“With no clear indication when the theater might be deemed safe to reopen, [managing director Amy] Wratchford and her remaining team (all on half or quarter salary) have written contingency operating plans, only to have to crumple them up and formulate new ones. … [The company is] converting its ticket-buying lists into class lists and turning some of what’s executed on its modern-day Renaissance stage into teachable moments online.” – The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why The Met Opera’s Big Online Gala Is Controversial
Saturday afternoon’s At-Home Gala, the brainchild of Met general manager Peter Gelb, will have opera stars performing live on the Web from wherever they’re waiting out the COVID lockdown. What’s the controversy? Detractors say that a company that furloughed all its staff performers and declared force majeure to break soloists’ contracts has no business asking those people to perform for free. “But with one or two exceptions,” Gelb tells David Patrick Stearns here, “everybody leapt at the idea of doing this.” – WQXR (New York City)
Live Drive-In Opera Is Coming To London
English National Opera is planning to stage two classics on the grounds of the Alexandra Palace in North London, with singers and orchestral players spaced at least six feet apart and the audience in cars or on motorcycles or bikes. And if it works, ENO may take the concept around the country. – The Guardian
‘Hell No, We’re Not Opening On Monday’: Movie Theaters Resist Political Pressure To Put Butts Back In Seats Now
“They don’t want to be lumped in with meatpacking plants and senior centers as hot spots for the virus. Already struggling financially, theaters fear that a too-soon return could stigmatize them as dangerous places to congregate. And with new movies from Hollywood not set to debut until the middle of July — at the earliest — opening too soon would only make operators spend money before they could truly recoup costs from patrons.” – The New York Times
Fox News Tries Using First Amendment To Defend Its Now-Retracted Reporting On Seth Rich’s Murder
The Democratic National Committee staffer was shot during a mugging in the summer of 2016, but a conspiracy theory, developed in right-wing circles and repeated on Fox News, claimed that Rich was murdered because he (not Russian hackers) handed DNC emails to WikiLeaks. Rich’s parents and brother have sued, and the network has suffered serious fallout (hence the rare retraction). Fox execs are now claiming that the First Amendment means one of their reporters can’t be forced to give a deposition; the plaintiffs maintain that deliberately false reporting is not protected. – The Hollywood Reporter
U.S. Court Of Appeals Finds A Constitutional Right To Literacy
A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit ruled 2-to-1 that “education — at least in the minimum form discussed here — is essential to nearly every interaction between a citizen and her government. … Voting, taxes, the legal system, jury duty — all of these are predicated on the ability to read and comprehend written thoughts.” The decision revives a suit against the state of Michigan by a group of Detroit public school students. – Publishers Weekly
Video Of Recent Van Gogh Theft Emerges
“The robber, who arrived to the [Singer Laren] museum [near Amsterdam] on a motorcycle, broke in by smashing reinforced glass doors with a sledgehammer. Leaving the scene, the thief took Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884), carrying the painting under his right arm.” – Artnet
Peter Jonas, Who Ran English National Opera During Its ‘Powerhouse’ Years, Dead At 73
As general director from 1985 to 1993, he, along with director of productions David Pountney and chief conductor Mark Elder, “fostered a production style based on radical, dynamic dramaturgy, underpinned by the highest musical standards …, leaving behind a series of productions that have entered the annals of operatic history.” He had a similar run at the helm of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich from 1993 to 2006. – The Guardian
Betsy Wyeth — Muse, Model, And Manager For Husband Andrew — Dead At 98
“More than just the organizational and financial genius of the enterprise, Mrs. Wyeth also had a firm hand in guiding her husband’s artistic development. … Later she came up with the idea of turning an old grist mill in Chadds Ford into what would become the Brandywine River Museum of Art, which opened in 1971 and continues in part as a shrine to her husband and the artist family from which he sprang.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Passages ‘I Cannot Unread, Unhear, Unknow’ — What’s Really Horrifying About Woody Allen’s Memoir
Mark Harris: “So forget the movies — he certainly has. What remains is the man, and on that score, Apropos of Nothing is one of the most unsettling accounts of a life I ever hope never to encounter again. … From its first pages, what is meant to amuse is as discomforting as steel-wool underwear.” – Vulture