The Uruguay-born conductor will be 63 when he departs in the summer of 2021 after 18 seasons. He raised the profile of the orchestra considerably during his tenure, most notably with a very well-received performance at Carnegie Hall in 2011. – The Oregonian
Author: Matthew Westphal
Can Two New Directors Fix The Berlin Film Festival?
For the first time, the Berlinale has separated the functions of artistic and executive director. “Many hope [the new management structure] will help reinvigorate the Berlinale, which is considered one of Europe’s most important film festivals but has recently drawn accusations of lackluster curation.” – The New York Times
Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ Is Now An App
It’s going to be a series of apps, in fact — and they’ll be free. The first one, now out, features the General Prologue, with text and audio in the original Middle English, a modern English translation, and a digitized facsimile of an early manuscript as well as notes and commentary. (One of the project’s contributing scholars was the late Terry Jones of Monty Python.) – Smithsonian Magazine
‘The Inheritance’ Playwright Matthew Lopez Responds To Criticism Of Its Representation Of Queer Communities (Okay, Its Whiteness)
“I wasn’t attempting to create a generationally defining work of theater that spoke for the entire queer experience. I think that if I had started with that intention, I never would have finished. There are some who feel the play should have done just that, and who fault me for not painting on a broader canvas. … Art can be expected to hold a mirror up to society, but it cannot be expected to hold a mirror up to every individual who is engaging with it.” – The New York Times
Sculptor Beverly Pepper, 97
“After beginning her artistic life as a painter, Ms. Pepper was known from the 1960s on as a sculptor of towering forms of iron, steel, earth and stone, often displayed outdoors. … [Yet her] work was suffused with a quicksilver lightness that belied its gargantuan scale.” – The New York Times
How A Little Philadelphia Pick-Up Company Became A Contemporary Ballet Powerhouse
Back in 2005, as they were nearing retirement from Pennsylvania Ballet, Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan decided to put together a little group to dance at the Philly Fringe. They hoped that maybe, one day, they’d perform at Jacob’s Pillow and Vail. Now BalletX has ten dancers on 40-week contracts, commissions major choreographers, does up to eight world premieres a season, and tours around the U.S. (yes, including Vail and the Pillow) and to Europe. – Pointe Magazine
First Major Arts Venue To Make All Its Performances ‘Relaxed’
Starting this month, London’s Battersea Arts Centre is making all its events “relaxed performances” — at which audience members may enter, leave, move around, and sometimes make noise, and first developed for neurodivergent patrons. – The Times (UK)
Edward Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Is Fading. Scientists Are Figuring Out Why
“Since 2012, scientists based in New York and experts at the Munch Museum in Oslo have been working on this canvas — which was stolen in 2004 and recovered two years later — to tell a story of color. But the research also provides insight into Munch and how he worked, laying out a map for conservators to prevent further change, and helping viewers and art historians understand how one of the world’s most widely recognized paintings might have originally looked.” – The New York Times
He Fired A Dancer After She Had A Baby. Now He’s Fired
Yorgos Loukos, director of the Lyon Opera Ballet for 33 years, was sacked by unanimous vote of the company’s board of directors. The reason was discrimination: in 2014, he had fired then-34-year-old dancer Karline Marion two days after she came back from maternity leave and shortly before she was to have gotten tenure. – Expatica (AFP)
Angela Hewitt’s $200,000 Piano Destroyed By Movers
She had just finished recording some Beethoven, and movers were taking her piano from the Berlin studio; they dropped it while trying to lift it onto a hand truck, and the instrument’s iron frame crashed and its lid split in two. The Fazioli F278, custom-made for Hewitt, was the only one of its model with four pedals; Paolo Fazioli himself examined it and called it “unsalvageable.” – The Guardian