“Bolshoi Ballet leading soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two other men were indicted Tuesday for the sulfuric acid attack on the company’s artistic director, Sergei Filin. Dmitrichenko, looking haggard and nervous in court, pleaded not guilty and after hearing the indictment read his own version of events from handwritten notes.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Scottsboro Boys – Minstrelsy Turned On Its Head
“This horrific chapter of American history – nine black teenagers pulled off a train and falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931, then subjected to Southern justice at its most criminally graphic – was far too serious to be presented in so cavalier and racially volatile a format, let alone by a white creative team.” Candace Allen – with reference to her grandmother and Aunt Billie, who remember the case – says that Kander & Ebb pulled it off.
Fired Bolshoi Superstar/Provocateur Gets Russia’s #1 Dance Education Job
Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who was terminated in June after more than a year of publicly campaigning for his bosses to be fired and himself to replace them (and who suggested that the acid attack on Sergei Filin was staged), has been appointed rector of St. Petersburg’s Vaganova Academy, founded in 1738 and considered one of the two or three best ballet schools in the world.
Why Tsiskaridze Being Named To Head The Vaganova Is Worrisome
“It’s hard to overstate the prestige of this position. … The Vaganova is revered as the cradle of Russian classicism. Giving over its direction to the controversial Tsiskaridze, therefore, has caused a sharp intake of breath among many in the ballet world.” Judith Mackrell analyzes the complex, difficult situation of the ballet academy that the volatile star has been given to run.
Why So Many Icelanders Still Believe In Invisible Elves
“How the country’s history and geography created the perfect setting for magical creatures, whose perceived existence sparks environmental protests to this day.”
Should Arts Council England Keep Subsidising Shows That Play To Half-Empty Houses?
Rupert Christiansen: “At what point does public demand become so low that this can no longer be justified, especially at a time when wonderful opera and ballet from all over the world can be relayed live in HD to cinemas at no cost to the Exchequer?”
Producers Of Play About Delhi Gang-Rape Are Crowdfunding Tour To India
Nirbhaya, written and directed by Yael Farber (Mies Julie) and premiered in Edinburgh this past summer, will travel to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Calcutta if the producers can raise £500,000 by December.
The Myth Of The Great War Of The Worlds Mass Hysteria
“The supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast. Despite repeated assertions to the contrary in the PBS and NPR programs, almost nobody was fooled by Welles’ broadcast. How did the story of panicked listeners begin? Blame America’s newspapers.”
Joseph Brodsky’s First Interview In The West Comes To Light
“‘Of course, he is a very bad poet and an even worse person,’ Brodsky says of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the half-hour interview,” which took place in Vienna in 1972, shortly after the Nobel prizewinner left the Soviet Union for good.
No, Writing For Free Is Not Actually Like Slavery
“In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, an author complained about repeatedly being asked to write for free, but what he finds so insulting is something many others see as an opportunity – and it is not going away any time soon.”