“You don’t have to be from Stuttgart to feel befuddled by the Met’s entrance policy, with its signs telling you what to spend and then suggesting that you do not have to spend it. Two lawsuits wending their way through State Supreme Court are seeking to address that confusion, accusing the museum of misleading the public not only about how much to pay – but also, more important, about whether it is necessary to pay at all.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Canada Revives $100K Theater Prize
“The first protégé who shared in the inaugural edition of the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize in 2001 is among the trio of nominees for the 2013 edition of the revived Canadian theatre honour.”
“Carlos Danger” Gets His Own Stage Tragedy (Complete With Bad-Pun Title)
“The strange summer of Anthony D. Weiner is about to have its curtain call: The Weiner Monologues, a play that imagines the erstwhile congressman and mayoral candidate as a tragic hero of the stage, will make its Off Off Broadway debut next month.”
Carnegie Hall And Stagehands’ Union Settle Contract Dispute
“The negotiations lasted more than a year and led to a strike that canceled Carnegie Hall’s planned opening night for the first time in the hall’s 122-year history. But after only two days, the dispute between Carnegie’s management and its stagehands was settled on Friday, and the hall announced that it was fully back in business.”
Bossa Nova Isn’t Elevator Music, It’s “The Highest Flowering Of Brazilian Culture”
Caetano Veloso: “Bossa nova is a sacred music for many Brazilians. It’s political and nationalistic and poetic. … It was possibly the first popular music where the themes were existential. It’s part of what makes it high art. … It’s a form of high modernist art that somehow became one of the most popular musics on earth.”
Bolshoi Theater’s New Director Speaks
Vladimir Urin, whose surprise appointment this summer was made in hopes of ending the embarrassing turmoil at the Bolshoi and its ballet company, talks about quality control over a run of performances, developing a cadre of opera talent to match that of the ballet company, and his long working relationship with wounded Bolshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze Will Return To The Bolshoi Stage One Last Time
Russia’s minister of culture has confirmed rumors that Russian ballet’s superstar bad-boy – who was finally dismissed from the Bolshoi this summer after years of publicly badmouthing both management and colleagues and openly campaigning to be named the theater’s director – will perform in benefit performances of The Nutcracker, leading up to his 40th birthday on New Year’s Eve.
Watching Wayne McGregor Go Atomic
“Judith Mackrell goes inside the rehearsal room with cutting-edge choreographer Wayne McGregor to talk about the inspiration behind his remarkable new work, Atomos, possibly the only dance piece in history to combine biometric data and a ‘virtual dancer’ – not to mention a mystery 1980s sci-fi film.”
Cross-Cultural Kink: Who Gets To Decide What’s Sexually Perverted?
Jesse Bering: “We W.E.I.R.D. people (the anthropologist Joe Henrich’s apt acronym for ‘Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic’) often assume a false obviousness along these lines of harm and consent that, interestingly enough, simply isn’t there. Scientists have found that since we would be harmed by a certain sex act, we presume others would be harmed as well.”
Can We Really Say That A Male Gorilla Is Sexist Or That Orangutans Rape?
Prompted by press reports that the Dallas Zoo is sending one of its male gorillas to South Carolina because he’s mistreating his female companions, Barbara J. King (author of When Animals Grieve) considers the question.