There are half a dozen English editions of The Decameron available, and the same number of Anna Karenina plus two more about to appear. (And let’s not even start on The Iliad.) Why? There are several reasons, including that it can be a good financial bet.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Joan Rivers Faces Expulsion From Writers Guild
“The Writers Guild of America East has set an Oct. 14 date for its trial board to examine charges filed against Joan Rivers – which could lead to Rivers becoming the first member ever expelled from the WGA East.”
Madrid’s Teatro Real Replaces Cancer-Stricken Director Gerard Mortier
“The opera house Teatro Real put an end on Wednesday to an unusually public and tense leadership dispute by replacing Gerard Mortier as its artistic director with Joan Matabosch.”
Mold Problem Renders Orlando Ballet Homeless
“The Orlando Ballet will not be able to return to its mold-infested headquarters anytime soon, which could have major financial implications for the organization, a ballet official said Monday.”
Gideon Obarzanek To Return To Sydney Dance Co. After Two-Decade Absence
SDC artistic director Rafael Bonachela has invited Obarzanek, who left the company to launch the leading Melbourne contemporary dance troupe, Chunky Move, to choreograph a work he hopes “will challenge dancers who have hitherto not been called on to work with speech and strong narratives, two hallmarks of Obarzanek’s work.”
How Will Australia’s New Government Change Arts Policy?
Incoming culture secretary George Brandis “is not about to throw the Australia Council restructure into reverse, despite his misgivings about it … Brandis says his differences with Labor are philosophical: arts policy should recognise and promote intrinsic values – art for art’s sake – and not treat culture as a tool for other policy goals.”
Ailing Claudio Abbado Pulls Out Of Japan Tour
“Citing ill health, the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado has canceled plans to conduct a series of concerts in Japan this fall with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – including one at an inflatable concert hall in Matsushima that was to be dedicated to a region recovering from the 2011 earthquake.”
What Exactly Is A Symphony?
Tom Service: “A symphony isn’t just a structure, a musical formula, or a set of containers – three or four movements of contrasting speeds and characters – that composers merely had to fill in to qualify as ‘symphonic’ writers. The symphony is really a way of thinking about what music actually is, what it’s really for.”
The Bach Family Business
How a refugee baker from Bratislava ended up as the patriarch of six generations of great German musicians.
Margaret Atwood Explains What Books Are Really Good For
“No. 1: They’re still readable when the Cloud goes down. No. 2: They make great kindling. … No. 3: Push comes to shove, they’re great insulating material. You could make a little igloo out of books if you really had to. I think of them as a form of carbon sequestration – all the CO2 is tied up in books.”