“A French court on Monday sentenced five members of an all-female jihadist cell to between five and 30 years in prison over a failed bid to detonate a car bomb outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. … The five women, aged between 22 and 42, were arrested after a car packed with gas cylinders was found parked near the bustling esplanade in front of the cathedral … on November 4th, 2016.” – The Local (France)
Author: Matthew Westphal
What English National Opera Really Needs From Its New Boss: Bankers
“Bankers” are something that ENO’s previous two artistic directors didn’t manage to provide many of, and it’s now up to Annilese Miskimmon, their new successor, to get some. Fortunately, explains David Benedict, “she’s startlingly well-equipped for the job.” – The Stage
The Opera That Reimagined The Last Habsburg Emperor And Empress For The Shattered Europe Of 1919
“The year 1919 was pivotal in European culture, with bold portents for the postwar future — it was the year that Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus and Marcel Duchamp painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa. [Richard Strauss’s] Die Frau ohne Schatten, in contrast, was almost reassuringly conservative in its late Romantic musical language, in its fairy tale libretto about a fundamentally good-hearted emperor and empress, and in its celebration of fertility and childbirth as the foundation of marriage and society.” – The New York Times
Mission Creep??!!
A colleague recently shared that when they advocate for community engagement in their organization they get pushback about “mission creep.” Mission creep??!! If connecting the arts with communities is not an arts organization’s mission, what is it?! – Doug Borwick
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (1)
Throughout the coming month, I’ll write about one of these albums every weekday in the order in which I first heard them, starting in 1968 with the first record I ever bought with my own money. – Terry Teachout
Jane Austen Lovers Are Furious At The New Ending To Her Unfinished Novel
“Andrew Davies’ TV adaptation of Sanditon, which aired on Sunday, ended with Charlotte and Sidney bidding each other a tearful farewell – in love, but not together. … The ending has enraged and upset viewers, but most of all, I think, surprised them. This is Austen, and we know what we’re entitled to: there’s even a book about it, for goodness’ sake – The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After.” – The Guardian
A Dance Critic Assesses Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Joker’ Moves
Gia Kourlas: “You can’t completely banish your true self when you dance; Arthur Fleck is still somewhere inside of Mr. Phoenix, even after Arthur transforms himself into the Joker. What makes Mr. Phoenix’s performance so confusingly poignant — and not just a tale of good vs. evil — is the way in which he has essentially placed two characters within one dancing body.” – The New York Times
A Prison Production Of ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ Goes On Tour
“The cast was strip-searched before boarding the bus to their show. The leading man was shackled so tightly that he performed with abrasions on his wrists. And the moment the men finished their bows and the house lights came up, they had to slip out of costume and back into green prison uniforms.” – The New York Times
Netflix And Director Ava DuVernay Sued For Defamation By — Wait, Who?
In the 1940s, John E. Reid and Associates developed a commonly-used, and now-controversial police interrogation method called the Reid Technique. That method is mentioned once, briefly, in When They See Us, DuVernay’s recent Netflix series about the Central Park Five; based on that mention, Reid and Associates argues in its court filing that its reputation has been damaged by the script’s mischaracterization and false assertions. – Variety
‘My Actual Goal Is To Be The Anthony Bourdain Of Theatre’: Helen Shaw, New York Magazine’s New Critic
“I want to say to readers: You have no idea that you want to go to this weird corner and eat these spicy noodles, but trust me, you’ll love it. If I could do one millionth of that for theatre, I’d be happy.” (On the other hand: “I love theatre, but I am not a fan. I don’t feel like a fan. And I do get very, very angry at things.”) – American Theatre