“She burned quite a few of her letters, and in her will she forbade publication of any that remained” – including excerpts or even quotes. “Presumably, she issued the no-quotes rule in order to protect to herself – her privacy, her reputation. Little did she know.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Meryl Streep’s Gracious, Erudite Tribute To Margaret Thatcher
“To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas – wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now … I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle.”
Philadelphia Orchestra’s Return To China Will Offer More Than Just Concerts
“The orchestra’s second China residency will feature master classes, workshops, pop-up performances in public places, hospitals and schools, as well as playing alongside local orchestras in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, and Macao” – where they’ll appear at the enormous Venetian casino complex.
1Q84, The Map And The Territory, Swamplandia! Among 2013 Impac Award Finalists
“Titans of international literature Haruki Murakami [1Q84] and Michel Houellebecq [The Map And The Territory] are going head-to-head on the shortlist for the €100,000 Impac award” – alongside, among others, Sjón’s From the Mouth of the Whale, Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic, and Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!.
Liverpool Is Now A Cultural Tourism Destination
Tourism officials, backed by a recent economic impact report, say that the city’s museums, theatre and orchestra are now as big a draw for visitors as sports or the Beatles, and that “of the £3.1bn that tourism generates for the economy of the Liverpool City Region … some 50% is a direct affect [sic] of a vibrant arts scene.”
Why I Brought Baroque Opera To Tasmania (Of All Places)
Impresario Leo Schofield recounts how he discovered a little jewel-box of a theatre in the island’s capital – and managed to convince state ministers, wealthy philanthropists and even Covent Garden’s music director to help launch a festival of Baroque music there.
Romeo & Juliet Is A Ridiculous, Terrible Play
Alyssa Rosenberg: “Romeo & Juliet – a play about children – is full of terrible, deeply childish ideas about love.” And the ending “is an adolescent fantasy of death solving all problems.”
No, Romeo & Juliet Isn’t Ridiculous – It’s Quite Savvy
Isaac Butler: “Romeo & Juliet is a great play that goes much deeper than the story of lovesick teenagers killing themselves. It’s tightly plotted, multilayered, filled with incredible lines and complicated characters, and far smarter than it often gets credit for on the subject of young love.
Romeo & Juliet Isn’t Childish – It’s About Being Childish
Noah Berlatsky: “In Romeo & Juliet play-acting with the categories of adult and child can lead to exhilarating delight, pleasurably moralistic revulsion and, sometimes, to tragedy.”
OMG, Txtspk Isn’t (Or Isn’t Just) Debasing The Language (LOL)
“For alongside their loosening and cheapening of words, our young tools have combined the instant and the infinitely reproducible – and are steadily blurring the bounds between private utterance and public performance. It is a context within which even the most laughable-seeming simplicities conceal possibilities that demand our attention.”