“[1,169] leading conservators, curators, academics, architects and engineers” — among them former Met Museum director Philippe de Montebello and Delphine Christophe, chief conservator at France’s Centre des Monuments Nationaux — “have signed an open letter urging the French president Emmanuel Macron not to bypass experts in his rush to rebuild Nôtre-Dame-de-Paris after it was ravaged by fire on 15 April.” – The Art Newspaper
Author: Matthew Westphal
Despite Controversy, Edinburgh’s New Concert Hall Gets Final Go-Ahead
The Dunard Centre, with a 1,000-seat main auditorium and a 200-seat chamber hall/recording studio, will be the home venue for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and an additional performance space for the Edinburgh International Festival. – Edinburgh Evening News
Is Bollywood In The Tank For Indian Prime Minister Modi?
In the lead-up to India’s current elections, a recent Modi biopic, a film about a 2016 military raid against Pakistan, and a high-profile trip of two dozen stars to take selfies with the PM all have critics wondering if India’s film industry is trying to campaign for the incumbent. Reporter Amrit Dhillon suggests that it’s not that simple — or, rather, that it’s simple in a different way. – The Guardian
Les Murray, Australia’s Leading Poet, Dead At 80
“One of Australia’s most successful and renowned contemporary poets, Murray’s career spanned more than 40 years. He published close to 30 books. … In 2016, he was named by The Atlantic as one of the greatest English language poets of his time.” – The Guardian
Change the dance, change the world
Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins: two artists whose choreography is tightly locked into the DNA of the silver-plated shows they helped create. New choreography for those shows? It’s about ever mother-lovin’ time. – David Jays
Jan Morris At 92
“Morris has lived many lives, and it is impossible to separate who she is now from who she was before. … She is impatient with questions about transgender politics, possibly because she made peace with her own decisions so long ago. Having reached her age and lived for equal amounts of time as a man and as a woman, she says, the transition she made so long ago somehow feels less relevant.” – The New York Times
Wawa The Destroyer, Chewing Up Philadelphia Architecture And Spitting Out Identical Boxes
The iconic Philly convenience store/sandwich chain, writes Inga Saffron, “is on a relentless march through central Philadelphia, where it picks off architectural trophies, runs them through the brand’s blanderizing machine, and spits them out as indistinguishable clones.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
In Rome, Tourists And Locals Alike Rebel Against City Government That Can’t Provide Services
“[The Italian capital is] a city in a perennial state of disrepair, from its rubbish-strewn streets, potholes, scrappy parks and medieval buildings marred by graffiti to closed metro stations and buses that either never come or occasionally combust.” Yet taxes are high, and the per-night levy on tourists is the highest in Europe. Now people are demanding that the city government start giving them their money’s worth. – The Guardian
Notre-Dame Isn’t Just An Architectural Monument And A Place Of Worship — For Centuries It Was The Intellectual Center Of Paris
“Influential medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Erasmus, John Calvin, several popes and many other intellectual luminaries studied or taught [at the cathedral’s school] in its early centuries. The opportunity to study with famous scholars drew students from across Europe.” Indeed, it was Notre-Dame’s school that grew to become the University of Paris. – The Conversation
From Noh To Manga Musicals, A Survey Of Theatre In Japan
“This special issue … looks at theatre and performance in the Land of the Rising Sun, from its foundational traditions to its most up-to-date innovations, and considers its place within contemporary Japanese culture, among East Asian cultures broadly, and in the global context.” – American Theatre