A client of Sol Hurok, she sang the major Italian dramatic roles at Europe’s leading opera houses, though much of her work at the Met was as a cover, going onstage at short notice. Her career ended abruptly in late 1979 when she contracted a severe case of Bell’s palsy. – Opera News
Author: Matthew Westphal
Radical Artists Are Running Performance Space New York. Here’s How They Showed A Journalist What They’re Doing.
To mark its 40th anniversary, the East Village venue (formerly P.S. 122) turned itself over to 11 loosely connected artists of various stripes for the whole of 2020. Not even PSNY’s director knows everything they have planned. When Siobhan Burke went to talk to them (at PSNY’s invitation), they met her in matching black garments that obscured their faces, declined to identify themselves, and stuck strictly to a prepared script that included such phrases as “There is no consensus,” “Welcome is a warning,” and “Artist exceptionalism upholds empire.” – The New York Times
National Gallery In D.C. Postpones Show Because It Can’t Get The Art
“The National Gallery of Art has postponed its much-anticipated exhibition A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750 because of the global coronavirus crisis.” The nationwide lockdown in Italy means that the more than 100 works in the show can’t be shipped from museums in Genoa and Rome. – The Washington Post
L.A. Opera’s Investigation Finds Against Domingo But Clears L.A. Opera
“[The company] said its investigator interviewed 44 people, yielding 10 [credible] allegations of inappropriate conduct between 1986 … [and] 2019.” The law firm hired by the company also found “no evidence that L.A. Opera ever ignored, failed to address, or covered up sexual harassment complaints.” – Los Angeles Times
U.S. Theatres Are Staying Open (For Now)
“As COVID-19 … spreads inexorably across the U.S., theatres are finding themselves trying to stay both practical and realistic, even as public concerns grow. While many public gatherings are being cancelled, largely as a preemptive measure, theatres have not yet dropped the curtain.” – American Theatre
Berlin Closes All Cultural Venues For A Month
The shutdown, ordered to prevent the spread of COVID-19, mandatory for all state-owned arts institutions and strongly recommended for others, is in effect at least until after Easter (April 12). – The Berlin Spectator
A Takeover, And A Crisis, At France’s Best-Known Journal Of Filmmaking
Cahiers du Cinéma, which launched the French New Wave and gave the world the concept of the auteur, was purchased last month by a consortium that includes some of France’s top movie producers. The new owners, hoping to make the studious, and studiously independent, Cahiers more “chic” and “central,” want to invite directors to write for it and to launch a partnership with the Cannes Festival. The entire editorial staff has resigned. – The New Yorker
Conductor And Composer Anton Coppola, 102
“[He] appeared in the children’s chorus for the 1926 American premiere of Puccini’s uncompleted Turandot, conducted his own ending to the work some nine decades later, and in between had one of the longest careers as a maestro in modern times” — including founding a company (Opera Tampa) and conducting the premieres of several noted American operas, among them his own Sacco and Vanzetti. (And yes, he is part of the moviemaking family.) – The New York Times
Theatre Critics Should Stop Cooperating With Producers’ No-Review Requests
Jeremy Gerard: “I’m all for producers and the sometimes preposterous lengths they will go to in order to promote and protect their shows. That’s their job. But I’ve often wondered why we, the critics, so willingly go along with their manipulations. Especially when they interfere with the, well let’s call it the journalism part of our job — reporting to our readers and giving context to the cultural news of the day.” – Broadway News
Video Gaming’s First Superstar Auteur
“How do you explain Hideo Kojima to someone who has never picked up a PlayStation controller? His admirers have often compared him to filmmakers: Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, George Lucas, James Cameron. … Perhaps more notable than his resemblance to any particular film director is the fact that such a comparison would be made at all.” – The New York Times Magazine