“A performance of Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried” at this year’s Bayreuth Festival was delayed by 10 minutes on Thursday evening owing to torrential rain that flooded parts of the legendary Festspielhaus theatre. The so-called “under stage” — installations below stage level that are invisible to the audience — and a low-lying building adjacent to the theatre were flooded.”
Author: sbergman
NZ-Born Artist Wins $100K Sports/Art Prize
“In what the judges described as ‘a photo-finish’, a digital video of an athlete on a treadmill last night beat a field of 54 works by 16 artists to win the inaugural $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize – an award established by the philanthropic [Aussie] businessman to unite sport and art.”
The Novel The Booker Judges Forgot?
“No novelist in Britain – apart, that is, from Salman Rushdie – suffers more from snide and stupid caricatures of who he is and what he does than [James] Kelman,” says Boyd Tonkin, and the snubs just keep coming, with Kelman’s exclusion from the Booker longlist.
Opera Revealed, As Only A British Tab Can Do
The British tabloid, The Sun, is offering up cheap tickets to opening night at the Royal Opera House, and making quite a production about it. “What’s brilliant – and important and true -about the Sun’s take on opera is that they see no reason to pretend that it’s a polite, elegant, decorative artform – they are determined to communicate that it is dirty, dangerous, sexy and nasty… Good for them.”
When The Director Becomes The Show
“Few directors are capable of dividing critical and audience opinion quite like Katie Mitchell. Her distinctive approach to her material, her signature style, has gained her many vocal admirers and advocates… [But] is she in danger of slipping into self-parody?”
You Know You’re Rooting For The Toilet
“A total of 224 projects from 43 countries have been nominated [for the inaugural World Architecture Festival Awards,] including a fire station in Mexico, a public toilet in Texas, a women’s health centre in Burkina Faso, a writer’s retreat in Costa Rica, a sheep stable in the Netherlands, a private cemetery in Lebanon, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.”
Documenting A Divided City Through Art
“Hebron is the only place in the West Bank where Jewish settlers and Palestinians live and work side by side,” and British artist Caspar Hall just spent three months painting the portraits of the men and women who keep the city’s struggling central market alive. “In all, he painted more than 70 portraits, compiling a unique social document of the market at a crucial stage in its history.”
Leaving Politics For The Sake Of Art
“The Brazilian musician and Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, says he is standing down from the government to concentrate on his music career… As culture minister, he championed sometimes neglected forms of cultural expression such as indigenous painting. However it was always clear that he hankered to return to his artistic career, and some critics questioned the level of commitment to his political role.”
Theatre Is Back In The Big Easy
“Although New Orleans’ biggest theaters have been shuttered since Katrina, the theater community is thriving. New companies have sprouted up. Actors and directors are moving into the city. And — especially for smaller companies — attendance is on the rise.”
Litigious Conductor Out Of A Job In Saskatchewan
The conductor and artistic director of the Saskatoon Symphony, who has been embroiled in internal disputes for months and actually went so far as to sue six of his musicians for defamation, has officially left the orchestra. Negotiations on a buyout of his contract are continuing.