“‘Experimentation and emerging artists are part of our DNA,’ says Mikki Shepard, executive producer. ‘You say to yourself, ‘How do you build on your legacy, whether it’s with dance or theater – or opera?’ … And suddenly you have a broad palette of programming.'”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Apollo Theater And Opera Philadelphia Extend Collaboration
Charlie Parker’s Yardbird may be the Apollo’s first opera, bur it won’t be its last. Next up, in fall 2017: We Shall Not Be Moved by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, with choreographer Bill T. Jones directing.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.30.16
The platform problem
Apple, Inc. has done a(nother) clever thing. In the midst of helping its customers succeed in individual goals through its iPhone and iOS systems, the company has also built resources to help groups and individuals … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-03-30
Since We’re Voting, There’s This Artistic Conundrum
Lest you think I have no sense of fun from my last post, which chastised the Indianapolis Museum of Art for outsourcing its exhibition planning to the public, I thought I would mention an instance … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-30
Orwell’s Typewriter, Meet Wold’s Bar Stool
Yesterday’s blogpost, The Strange Case of Orwell’s Typewriter, elicited some interesting remarks, only some of which were posted to it. One sent to me privately came from the California artist Kurt Wold. After posting … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-03-30
Vacation Report And A Limerick
We spent our brief vacation in Santa Barbara, California, visiting our son. We slept, walked, hung out with friends and ate well. One of the walks was to the end of Stearns Wharf, a pier … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-30
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Watching ‘Batman V. Superman’ In 4D So You Don’t Have To (And It’s A Good Thing You Don’t)
“4DX purports to further immerse you in your film experience with these physical effects. Why simply watch Superman get rained on when you can get uncomfortably wet at the same time? Why just commiserate with Batman when he’s punched in the back by an evil henchman, when you can get punched in the back by your very own chair? Genius!”
Why Batman *Versus* Superman? Why Do Fans Want To See Them Fight?
“We want to see them fight because, to an unusual degree even for comic books, the fights mean something. That is, they are about something – or some things. Namely: how to make a better world, with Superman operating through hope and inspiration, and Batman through fear and intimidation. As the villain Lex Luthor puts it in the new movie, it’s ‘god versus man, day versus night.'”
The Bolshoi’s Backstage Wizards
“Whereas 240 years ago the Bolshoi company consisted of just 43 members. Now the theater’s staff numbers more than three thousand. Not just performing artists, [Bolshoi director Vladimir] Urin says, but ‘a whole army of skilled technical staff – stagehands, makeup artists, costume designers, and lighting technicians.'”
Ten Surprising Facts About The Bolshoi Theater
For instance, it was once owned by an Oxford mathematics professor, and at one point Stalin had to talk Lenin out of tearing it down.
A Brief History Of Ventriloquism (It Freaked Out The Ancient Greeks)
“You might not think of Lamb Chop, the adorable hand puppet that graced the appendage of world-famous ventriloquist Shari Lewis, or the impertinent wooden dummies operated by Edgar Bergan as having ancestors, but they do. One of them is a snake in a human mask. But let’s back up.”
Could Animals Experience Spirituality?
“If we encountered a group of humans who returned to the same trees over and over and performed the same inexplicable action near them and didn’t seem to have any practical reason to do so, there would be lots of people who would interpret it through the prism of religion.”
Our Algorithm Will Find Which Manuscripts Will Be Bestsellers, We Promise
“Inkitt is marketed as ‘the world’s first data-driven publisher’. The company has built an artificially intelligent algorithm that analyses users’ reading patterns to predict future bestsellers. Once a future bestseller is found, Inkitt works with publishing houses to get these novels to print.”