Terry Teachout: “New York’s Lincoln Center Festival and Washington’s Kennedy Center are both capable of making it happen. Wouldn’t you love to see a matinee performance of Othello at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, then stroll next door to the Metropolitan Opera House and hear Otello?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Best Ballet Dancer Comment Ever On Black Swan
Jin Yao of the Hong Kong Ballet: “If the ballet world was really as it is in the movie, we’d all be dead by now.”
Anti-Nostalgia: Those Things From The Past We’re Glad To Be Rid Of
Jeff Weinstein: “Are there things we’re actually happy to see disappear, stuff we’re thrilled will never breathe again? The social media were born to answer exactly this sort of knotty question.” And goodness, they did. (Typewriter ribbons. Rolled fax paper. Girdles. New Math. All English food before 1989.)
Just What Is Charisma, Exactly?
Zachary Woolfe: “It’s a term used a lot but one too often skimmed over. When an artist is described as charismatic, I know what’s meant. You know what’s meant. But what is meant?”
Barenboim Conducts Beethoven At Korean DMZ
“Daniel Barenboim, the world-renowned conductor and pianist, led a peace concert performed by the West -Eastern Divan Orchestra in Imjingak near Korea’s Demilitarized Zone on the country’s Independence Day.”
Barenboim’s Next Peace Concert Could Be In Cairo’s Tahrir Square
After finishing the Korean DMZ concert, the maestro proposed “an open-air concert by his orchestra of Jewish and Palestinian musicians on Tahrir Square, the symbolic home in Cairo of Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising.” Barenboim said,” We would like to play in the Gaza Strip, on Tahrir Square in Cairo and in Israel too.”
Edinburgh Int’l Festival Under Fire For Accepting Chinese Government Funding
“Human-rights organisations have criticised the Edinburgh International Festival for using cash support from the Chinese government to help bankroll the event,” which features the National Ballet of China and the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe. “Campaigners warned that the festival organisers risked endorsing China’s crackdown on cultural figures, including the dissident artist Ai Weiwei.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians Reject Management’s Strategic Plan
“In a stunning rebuke to the official leadership of the Philadelphia Orchestra, musicians have rejected a strategic plan prepared by president Allison B. Vulgamore and management leaders.” The letter to the board of directors communicating the rejection was signed by 80 out of 100 musicians.
Chicago Lyric Opera And Union Reach Agreement, Avoiding Lockout
“Lyric Opera of Chicago and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) reached tentative agreement Tuesday night on a contract for the 2011-12 season. No details of the settlement were forthcoming.”
Louise Behrend, 94, Violinist Who Introduced Suzuki Method To U.S.
“[She] trained a generation of American teachers in the Suzuki method and [her] standing as a musician helped the Japanese movement establish itself in the United States.”