“With days to go before Glyndebourne opens only its second staging of the Britten chamber opera it premiered,” the renowned actress and budding director “reflects on bravery, burial and layers of darkness.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Trial For Bolshoi Ballet Acid Attack Begins
“Dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, who made his name on stage at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, goes on trial on Tuesday for an acid attack that nearly blinded the ballet’s artistic director.” The 29-year-old “is accused of organizing the assault on Sergei Filin early this year.”
L.A. Welcomes Its Newest Ballet Company
“Melissa Barak, a Los Angeles native who made a name for herself with New York City Ballet first as a ballerina, then beginning in 2002 as a choreographer,” has spent two years preparing this weekend’s debut of her 17-member Barak Ballet.
David Sedaris Contemplates A Sister’s Suicide
“Compared with most forty-nine-year-olds, or even most forty-nine-month-olds, Tiffany didn’t have much. She did leave a will, though. In it, she decreed that we, her family, could not have her body or attend her memorial service. ‘So put that in your pipe and smoke it,’ our mother would have said.”
“Discomfort Is A Very Underrated Feeling”: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
“Triumph is great because where do you go from there? Down. That’s good for comedy.”
Pianist Anton Kuerti Rushed To Hospital Following Neurological Incident Onstage
Near the end of the first work in an all-Beethoven recital in metro Miami, the 75-year-old Canadian began playing the same phrase over and over. Kuerti stopped and started repeatedly during the second piece, appearing progressively more disoriented, until an audience member coaxed him from the stage and an ambulance was called.
Riccardo Chailly To Be La Scala’s Next Music Director
“No official announcement has been made yet but the La Scala board has decided. … The appointment should take effect from January 2017. That ‘should’ is necessary because Chailly may take up the post before then if Daniel Barenboim steps down before his contract expires at the end of 2016.”
Statue Depicting WWII Rape Sparks Outrage In Poland And Germany
“The brief appearance of a concrete sculpture in Gdansk last Saturday depicting a Red Army soldier raping a pregnant woman has sparked ire on both the Polish and Russian sides. Now the artist could be facing two years in prison.”
Julie Taymor Is Making Theater In New York Again
After directing both the most successful musical of all time (The Lion King) and the most expensive and possibly the most troubled (a project she now refers to as “that other show”), Taymor is staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One early decision she made: no flying actors.
John Kander Enjoys A Creative Renaissance In His 80s
The composer half of Kander & Ebb – the team that gave us Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Scottsboro Boys – is working on three new full-length projects with writing partner Greg Pierce, who is five decades his junior.