“The alleged victim, Daniel Olsen Chen, 62, a Norwegian national living and working in Japan, is a former violinist who maintained a making and repairing workshop in Nagoya. He posted a video of the destruction on his YouTube channel, AV Daniel Violin, and has claimed that in total 54 instruments and 70 bows were damaged, including his own Amati, the value of which he places around 50m yen ($450,000).” (includes video)
Blog
June Foray, Voice Of Rocky And Natasha On ‘Bullwinkle’, Dead At 99
“Foray was also the voice behind Looney Tunes’ Witch Hazel, Nell from Dudley Do-Right, Granny in the Tweety and Sylvester cartoons and Cindy Lou Who in Chuck Jones’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, among hundreds of others.”
Ex-Met Museum Director Philippe De Montebello Goes To Work At A Gallery
“[He] doesn’t exactly need another job. He is chairman of the Hispanic Society of America; a professor at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts; an honorary trustee of the Prado Museum; and a host of the PBS TV program NYC-ARTS. But now Mr. de Montebello has decided to add yet one more, becoming a director of Acquavella Galleries, effective immediately, where he will focus on the curation of special exhibitions and the development of publications.”
Mandy Patinkin To Star In Broadway Musical For First Time In 17 Years
Patinkin will spend three weeks at the end of the summer as Pierre in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. “This marks Patinkin’s first role in a Broadway musical since 2000’s The Wild Party, and his first time on Broadway since his 2011-12 season concert An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.”
Xander Parish Says The Royal Ballet Doesn’t Develop Its Young Talent (Which Is Why He Left For The Mariinsky)
“At the time, it was the case in the Royal Ballet that there was a mindset of leaving dancers to develop, like a good wine or something, to gain strength in their own time. Whereas, in Russia, they have an idea of taking raw talent, maybe not ready for the big roles, and working on it until it’s ready to be set before the audience.”
How That Glorious Italian Marble Gets Wrenched From The Earth
“The story of Italian marble is the story of difficult motion: violent, geological, haunted by failure and ruin and lost fortunes, marred by severed fingers, crushed dreams, crushed men. Rarely has a material so inclined to stay put been wrenched so insistently out of place and carried so far from its source.”
Colosseum Archaeological Park Approved By Italy’s Council Of State
“Italy’s top administrative court has also unblocked the international selection process for a new director to oversee the ancient amphitheatre and its surrounding monuments, including the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and Domus Aurea. The decisions of 24 July overturn a challenge by the mayor of Rome through the Lazio regional administrative tribunal (TAR) on 7 June.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.26.17
Fireflies Are Out …
“Veselka” cucumber conundrum soup
You can tell the temperature by the firefly rate of thorax blinking, which can be hypnotic, like the gleam of this cucumber seed in fluorescent kitchen light. Those seeds, covered in slime, scoot like baby roaches onto counter or floor when you run a spoon down the center of your split green sausage to scoop them out. … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2017-07-26
This is Reading — Artists Make Magic
In mid-July, I traveled to Pennsylvania to see a show. It was straight-up MAGIC. I can’t stop thinking about it. … read more
AJBlog: The Bright Ride Published 2017-07-23
Indigenous Dance Festival That Focuses On Contemporary Indigenous Culture Across The World
The festival will highlight commonalities, as well as differences, across geographically or politically separated Indigenous cultures. National borders are of scant relevance to the peoples whose ancestors inhabited Turtle Island long before Europeans “discovered” North America. Santee Smith emphasizes that today’s Indigenous artists are highly individual. “We’re all rooted in our world views — societal, spiritual, philosophical — and share a belief that art and performance are an integral part our daily lives, but we’re far from being homogenous.”
How Opera America Helped Spark A New Era In American Opera
“New music is a culture that tends to romanticize risk, and I think we ought to push back on that romanticizing. For all its aesthetic innovation, new music remains a job for many people.” Perhaps the same could be said of new American opera. Debates over its future highlight a complex web of expectations concerning not only the importance of radical artistic vision but also the commercial realities and conventional operatic norms of larger institutions that cannot afford to fail in the same way that smaller organizations might.