“Stave churches are wooden houses of worship that combine the austere, peaked architecture of Christianity with the Nordic designs and motifs of a Viking great hall. … Using the same woodworking prowess that made the Vikings such adept shipbuilders, traditional stave churches were often built using nothing more that expertly crafted joints and joins, with no nails or glue.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Livestock In Opera: A Brief History
The sheep currently thrilling New York audiences in Louis Andriessen’s De Materie are by no means the first farm animals to triumph on the lyric stage.
What Makes A Play Great? And Why Don’t We Revive More Great Plays?
Michael Feingold: “I had better try to explain what I mean by greatness. It isn’t simply a matter of choosing a big ponderous theme, and spouting a lot of abstractions that will make academics write learned articles about your work. Nor is it a matter of an old play’s having survived long enough to become a ‘classic,’ a term we use far too loosely.”
When We Do Revive Great Plays, Should The Stagings Deconstruct Them?
Michael Feingold: “One problem that New York has always had with greatness is that our mainstream theater is a commercial theater, and what’s great does not always make money: Sometimes, especially when it comes in a new form, the disruption it causes actively drives the pleasure-seeking, affluent crowds away.”
Starting New Libraries In The Villages Of Afghanistan
“The problem is that so much of the effort has focused on the cities. We have to start from the village. If this library was in the city, we would have 100 visitors a day. But to me, the five visitors in the village are more important than the 100 in the city.”
Magnificence Out Of Mud: Longwood Gardens, Halfway Through A Major Renovation
“‘It’s not too often that you get to see Versailles being built,’ Paul B. Redman, Longwood’s executive director, said as he took it all in from a high terrace in front of the Longwood Conservatory. ‘It will be a very Parisian park.'”
Big Gender Gap In Pay At UK’s Top Theatre Companies
“Among high earners – with salaries of more than £60,000 – male executives earn an average of £114,000 compared with £85,000 for their female counterparts. Findings also show that artistic and executive directors at top publicly funded theatres earn a median salary of £75,000.”
Imre Kertész, Nobel-Winning Author, Dead At 86
“As a Jew persecuted by the Nazis, and then a writer living under repressive Hungarian communist rule, Kertész endured some of the most acute suffering of the 20th century and wrote about it in both direct and delicate prose.”
Five New American Operas Telling American Stories
“Anew crop of commissions for U.S. opera houses are focusing on the home front, adapting works that are distinctly American in scope and are set in the country.” Commenters offer a few more candidates. (includes video clips)
Why Does The Met Opera Keep Rehiring Famous, Lackluster Stage Directors?
David McVicar. Bartlett Sher. Mary Zimmerman. Richard Eyre. Each of them, argues James Jorden, began their work at the Met with one (more or less) good production and then followed with productions that ranged from dull to disastrous. Why does Peter Gelb continue to engage them?