“She wrote among much else one celebrated novel … She personally saved at least a dozen people from the French revolutionary guillotine. She reinvented Parisian millinery with her astonishing multicolored turbans. She dramatically dismissed Jane Austen as ‘vulgaire.’ She snubbed Napoleon at a reception. … And she once completely outtalked the poet Coleridge at a soirée in Mayfair. For these things alone she should be remembered.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Woodruff Board Fails To Approve New Site For Atlanta Symphony
An extensive 25-year master plan for the orchestra – which calls for a new concert hall but jettisons the widely-publicized design commissioned from starchitect Santiago Calatrava – was presented to the board on Wednesday. But members trickled out steadily through the 2½-hour presentation, and by the time of the vote there was no longer a quorum.
Ben-Hur, The Musical! In The Original Languages!
“On-stage chariot races, herds of horses, camels, vultures, eagles, 400 performers and a supporting cast which includes Jesus Christ, Tiberius Julius Caesar and Pontius Pilate … What else to do but set Ben-Hur the stage show in Latin and Aramaic?”
Bringing Dance To The Hasidim
“One of [Rivka Nahari’s] goals this past November, when she opened her studio in the basement of her Flatbush home, was to increase the level of dance training available to frum women. Nahari hopes to find a few gifted and dedicated female dancers and create a professional company so that the girls won’t have to go outside the community for an artistic education.”
Twitter-An-Opera-Plot Contest: The Winners Revealed!
“Danielle De Niese took her judging duties quite seriously and returned quarter final, semi final, top 25 results before paring the list down to the seven best ones. Amazing.”
Calatrava Design For Atlanta Symphony Dumped
“Celebrated Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s dramatic, $300 million vision for Symphony Center will not survive a proposed change of location to the Woodruff [Arts Center] campus.” A Woodruff officer said, “to assume you could pick up that design and move it to a different site doesn’t make sense.”
Royal Ballet Set To Visit Cuba For First Time
“The Royal Ballet is to make its first visit to Cuba as part of its 2009 summer tour, which will see the company travel through Washington, Granada and Havana. … Cuban RB principal guest artist Carlos Acosta will lead the company for the first performance of [Kenneth MacMillan’s] Manon with Tamara Rojo” at the Gran Teatro de la Habana.
Troubled Honolulu Symphony Has A Plan, But Needs Cash
“It’s been a season of rave reviews for the 109-year-old orchestra, a testament to an organization whose members have continued to play despite partial payments and missing paychecks for much of the season … [The HSO] has a plan for getting out of those [financial] straits, but as the plan is being implemented, it needs a serious influx of cash to cover its expenses.”
Broadway Producer Rocco Landesman To Head NEA
“Rocco Landesman, the colorful theatrical producer and race-track aficionado who brought hits like Big River, Angels in America and The Producers to Broadway, has been nominated as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House said on Tuesday.”
Steppenwolf Plans To Bring Tracy Letts’s Latest To Broadway
“Talks and negotiations are in an advanced stage to bring Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts to Broadway in the fall, the Steppenwolf Theatre confirmed Tuesday, while insisting that no final contractual deal had been made.” Letts wrote the Tony-winning August: Osage County as well as the Off-Broadway hit (and film) Bug.