Aida, Otello, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, and on and on. Gwynn Guilford lays out what she sees as the problem and how she thinks opera companies in 21st-century America might address it.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Artists, Officials, Celebrities Unite To Ask Venice To Ban Cruise Mega-Ships
“More than 50 leading figures from the worlds of art, film, fashion and architecture have signed a petition calling for a ban on giant cruise ships sailing through Venice. Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Michael Caine and Rob Lowe are among the signatories urging the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the Italian Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dario Franceschini, to ‘halt the passage of the big ships across the Bacino San Marino and along the Giudecca canal’.”
NYC Mayor Fires Eight Board Members Of Queens Library System
“The board members were removed after they voted in April against firing Thomas W. Galante, director of the Queens library system, who has been under investigation for using money earmarked for library improvements for renovations to his personal office and for steering contracts for the work to a friend.”
How On Earth Does One Illustrate “Finnegans Wake”?
“The book is sui generis, a circle in a spiral, a linguistic Escher drawing … So when John Vernon Lord was asked to illustrated the book for the Folio Society it is no surprise that he found the experience ‘bewildering’.” But he seems to have pulled it off.
How Do Conductors Keep Working Into Ripe Old Age? Three Of Them Tell Us
Head Of Big New Arts Center In Beverly Hills Out After First Season
“The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, which only recently completed its inaugural season, confirmed Thursday that Executive Director Lou Moore has left the fledgling arts organization. Moore, who spent more than a decade raising money to construct the new center and then led its 2013 opening and first season, left the organization on Tuesday.”
Andy Serkis, Star Of A Movie Medium That’s Anti-Star By Its Very Nature
“Serkis, whose resume includes playing some of the least likely critical favorites of all time – Gollum, King Kong, and Godzilla – seems like an ideal spokesman for motion-capture if it wants high-brow cred. … [Yet] the singular focus on him in some ways clashes with the collaborative, chameleonic spirit of motion-capture, a field that has a long and glorious tradition of eschewing thespian concerns entirely.”
Angel Corella: “I Have A Lot Of Plans” For Pennsylvania Ballet
They include “closely coaching the dancers, touring more, giving outdoor public performances, organizing outreach programs with schools, and bringing in new choreographers. He listed Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Justin Peck, and Liam Scarlett as possibilities. He also wants to reassure his dancers and artistic staff.”
David Hallberg On Becoming A Celebrity Dancer
“Ballet needs figures that people can recognize and relate to. People don’t know ballet dancers as well as they know other artists.”
Natalia Osipova Will Have No Truck With The Ballet Diva Mystique, Thank You
“I am not interested in sporting diamond tiaras on stage, or having my point shoes cooked and eaten by my fans. Ballet has evolved and the ballerina figure with it. … There is simply no reason, nor time, to perpetuate century-old clichés, such as the remote, semi-divine figure of the 19th-century ballet star.”