“Despite the fact that it was showered with accolades at film festivals last year and garnered early Oscar buzz (especially for Larson), ‘Room’ is one of the lowest-grossing movies to ever be nominated for best picture.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Reviving, Or Rebooting, ‘The People’s Opera’ In New York
“A revived City Opera could take on not only the old company’s name but also much of its former agenda: developing young American singers, nurturing homegrown composers, and mounting theatrically innovative productions.”
A Choreographer And A Director Walk Into A Pub …
Christopher Wheeldon on making Shakespeare into ballet: “If you knock away the language and boil it down to the bare essence, there is a really a great story there.”
Two Different, Formerly Competing ‘Theories Of Everything’ May Merge
“‘Loopy people go to loopy conferences. Stringy people go to stringy conferences. They don’t even go to ‘physics’ conferences anymore. I think it’s unfortunate that it developed this way.’ But a number of factors may be pushing the camps closer together.”
Ronald Perelman Apparently Resigned From The Carnegie Hall Board Earlier This Month
“His departure came less than a year after Mr. Perelman was tapped to be the chairman of Carnegie’s board, beginning a rocky era in which he clashed with Clive Gillinson (who has been the hall’s executive and artistic director for a decade) and other board members.”
A Belgian Playwright Tackles Radicalization With Comedy
Ismaël Saïdi’s “story of three hapless young men who find themselves launched from a park bench in Brussels to the killing fields of Syria has become a sensation, going from an initially scheduled five performances to more than 100 now, with dozens more planned.”
So, Seriously, Academy? #OscarsSoWhite Is Trending Again
“‘Diversity,’ the lack of it and need for it, has been discussed and debated ad nauseam. But diversity isn’t a civic duty, it’s an artistic necessity. For any art form to remain relevant, it must grow with the society it explores, questions, criticizes and represents.”
How Did The Co-Founder And Drummer Of The Police Move From Rock To Opera?
Stewart Copeland: “My father raised me to be a big band white jazz drummer. He raised me to be Buddy Rich; he had me in lessons from the start, which cured me of jazz, but in fact, the Stravinsky and the Debussy stuck. … That music of the big orchestra doing dramatic things, very powerful, very rhythmic [things], really stuck.”
Composer Performs Marathon Improv Session To LACMA’s Silent Movies
“Silent pictures didn’t come with scores attached — which leaves the composer plenty of room for interpretation. ‘That’s where it can get really revealing,’ [Michael Mortilla] says. ‘Something I see as tender or passionate, others might see as cruel.'”
Remembering The Fierce, Kind, Elegant Poet C.D. Wright
“She’ll be grieved in the public ways well-known writers are, but within the poetry community — on Facebook, Twitter, via text and email and phone — a kind of keening wail has sounded since the news of her death began to spread. Wright was beloved to many of us, a model poet and person.”