Opera being the deranged parade of dysfunctionality that it is, there are certain literary characters to which composers find themselves inexorably drawn, and the more licentious and distasteful the rogue, the better. Perhaps the king of all operatic louts is Falstaff, “a fat everyman who gleefully clings to life, despite its often appalling cruelties.”
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Jowell Inquiry Wider Than First Thought
The investigation of UK Culture Minister Tessa Jowell and her husband has widened beyond its initial scope, which was focused on a bribe alleged to have been paid to the couple by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The newly broadened inquiry will also now focus on a “secretive offshore investment fund” in which the Jowells had invested as much as £400,000. At issue is not only whether the couple’s financial activities were legal, but whether they adhered to the UK’s code of conduct for elected officials.
The Complicated Legacy of Miles
Over the course of his long career, Miles Davis went from the embodiment of traditional jazz to its antithesis, becoming a psychedelic free-form musician bent on dragging the world along with him. “But Davis was always more than a mere trumpet stylist with an eye for a trend. He was a conceptualist, with a clear vision of how jazz works and how it should relate to the popular pulse. He pulled around him a succession of musicians, arrangers and producers who understood jazz to be a collective process, making him, if nothing else, an organiser of great innovative bands. Indeed, it was not until the 1980s that the trumpet sound and phrasing techniques he had been honing and experimenting with for decades became ubiquitous.”
The Story Behind The Oils
Most art collectors are content merely to own a painting, and perhaps to look at it on a regular basis. But when Mark Archer purchased a portrait of a woman in a red scarf for £2,800 at the London Art Fair two years ago, he found that the painting would not leave him alone. His investigation into the relatively obscure artist and her subject led to an intriguing storyline involving obsessive love, public nudity, and a tragic suicide.
UK Playwright Recovering From Stroke
Well-known British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn has suffered a stroke and is recuperating in a hospital. “The 66-year-old’s best-known works include The Norman Conquests trilogy and A Chorus of Disapproval.”
Art That Glamorizes The Slums?
“Scarred by violence and political repression, Brazil’s shanty towns have responded with an outpouring of art, music and film. But as “favela chic” becomes all the rage in the west are we in danger of glamorising slum life?”
Drunken Guests Attack Art At Milwaukee Museum
The Milwaukee Museum’s beautiful Calatrava home is a popular place for parties. But “a recent martini fete held there turned into an overcrowded, drunken affair. Some unruly guests accosted artworks, which have been taken off display for a checkup. People threw up, passed out, were injured, got into altercations and climbed onto sculptures at Martinifest, a semi- formal event organized by Clear Channel Radio and held at the museum Feb. 11, according to several people who attended or worked at the event.”
A Flamenco Increasingly Made For Vegas
What’s happening to flamenco? “Alongside the remnants of flamenco puro, or at least flamenco interesante, that’s what we’re getting: a marriage of flamenco with MTV. What will come of this? Last year, Robert Browning said, of the flamenco innovators, ‘There is always the danger of ending up in a Las Vegas show. On the other hand, you have to be open to new ideas.’ Nice sentiment, but how come the resulting product so often tips toward Vegas?”
Boy Sticks Gum On Museum Painting
At the Detroit Institute of Arts on Friday, “a mischievous 12-year-old boy visiting the museum with a school group took a piece of barely chewed Wrigley’s Extra Polar Ice out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler’s 1963 abstract painting “The Bay,” damaging one of the most important modern paintings in the museum’s collection and a landmark picture in the artist’s output.”
Arts Funding Plan Riles San Francisco Artists
“A task force that spent a year hammering out proposals that could dramatically change how San Francisco funds the arts has again polarized the local arts world. The report calls for creating a centralized department of culture and compelling politicians to stop diverting hotel tax funds away from the arts.”