Arthur C. Clarke, the groundbreaking science fiction writer who died earlier this week, was a dedicated atheist who saw religion “as a symptom of humanity’s ‘infancy,’ something to be outgrown and overcome.” So why do so many of his works seem so, well, Biblical?
Author: sbergman
Well, It Wouldn’t Be The Opera Without Melodrama
New York’s Metropolitan Opera is having trouble getting through a single performance of its current production of Tristan und Isolde without someone either taking ill or getting injured by a piece of scenery. And a glance at operatic history makes clear that none of this is terribly unusual.
Arrests In Danish Cartoon Fracas
“Last month the Danish police arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent on charges of plotting to kill [Kurt] Westergaard, one of the 12 cartoonists whose pictures of Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten sparked protests, some of them violent, by Muslims around the world in 2006.” The arrests shocked many Danes, who had been trying to forget about the controversy…
Black Audiences Embracing Broadway
“Just five years ago there were questions about whether black audiences would come to a Broadway show in significant numbers.” But three recent Broadway productions featuring mostly black casts have succeeded in drawing huge African-American audiences, and many in the industry see potential for much more of the same success.
Paul Scofield, 86
“Paul Scofield, one of Britain’s greatest Shakespearean actors and an Academy Award winner, has died at the age of 86… Scofield won the Oscar for best actor in 1967 for A Man for All Seasons, and was also nominated in 1995 for best supporting actor for Quiz Show.”
Consultant To Try To Settle Dallas Dispute
The city of Dallas has agreed to hire an acoustical expert in an effort to alleviate a dispute over the placement of a new outdoor concert venue in the city’s arts district. The Dallas Symphony, which plays next door to the proposed stage, is concerned about noise levels.
Familiar Sounds From Shreveport
While orchestral troubles in Columbus have been grabbing the headlines lately, the Shreveport Symphony is in even more dire straits, with a proposal on the table to convert all of its full-time musicians to pay-per-service freelancers, which would amount to a 75% pay cut. Even the musicians say they aren’t sure whether the necessary support exists to keep the ensemble afloat.
SoCal To Get New Summer Theatre Fest
“In an attempt to create in Southern California the bucolic summer theater atmosphere that has spelled success for Massachusetts’ Williamstown festival and others, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre is announcing ambitious plans for an annual 10-day International Theatre Festival to launch its first season in the theater’s seaside hometown in July 2009.”
Spider Man’s Web May Spell Doom For Frankenstein
A blockbuster musical version of Spider Man may be pushing Mel Brooks’s expensive flop, Young Frankenstein, out of Broadway’s Hilton Theatre. It’s more than a bit ironic, since Frankenstein similarly yanked the venue out from under the dying Pirate Queen just a year ago.
Met’s Tristan May Be Cursed
“The Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde cannot make it through a performance without turmoil. For the second straight performance, the opera was interrupted in mid-act [when] the part of the raked set Gary Lehman was stretched out on came loose… and the tenor slid into the prompter’s box.”