One of the most controversial acts in the ever-controversial life of Dmitri Shostakovich was his tortured decision in 1960 to join the Communist Party. It is not mentioned in Testimony (1979) – the composer’s influential memoirs, collaboratively written with Solomon Volkov. But Volkov offered his own view, for the first time, in a Zoom chat the other day produced by PostClassical Ensemble. – Joseph Horowitz
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Technology is Shaping Opera
Opera America had asked me to speak at their annual conference this year, but of course the conference was canceled and moved online. So I made this video for the online conference, talking about the influence of technology on opera and how audience expectations evolve as they use technology. – Douglas McLennan
Pornhub Offers To Help Save Germany’s Equivalent Of Sundance
“Digital juggernaut Pornhub has offered itself as a streaming partner to Germany’s Oldenburg Film Festival, a 26-year-old indie movie event known for edgy programming and quirky celebrity tributes. The offer … comes nearly a week after the festival announced it will forge ahead as planned for a September run [with] a combination of physical and virtual screenings. The move is yet another recent sign of Pornhub’s seriousness about participating in mainstream cinema.” – Variety
Joel Kupperman, Most Famous Of 1940s ‘Quiz Kids’, Dead Of COVID At 83
“For about 10 years, between the era of Shirley Temple in the 1930s and before Jerry Mathers appeared on TV’s Leave It to Beaver in the late 1950s, Joel Kupperman may have been the most famous child in America. From 1942 to 1952, he appeared almost every week on Quiz Kids, … [where] he would put on a scholar’s cap and gown and, with a panel of other genius-level children from Chicago, answer questions about mathematics, science, history, music, literature, sports and current events.” The experience was so painful that, as an adult, he refused to speak of it in any way. – The Washington Post
New Music Written Expressly For The Pandemic
Violinist Jennifer Koh has been commissioning more than 40 pieces for herself to play unaccompanied on her weekly Facebook Live show. So are other musicians and organizations, from the New Jersey Symphony to the Guggenheim. “Taken together,” writs David Patrick Stearns, “these direct artistic responses are the classical soundscape of the pandemic. The keep-your-spirits-up message that circulated early on in the classical music community has given way to something darker.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
It Could Be Two Years Until Choirs Can Safely Sing Together Again, And Choral Singers Are Devastated
The moisture that comes out of singers’ mouths and into the air that their fellow singers are breathing seems to be a very efficient way of transmitting coronavirus, as several cases of multiple contagion traced to choirs have shown. And from community-based groups to church and gospel choirs to top professional ensembles like The Crossing, as one director put it, “We grieve.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Reading Science Fiction Helps Kids Build Mental Resiliency
“Youths see [in speculative fiction] examples of young people grappling with serious social, economic, and political issues that are timely and relevant, but in settings or times that offer critical distance. This distance gives readers an avenue to grapple with complexity and use their imagination to consider different ways of managing social challenges.” – The Conversation
Michel Piccoli, Revered Star Of French Screen For Five Decades, Dead At 94
“Even when he was a big name, Piccoli was never too proud to play small supporting roles or even bit parts if he liked the screenplay. But whatever the size of the role, whether playing a goody or a baddie, Piccoli would bring to the character a gravitas (with a tinge of humour) and an ironic detachment, simultaneously revealing a real, recognisable human being beneath the surface.” – The Guardian
Why Has Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Been Fading? Because We’ve Been Breathing On It
On the 1910 version of the painting, housed at the Munch Museum in Oslo, the cadmium yellow in the sky and the lake has been fading to off-white and flaking off for years, with light believed to be the culprit. A team of scientists has now found that light is not the problem: the dulling is caused by high humidity, particularly from the breath of many thousands of viewers. – CNN
How And When Will Texas Arts Organizations Reopen? They Have No Idea, Thanks To The Governor
“North Texas arts organizations tuned in eagerly at 2 p.m. Monday to hear Gov. Greg Abbott’s address regarding ‘Phase Two’ of the effort to reopen the state’s economy, which, they thought, would include them. But the governor pulled off a bit of a stunner in not addressing performing arts organizations at all. He gave guidance to youth sports camps, summer camps, Little League baseball and professional sports” — even indoor rodeo. But not the arts. – The Dallas Morning News