Among the novelists who made the longlist for this year’s Orange Prize is Turkey’s Elif Shafak, who found herself on trial in her native country because a character in her novel “referred to the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire – among the most disputed chapters in the country’s history – as ‘genocide’.”
Author: sbergman
The Roller Coaster Career Path Of A Conductor
The trials and tribulations of being a young conductor are a special musical hell that few ever consider. For one young Austrian stick waver, what had looked like a promising career went head over heels when a legend told him he was worthless and destroyed his confidence. But then, that same legend helped rebuild his shattered technique and mold him into a pro.
The Confusing Reemergence of Blackface
When exactly did the use of blackface become acceptable again? “Since we’re all supposedly post-racial, some white comedians feel it’s allowable to use makeup to portray black characters with empathy or just for laughs… Though the burnt cork and garish lipstick seem consigned to the bin of bad taste, there are different levels of subtlety in whites playing black dress-up.”
Giving The Whitey Biennial The Benefit Of The Doubt
The critical consensus is that this year’s Whitney Biennial is another bland, high-profile flop. But Simon Houpt says that the conventional wisdom might be overlooking the Whitney’s clever embrace of America’s peculiar national position. “Much of this year’s exhibition mulls breakdowns: of political, economic, social or artistic theories; of civil engineering; of common sense.”
What Went Wrong In Stratford?
“The euphoria that greeted a unique theatrical leadership 21 months ago has turned to shock” as two of the Stratford Festival’s three artistic directors resigned this past week. The remaining director calls the collapse of the festival’s model “traumatic,” and observers are still trying to assess what happened.
West End Moves Toward Sunday Shows
“Until now, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a West End theatre open on a Sunday.” Taken in context, this is bizarre, since Broadway theaters have long raked in the cash from Sunday matinees. Now, London’s National Theatre is breaking the Sunday taboo, and the rest of the London scene is likely to follow.
Literature’s Lone Wolf Reaches Out, Sort Of
“He went from a family joke to the greatest writer in the English language … and, to many of his peers, a thoroughly nasty piece of work. But is Nobel laureate VS Naipaul finally ready to make peace with the world?”
Pianos For The People
A UK artist has placed pianos in public spaces across the city of Birmingham, inviting members of the public to sit down and play as the fancy strikes them. “Some were already in enthusiastic use yesterday, others barely noticed. They will remain in situ until after Easter – if they survive that long – those outliving the experiment given a permanent home.”
Italy’s Schizophrenic Art Scene
Italy’s relationship with art has become increasingly bizarre and hard to understand. “The state still thinks of culture almost exclusively in terms of antiquities,” but a whole series of museums designed to house contemporary art are springing up. “Every institution is a one-person project; otherwise nothing happens. There’s no structure, no official culture of expertise.”
A Mandate To Preserve And Protect
Carla Peterson, the artistic director of New York’s Dance Theater Workshop, is on a mission to preserve, revive, and perform great dance works that had their premieres in recent years and risk being forgotten because of a lack of exposure. “Making this a permanent curatorial mandate signals Ms. Peterson’s deeper commitment to historically important contemporary works.”