Peter Boal of Pacific Northwest Ballet writes about his January trip around the US to audition dancers — and about how what he saw in the museums and galleries he visited made him think about the still-off racial balance of his and other ballet companies. – Dance Magazine
Blog
Let’s Just Dump The Whole Idea Of Composer-As-Genius, Shall We?
Evan Williams: “The persistence of this label is unnecessary to appreciate music by these individuals, and that it is a dangerous myth that great art can only be the product of genius. Such a myth is not only harmful to those of us who write music — poisoning us with constant impostor syndrome and anxiety that our work will never be enough — but it has allowed musical culture to become ossified around the work of a select few composers — those worthy enough to be elevated to the status of genius.” – I Care If You Listen
Anne Midgette Explains Bel Canto
“I could tell you that bel canto operas tend to have dated plots, filled with romance-novel-ish retellings of history, and heroines who keep going mad at inopportune moments. Or I could tell you that bel canto can be intoxicating, and that just trying to find examples to play for you led me to hours of bingeing on old YouTube videos, grinning like an idiot. But I’m not sure that will help you, either. Bel canto, I realize, is a little bit like a drug: Descriptions tend to sound either clinical or loopily subjective.” – The Washington Post
Man Ray’s Tomb In Paris Desecrated And Damaged
“A man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the apparent desecration of surrealist artist Man Ray’s tomb in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris, a municipal official said. An AFP photographer noticed Wednesday that the gravestone appeared to have been wrenched off Ray’s tomb, and a portrait of the American artist and his wife smashed.” – Yahoo! (AFP)
Luis Biava, Longtime Philadelphia Orchestra Violinist (And Stand-In Conductor And All-Around Savior), Dead At 85
“Luis Biava joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1968 as a violinist and ended up staying more than three decades, but he never had a title that fully captured everything he meant to the ensemble and the organization. He was a respected conductor and, sitting among the first-stand players near the podium, was ready to be called upon to lead a concert at the last minute. He was an unofficial diplomat,” once defusing (in Spanish) a very tense labor dispute that broke during a tour rehearsal in Mexico City.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
With New Curator, New York’s Museo Del Barrio Tries To Make Peace With Activists Who Say It Has Abandoned Its Nuyorican Roots
The East Harlem museum was founded 50 years ago by local artists and teachers who felt that the existing museums and institutions in New York had shut them out. Since then, the museum has expanded its mission to cover art from Latin American itself, and battles have periodically broken out over that change — including this week. In response, the Museo’s director announced that he’ll be hiring a new curator focused on “the art and culture of historically marginalized Latinx communities in the United States, including but not limited to Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Afro-descendants from the Americas and LGBTQ populations.” – The New York Times
Now That Sackler Money Has Become Radioactive, Campaigners Are Looking At Cultural Donations By Big Tobacco
One of the biggest corporate donors to the arts in the US is the tobacco conglomerate Altria (formerly Philip Morris): among the major recipients of Altria support in 2018 alone were Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Smithsonian museums, the Newseum, and the Kennedy Center. – The Guardian
A Generation Of Women Conductors Is Finally Breaking Glass Ceilings
In England, the US, and elsewhere, a big group of orchestras and opera houses is looking for music directors or chief conductors — and, for the first time, there’s a sizable group of female candidates being seriously considered, “not least, “writes Norman Lebrecht, “because the talent pool has finally exploded with candidates of outstanding communicative power.” – Standpoint
30 Years On, Looking Back At The Fights Over The Louvre’s Pyramid
I.M. Pei’s glass structure may be a beloved icon now, but from the time the design was revealed to opening day, the resistance was ferocious. “A foreign body, showing such disregard for history.” “It’s not Dallas here!” One Académie Française member wrote an “appeal for insurrection.” And when Pei showed his design to the relevant national commission, his interpreter burst into tears. – The Art Newspaper
Paris Sees Blackface Controversy As Students Protest Aeschylus Staging At Sorbonne
Denouncing the staging (which no one had yet seen) as “Afrophobic, colonialist and racist,” protesters forced the Sorbonne to cancel a performance of The Suppliants at the university’s annual festival of ancient Greek theatre. Top Sorbonne officials and government officials called the protests “absurd,” while the director insisted that the production used no blackface at all. – The Guardian