This week, three novelists will seal themselves in a small room and write for a month. “The goal is for each to complete a novel by June 4. The purpose is to consider the private and public aspects of writing. No cameras will record this voyeuristic experiment, though visitors can peep occasionally (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m). The potential for public humiliation comes not from the perils of constant surveillance, but from the more familiar writers’ problem of failing to meet a deadline. Make that deadlines. They will give weekly readings of their works in progress.”
Blog
Dia Plans A Move
The forward-thinking Dia Foundation plans to move from its current two spaces to a new location a few blocks north. The new neighborhood is primed to be New York’s next hot location, at the entrance of a new park. “Plans call for possibly demolishing the existing structure, an old meatpacking facility now in disrepair, and building a simple two-story museum with 45,000 square feet of gallery space on two floors.”
A Stark Memorial Stands In Berlin
Berlin’s new “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman, is the apotheosis of soul-searching. A vast grid of 2,711 concrete pillars whose jostling forms seem to be sinking into the earth, it is able to convey the scope of the Holocaust’s horrors without stooping to sentimentality – showing how abstraction can be the most powerful tool for conveying the complexities of human emotion.”
Could Strike Cripple Montreal Symphony?
“The musicians of l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal are on the picket line. Management insists, puzzlingly, that the strike “in no way changes the OSM’s reality.” Eighteen months of nearly static negotiations have produced a poisonous atmosphere. Players and management are united only in their belief that the other side doesn’t have a clue about what a symphony orchestra really needs.”
Toni Morrison/Richard Danielpour Opera Gets Debut In Detroit
“Here is “Margaret Garner” at its best: the sprawling calamity of slavery telescoped into an intimately scaled portrait of love underscored by Danielpour’s melting lyricism and placed within the spare set designed by Marjorie Bradley Kellogg. The burden of such a broad and bewildering historical canvas as slavery sometimes overwhelms Danielpour and Morrison, but these shortcomings are redeemed by ruminative expressions of a mother’s love and heartfelt song.”
“Garner” Wows The Crowd
“Margaret Garner is a largely old-fashioned opera that nevertheless works. It works primarily because of the emotional resonances of Toni Morrison’s story. It also works because the opera has been handsomely produced, with a strong cast, directed on stage by Kenny Leon and headed by that splendid mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role.”
An Honorable Achievement, But…
“Margaret Garner turns out to be an honorable achievement, if one that is often reluctant to seize the story’s tragic elements by the neck and render them shocking. Danielpour’s relentlessly lyrical score, though marked by episodes of limpid beauty, lacks dramatic momentum and contrast, with long, lethargic stretches that stop the opera in its tracks. Morrison may be a stranger to the medium, but she is familiar with the story on which she has weaved operatic variations.”
Are PBS’s Days Numbered?
Michael Booth is angry at PBS. “Public-TV programming, in Colorado and around the nation, has become a parody of itself. Reading the program guide alone is enough to put one sound asleep, let alone watching the actual shows themselves – nearly every one stuck in a 1970s time warp of blandly earnest irrelevance. A lineup this dull and out of touch no longer deserves our federal tax money.”
But We Need A PBS…
“PBS is a special resource, valuable in a democracy that depends on well-informed citizens … well, you know the rap. That said, public TV needs an extreme makeover. PBS has bungled at every turn. The system still can’t decide whether to embrace commercials (“enhanced underwriting” is the euphemism). The convoluted bureaucracy doesn’t work. While preaching “localism,” the service has kept a few strong stations in charge (Boston, New York, Los Angeles) while others idle.”
What Happened To The Broadway Showstopper?
“Broadway musicals have long proved they can tell important stories without losing entertainment value. But as that idea has evolved, theatrically credible plot lines don’t accommodate the kind of consolidation of music, character and star presence that is the showstopper. Modern, linear storytelling instead dictates that resources be spread around the show’s landscape of personalities.”