“An unsigned painting of an unidentified bald man with a beard has aroused excitement among historians and art buffs after lying largely unnoticed in the collection of a historic chateau in central France for decades.” That chateau belonged to the renowned diplomat Talleyrand, and a document signed by his chamberlain is what set off all the fuss. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Russia’s Richest Oligarch Sets Opening Date For His New Moscow Arts Center
GES-2, a center for contemporary art(s) designed by Renzo Piano and constructed inside a disused 1907 power station, will open next September. Leonid Mikhelson, the billionaire funding the project, insists that GES-2 “is not a museum”; it will have a 420-seat concert hall/theatre and an on-site workshop as well as exhibition spaces, outdoor event space, and a birch grove. (What Mikhelson won’t say is how much it all costs.) – The Art Newspaper
Catholic Group Tries To Shut Down Brussels Opera Production With Nude Joan Of Arc
The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Belgium’s national opera house, is presenting a staging of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) by provocative director Romeo Castellucci in which the Maid of Orléans is shown, in extremis, unclothed. A group called the Pro Europa Christiana Federation has petitioned both La Monnaie’s director and Belgium’s minister of culture to close the show, arguing that the production, in which “Saint Joan of Arc is again the target of a pornographic representation, … [is] obscene and hurt[s] Christians.” (The Monnaie’s director is unmoved.) – Yahoo! (AP)
To The Rest Of The World, Flamenco Says ‘Spain’. To The Spanish, Not So Much.
“Indeed, the world’s love of flamenco has long created problems within Spain, where the performance was once considered a vulgar and pornographic spectacle. Over the years, many Spaniards considered flamenco a scourge of their nation, deploring it as an entertainment that lulled the masses into stupefaction and hampered Spain’s progress toward modernity. Flamenco’s shifting fortunes show how Spain’s complex national identity continues to evolve to this day.” – Zócalo Public Square
Propwatch: the only types of prop in the world in ‘The Antipodes’
Dave says there are seven types of stories in the world (starting with ‘rags to riches’). Josh says there are ten types of stories in the world (starting with ‘a threshold crossing’). One of the Dannies says there are 36 types of stories in the world (starting with ‘supplication’). But what is quite clear, by the end of The Antipodes by Annie Baker at the National Theatre, is that there are just seven types of props in the world. – David Jays
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (12)
This was one of the first jazz albums to be widely owned by people who didn’t usually buy jazz albums, my father among them. I found a mint-condition copy in his record cabinet that looked as if it hadn’t been played for a decade. It suited me right down to the ground. – Terry Teachout
Soprano Julia Bullock Is Forging A Major Career Entirely Away From Standard Opera Repertory
“Instead of singing Mozart or Verdi, she has made a precocious impact on the concert stage and as a curator, serving as artist in residence last season at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — where she delved deeply into the African-American experience, past and present — and this season in the same role with the San Francisco Symphony.” Says director Peter Sellars, “This is who we’ve been waiting for. You see someone who’s not just a vehicle, but an agent of change. She’s actually moving the whole art form into a new relevance.” – The New York Times
Despite Difficult Conditions And Sniping From Tabloids, British Theatre Companies Continue Their Work In Prisons
“Last year The Sun ran a story that started: ‘Convicts at a drug-plagued prison performed a lavish version of musical Les Misérables for the public – to boost lags’ morale.’ Two years earlier, in the same paper, a story ran that ‘prisoners in Britain’s creaking jails are to be taught art, music and drama in a desperate bid to slash reoffending’. In 2008, the Daily Mail reported: ‘A sick joke: terrorist signs up for comedy classes at top-security prison.’ So why do these companies do it? Because the evidence that it works is overwhelming.” – The Stage
Chou Wen-Chung, ‘Godfather Of Chinese Contemporary Music’, Dead At 96
“[He] left a relatively small body of compositions, but his fastidious and elegant works are filled with emotional eddies. He wrote mostly for Western instruments, but made them bend single notes to accommodate the microtonal flexibility of Chinese music.” In addition, as a professor at Columbia University, he trained an entire group of now-prominent Chinese composers, among them Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng. – The New York Times
Can This Website Become An Amazon For Independent Bookstores?
This January, the American Booksellers Association Bookshop will launch Bookshop, “a mobile-friendly website with one-click ordering à la Amazon that … will sell physical books and digital audio but not e-books. It will also discount, but not nearly as deeply as Amazon … [and] experiment with various thresholds for free shipping.” – Publishers Weekly