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Conductor Seiji Ozawa Hospitalized With Cardiac Trouble

“The 82-year-old Ozawa, a former [chief] conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Vienna State Opera, had suffered from esophageal cancer, multiple bouts of pneumonia and back problems severe enough to require surgery in the past eight years, but recovered and went back to conducting. Ozawa was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis and will undergo treatment and rehabilitation for about a month at a Tokyo hospital, his office said.”

In War-Torn Central African Republic, National Dance Company Provides Rare Example Of Unity

“In a country bloodily divided by ethnic and religious strife, the National Central African Ballet is a rare unifying factor – a melting pot, professing no favouritism or allegiance to any group or sect. For at least two days a week, the conflicts that ravage most of the country seem far away in downtown Bangui, where 30 or so professional artists come together. … The trials of everyday life are forgotten for a while – and so are the armed militias patrolling a few kilometres from the capital.”

Westerners Revere Originals. In Asia Copies Are Just As Good

The Chinese have two different concepts of a copy. Fangzhipin (仿製品) are imitations where the difference from the original is obvious. These are small models or copies that can be purchased in a museum shop, for example. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin (複製品). They are exact reproductions of the original, which, for the Chinese, are of equal value to the original. It has absolutely no negative connotations.

Don’t Blame The Movies For Oscars’ Low Ratings

Right-wing culture warriors and the Hollywood old guard like to argue that it’s because liberal Hollywood has lost touch with its audience, but there’s an ugly undertone to leveling that accusation in a year when the academy’s membership, at least in terms of demographics, is more like the country as a whole than ever before. In some ways, the academy’s taste has actually gotten more populist.

Will #MeToo Reform The Dance World?

“I was a ballet dancer and choreographer for 10 years. Now, six years after leaving dance, I am shocked by the elements of the culture that I once accepted as normal. In the ballet world, disordered eating is dismissed as ambition, and dancers have no job security and little ability to voice concerns or opinions about how they’re treated in the workplace. Yet it’s difficult to separate culturally sanctioned, low-level abuse from the necessary stress of a demanding art form.”