“When New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves got into an online spat last summer over the success of austerity in the small Baltic nation, they probably never considered that their argument might find its way to the rarefied world of opera.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Meet The Last Of The Great Light-Bulb-Munching Sword-Swallowers
Todd Robbins “is among of the last in a dying breed: a spectacle-creating live performer who aspires not to the Vegas-style stardom parodied in Jim Carrey’s new sendup The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but rather to attaining a middle-class income and carrying on the waning tradition of the Great American Sideshow.”
Japanese Publisher Produces World’s Smallest Book
“The 22 page micro-book is called Shiki no Kusabana (flowers of seasons) and contains the names and microscopic monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers like the cherry and the plum. The pages are 0.75 millimetre (0.03 inch) in size while the letters are just 0.01 mm wide.”
Accusations Of Financial Crimes Shake Cy Twombly Foundation
The organization “is now in turmoil amid accusations, detailed in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Delaware state court, that one of the four people who run it took more than $300,000 in unauthorized fees for investment services and was assisted in misappropriating the money by another foundation director, Ralph E. Lerner, a well-known art-world lawyer.”
What’s Going To Happen To Trisha Brown’s Dances
Her “proscenium works” (i.e., those created for theaters) will be licensed to other companies, while Brown’s designated successors will concentrate on the performance and re-creation of Brown’s site-specific dances and those intended for staging in museums and gallery spaces.”
The Battle Over Encouraging Audiences To Tweet In Their Seats
“The controversy raises a number of questions that are hard to answer: Is sustained focus even possible in mass audiences anymore? If not, what have we lost? But part of the discussion, taken on its own terms, boils down to a fairly tractable psychological question: Who, really, is more engaged? Is it the audience member holding a screen and responding to the action with his thumbs, or the one sitting silently in the dark with her eyes glued to the stage?”
Egypt Blocks Documentary On Egyptian Jews
“An Egyptian documentary called Jews of Egypt was supposed to hit theaters Wednesday, but won’t because state security officials have blocked its release, according to the film’s producer.”
Vasily Petrenko Extends Indefinitely With Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
“A new, on-going agreement will see the charismatic Russian maestro stay at the helm of the UK’s oldest professional symphony orchestra for the foreseeable future, with a minimum three-year notice period.”
The Booker Prize Has A New Competitor
“The Folio Society has been named as the surprise sponsor of a new fiction prize that its supporters hope will rival the stature of the Man Booker prize, but – crucially – will also be open to American writers, allowing the likes of Jonathan Franzen to compete with Hilary Mantel.”
Edward Albee’s Laying An Egg Is Finally Ready
It’s a play by the man himself (and doubtless a shot at the critics he so vocally despises), and it will debut this summer at New York’s Signature Theater Company after a year’s delay caused by Albee’s (as he put it) “overcomplicating” the script.