“Over the course of a few weeks, we got a backstage look into the making of Playbill – the unmistakable, yellow-bannered magazine for theatergoers – and the transition of the 134-year-old New York institution to the mobile-first, social media-obsessed age.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Most People Don’t Get Grant Wood
“A deeply layered, rigorously controlled formal structure undermined by a strange embarrassing whimsy occurs in almost every painting. While accepted in outlier artists like James Castle, or (more aptly for the 1930s) like Henri Rousseau, it is a quality that mainstream art has tended to eschew, until recently. … This contradictory dynamic of wacky sincerity is recognizable as something that the Midwest surreptitiously instills. … On the one hand, complex formalism conveys gravity, but then is betrayed by an inability to resist slipping a banana peel underfoot.”
Two Present-Day Opera Stars Record Onto Wax Cylinders, Just As If It Were 1902
“Especially on Caruso’s breakthrough records, the sound is scratchy, wiry and wobbly. The same holds true for early recordings of Nellie Melba, Luisa Tetrazzini and other luminaries of that era. While there are entrancing hints of astonishing voices, it’s hard to tell what they were really like. If only we could record a singer today on the equipment used back then and compare the playbacks to modern recordings.” So that’s what Piotr Beczala and Susanna Phillips did. (includes sound clips)
YouTube Took Down 8.3 Million Videos In Just Three Months
The Alphabet (Google) subsidiary “says it removed 8.3m videos for breaching its community guidelines between October and December last year as it tries to address criticism of violent and offensive content on its site … amid growing complaints about its perceived inability to tackle extremist and abusive content.”
After Accusations Of Whitewashing, Actress Resigns From BBC Proms Performance Of ‘West Side Story’
“[Sierra] Boggess, who got her start as Ariel in Broadway’s The Little Mermaid in 2007 before joining the casts of Phantom of the Opera and School of Rock, [had been cast as] Maria in a Royal Albert Hall concert performance of West Side Story.” The ensuing controversy changed her mind.
Arguments Over Depicting Sexual Assault In Ballet Erupt Again, This Time In Seattle
“The piece spurring the conversation [at Pacific Northwest Ballet] is RAkU, created in 2011 by Ukranian-born Yuri Possokhov, who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow before becoming the San Francisco Ballet’s resident choreographer. The subject matter is the true story of the Buddhist Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan, which was burned down in 1950 by a mentally disturbed monk.”
It’s 2018 – Why Are Male Dance Students Still Getting Bullied, And What Can We Do To Stop It?
“As conversations about bullying heat up throughout the country, with the role of social media and the effects on adolescent mental health emerging as related concerns, there’s no better time to consider what the dance world can do to help male students of all ages feel safe and accepted.” Ryan P. Casey does some considering.
MCA Chicago Launches New $100K Prize For Middle Eastern Art And Names First Winner
The Dunya Contemporary Art Prize, a biennial award which includes a commission from the Museum of Contemporary Art and an exhibition with a catalogue as well as $100,000, goes to Sophia Al-Maria, a Qatari-American artist known for coining the term “Gulf Futurism.”
Art Critic David Bonetti, 71
He began his career at the Boston Phoenix, went on to the San Francisco Examiner (1989-2002; he left as a result of the merger with the Chronicle), and spent seven tumultuous years (2003-2009) at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “during which he developed both a national reputation for arts criticism and more than a few foes in the St. Louis art world.”
Pregnant Soprano Dropped From Hamburg ‘Magic Flute’
Julie Fuchs says that the management of the Hamburg State Opera has informed her that she cannot perform the role of Pamina in this spring’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte because “the artistic integrity of the production cannot be maintained if the soprano singing Pamina is four months pregnant.” Management has replied that German law expressly forbids employment of a pregnant woman in any situation that could harm her or her fetus.