“Classical Indian dancer and choreographer Menaka Thakkar has won the 2012 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.” Among previous winners of the $30,000 award, given by the Canada Council for the Arts, are choreographer Margie Gillis, composer R. Murray Schafer, and theatre director Richard Rose.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Santa Fe Opera’s Chief Conductor Suddenly Resigns
“[Frédéric] Chaslin’s departure did not appear to have been anticipated. … Chaslin informed the company of his decision shortly after the summer opera season ended on August 25, and … he has now returned to his home in Paris.”
Master Animator Tissa David, 91
“A 1975 issue of Millimeter magazine described her as ‘one of the world’s best and busiest’ animators and ‘one of the few women to have reached the top in the traditionally male-dominated animated cartoon field’.”
Mark Rylance Turns Shakespearean Flash Mobs Loose On London
Tuesday of this week saw “a rigorously rehearsed Shakespeare flashmob which kicked off a week of pop-up performances across the capital in a project created by the actor Mark Rylance.”
When Authors Disown Their Work, Should Readers Care?
Kafka, after all, wanted his work burned. So did Virgil, who tried to destroy the Aeneid. “When it comes to such arguments, who is right? Who is justified? Why does it matter – and what does it even matter, in the modern age where it’s no longer an easy thing for the past to simply disappear?”
Religion Is Opposed To Reason? Not In The Hebrew Bible
“[One] of the [scriptures’] abiding themes is precisely the ever-urgent need for human beings, if they are to find what is true and just, to maintain their capacity for independent thought and action. Almost every major hero and heroine of the Hebrew Bible is depicted as independent-minded, disobedient, even contentious.”
LA’s Arts Community Makes The Most Of Carmageddon II
“With another massive shutdown of the 405 freeway approaching, a grass-roots effort is underway to offer Angelenos an artistic reprieve that’s locally focused, timed for the second coming of Carmageddon, Sept. 29 and 30. More than 100 artists, arts organizations, advocacy groups and community partners have teamed to launch what they are calling Artmageddon, with the tagline ‘Less Car. More Art’.”
Painted Pigeons (Yes, Live Birds) At Venice Biennale
“In recent days, visitors to the city have been surprised to see pigeons sporting plumages that would do credit to a tropical parrot: green and yellow pigeons; pigeons whose feathers radiate electric blue or strident vermillion; even pigeons that seem to be robed in imperial purple. … [The] coloured birds were the work of a Swiss artist, Julian Charrière, and a German photographer, Julius von Bismark.” Some animal rights activists, however, are not charmed.
Was Van Gogh Partly Color-Blind? One Scientist Thinks So
Kazunori Asada, a Japanese medical scientist and poet, believes that “Vincent van Gogh’s acidic sense of color and preference for bright, clashing hues” were due to a midrange spectrum deficiency – “that van Gogh’s eyes had a moderate lack of receptors for the color red.”
Interviewing Richard Tognetti Can Be A Mite Intimidating
“While most artists I talk to are in it for self-promotion, a conversation with Tognetti is an intellectual ice bath.” The director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra “weighs his words with punctilious care and also politely dissects whatever I say. There’s nothing unfriendly about it – he’s eminently charming – but it’s the conversational habit of a man addicted to exactitude.”