“Instead of consistently cooperating with the opera, the staging challenged it.” David Patrick Stearns considers William Kentridge’s Metropolitan Opera production of Lulu and Chas Rader-Shieber’s Curtis/Opera Philadelphia staging of Capriccio: “Too often, poetic ambiguity can seem like a smoke screen, insurance of sorts that if the operagoers are kept guessing, they won’t pass judgment.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Having Killed The Mass-Market Paperback Of ‘Mockingbird’, HarperCollins Will Discount Trade Paperback For Schools
“HarperCollins will offer a discount on its trade paperback of Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird through retail accounts that sell directly to schools. The announcement came days after the news broke that the cheaper, mass-market paperback edition, which is popular in schools, would be discontinued next month.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.16.16
Failure is an Option?
When conducting recent audience research with colleagues last year, we were stricken to hear from local teens that failure isn’t an option for them. With such a concentrated focus on … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-16
Who is Allowed to Fail?
A few weeks ago I helped one of our community chefs fill out a $5,000 loan application to kickstart his own business. I emphasized to him that his proposal would … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-16
Diversity and Genuine Engagement
In February Malesha Taylor posted “Is Your Theatre Only ‘Diverse and Inclusive’ Twice a Year?“, a meditation on diversity initiatives, outreach, and inclusiveness, on HowlRound. There were so many spot on observations it’s hard to … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-03-15
Critical Takeaways From The Taft’s Daubigny Show
“The puzzle I had was, how did an artist who grew up studying Rembrandt and observing the landscapes of Corot and Rousseau end up painting like an Impressionist?” That is Lynne Ambrosini, the director of collections … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-16
When Lloyd Met Shoemake
Yesterday’s post about Charles Lloyd’s birthday brought this communiqué from vibraharpist and pianist Charlie Shoemake. Thought you and your readers might get a chuckle out of this 1957 photo of Charles Lloyd and Charlie Shoemake … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-16
At 79, Charles Lloyd Is At A New Peak
This is a busy week for birthdays. We can’t observe them all, but yesterday Quincy Jones’s 83rd was a must, and today is saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd’s 78th. More or less coincidentally with his … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-15
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Four Questions For The New Head Of The National Book Foundation
Lisa Lucas: “I do think it matters that I come from outside of the publishing industry – it gives one a completely different perspective. It’s a boon to be able to learn from film, theater and publishing and to apply all these strengths to the task at hand. For instance, theater is incredible at audience development.”
Verbing Nouns: We All Do It, And Have Been Doing It For Centuries
“Some call it ‘verbing,’ which sounds like a new dance craze, while linguistic nerds call it denominalization. Benjamin Franklin preferred to call it ‘awkward and abominable’ … [but] Shakespeare was also quite the inveterate verber.” This very article, in fact, elbows its way through the controversy.
They Think They’ve Figured Out The Fungus That’s Mottling Leonardo Da Vinci’s Self-Portrait
“A red chalk sketch from around 1512 CE, long believed to be a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, has a glowering, bearded man’s face emerging from a swarm of brown spots. … New research may have identified the fungal culprit, which could assist in [the artwork’s] protection.”
Broadway’s ‘Wicked’ Breaks $1 Billion Barrier
“The long-running musical imagining the Wicked Witch of the West’s back story has just passed the $1 billion mark at the Broadway box office. The musical is one of only three shows ever to reach that milestone.”
European Museums Begin Turning To American-Style Philanthropy
“Governments in Europe are cutting back their support of museums, and so these museums are adapting the American model and increasingly are turning to private citizens and corporations for donations. They are looking both to their own citizens, and to Americans who are fond of certain major European museums.”
US Agents Seize Antiquities En Route To New York’s Asian Art Fair
“For the second time in a matter of days, federal agents on Tuesday seized what they described as an illicit antiquity, valued at several hundred thousand dollars, and scheduled to be sold during New York’s Asia Week.”
The Theater Of Violence And The Violence Of Theater (And Sports)
“The great virtue of ancient tragedy is that it allowed the Greeks to see their role in a history of violence and war that was to some extent of their own making. It also allowed them to imagine a suspension of that cycle of violence. … From the beginning to the end, Shakespeare’s drama is a meditation on political violence.”