In his first appearance with the Royal Opera since he abruptly backed out of the Ring two years ago, Bryn Terfel scores a big success as Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. Neil Fisher reflects the London critics’ consensus: “Wagner singing is hardly ever this nuanced, but Terfel’s bass-baritone is now so subtly controlled that he can fire it out over the orchestra or thin it down to a plaintive whisper.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The World’s Oldest Performing Tenor
Vilho Kekkonen isn’t the world’s oldest living tenor (Hugues Cuénod is still with us at age 106), But, at age 100, the former church musician, opera chorister and character still sings in public at Christmas and Midsummer. And he remembers how singing Tchaikovsky saved his life during the 1939 war between Finland and the Soviet Union.
Newsflash!: Stephen Sondheim Shows Understanding Toward Critics
“If I were a journalist and had to go see every show and write about it, I’d quit in two seconds. I can go to a show, and then go home and not have to talk about it or think about it. You guys have to write about it. And if you disliked it or felt baffled, that’s torture. Your only resort is to be sarcastic and have fun at the show’s expense.”
Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Opera’s Ultimate (Fundraising) Challenge
“Los Angeles Opera’s production of The Ring represents another kind of monetary epic – a fight to come up with as much as $32 million in the midst of a recession that has severely affected donations, the lifeblood of high culture.” The company is still $8 million short of its fundraising goal for the cycle.
Spirits Remain High At Beleaguered Ballet B.C.
“What’s the mood like in Ballet B.C. rehearsals for its first new work since the trauma of shutdowns and near collapse?” A visit to rehearsals of James Kudelka’s new piece, The Goldberg Variations Side 2: Adam & Eve & Steve, indicates that the dancers are reinvigorated and working harder than ever.”
Saint-Laurent Collection Livens Up A Sluggish Auction Market
“[R]arely has an event been more ‘mediatized,’ as the French like to say, than next week’s auction of the collection of one Yves Saint Laurent, who died last June at 71. Christie’s has spent $1.2 million alone on renting and refurbishing 140,000 square feet of the Grand Palais for the auction. Six separate sales are scheduled over three days.”
The French, They’re Different From You And Me – Even In Their TV Ads
“Long on sensuality, style and poetry, [French commercials] are notably lean on facts and nearly allergic to the rough-and-tumble of commerce. It’s forbidden here to denigrate your competitors in a television advertisement… Which is not to say that the French dislike commercials. They actually love their TV ads. They just prefer not to admit it.”
Giorgio Armani Gives $1M For Arts In NYC Schools
“The money will be used to create the Armani Arts Institute, an umbrella program that will fund arts initiatives in schools serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged populations.”
Sleep Deprivation Could Cause Mental Illness (Gee, Ya Think?)
“Take anyone with a psychiatric disorder and the chances are they don’t sleep well. The result of their illness, you might think. Now this long-standing assumption is being turned on its head, with the radical suggestion that poor sleep might actually cause some psychiatric illnesses or lead people to behave in ways that doctors mistake for mental problems.”
J. Max Bond, 73, Pioneering African-American Architect
“Bond’s relatively low profile outside the profession wasn’t the result of racism, but rather his decision to work at the head of a big corporate firm doing big corporate work. […] This position may not have won him celebrity, but it allowed Bond to show, through tireless work and professional activism, a generation of African-American architects (and architects of African descent worldwide) the way to success in an overwhelmingly white, upper-class profession.”