“George Psalmanazar claimed to be a kidnapping victim who was snatched from Formosa (now known as Taiwan) by a Jesuit named Father de Rode of Avignon.” And that’s just the start of it …
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Dallas Opera Loses Longtime Artistic Leader
“Jonathan Pell, The Dallas Opera’s artistic director, has been the company’s resident taste-maker for three decades, making important decisions about everything from which operas get staged to who stars in them. This morning, TDO announced that Pell will be leaving the company at the end of this year. Well, sort of leaving.”
Much Ado About Nothingness: Was Shakespeare An Atheist?
“The atheist Shakespeare theories” – which have been around for about a century now – “may be gaining currency, but … he has been called everything from a closet Catholic to an apologist for the Protestant state religion; the truth, one suspects, is murkier.”
What We Forget About Shakespeare: He Was An Actor First
Many of the encomia written for his 450th birthday “will likely omit or only fleetingly mention one fact: Shakespeare’s first acts of creation were not poems or plays, but the characters he gave life to as a struggling actor. This is no small omission.”
Australian Ballet’s Longest-Serving Principal Dancer Retires
Lucinda Dunn ended her 23-year career with the company with a performance of the title role in Manon last night at the Sydney Opera House.
Why Choreographer Wayne McGregor Collaborates With Neuroscientists
“When we think about images, we tend to only think about visual images. There are different types of images: acoustic, kinesthetic. … What we concentrate on when we are making choreography is how we can do things differently. That is what the neuroscientists have been helping us with.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.23.14
Harry Potter and the Disregarded Entity
AJBlog: The Artful Manager | Published 2014-04-23
Does Literary Fiction Exist? And, James Franco
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-04-23
Doris Duke Performing Artists of jazz beyond jazz
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz | Published 2014-04-23
Why Salzburg is losing its good Easter egg
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-04-23
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We Found Shakespeare’s Personal Dictionary on eBay!, Say Book Dealers
“For more than half a century, many scholars have believed that Shakespeare consulted a 1580 dictionary published in London called An Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionarie.” Now a pair of antiquarians claim they’ve found that very volume, complete with Shakespeare’s own handwritten notes. Naturally, some scholars disagree. Robinson Meyer runs down the arguments for and against.
There’s a Lost Generation of ’90s Indie Filmmakers
Richard Brody: “The paradox of independent filmmaking is that it often replicates, on a low budget and a small scale, the commercial mainstream’s production process and approach to acting. On the one hand, that’s why many independent filmmakers of that time turned out to be Hollywood-ready when things worked out right. On the other, that’s why, for some, it was tough to come up with a cinematic Plan B when they didn’t.”
Houston Symphony Musicians Get a Raise
“The symphony’s musicians will get a 2.85 percent annual raise under terms of the four-year deal, which will take their annual salary from $86,840 today to $97,240 during the 2017-18 season.”