Mark-Anthony Turnage redefined British opera with Greek. But that was in a different world: 1988. When the piece arrived at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this month, I imagined it like some seriously aging hipster whose many once-edgy tattoos are turning to mud. I was throughly, and ecstatically, wrong. — David Patrick Stearns
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Yo-Yo Ma Is Turning Bach’s Cello Suites Into A Social Project
Alex Ross goes home to Washington, D.C. to watch Ma’s “day of action,” the meetings with students and community members in poor neighborhoods (in this case, Anacostia) that he combines with each concert appearance in his 36-city Bach Project. — The New Yorker
How To Present ‘Problematic’ Plays — And How To Handle The Fraught Talkbacks Afterward
Maddie Gaw, who was part of the selection panel for the first-ever Problematic Play Festival this past fall, writes about what makes plays “problematic” (i.e., subject matter violent or controversial enough to make most theatres and funders flee) and about how the festival altered the standard post-play talkback to make it safe for audience members to process what they had seen. — HowlRound
Literary Magazine ‘Tin House’ To Cease Publication
Publisher and editor-in-chief Win McCormack: “Given the current costs of producing a print literary magazine, I have decided to shift resources to Tin House’s other two divisions: Tin House Books and the Tin House Workshop. … We will continue to publish original fiction, nonfiction, and poetry online at tinhouse.com.” — Literary Hub
Inside The Refugee Theatre Company That Created ‘The Jungle’
The Good Chance Theatre was founded in the Calais refugee settlement known as “The Jungle,” where the touring piece by that title was created. Now that the Calais camp is gone, Good Chance has moved on to Paris, where, each week, migrants attend a workshop and create a theatre piece which they perform for visiting Parisians. Writer Verity Healey has a look. — HowlRound
Chinese Censors Yank Art Works About Technology From Guangzhou Triennial
“The artists, from Europe, Australia and the United States, were not given an official reason why their works were rejected for the show … The works, which raise questions about the social and ethical implications of artificial intelligence and biotechnology,” did not touch on any subjects known to be sensitive in China. — The New York Times
The One-Man Studio Who Created Some Of The Best Children’s Story Records Ever Made
Jim Copp, an erstwhile jazz performer and L.A. Times society columnist, wrote and narrated the stories, sang the songs, played the instruments, created the sound effects, and layered the tracks (dozens of them) on nine different records between 1958 and 1971. And they still hold up today, even for grown-ups. — The New Yorker
Art Dealers’ Descendant Sues Dutch Government For 144 Old Master Paintings Sold To Nazis
In 1939-40, Dutch dealers Nathan and Benjamin Katz sold almost their entire inventory, at steeply discounted prices, to the Nazis (among them Hermann Goering himself) in exchange for the ability to get their family members safely abroad. Now Benjamin’s grandson is suing the Dutch government, which recovered the works after the war and placed them in museums, to get them back. — The Post and Courier (Charleston)
The ‘Wisconsin Idea’ And The Battle Over Liberal Arts Education
The ideal upon which the University of Wisconsin was founded and expanded was not merely to train workers, but to “search for truth … [and] improv[e] the human condition,” ultimately reaching every family in the state. Reporter Adam Harris looks into the current state government’s attempts to change that idea, which is leading to budget cuts and the elimination of liberal arts majors. — The Atlantic
Public Radio’s Smaller Stations Are Fading Away, And We’ll All Lose If They Disappear
“The vast majority of assets and growth lie with a relative few of the largest stations. Every year, the weakest go dark, or they are absorbed. … Or their licenses are spun off for cash. … If this continues, the consequences are profound. So how shall we think about this?” Spokane Public Radio general manager Cary Boyce offers three possibilities. — Current