When an ambitious new cultural institution chooses its architect six years before appointing an artistic director/CEO, you know its priorities are upside-down and backwards. – Lee Rosenbaum
Author: Matthew Westphal
Charity Tillemann-Dick, R.I.P.
Charity Tillemann-Dick, a coloratura soprano who suffered from pulmonary hypertension and who resumed her singing career after undergoing a double lung transplant, died this morning. – Terry Teachout
‘Fancy Free’ Doesn’t Seem So Delightful After #MeToo — Should It Be Retired?
In 2019, the Bernstein-Robbins ballet about three sailors on shore leave looks rather like “a case study in rape culture,” writes Lea Marshall, who took a group of undergraduate dance student to see it. Most of the audience loved it; the students were aghast. Marshall explains why. – Dance Magazine
A Very Bad Idea: Broadcasting ‘Saturday Night Live’ Direct From New Orleans Mardi Gras
Yes, they tried it once, back in 1977. And not on Saturday night at 11:30, but on Sunday evening at 8:30. “Vulture recently spoke to many of those involved, including Lorne Michaels, Randy Newman, Anne Beatts, and Paul Shaffer,” about this utterly doomed endeavor. – Vulture
Transporting The Instruments For A Touring Orchestra Is An Even Bigger Production Than You Think
A reporter talks with a logistics expert at DHL who’s worked with touring orchestras for 15 years about everything it takes to pull a successful tour off. – WQXR (New York City)
Bringing The Music Back To Ancient Greek Drama
“Greek tragedy survives today as words on a page, but ancient performances were distinguished as much for music and dance as for speeches and dialogue. … The musical dimension of ancient tragedy was long given up for lost, but a [recent] performance of Euripides’s Herakles at Barnard College showed how much is being recovered, thanks to recent archeological finds and painstaking research.” – The New York Review of Books
Why Even Great Social-Media Marketing By Dance Companies Doesn’t Lead Straight To Ticket Sales
“There is no clear correlation between a company’s social media campaigns and how many seats they fill in the theater. That doesn’t mean social media isn’t, of course, vital. … ‘Campaigns without social media are far worse off.'” Here’s why. – Dance Magazine
Can We Just Lose The Whole Non-Profits-Should-Run-Like-Businesses Nonsense For Good?
The donors, usually businesspeople, who keep saying that are “thinking of giving as analogous to investing when it isn’t, which leads to related mistakes like utilizing the wrong metrics [to grade success].” And (mis-)using those metrics has created a big slice of the public that dimply doesn’t trust nonprofits to spend their money properly. – Fast Company
How Artists Should Plan For What Will Happen To Their Work After They Die
“For every multi-millionaire dollar Robert Rauschenberg estate, there are thousands of lesser-known talents whose families have to confront the tough decisions about what to do with hundreds of artworks and archives. To sort out the realities facing artists and their loved ones, [Hrag Vartanian] invited two experts in the field.” (podcast) – Hyperallergic
Great Theatre Challenging Capitalism — At $1,000 Or More Per Ticket
“We are lingering in a moment in which there is a fashion, or even a giddiness, for spending large sums of money on theatrical experiences that explore the foundations and promises of American capitalism.” – The New York Times