Category: people

Nothing will turn the media against you faster than overexposure, and for novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, the tipping point seems fast approaching. His third novel is garnering some scathing reviews, and his particular brand of literary snobbery (think Dave Eggers with more gimmicks) is fast wearing thin within the book world. “Given Foer’s rock-star status, who can blame the rest of New York for being a bit sick of Brooklyn’s literary boy wonder?”

Deborah Voigt’s first Met Opera engagement following gastric bypass surgery is going well, and that’s no small thing, since “any surgery higher than the knees could, in theory, compromise the vocal mechanism… But in many ways, her dietary concession to the modern visual age turns out to be not all that artistically significant. She may land a few extra magazine covers, but what matters most are her detailed word coloring and inflection of the vocal line. Those strengths have come slowly to her over the years, but on Monday, she outran her costars in that respect. And that’s saying a lot.”

“The center of his fictional universe was Chicago, where he grew up and spent most of his life, and which he made into the first city of American letters. Many of his works are set there, and almost all of them have a Midwestern earthiness and brashness. Like their creator, Mr. Bellow’s heroes were all head and all body both. They tended to be dreamers, questers or bookish intellectuals, but they lived in a lovingly depicted world of cranks, con men, fast-talking salesmen and wheeler-dealers.”

“No one can deny that he’s successful: Bocelli has sold about 45 million recordings worldwide, and maintains a permanent address on Billboard magazine’s top-classical-artists chart. Like all big stars, he’s become an industry, slickly packaged and watched over by agents, recording executives and concert promoters. His image is carefully managed: Any journalist who would interview him is advised by his handlers not to ask about his blindness or his personal life. In other words, there will be no questions about the loss of his eyesight to glaucoma at the age of 12, or about his divorce in 2001 from his wife, Enrica.”

“A tireless organizer, performer and advocate for early music, Ms. Goldberg probably did more than any other individual to establish the Bay Area as a center for historically informed performance. Through her teaching and institutional work, she helped create a close-knit community of early music devotees and made the Bay Area a magnet for such enthusiasts worldwide. Her greatest legacy is San Francisco’s Philharmonia, which she founded in 1981 and led through the first five years of its existence.”

“Bellow was the most acclaimed of a generation of Jewish writers who emerged after World War II, among them Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick. To American letters, he brought the immigrant’s hustle, the bookworm’s brains and the high-minded notions of the born romantic.”

When it was announced last week that Philadelphia Orchestra principal violist Roberto Diaz would be leaving his position to head the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, the near-universal reaction from the rest of the orchestra world could best be described as, “Huh?!” The fact is, musicians holding plum positions in the world’s top orchestras almost never quit mid-career, and many have to be pried from their chairs when they can no longer do the job. Diaz, a legitimate star in the (admittedly obscure) world of the viola, now holds the distinction of having walked away from not one, but two highly regarded orchestras, and he couldn’t be happier.

“For Hans Christian Andersen, life wasn’t so much a fairy tale as a nightmare. Or so it seems. Though he was Denmark’s most famous literary son, and a prolific author in many genres, Andersen never fully revealed himself. Today, 200 years to the day after he was born, Andersen remains something of a mystery. But he has also become an indelible feature of global culture… Now, to celebrate the occasion, more than 3,000 events have been organized around the world,” and the reexamination of the cobbler-turned-storyteller’s legacy turns up an interesting idea. “As it turns out, Andersen is one of those figures who may be better suited to the 21st century than he was to the 19th.”

A lust for lasting fame drove Hans Christian Andersen above all else, a dream that seemed far-fetched at the time. But Andersen’s fairy tales hid deeper meanings that ensured his celebrity would last far beyond his lifetime. “It is almost impossible to experience certain situations without running them through a subliminal Hans Christian Andersen filter and coming up with a succinct, acerbic take. Your co-worker who is forever dissatisfied with the adjustments on her ergonomically impeccable chair? Yes, she’s the Princess and the Pea. The president from not-your-political-party is touting his new plan for the budget/war/economy/environment? More emperor’s new clothes, you snort… These are handy concepts.”

“Canadian conductor, composer and violinist Alexander Brott has died. He was 90. With his late wife and cellist Lotte, Brott was the founder and music director of the McGill Chamber Orchestra, which is now in its 65th year. He also conducted the Kingston, Ont., symphony, started a series of pop concerts in Montreal and set up a program to train young musicians.”