Charles Isherwood on Kevin Spacey as Richard III: “So while there is nary an understated note struck in the performance, those three-plus hours flew by mighty quickly. I can’t say I entirely respected Mr. Spacey’s endlessly ingratiating performance, but I definitely enjoyed it, as you enjoy indulging in something that you know is bad for you but cannot resist.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Storytelling Lab The Moth Wins Big MacArthur Grant
“The Moth, a New York City-based group dedicated to the art of storytelling … [was] among the 15 organizations in 6 countries to receive the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Leadership … The money will be used to expand ‘The Moth Radio Hour’ from 10 episodes a year to a weekly series … [and to] enable the non-profit group to help preserve its video and audio archive.”
Watching El Sistema At Work In A Venezuelan Slum
“Corrugated tin roofs, ramshackle cinder-block huts, labyrinthine streets caked with garbage and rubble, the possibility of random violence at any turn. And this section of the Sarría barrio is not even bad for Caracas. … So just across the street from such blighted scenes young children with violins and French horns and trumpets filled the spaces of an elementary school on Tuesday.”
Met Opera’s Longest-Serving Singer, Charles Anthony, Dead At 82
“The number seems almost impossible, but Mr. Anthony” – a comprimario tenor – “sang with the Met in 2,928 performances. He played 111 roles in 69 operas” over 57 seasons; his final performance, as the old Emperor in Turandot, was in January of 2010.
Love Letters Of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning Now Online
“Wellesley College and Baylor University collaborated on the project, which [launched on Feb. 14] with more than 1,400 letters by the poets available online. Of those, 573 represent the complete set of love letters, and at least 1,500 additional pieces of correspondence to other people the couple knew are to be up by summer.”
An Art Critic Opines On Leonardo Live Cinema Event
Roberta Smith: “[It’s] a strangely hectic, occasionally informative and sometimes even insightful high-definition tour of the [UK] National Gallery exhibition, ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter in the Court of Milan.’ … Thankful as I am to have an inkling of what the Leonardo show was like, I can’t say that it is entirely a promising debut.”
Was It Evolutionary Biology That Made Men Dominate Women? No, It Was Agriculture
“In hunter-gatherer societies, [the] strength differential doesn’t allow men to fully dominate women, because they depend on the food that women gather. But … [s]trength gives men an advantage over women once heavy ploughs and large animals become central aspects of food production. With this, men become the sole providers, and women start to depend on men economically. The economic dependency allows men to mistreat women.”
Is This The Ken Burns Of Dance?
“Bob Hercules didn’t set out to become the Ken Burns of the American dance world. But for the last three years, the Chicago-based documentary film writer and director has turned his focus on two of the country’s high-profile dance ensembles: the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Joffrey Ballet.”
Cash Hemorrhage At Top Venue In Ireland’s Second City
“Operating losses at the Cork Opera House almost trebled in 2010/11 to more than €825,000 (£692,000) following a drop of more than a fifth in revenues … Production volume and audience numbers both fell by nearly a quarter (24%) in the year to the end of March 2011.”
The Very First Recordings Of The Human Voice Revealed
“It must have been excruciating for the National Museum of American History’s archivists to have the earliest known recordings of the human voice but not to be able to listen to them. The records, made in the Volta Lab of Alexander Graham Bell in the early 1880s, were too fragile to play. But the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory figured out how to scan them optically and retrieve the sound.”