“With the loss of Palestine after the formation of Israel in 1948 there was no revival in the West Bank of the cultural scene that had been so vibrant in cities like Jaffa, Jerusalem and Haifa. … All this has changed. … Classical music in Palestinian society is no longer the reserve of the privileged classes.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Missy Mazzoli Named Opera Co. Of Philadelphia’s Composer-In-Residence
“Deepening its pledge to advance the art form, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, in collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group in New York, has appointed a second composer in residence” – 31-year-old, Brooklyn-based Missy Mazzoli, a greater Philadelphia native.
Thomas Pynchon Gives In, Allows His Novels To Become E-Books
“For the first time, Thomas Pynchon’s back catalog will be available as e-books starting Wednesday. Pynchon was a major writer whose absence from the e-book canon was notable – particularly since his most avid readers tend to be intellectually curious, the kind of people who are often technology’s early adopters.”
Top Syrian Playwright On Making Theatre During The Rebellion
Mohammad Al-Attar: “[Many] Syrians are bitter that a decent number of intellectuals were afraid to speak out or slow to criticise what the regime was doing. Each person has his or her own reasons for this. … People are trying to liberate themselves – we have to explore questions we have postponed and examine our political positions.”
Belarus Free Theatre’s Director Says They Don’t Do ‘Political Theatre’
Natalia Koliada: “I am always against separating, saying there should be political theatre or social theatre or female theatre, or aboriginal theatre – it is about theatre. It is about going deep into one life, like a total immersion in personality, in a different circumstance.”
Orientalism Inverted: The Javanese Painter Who Exoticized Europe (And Himself)
“When the [19th-century] European taste for the exotic was ascendant, there was a unique case of Orientalism inverted, in the dandified figure of the Javanese painter Raden Saleh, who mastered the technique of Western artists and even mimicked their sensibility.”
Can A Law Get Javanese People To Keep Speaking Javanese?
“In late May, the province of Central Java, Indonesia, passed a law requiring residents to use the regional tongue, Javanese, once a week. The law is symbolic and probably unenforceable … but addresses what a local councillor called ‘a tendency for many Javanese people not to use Javanese in their daily lives’.”
Getting Britain’s Three National Dance Companies Together For An Olympics Programme
“The logistics involved in staging and touring a show with just one of these companies is difficult enough, but when English National Ballet, National Dance Company Wales and Scottish Ballet hit the road together, it takes some serious planning.”
BAM Opens A Third Theater
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s new Richard B. Fisher Building, with a flexible 250-seat “black box” (it’s actually blue) auditorium, “represents a significant step forward for an organization that for years has craved a dedicated smaller stage for more experimental work.”
South Africa’s Film Industry Is Still Too Stuck In Whiteness
Phil Hoad argues that, nearly two decades after the end of apartheid, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest film industry (after Nigeria’s) is still beholden to Hollywood and its outlook, while the country’s black majority is underrepresented in everything from acting and directing (even Tsotsi and District 9 had white directors) to access to movie screens.