A musicologist has receated the instrumental parts for a lost cantata by JS Bach. “The 1728 composition, called Wedding Cantata BWV 216, was found among the papers of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 aged 86. The work, written for the wedding of a daughter of a German customs official, was missing for 80 years.”
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Parsifal In NY Doesn’t Cut It With Berlin Opera Fans
Director Bernd Eichinger’s new production of Parsifal was booed at Berlin’s Staatsoper this weekend. “Eichinger’s version, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, is set in a landscape of buildings collapsing from fires and explosions and relies heavily on video. Mr Eichinger is an acclaimed German film-maker. He wrote and produced Downfall, about Hitler’s final days, which was nominated for an Oscar this year.”
Shock And Movement (Or Not)
If choreography isn’t choreography, and dance isn’t dance (and yet it all is), what to make of Matthew Bourne, asks Tobi Tobias? “I’m left wondering if Play Without Words isn’t simply a sign of our times, in which the creative powers that be assume their audience needs to be lured by shock tactics—the raucous, the garish, the forbidden, extremes of novelty for novelty’s sake. Surely the insistent use of these means, which quashes the virtues of sincerity and subtlety, is self-defeating. Most of today’s audience is already beyond shock and, what’s more, benumbed by the ever-escalating onslaught.”
Mayne In The Spotlight
“The size and prominence of the commissions for Thomas Mayne’s firm, based in Santa Monica, Calif., and called Morphosis, have increased dramatically in the last decade, from private homes and restaurants in Los Angeles to public, educational and commercial buildings in the United States, Europe and Asia.” But he’s not broken in to star ranks until his Pritzker win. “It’s a really serious reward and I take it with huge humility and honor. My career has been so much outside the mainstream that I can’t help but view it as a vindication of what I’ve tried to do.”
Who Is Thom Mayne?
Well, he won this year’s Pritzker Prize for architecture. “Thom Mayne’s taste tends to the shocking; if he were a filmmaker, he would be Roger Corman. His buildings have jagged, fractured forms and haphazard compositions that make them look, at first glance, as if they were not quite finished—or were falling apart. This is a subterfuge, of course, since they are solidly built and carefully detailed, but their appearance leaves the distinct impression of chaos.”
Can La Scala Find Its Way Back From The Edge?
A mediator is trying to resolve the out-of-control labor situation at La Scala. “While La Scala’s governors seek to emphasise that Muti is staying, it is difficult to foresee how the musical director can continue under the present circumstances. Several contenders have been touted as potential successors including Covent Garden’s Antonio Pappano.”
NY Public Library And Its Digital Democracy
“Officially launched on March 3rd, the New York Public Library DIgital Gallery is presently offering 275,000 images (stored on a 57-terabyte, a thousand billion bytes of data, network of servers) for public perusal and free personal use (“…individual private study, scholarship and research…”). Most of the contents of the Gallery is in the public domain, and if you can obtain your own reproduction of any image you find here, you can probably use it as you see fit. The digitized copies on the NYPL website, however, are protected by copyright, and the Library charges a usage fee if an image is used in any “nonprofit or commercial publication, broadcast, web site, exhibition, promotional material, etc” contexts.”
Edinburgh Festivals Get Together
Edinburgh’s various summer festivals are finally getting together. “The plan is for the festivals to meet every two months and discuss a wide range of issues from creating a unified box office to a strategy to promote the Festivals overseas and improve the city’s infrastructure. Its development comes after years of public squabbling as competition from events in other British cities has grown.”
A Link Between Intelligence And Suicide?
“In one of the largest studies on suicide ever conducted, researchers found that men with especially low scores on intelligence tests are two to three times more likely than others to kill themselves. Men with low IQ scores and only a primary education were no more likely to kill themselves than men with high IQ scores and a higher level of education. But men with low IQ scores and higher education were at a greater risk of suicide. And men with low IQ scores and highly educated parents were at the highest risk of all.”
Gioia: Democratizing The NEA
Dana Gioia’s biggest accomplishment as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts? “I would say that the major reform I’ve made at the endowment can be summarized pretty easily. Historically, the National Endowment for the Arts thought of itself as a federal agency that served artists. Today, the NEA sees itself as a federal agency which serves the American public by bringing the best of the arts and arts education to all Americans.”