“It’s been a seeping, decentralized thing; to call it a takeover would be hyperbole. But the assertive Nigerian global influence today cannot be denied, whether it’s in literature, music, fashion, or art, with new talents appearing at a relentless pace. Many hold court in London, … [and] others are in the United States, where middle-class immigrants have flourished in places like Houston and Atlanta. But all of them feed off the scene in Nigeria itself — and in its megacity, Lagos, a frenetic engine of creativity.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
One Of Britain’s Leading Contemporary Dance Companies Is Shutting Down
“The Richard Alston Dance Company, which has played an important role in British dance, will close in spring 2020, the company announced on Monday. Since the company’s inception in 1994, it has been resident at The Place, a contemporary dance center and performance space in north London where Mr. Alston, 70, has been the artistic director, also since 1994.”
Our Admission Prices Are Not Exorbitant, Says Director Of V&A
Tristram Hunt: “They have risen. Have they risen more than cinema prices? I doubt it. Have they risen more than train prices? I very much doubt it. … If people are willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds on football season tickets then seeking to have a fair price for a work of great curatorial excellence does not seem to me wrong.”
In Divided, Right-Leaning, Very Catholic Poland, Film About Child Abuse By Priests Is A Major Hit
There was controversy around the movie, titled Clergy, even before it hit cinemas: at a film festival last month, once it was clear that the film would likely win the audience award, organizers canceled that category. Even so, Clergy attracted 1.7 million viewers in its first week; that’s about 4½ percent of Poland’s entire population and the equivalent of 14.5 million in the U.S.
The near-accidental eloquence of The Mile-Long Opera by David Lang
I thought I knew what opera is. Well, the definition didn’t change. But The Mile-Long Opera, performed last week on New York’s High Line, changed the boundaries of opera, theater and artistic expression, and in ways that I couldn’t have imagined before taking the elevator up three floors and then trudging from 14th to 34th Street.
Glenstone: It’s Wonderful, Marvelous. BUT
The private museum owned and operated by Mitchell and Emily Wei Rales opened to the public on Oct. 4, and in many ways it is an excellent example of a private museum. So what’s wrong? There is one problem that can be fixed – and maybe a fix is already in the works.
Monday Recommendation: John Scofield Quartet
John Scofield, Combo 66 (Verve)
“I Can’t Dance,” guitarist Scofield proclaims by way of his new album’s opening track. It may be the rare listener, however, who won’t be moved by his quartet’s rhythmic blandishments.
Do You Recall Matthew Shepard?
None of us can control how we’re remembered, though we may try to live in ways that minimize the dancing on our graves. Yet a special place should be made for those who are memorialized not for how they lived, but how they died. Their daily voices, their quirks and smiles, their plain ambitions and ordinary loves risk being overwhelmed by the drama of their end.
Soprano Montserrat Caballé, 85
“Ms. Caballé’s exalted status was won by virtue of the vast number of roles at her command; the length of her performing life; and the lather of adoration into which her fans routinely whipped themselves. … But above all — and this is what moved her fans to ardor in the first place — there was the voice itself. For sheer vocal glory, reviewers wrote, few voices, if any, could rival Ms. Caballé’s.”
The Director Of ‘Moonlight’ Turns His Lens On James Baldwin
Barry Jenkins on his new adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk: “[With Moonlight,] the whole movie is created to almost force the audience to confront what this character is feeling. And so it’s really easy to sit outside the film and just want to hug the film, to hug the main character. But this is Baldwin. In Baldwin, everyone’s implicated, including himself. So I think there’s not a passive path through this film.”