“An initial batch of nearly three dozen pieces from the 2018-19 season are now available for listening on the orchestra’s website — a number that will grow over time. … The number of performances ultimately available through the new ‘Listen on Demand’ service is potentially hundreds culled from several decades.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Slammed For Doing ‘Literary Blackface’, Barnes & Noble Cancels Poorly Thought-Out ‘Diverse Editions’ Campaign
The idea of this Black History Month initiative was to take 12 children’s and young-adult classic titles — among them Frankenstein, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, and Romeo and Juliet — and sell them with covers depicting their characters as nonwhite. (This as opposed to promoting titles by nonwhite writers.) – The Guardian
Director Terry Hands, Longtime Head Of Royal Shakespeare Co., Dead At 79
Hands began his career as a co-founder of the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, and, after his well-regarded 13 years as RSC artistic director, spent 18 years in Wales at the helm of Clywd Theatr Cymru, which he saved from collapse. (He was also director of one of the most notorious flops in Broadway music history, Carrie.) – The Guardian
Actor Kirk Douglas, 103
“[His] distinctive cleft chin, raspy voice and highly charged dramatic energy whose starring roles in Spartacus, Lust For Life, Champion, Ace in the Hole and Paths of Glory helped him become one of Hollywood’s foremost leading men and enduring stars.” – The Washington Post
Critic Philosopher George Steiner, 92
He was what many people call a human encyclopedia—not in the American sense, a blank vault of facts, but in the French Enlightenment one: a critical repository of significant knowledge. His long book reviews for this magazine, written over thirty years, from 1966 to 1997, were dotted with allusions of the kind that a naturally horizontal thinker couldn’t help but include. But they were never imposed or forced—his mind truly, on its way to Borges, passed through Sophocles and stopped for a moment to take in the view at Heidegger. Steiner was a lifelong traveller of those routes. – The New Yorker
Barnes & Noble’s Blackface Celebration Of Black History Month
“Seriously. To honor black people, they decided to showcase a selection of white-centered literary tomes. But, instead of acknowledging that the books were written by white people who wrote about white people, these genius marketers simply slapped a diverse selection of black faces on the books’ covers.” – The Root
What Ails The BBC
“The BBC needs more than simply defending in its current state, as if any criticism will render it only more helpless in the face of a hostile government. If the BBC is to survive the mid-term review of the Royal Charter in 2022, let alone charter renewal in 2027, it will have to face up to its faults and make some radical changes without giving ground to some of the more specious claims of its opponents.” – London Review of Books
Opera Carolina Lays Off Its Executive Director
In a statement to supporters obtained by the Observer, the opera said Beth Hansen’s role was cut “as a result of a harsh economic climate for the arts and a possible reduction in fiscal year 2021 support from the Arts & Science Council.” – Charlotte Observer
This Year’s Oscars Are Shaping Up To Be A Disaster
In the year 2020 when there are SO MANY movies and, with Netflix and Amazon entering the Oscar conversation, no excuse not to watch them, people should feel more invested in these awards than ever. It should be a watershed moment for the annual awards season. That there’s been no capitalization on, finally, a non-industry person’s access into the debate after so many years of the “who cares about the Oscars?” refrain is the most damning disaster of the whole thing. – The Daily Beast
Meet The People Addicted To Quizzes
“There isn’t even a word for us, really. Quiz players? Trivia fanatics? I prefer quizzers. But when I use that to describe myself to a civilian – to a non-quizzer – the inevitable inquiry follows: ‘What does that mean?’ For that question, ironically, there is no easy answer.” – The Guardian