Author: sbergman

The One Tenor

There aren’t many classical music luminaries that could qualify as pop culture heroes these days, but tenor Placido Domingo is unquestionably one of the few. “While Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras have eased into retirement, Domingo at 66 remains at his artistic peak. Since his debut in 1959, he has sung a record 128 operatic roles. Next year, he celebrates the 40th anniversary of his debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.”

Plot Is Overrated, Anyway

Apparently, plot concepts that would be considered far too stale and cliched for even a hackneyed TV sitcom are thrilling audiences in London theatres this summer. Ben Brantley can’t quite explain the appeal, but he knows it’s real: “If any of these premises reared up on my television screen, I’d change the channel before the first canned snicker could be sounded. But I have to confess that I, along with hordes of other London theatergoers, experienced an almost childlike pleasure watching these crude concepts translated to the stage.”

New Poet Laureate Named

“Charles Simic, a writer who juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor, is to be named the country’s 15th poet laureate by the Librarian of Congress today. Simic, 69, was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and immigrated to the United States at 16. He started writing poetry in English only a few years after learning the language and has published more than 20 volumes of poetry, as well as essay collections, translations and a memoir.”

Silence Is Golden (If You’re A Brain)

Music stimulates the brain, according to a new study, but it’s the silences between the phrases that really make us think. “A one- to two-second break between movements triggers a flurry of mental activity, researchers found. When the music resumes, the action shifts to a different part of the brain, then subsides… Stanford’s snapshots of this pause may have implications beyond concert halls, nightclubs and honky-tonks.”

The Tragic Death Of A Power Art Couple

“Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake were a formidable pair, and by all accounts, soul mates for the last 12 years. So a few weeks ago, when Duncan committed suicide at the age of 40, friends and family knew that Blake, 35, was devastated. No one, though, knew how devastated.” A week later, Blake, one of the New York art world’s certified stars, walked into the Atlantic Ocean and drowned.

Can Serra Make MoMA’s Building Better?

When New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened its new building in 2004, the critics loved it. Two years later, the same critics hated it. Now, with a new Richard Serra retrospective filling the space, some critics are headed back the other way. “The exhibition clarifies and works to justify the Taniguchi design. The interaction between the sculptures and the galleries here is about as effective as can be imagined.”

Alsop’s Cloud Coming To T.O.?

British architect Will Alsop is likely bringing his design of a floating cloud-like (some would say blob-like) building to Toronto harborfront. “The original Cloud design was chosen in 2002 to grace the Liverpool waterfront, but was blown away in 2004 after the projected cost jumped… Alsop declined to comment on whether his Toronto Cloud will be part of the proposed film-industry megadevelopment called Filmport – although that’s what observers contacted yesterday expect.”