“If a successful cultural transformation can be defined as the moment when you can finally stop counting heads, the first sign of that may be when you realize that at least there are heads to count.” Reporter Mark Harris meets with a crop of young performers landing roles and awards — but who still, always, find they have to educate producers, colleagues, and audiences. – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
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Guy Who Punched Picasso Painting At Tate Modern Sentenced To 18 Months In Prison
“The incident took place on December 28, when Shakeel Massey, a Spanish architecture student, punched Picasso’s 1944 painting Bust of a Woman numerous times. He held metal padlocks and wrapped his hand in a scarf to break through the protective glass, ripping the canvas before tearing it off the wall. Museum visitors looked on in shock as security guards detained him. Massey told the guards at the time that the act was a ‘performance.'” – Artnet
Three Suspects Charged As Part Of Worldwide Movie Piracy Scheme
“The men, who have been charged with copyright infringement conspiracy, were accused of being members of the Sparks Group, a sophisticated piracy outfit spanning several continents … [that] ‘allegedly circumvented copyright protections on nearly every movie released by major production studios, as well as television shows.'” – The New York Times
New Chief Of Paris Opera Will Begin Work Next Month, A Year Early (But What Of His Current Job In Toronto?)
When Canadian Opera Company general director Alexander Neef accepted the appointment to run the Opéra national de Paris from 2021-22, he was cutting short his Toronto contract by four years. But now he’s leaving for Paris right away, following a special request to COC from France’s Minister of Culture because of the situation in Paris. The COC’s board chair says Neef can run both companies from Paris until the board finds Neef’s successor. – Ludwig Van
‘Visceral And Virtuosic’ Dutch Novel Wins International Booker Prize
“The 29-year-old Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has become the youngest author ever to win the International Booker prize, taking the award for their ‘visceral and virtuosic’ debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening. … The £50,000 award for the best fiction translated into English … will be split equally with their translator, Michele Hutchison.” – The Guardian
New Zealand’s Top Arts Groups Can’t Get Visas For Their Overseas Performers
The New Zealand Symphony, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Auckland Philharmonia all say that key members of their companies, foreign nationals who were abroad when the COVID lockdown began, are now blocked by the government from entering the country and taking up their jobs, even if they willingly enter quarantine when they arrive. – Radio New Zealand
Itzhak Perlman At 75
Mr. Perlman has been so ubiquitous that it is easy to take for granted his status as “the reigning virtuoso of the violin,” as his marketing materials put it. But with his 75th birthday arriving on Aug. 31, this may be a moment to reassess how that reign began and what has happened to the realm and all the superlatives. – The New York Times
NYC’s Ambitious Arts Diversity Plan? Who Can Tell What’s Working?
Under the plan, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to hold august institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall accountable for hiring more members of historically marginalized and underrepresented groups and for making their boards of directors and other leadership ranks more inclusive. But the Department of Cultural Affairs did not set numerical goals for what constituted progress, nor did it require that institutions provide baseline demographic statistics about their staffs. – The New York Times
Sean Connery At 90 (Yes, 90)
Connery nonetheless celebrates his advance on a tenth decade as an avatar of old-fashioned masculinity. His role as James Bond — hating the Beatles at the height of the their success — helped position those attitudes within inverted commas. He went from playing grumpy young men to grumpy old men. He became the most famous Scot in the world. Peter Jackson tried to lure him into the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Fans have wondered if he might return to Indiana Jones. But Connery isn’t playing. – Irish Times
Why Don’t Orchestras Improvise?
“There’s a language there, and the language comes out of so many years of study. And the idea that the orchestra can’t move a couple of paces in a certain direction toward what they would do, even as they move many paces to use orchestral notation — to try to codify things in a language that these players appreciate and are familiar with — I find that dynamic odd. Because this is the music of today.” – The New York Times