Ossie Davis was far more than a great actor, although he certainly was that. Together with his wife, the actress Ruby Dee, Davis fought tirelessly to expand the opportunities available to black Americans both on the stage and off. He delivered Malcolm X’s eulogy, served as master of ceremonies for the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, and at the same time earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most accomplished and intellectual stage actors. Davis died this weekend in a Miami hotel.
Category: people
An Old-School Conductor Gets His Due
Since leaving the Cleveland Orchestra two years ago, Christoph von Dohnanyi has been “enjoying the kind of respectful attention the classical music world likes to bestow on elder statesmen of the baton… There aren’t many maestros of his pedigree around anymore… Dohnanyi knows it and doesn’t hesitate to speak of himself as a living link to the Austro-German performance tradition.” His demanding style and uncompromising work ethic have led him to clash with many top American orchestras, which are not fond of direct criticism, but as his career enters its final years, Dohnanyi increasingly seems deserving of a reputation as one of the great conductors of the last century.
Kurtz Fights Bioterrorism Charges
University at Buffalo professor Steven Kurtz is in court trying to get charges against him dismissed. “The attorney for an artist accused of illegally obtaining bacteria for his artwork is asking a judge to throw the case out, saying authorities have sought to portray his client as a bioterrorist.”
Kramer: Johnson Was “Evil Influence”
Hilton Kramer believes more attention should have been paid to architect Philip Johnson’s admiration for the Nazis. “I daresay that for most of us, this chronicle of perfidy amounts to something far more significant than a ‘passing admiration for Hitler.’ The fact is that notwithstanding his aesthetic and intellectual talents, Philip Johnson remained at heart a cynic, an immoralist and a profoundly corrupted character—in short, an evil influence.”
Celebrating Peter Brook
“In a matter of weeks, on March 21 to be exact, Peter Brook turns 80. This is quite a milestone by any reckoning. One would be hard pushed to identify another living British director whose contribution to theatre has been so immense – and yet all the signs are that there’ll be no great song and dance made when this anniversary comes round.”
Gioia – The Businessman Poet
Where did NEA chairman Dana Gioia get his education? Business school. “Gioia’s self-description has always been more voluminous than the Poet-Businessman shorthand. He is, he says, Latin (of Italian and Mexican lineage), Catholic, and a Californian with working-class roots. He came from East Los Angeles, born in 1950 to a taxi driver father and a telephone operator mother. His youth was spent crisscrossing Los Angeles, in search of new music, and art, and anything else that caught his imagination. He studied the piano, and Latin, and availed himself of the book and record collection left by an uncle killed in a plane crash.”
Bernstein Partner Wins Suit Against NYU Medical Center
Mark Taylor, Leonard Bernstein’s former partner, has won a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal from New York University Medical Center. “Taylor met Bernstein in 1989. When the composer fell ill it was Taylor who cared for him. Bernstein died in 1990. All the time Taylor remained closeted at work. But, in 1994 he was publicly outed as Bernstein’s lover in a biography. The book also mentioned Farber, who was Bernstein’s doctor. It circulated around the office, with references to Taylor highlighted.”
Philip Johnson And Fascism
Philip Johnson’s fascist past was mentioned only in passing in most of his obituaries last week. But “Philip Johnson did not just flirt with fascism. He spent several years in his late 20’s and early 30’s – years when an artist’s imagination usually begins to jell – consumed by fascist ideology. He tried to start a fascist party in the United States. He worked for Huey Long and Father Coughlin, writing essays on their behalf. He tried to buy the magazine American Mercury, then complained in a letter, ‘The Jews bought the magazine and are ruining it, naturally.’ He traveled several times to Germany. He thrilled to the Nuremberg rally of 1938 and, after the invasion of Poland, he visited the front at the invitation of the Nazis. He approved of what he saw.”
Argento Of The Prairies
American composer Dominick Argento has published a memoir. “Having called Minneapolis home since he accepted a job at the University of Minnesota in 1958, he stayed mostly immune from the compositional fads of the day, and he encountered in the Twin Cities not just a host of organizations willing to commission works from him, but an audience that wanted to hear contemporary music.”
Litton: Bad Press Drove Me Out of Texas
For the last several years, conductor Andrew Litton has been under heavy fire from critics, especially those in Texas, where Litton has led the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade. His detractors claim that his interpretations are sometimes shallow and heavy-handed, and suggest that he lacks the technical skills necessary to draw the best from the DSO’s musicians. Like most conductors, Litton claims not to pay close attention to reviews, but he does acknowledge that the constant barrage of criticism from the press played a role in his decision to step down from the Dallas podium in 2006.