Helga Schmidt, who has long been criticized for lavish spending – on her lodging and travel expenses as well as on such expensive artists as Lorin Maazel, Plácido Domingo and Zubin Mehta – has been accused of manipulating contracts and accepting commissions on artists she engaged at the Palau de les Arts, part of the futuristic arts-and-sciences complex designed by Santiago Calatrava.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Chaos At India’s Film Censorship Board
“India’s film censorship organisation is in crisis after the resignation of its chair, Leela Samson, amid complaints of ‘interference, coercion and corruption’, and more than half its board members.”
Television Becomes A Force At Sundance Film Festival
“Independent film used to define the cutting edge in entertainment, but the indie crowd has lately ceded ground to television … The festival, fiercely proud of its heritage as America’s foremost showcase for independent cinema, is working to hold on to that identity. At the same time, it is tentatively embracing an art form, television, in which innovation and energy abound.”
Julie Taymor To Stage New Play About Drone Warfare
It seems such a good match of director and subject that you wonder why nobody thought of it sooner. George Brant’s Grounded features only one (human) character, to be played by Anne Hathaway.
John Bayley, 89, Literary Scholar, Critic, And Memoirist Of Wife Iris Murdoch
“As a critic and author, Mr. Bayley was acclaimed for his dissections of Goethe and Pushkin as well as of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Henry James.” He drew an international readership, wide praise and some condemnation for Elegy for Iris, his account of his wife’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease.
‘This Is Not Just A Show About Fat Happy Dancing People’
“Kate Champion, artistic director of Force Majeure, and Kelli Jean Drinkwater, associate artist and fat activist, talk about the company’s new show featuring big-bodied performers. Nothing to Lose is ‘driven by dance’, says Champion, but also draws on the dancers’ real-life experiences to challenge preconceptions and reclaim a performance space for large bodies.” (video)
Might At The Museum(s): The Met And MoMA In A Clash Of The Titans
“Sorting through talk of a growing rivalry between the Met and MoMA for artworks, board members, and prestige, Bob Colacello uncovers the forces at work.”
Trial Begins Over Theft Of Priceless Santiago De Compostela Manuscript
A laid-off electrician at the Spanish city’s cathedral is accused of having stolen the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus, considered the world’s first tourist guide (for pilgrims to Compostela) and one of the most important surviving sources for medieval music. The manuscript was stolen in 2011 and was found (along with other manuscripts and €1.2 million in cash) in the electrician’s garage the following year.
Chile To (Finally) Build Gaudí’s Only Project Outside Of Spain
“The project originated in 1922 through a series of letters exchanged between Gaudí and Chilean Franciscan Friar Angélico Aranda, who asked Gaudí to design a chapel for Chile.” The actual design, it turns out, is sort of an outtake from the plans for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Ward Swingle, 87, Founded The Swingle Singers And Made Bach Swing
His a cappella octet “reimagined Bach and Mozart with driving jazz rhythms and playfully scatlike vocals – and put centuries-old classical masterworks on the pop charts.”