“There will be no revisionist happy ending in the coming Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. A new scene, in which the title characters have a final emotional encounter meant to deepen their love story, has been dropped.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Speak The Verse: On Translating The Iliad
Stephen Mitchell, who recently published a new version of the epic, demonstrates how he went about rendering one five-line verse of Homer’s poetry into “an English that is rapid, direct and noble, as his Greek is.”
Pittsburgh Symphony CEO Abruptly Resigns
Lawrence J. Tamburri, the orchestra’s president and CEO since 2004, stepped down following a two-hour meeting of the PSO board’s executive committee. Tamburri has been replaced, effective immediately, by board vice-chairman James A. Wilkinson.
BBC And Arts Council England Create Online Arts Platform
“Arts Council England and the BBC are launching an online arts channel that will broadcast new work, documentaries and filmed performances created by cultural organisations across the country.”
Neo-Academicism, Russia’s Last 20th-Century Avant-Garde Art Movement
“Fearing modern art’s encroachment on artistic traditions,” Leningrad avant-garde leader Timur Novikov, during the 1990s, “called for a return to ancient Greco-Roman ideals of beauty and harmony. But rather than simply reproducing classical motifs, Novikov [and his fellows] … adapted them to the 20th century with new media and irreverent interpretations.”
Screening Live Theatre In Cinemas – Is It Really A Good Idea?
“But just how popular is the concept with audiences, how keen are the performers – and is breaking this niche market worthwhile for the cinemas and theatres involved?”
Christopher Hitchens On Rudyard Kipling, War And ‘Sacrifice’
“I spent much of this weekend, as I often do this time of year, confining myself to writing and thinking about Rudyard Kipling. This may seem like a pretentious thing to be saying, but if you care about war and peace and justice and life and death, then he is an inescapable subject.”
What, Exactly, Is A ‘Person’ (And Can A Corporation Be One)?
“John Locke called person a forensic concept. What he had in mind is that a person is one to whom credit and blame may be attached, one who is deemed responsible. … Crucially, Locke argued, persons are not the same as human beings.”
Did Arsenic Kill Jane Austen?
Crime novelist Lindsay Ashford finds that the symptoms Austen suffered before her death at age 41 are very consistent with those of poisoning by arsenic, which was widely used in medicines at the time.
John Eliot Gardiner On His Reputation For Being Mean To His Musicians
“I think I’m more sinned against than sinning. People love to pin labels and reputations on you, for being difficult or temperamental. I might’ve been a little bit like that in the past …”