Lev Grossman: “I know it’s a weakness. A vice even. You’re making a choice: essentially what you’re saying (or what I’m saying) is … I’m willing to chuck most or probably all of my dignity, and some measure of my personal safety, and your personal safety, because it’s more important to me to keep reading this book I’m reading than it is to look where I’m going.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Peter Schjeldahl Changes His Mind About Klimt’s Adele
“The gold- and silver-encrusted picture … isn’t a peculiarly incoherent painting, as I had once thought. It’s not a painting at all, but a largish, flattish bauble: a thing. It is classic less of its time than of ours, by sole dint of the money sunk in it.”
Is Political Theatre Over?
“In his 2007 survey of the last half-century or so of British drama, State of the Nation, Michael Billington argues that such drama forms the backbone of post-war theatre. … However, a few weeks ago, playwright Dennis Kelly – himself considered one of the foremost political playwrights – gave an intriguing speech in which he claimed that ‘political theatre is a complete fucking waste of time.’ Is he right?”
Book Publishing In Greek Returns To Once-Multicultural Istanbul
“It is fitting that the official opening of the first Greek publishing house in Istanbul for 50 years, takes place in a former Greek school that has not delivered primary education since 1984 because there were no longer enough pupils in the neighbourhood. The Istos publishing house, founded by a group of seven Greeks and Turks, will publish bilingual books about Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox community, their cultural heritage and impact on the city.”
Musicians File Unfair Labor Charge Against Lancaster (Pa.) Symphony
“Local 294 of the American Federation of Musicians … union alleges that the orchestra has refused to negotiate a contract that would cover its approximately 127 musicians. A contract would be the first for the orchestra’s musicians who voted 50-34 earlier this year in favor of unionizing.” Orchestra management argues that the musicians are independent contractors and cannot unionize.
China’s Newest, Shiniest Arts Center Plans Programs To Match Its Spectacular Architecture
“Even in this increasingly crowded field the new $240 million Tianjin Grand Theater stands out for the boldness of its ambition … Unlike many other grand theaters – an unfortunate number of which stand empty their first few years – the Tianjin Grand Theater also has a performance-packed opening season and a clear vision for its future.”
Watching Chinese Dancers And An American Modern Dancemaker Figure Each Other Out
“Choreographer Tere O’Connor flails his arms and gyrates an invisible Hula-Hoop, struggling to convey the idea of improvisation to members of the Beijing Modern Dance Co. The dancers, already grappling with the language barrier, simply mimic his moves – not the point, as he tells them in the new documentary Taste of Body.”
Jewish Culture In Poland Is Being Revived – And Modernized
“[Since] the Communist government fell more than two decades ago thousands of Poles have discovered they have Jewish roots … Writers, playwrights, filmmakers and visual artists are tackling everything from anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to coming to terms with their families’ Communist pasts and issues of identity.”
Las Vegas Philharmonic Music Director, Evidently Peeved, Declines To Renew Contract
“Fresh off Memorial Day Weekend, about 6 a.m., [David] Itkin cut loose with an email to the L.V. Phil’s board of directors, which he copied to the LVP Orchestra Players Committee, stating that he planned to leave the orchestra in 2013. In that message, Itkin said that artistic differences and a lack of institutional transparency weighed in his decision to leave his post.”
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Love Letters
“[He] flood[ed] the resistant object of his desire with romantic revelations, only to be faced with repeated, composed rejection … But Rilke’s love didn’t flinch and the two eventually developed a passionate bond which, over the 35-year course of their correspondence that followed, we see change shape and morph from friends to mentor and protégé to lovers to literary allies.”