Category: people

Baritone Bryn Terfel has “risen effortlessly to become the greatest classical singer of his generation; certainly in Britain and possibly the world. His bass baritone is in demand in all the greatest opera houses, his records sell by the millions and he is that rarest of creatures, a performer with an absolutely natural talent and a golden waterfall of a voice.”

“Elliott Smith, whose fragile melodies and voice positioned him as a Nick Drake for a new generation, died yesterday of a knife wound to the chest, an apparent suicide; he was thirty-four… Smith’s life and career eerily reflect that of Drake, who mined a similar vein of melancholy folk-rock before an overdose (it has never been determined whether intentional or not) ended his career at age twenty-six. Like Drake, Smith’s output is striking and spare: Six full-length solo albums, three with his old band Heatmiser, and, true to the independent ethic that defined and dogged him throughout his career, a few handfuls of EPs and seven-inch releases.”

Aside from one shining moment of Oscar glory, Elliott Smith’s career was mostly of note only to critics and fans who bothered to look past the corporate mess of the record charts. His music was generally full of darkness and melancholy, but rarely did it descend into despair. “He wasn’t a maverick in the Kurt Cobain sense. Or a satyr consumed by passion, like the late Jeff Buckley… He sang about rejection with a wistful air, and could sound as if he were enduring an ordeal and romanticizing its aftershocks at the same time.”

The Italian tenor, 68, was said to have fallen ill after a recital in Mexico and was flown to an unnamed hospital in New York.

“With the premature death of Jennifer Atkinson at age 45, the Boston arts community – and especially its crafts wing – lost a vibrant, vivacious leader. Atkinson had gone from being an assistant in a suburban gallery to director of a chronically troubled museum – and then transformed that institution’s very identity.”

Peter Hall is one of the theatre’s most distinguished citizens. But Hall, 72, is not a director emeritus grazing the pastures of praise, memoirs and lifetime achievement awards. Since relinquishing his role as head of the National, which he ran from its opening in 1973 to 1988, Hall has followed an independent and varied path, generating and staging works for the West End, Broadway and the world’s great opera stages.”

Booker winner Peter Finlay has made good on beginning to repay those he says he swindled. “The colourful author of the comic novel Vernon God Little, which won the £50,000 prize from under the nose of Monica Ali’s highly fancied Brick Lane, has paid the first £3,000 instalment of the £42,000 he has agreed to repay Robert Lenton.”

“A judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by a former schoolmate of rapper Eminem – and she included a rap of her own to explain the ruling…”

Writer Danielle Steel opened a gallery in San Francisco this fall. “Everyone thinks I have this glamorous life. I have been a recluse for many years. I had nine children, but the death of my son Nick hit me very hard, and it shut down my public world. It is hard being famous. People make incorrect assumptions and are very unkind.”

“Rorem’s works have been criticized, even dismissed, for not being more memorable. More to the point, as much as he seems to occupy the creative moment 100 percent, Rorem doesn’t haunt. The music is there and gone, leaving few if any footprints on your brain. As listeners, we’re not used to that.”