Category: AJBlogs

How élite does opera get? From the private loo to the movie & the museum – opera’s for all
Watercolour showing Covent Garden Opera House, The Colonnade, Walter Bayes, about 1940, England. Museum no. E.1762-1949. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Who knew? To the right of the Royal Box at the Royal Opera … read more
AJBlog: Plain EnglishPublished 2017-10-21

Berserk in the Berkshires: Lawsuit Filed Against Berkshire Museum Sales
As I previously wrote, the only realistic hope to stop Berkshire Museum’s misguided course would be legal action, either by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (which is reviewing the case but has not yet announced … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-10-20

Almanac: Christopher Shinn on theatrical success
“Whether or not your play succeeds is essentially arbitrary.” Christopher Shinn (interviewed by Jessie Thompson in the Evening Standard, August 10, 2017) … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-20

The Society of the Spectacle
Does one really need to see Swiss filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Bron’s The Paris Opera? … read more
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2017-10-19

What’s Growing in Albion?
The title of the new Mike Bartlett/Rupert Goold collaboration at the Almeida Theatre (until 24 November) tells you everything. “Albion” is, after all, just another name for this island, … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-10-19

 

Dandy Danforth: Framingham Approves Win-Win University Partnership to Rescue Museum & Its Collection
I recently denounced as a bad role model for the Berkshire Museum the deplorable disposals by the New-York Historical Society in 1995. Those selloffs were recently touted by Felix Salmon in a Berkshire Museum-related article as … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-18

Lauren Greenfield and “Generation Wealth”
Generally, I think the art world has missed the opportunity to address the Great Recession and the amping up of income inequality and the one percent that followed. But some visual artists have made … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-10-18

 

Excellence and Engagement: II
Last time I began a discussion of excellence in community engagement … This time I continue with a consideration of three potential categories of excellence that are often not part of our discussions in the arts. … read more
>AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-10-17

Warhol Effect: Can Leonardo’s Strange Bedfellow Make Christie’s Bidders Salivate for Salvator Mundi?
It seems Christie’s couldn’t resist the chance to pair Leonardo da Vinci‘s Jesus with one (or, more accurately, 60) by art-market megastar Andy Warhol, whose 32-foot-long Sixty Last Suppers (riffing on the Italian Renaissance master’s … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-17

Not just for rich white people
In which I tell orchestras in the US — or at least the National Symphony — that maybe they should stop taking so much time to thank donors (and other upper-crust supporters) — at their opening galas. They should greet the community instead. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-10-17

A Song as Halloween Approaches
Like many of our holidays, Halloween has morphed into something far from its origins. Now it is a time for children to dress up as just about anything, and ask for candy, and for adults to put on masks and behave very badly. … read more
AJBlog: OtherWorldly Published 2017-10-17

 

The Voracious Collector
That headline could apply to dozens of people, especially nowadays in this age of competitive, ostentatious collecting of contemporary and modern art. But I was referring to J. P. Morgan, who in his lifetime purchased … read more
>AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-10-16

Salvaging “Salvator Mundi”: Inside Look at “Extensive Restoration” of Leonardo at Christie’s
“Without question,” Christie’s confidently declared last week, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (being auctioned on Nov. 15 in New York) is “the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 21st century.” Really? With 83 years still remaining in this century, we’re entitled to pose a few questions. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-16

Richard Wilbur, American Poet, 1921-2017
Just a quick post to note the death of the great poet and translator Richard Wilbur. Until two days ago, when he passed away at 96, I would have called him America’s finest living poet. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-10-16

 

On playwrights attempting to be in the driver’s seat: my experience at Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline” at LCT
I’ve recently starting working as an assistant professor and program director for a new MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship (MA AME) at The New School. If you don’t know it, The New School is … read more
AJBlog: JumperPublished 2017-10-15

‘Just Like Real Life’
William Cody Maher & Signe MählerWilliam Cody Maher & Signe Mähler Oct. 21 – 28 at Freehome / Berlin “two people who have been living together for a long time have learned how to live … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2017-10-14

Replay: George Balanchine’s Duo Concertant
Duo Concertant, Hugo Niebeling’s 1973 film version of George Balanchine’s 1972 ballet. Kay Mazzo and Peter Martins, who created their roles for New York City Ballet, are the dancers, and Igor Stravinsky’s score is played … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-13

Sovereignty or service
We often talk about an organization having a mission, as if the organization exists as some separate entity with its own individual will. But increasingly I’m wondering if that attribution hasn’t always been upside-down. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-10-12

A Shroom With a View
“Sex” in a headline could once skew a reader’s attention, but I risk vanilla using it here. Grade-schoolers of all nations do porn homework online. That coy teen you meet at your niece’s bat mitzvah … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2017-10-12

 

Excellence and Engagement: I
Advocates for community engagement in the arts often get pushback from people who assume that concern for the interests of our communities necessitates a “lowering of standards.” What follows is my attempt to address the misgivings (legitimate and otherwise) people have … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-10-10

New Yorker’s Bad Role Model for Berkshire Museum: NY Historical Society’s “Responsible” Sales
In his well-intentioned but flawed Oct. 4 New Yorker article, “The Lost Masterpieces of Norman Rockwell Country,” Felix Salmon demonstrates more understanding of museum ethics than the leaders of the embattled Berkshire Museum possess. But that’s not quite enough. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-10

Lies & Damnable Uncertainty
Two new London theatre productions, The Lie and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, seem to have little in common, save that they are both topics discussed by philosophers. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-10-10

 

Life in a Whirlwind
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company presents a new work: A Letter to My Nephew. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-10-07

masculine-feminine
When I was an undergrad, I was taught the concept of masculine and feminine cadences.  It went like this: masculine cadences resolve on the strong beat; feminine cadences resolve on the weak beat. I have no idea if this nomenclature is used by anyone anymore. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-10-09

Billy Bragg and the Rebel Power of Skiffle
Back in the mid-’80s, I was in a Calculus class when a friend I knew mostly from our shared love of punk rock handed me a hand-labelled cassette of a musician I’d never heard. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-10-09

 

BlogBack: Timothy Cahill, Regional Art Writer, on Berkshire Museum’s Decline (& how it should regroup)
Timothy Cahill, a veteran journalist and critic focused on the Berkshire art scene, responds to CultureGrrl Video: My Opinionated Tour of the Embattled Berkshire Museum:
I watched the video of the your visit to the … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-04

Leaves Fall, Dancers Rise
New York City Ballet presents its annual Fall Gala at Lincoln Center. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-10-04

Aida at the ENO: singing the words of one song to the tune of another
Phelim McDermott’s Improbable company has mounted a new production of Verdi’s weirdest opera at the English National Opera … It is not, I fear, Improbable’s finest two hours and 40 minutes.” … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-10-04