North America. I’d heard of four of them: I read the novel on which Thank You for Smoking is … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-26
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The Tech Behind Bitcoin May Be About To Change Everything
Dominic Frisby explains blockchain technology – and argues that it will likely revolutionize not only cash purchases, but also document authentication, land title and ownership, contract law, and even elections.