Shortly after the pianist abandoned live performance for good, he started making nonfiction radio programs for the CBC, the best-known of which are called the “Solitude Trilogy”: The Idea of North (about life in sub-Arctic Manitoba), The Latecomers (Newfoundland outports), and The Quiet Land (an isolated Mennonite community). The voices of those he interviewed are “intertwined as though contrapuntal voices in a Bach fugue or suite. Several could be sometimes be heard at once, each artfully edited, syllable by syllable, so that their rhythms made a certain sense as one emerged and another faded.” – Los Angeles Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Pandemic Has Left Cirque Du Soleil Staring Down Bankruptcy
“Its vast army of 1,800 artists relies on international travel to get from show to show, regularly crossing borders, performing on cruise ships, and interacting with fans. Daily training regimens require constant physical contact. The entire operation depends on an intricate logistical network of cargo ships, trucks, hotels, and food-service businesses, all of which have ground to a halt. In effect, government bans on large gatherings are a ban on Cirque itself, leaving a company that generated an estimated $950 million last year with essentially ‘zero revenues'” and debt that S&P and Moody’s have now assigned junk-bond status. – Fast Company
Tips For Streaming Live Theater From The Guys Who Did It Really Well
Earlier this week, Helen Shaw wrote that the Broadway.com stream of Jonathan Tolin’s Buyer & Cellar was “the proof-of-concept for low-budget live-capture.” So she talked to the people who made it happen — director Nic Cory, star Michael Urie, director of photography (and Urie’s partner) Ryan Spahn, digital director (and Broadway.com editor-in-chief) Paul Wontorek — about the details that really made it work (including the ones they learned the hard way). – Vulture
Want To Really Appreciate Your Delivery People And Supermarket Cashiers? Re-Read Studs Terkel’s ‘Working’
“Today, as the pandemic reshapes the ways we understand our work life and its meaning, Terkel’s supermarket workers would be classified ‘essential’ to the smooth continuity of society. Yet they would also receive modest wages (at best) and come to work knowing that they will be exposed daily to COVID-19. It’s doubtful being ‘essential’ would leave them feeling any more valued. Or as Working described it nearly a half century ago, many of the workers who keep this country humming are the same people we regard as social wallpaper and take for granted.” – Chicago Tribune
The Composer For Quarantine Consolation — Bach? Beethoven? Brahms? How About Leroy Anderson?
What, the guy who wrote all those pops-concert pieces like The Typewriter, The Syncopated Clock, and Sleigh Ride? Yes, says Anthony Tommasini: “Bach provides solace, Beethoven stirs us with resolve and Brahms probes aching emotional ambiguities. But trust me: Leroy Anderson will make you feel better about things.” – The New York Times
As Epidemic Seems To Fade, Germany And Austria Move Toward Reopening Museums
In Germany, it’s a state-by-state process: small museums in Brandenburg are reopening this week, with Thuringia next week, Saxony and Berlin in early May and the rest of the country following. Austria’s museums will open their doors in mid-May, though larger ones such as the Belvedere may wait as late as July. Distancing procedures and other safety measures are being developed with Teutonic thoroughness. – ARTnews
Could We See A New Version Of FDR’s Depression-Era Arts Programs? Not Likely
As we know, American society and politics (especially in Congress) are very different in 2020 than they were in 1934. Even then, there was political opposition to the very idea of arts funding and suspicion of artists as dangerous leftists. Julia Jacobs looks at that opposition, then and now. – The New York Times
Actress Shirley Knight, 83
“In a long film, television and stage career [she] earned two Oscar nominations while still in her 20s, won a Tony Award in 1975 and later garnered three Emmy Awards.” – The New York Times
Violinist/Violist Jan Talich, Founder Of Talich Quartet, Dead At 71
“With his fellow quartet members, he toured all over the world, specialising in works by Czech composers — many of them contemporary — and winning several prestigious prizes, including Diapason d’or awards for recordings of Mozart and Beethoven string quartets. He continued to play with the quartet until 2000. His nephew now occupies the leader’s seat.” – The Strad
In Search Of Inigo Philbrick, Fugitive Art Dealer And Accused Ponzi Schemer
Journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis looks into the young phenomenon’s background and meteoric rise, teases out how he got to the point of selling artworks to several different clients at once, tries to figure out where he’s disappeared to — and ultimately receives a series of bizarre (and badly written) Instagram DMs and, after press time, a nervous email from Philbrick himself. – British GQ