The company, which will “retain outside counsel” to look into the accusations, said in a statement that Domingo “has been a dynamic creative force in the life of LA Opera and the artistic culture of Los Angeles for more than three decades. Nevertheless, we are committed to doing everything we can to foster a professional and collaborative environment where all our employees and artists feel equally comfortable, valued and respected.” – Los Angeles Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
San Francisco Opera Cancels Sold-Out Plácido Domingo Gala
Just hours after an AP story featured allegations of sexual harassment against the opera superstar, and shortly after the Philadelphia Orchestra disinvited him from its season-opening gala next month, San Francisco Opera cancelled an Oct. 6 concert headlined by Domingo. (Meanwhile, the Salzburg Festival is standing by him.) – San Francisco Classical Voice
Literary Festivals Are Finally Making Their Mark In Africa
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, … ‘book fairs’ have been publishing industry affairs where players meet to do deals … away from the reading public. Until recently. In the last decade and a half, there has been a rise of a new kind of literary festival where writers and readers interact over their text and how it affects their lives.” – Quartz
Ballet World Pushes Back Against Arts Council England’s Plan To Fund ‘Relevance’ Over Excellence
As one senior ACE executive put it this spring, “Relevance is becoming the new litmus test. It will no longer be enough to produce high-quality work.” Now many ballet company execs, choreographers, and dancers are trying to convince ACE to drop or modify the plan. One told this paper, “This idea has been dreamt up by people who simply don’t understand reality. They mean well, but they’ll end up putting us out of business.” Few of these figures will speak out publicly, though Matthew Bourne tweeted, “Is giving pleasure not enough anymore?” – The Telegraph (UK)
Frisco Frescoes: What to Do About Controversial WPA Murals at George Washington High School
My own views on this contretemps are conflicted. By all accounts I’ve seen by art professionals, this is a powerful work, intended by the Russian-American artist to be seen as a critique of the historic cruelty suffered by African-Americans and Native Americans. In cases like this, I give myself what I call the Holocaust Test. – Lee Rosenbaum
How They Design The Cards For ‘Magic: The Gathering’
“Mark [Rosewater, head designer,] explains how, once he and his team come up with the creative concept for a particular Magic set, there are lots of other things to think about. They have to figure out not only how that deck works on its own, but also how it fits into a game that has tens of thousands of cards already out there — not to mention all the various ways the massive fan base can play with those cards. The calculations are so complex that they even have a full-time economist on staff.” (podcast) – Slate
Almost All Languages Have Some Version Of The Expression, ‘It’s Greek To Me’
Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Dutch, along with English, assign Greek this particular honor. In the Baltic languages, it’s Spanish; the Bulgarians use “Patagonian.” And the Greeks? They, along with more nations than any other, use Chinese to signify the incomprehensible. Dan Nosowitz looks into the origins of the expression. – Atlas Obscura
In Russia, Stand-Up Comedy Is New. Female Comedians Are Very New — But They’re Catching On
“Slowly at first — but now in increasing numbers — Russian female comics are taking to the stage to challenge the status quo. Embedded in the humor are also serious reckonings on their countrymen’s grip on power, both in the Kremlin and over their personal lives.” – The Washington Post
”Apocalypse Now’ Is Not An Anti-War Film’, Says Its Director
Francis Ford Coppola: “No one wants to make a pro-war film, everyone wants to make an anti-war film. But an anti-war film, I always thought, should be … something filled with love and peace and tranquility and happiness. It shouldn’t have sequences of violence that inspire a lust for violence. Apocalypse Now has stirring scenes of helicopters attacking innocent people. That’s not anti-war.” – The Guardian
Bob Wilber, Who Specialized In Early Jazz, Dead At 91
“While other budding jazz musicians of the 1940s were enamored of the daring bebop innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Wilber, … a clarinetist and saxophonist who was a protege of Sidney Bechet, one of the founding fathers of jazz, … looked toward the past for inspiration. He found it in the music of the 1920s.” – The Washington Post