The popular interview show hosted by Terry Gross cut ties after Edelstein posted on Facebook an ill-considered joke (subsequently deleted) about the stick-of-butter scene in Last Tango in Paris that was widely condemned on social media as offensive.
Blog
What’s David Edelstein’s Firing Over A Brain-Fart Joke Really About?
“None of this should have happened, but it did,” writes Andrew O’Hehir, Salon‘s executive editor and sometime film critic. “I suspect what befell Edelstein this week is only partly about one stupid Facebook post, and has more to do with the messy process of generational change and the inevitable Schadenfreude surrounding someone who holds two prestigious media jobs, either of which many other people would kill and eat their grandmothers to get.”
After More Than 60 Years, Detroit Rep Will Get A New Artistic Director
“While no date has been set, [the Detroit Repertory Theatre’s] longtime artistic director and co-founder, Bruce Millan — who helped launch the company in 1957 — has announced he’s begun planning for his retirement. When that happens, Leah Smith, the Rep’s marketing and development director, will step into his considerable shoes. The Detroit News spoke with Millan and Smith at the theater last week.”
Unknown John Donne Manuscript Found In A Box In The Corner
“Dating back 400 years, the [handwritten] bound collection was kept for at least the last two centuries at Melford Hall in Suffolk. Sotheby’s expert Dr Gabriel Heaton was on a ‘standard checking visit’ to the property when he found it in a box with other papers.”
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Will Share Met Opera’s New Commissions With Philadelphia Orchestra
In a Q&A with David Patrick Stearns, the music director of the two institutions says of new operas in the works from composers Kevin Puts and Mason Bates, “We will be workshopping these pieces in collaboration with the Curtis Institute. The Philadelphia Orchestra will premiere the scores in a concert presentation prior to the full production at the Met.”
Documenta Lost Even More Millions On Athens Than We Thought
“A final audit has revealed that the deficit caused by overspending in the 2017 edition of Documenta, the contemporary art exhibition that takes place in the German city of Kassel every five years, is more than €2m wider than originally calculated.” The total deficit on the event, €7.6 million, is attributed on overspending on Documenta’s extension to Athens.
In Search Of Less Wealthy Visitors, Louvre Starts Monthly Free Saturday Nights
“The world’s most-visited museum previously opened for six free Sundays a year, but a statement published Wednesday said this was failing to bring in visitors from a broad spectrum of society. … The Louvre is hoping to appeal to more people living in poorer Paris suburbs as well as to young adults and families with older children with the initiative.”
The Nézet-Séguin Era Begins At The Metropolitan Opera
Mr. Nézet-Séguin, who had originally been set to assume the post in 2020, moved up his start date to take a stronger musical hand at the opera house after the allegations against Mr. Levine came to light. And although it will be a few seasons before he takes on his full workload at the Met and implements some of his plans for commissions and collaborations, he is already making his presence felt.
Minimalist Robert Morris, 87
Mr. Morris was one of a generation of artists who embraced the Minimalist credo, along with Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin and others. But while they continued to work within the genre’s austere limits, Mr. Morris went on to explore an astonishing variety of stylistic approaches, from scatter art, performance and earthworks to paintings and sculptures symbolizing nuclear holocaust.
UN Adds Reggae To Its List Of Cultural Treasures
Jamaica applied for recognition of its musical tradition at a meeting of the UN in Mauritius this year. “It is a music that we have created that has penetrated all corners of the world,” said the country’s culture minister Olivia Grange.