“Picasso’s cold war career as a highly political painter, peace campaigner and tireless fundraiser for leftwing causes will be revealed in an exhibition at Tate Liverpool next spring that will include letters from world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Ho Chi Minh, as well as a telegram from Fidel Castro congratulating the artist on being awarded the Soviet Union’s international peace prize.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Washington Ballet’s John Goding Dead at 50
“[A] founding member, ballet master and former principal dancer for the Washington Ballet, whose career with the company spanned more than 30 years, … Mr. Goding was recruited to the company by its founder, Mary Day, and remained a central figure in the group as it transformed into one of the country’s best-known regional dance companies.”
Proposed Arts Center Near Ground Zero May Not Be Dead After All
“The long-delayed Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site is making a comeback. A new proposal would rescue the PAC from the tangle of infrastructure in the middle of the Trade Center site and plunk it down where the Deutsche Bank building currently stands. The move would allow construction on the PAC to begin far earlier than previously contemplated.”
Yet More Evidence That Artists Are Insane
“We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the tortured artist. Salvador Dali’s various disorders and Sylvia Plath’s depression spring to mind. Now new research seems to show why: a genetic mutation linked to psychosis and schizophrenia also influences creativity.”
La Scala Makes Its First Visit To Israel
With Daniel Barenboim as conductor, the Milan company has celebrated Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary with a staged Aida at the city’s Performing Arts Center and a free performance of Verdi’s Requiem for thousands at Yarkon Park.
Verdi’s Requiem At Theresienstadt
The work Barenboim and La Scala selected for their free Tel Aviv centennial concert was a “gift [with] a special poignancy. Verdi’s Requiem was the greatest musical production of the Holocaust era. It emerged as a form of resistance – no less impressive than any undertaken in the face of the Nazi beast – in the concentration camp of Terezin.”
‘What? Opera In Ramallah?’
“[A]s the creme-de-la-creme of Tel Aviv society thronged … to get tickets for the premiere of La Scala Milano’s production of Aida, … on Tuesday evening [in Ramallah], as the excited announcer declared in both English and Arabic, the curtain rose on the ‘world premiere’ of the first Palestinian opera in Arabic, called The Story Behind the Tale.”
Organizers Cancel Leonard Cohen’s West Bank Concert
Just last month, performances in Tel Aviv and Ramallah in September were added to the schedule for the singer-songwriter’s current world tour. Then the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel issued a statement saying that “Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel’s colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel.” So the hosts have withdrawn their invitation, saying the event had become too politicized.
Danish Monarch Unveils Her Newest Costume Designs For Ballet
“Queen Margrethe unveiled the colorful costumes Wednesday for The Swineherd, a ballet based on a story by Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen. She used stark colors – acid green, pink and purple – or large polka dots to give the costumes of the royal characters a cartoonesque touch. … It’s the fourth time Margrethe has designed costumes and sets for a stage adaptation of Andersen’s work.”
Women Weigh In On Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist: Cinematic Brilliance Or Sick And Twisted Misogyny?
“Here is a film that explicitly confronts the director’s intertwined fears of primal nature and female sexuality. But does a fear of femaleness automatically equate to hatred? I’m not convinced that it does.” Half a dozen prominent women consider the towering scandal of this year’s art-film circuit.