Author: Matthew Westphal

Italy’s First Post-Lockdown Opera Performances Will Be At A Roman Horse Track

In July, the Rome Opera will stage Verdi’s Rigoletto, conducted by Daniele Gatti, in the Piazza di Siena, a venue on the grounds of the Villa Borghese normally used for equestrian events. Audience numbers will be capped at 1,000 (in a facility that normally holds several times that number), with all social distancing regulations followed. – Wanted in Rome

Jerry Stiller, 92

“[He] rose to national prominence on a barrage of one-line jokes and sly ethnic humor, with his Jewish background and [wife/partner Anne] Meara’s Irish Catholic heritage forming a comic motif. With age, he transformed into a master of righteous indignation and raucous anger, drawing on memories of fights between his parents to create some of the funniest moments of the 1990s’ most celebrated and popular sitcom.” – The Washington Post

Music in Wartime

Here’s an ingenious 45-minute film by Behrouz Jamali that revealingly juxtaposes the music Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky wrote in response to World War II. The video artist Peter Bogdanoff contributes a singular visual rendering of Stravinsky’s finale, applying pertinent newsreel clips. – Joseph Horowitz

The Semantics Of Cooties (Speaking Of Contagion) And Other Children’s Semi-Nonsense Words

“In a kid’s world, cooties and other similar contagions may not be real — but they’re deadly serious. The North American children’s lore of cooties is ‘a social contaminant that pass[es] from one child to another, a form of interpersonal pollution.’ … Children who play this game learn and absorb concepts familiar to a public health emergency” (such as immunization — remember cooties shots?), “but on their own strange terms. … [The] search for a satisfactory meaning might not mean much when it comes to children. Because nonsense makes a lot of sense in a kid’s world.” – JSTOR Daily

Jean Erdman, Dancer/Choreographer/Stage Director, Dead At 104

“A former principal dancer for Martha Graham, Ms. Erdman first came to wide notice as a choreographer in the 1940s, and she remained in the vanguard of the field for decades. She later created performance pieces for the Theater of the Open Eye, an avant-garde New York stage she founded in 1972 with her husband, Joseph Campbell, the scholar of literature and myth.” – The New York Times

This May Be The World’s Biggest, Starriest Online Ballet Class

“[Worldwide Ballet Class] stands out for offering dancers of all levels the opportunity to take open company class alongside professional dancers, six days a week … taught by the likes of Julie Kent, Christopher Stowell, SFB ballet master Felipe Diaz and National Ballet of Canada principal Jurgita Dronina.” All for free, no less. Here’s a Q&A with co-founders Diego Cruz and Rubén Martín Cintas. – Pointe Magazine

To Stream Or Not To Stream? Arthouse Film Distributors Face Quandary With This Year’s New Releases

Some, like A24 and Sony Pictures Classics, are sticking with the existing theater-first model and waiting the COVID lockdown out; says a top Sony exec, “Without theatrical, the business disappears.” Yet some smaller distributors “have seized an opportunity to release their films as digital links, often through art-house and independent theaters that have eagerly accepted a chance to earn some revenue and keep their homebound audiences engaged.” (Alamo Drafthouse, meanwhile, is launching its own streaming platform.) – The Washington Post

Archaeologists Cry Foul As Egypt Moves Ancient Sphinxes Into Tahrir Square

“Officials from Egypt’s antiquities ministry recently announced that [four] ram-headed sphinxes had been taken from the Karnak temple in Luxor to the capital’s busy traffic roundabout, where they have joined a pink granite obelisk.” Egyptologists say that the sculptures will be damaged by Cairo’s air pollution, while government critics say it’s a move to erase Tahrir Square’s recent history as a protest site. – The Guardian