“Eric Wirth, vice president of the Guild of French Architects, … forcefully argued that wood — rather than concrete, material, or other materials that have been suggested — was the most ecological and structurally sound material during at a hearing at the National Assembly this week. …’If the structure had been made of steel, there would be no cathedral to speak of today,’ he said. In a fire, ‘iron holds for half an hour, an hour, and then writhes, pulls on the walls and collapses everything.'” – artnet
Author: Matthew Westphal
Could The Walls Of Notre-Dame Cathedral Really Collapse? Yes, It’s Quite Possible
Says the former master builder (i.e., chief preservation officer) of Cologne Cathedral, “The risk of further collapse is quite realistic. The vault is unlikely to collapse as a whole, but more parts could come down. What most people don’t realize is that heat can also damage stone. Intense heat dissolves — simply put — the structure of the stone.” What’s more, the scaffolding that was in use for a restoration project before last April’s catastrophic blaze “was completely welded into place by the intense heat generated by the fire” and the stone walls could be damaged further as that scaffolding is removed. – Deutsche Welle
Sampling Every Sound A Stradivarius Can Make
Here’s a detailed look at a project by the Museo del Violino in the Italian city of Cremona (the Stradivari family’s hometown and to this day a center of instrument-making) to digitally record and preserve the sound of every note, as bowed and plucked in various ways, that can be made by a violin and cello by Stradivari, a second violin by Guarneri, and a viola by Amati. – Popular Science
Director Ousted At Erie Art Museum Following High-Profile Reports Of Sexual Harassment
Just one business day after articles were published detailing accusations that he propositioned subordinates in Erie, Pa. and in his previous post at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and after a petition demanding his ouster attracted hundreds of co-signers over the weekend, 31-year-old Joshua Helmer is “no longer employed at the Erie Art Museum,” according to a brief statement on the museum’s Facebook page. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
News Reports Of Joshua Helmer’s Behavior ‘Barely Scratched The Surface’, Say Philadelphia Museum Of Art Staffers
A statement signed by hundreds of current and former employees says that “the reporting in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer seems to barely scratch the surface of the abuses perpetrated by this man.” Helmer, who left the Philadelphia Museum abruptly in 2018 and was later banned from the building, has been ousted as director of the Erie (Pa.) Art Museum in the wake of those reports. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
A Story About Zoot And Hawk
Here’s an item purloined (with his permission) from bassist Bill Crow’s column “The Band Room” in Allegro, the publication of New York Local 802 of the American Federation Of Musicians. – Doug Ramsey
Bicultural Comedy In 2020 America: How One Chicano Playwright Creates It
Herbert Sigüenza, a founding member of the Chicano sketch company Culture Clash and playwright-in-residence at San Diego Rep (which premiered his latest script, Bad Hombres/Good Wives) talks to dramaturg Matthew McMahan about “the unique dynamics of bicultural comedy. He frames the comic writer as a type of diplomat whose plays yoke together divergent ideas, jokes, characters, and languages, while managing to get a diverse group of people to laugh at it all the same.” – HowlRound
Once ‘Nutcracker’ Season Is Over, How Can Ballet Companies Get Kids And Their Parents To Come Back?
“While not every 6-year-old is ready to sit through Swan Lake, some enterprising troupes are adding kid-friendly performances to court the same audiences who buy Nutcracker tickets.” Rebecca Ritzel looks at three of those enterprising troupes. – Dance Magazine
Was This Woman The 20th Century’s Most Scandalous Opera Star?
Lydia Locke (1884-1966) “rose to prominence in the early 1900s, when mass celebrity was still a relatively new concept. But the American soprano embraced the label, making news both for her performances at the world’s most prestigious venues and for her fashion choices. Yet it was her tumultuous personal life that garnered the most attention: Between seven marriages, two dead husbands, and one fraudulent baby, her life was scandalous even by the standards of today’s news.” – Mental Floss
‘There Is More Theatre In Here Sometimes Than In The Outside World’: At Milan’s Home For Retired Opera Divas
Yes, divos too. Since 1902, funded by revenues from the composer’s operas, Casa Verdi has been an old-age refuge for singers and musicians, not all of them famous. Today, some 60 retirees live there, paying according to their means. And, since 1999, they’ve been sharing the home with 20 music students, the elders providing the youngsters with lessons and guidance and the students livening up the place. – The Guardian