Category: people

Pierre Boulez – champion of contemporary music and renowned conductor. A hard-liner on matters musical, in person he’s one of the nicest guys in music. A sitdown chat. – Sunday Times

Will pay £1.6 million in back taxes to Italian government. Tax bill figured prominently in his divorce proceedings. – BBC

John Richardson, ex-Christie’s man and best known for his biography of Picasso, can claim friendship with some of the century’s foremost artists – Picasso, Braque, Fernand Leger, Francis Bacon, Warhol, Freud, Ellsworth Kelly – and a considerable portion of the bold-face population of Page Six of the New York Post. – Boston Globe

He stabbed Christa Ludwig, slugged Roberta Knie and flung Carol Vaness across the stage. Jon Vickers was a great tenor, but truly “one of the most obnoxious characters in the annals of 20th-century opera” claims a new biography. – National Post (Canada)

Fascinating, infuriating interactions with an erratic Greene near the end of his life. – The Observer (UK)

New biography of the composer attempts to set the record straight. – Philadelphia Inquirer

Amid the valedictories for Charles M. Schultz and “Peanuts,” a dissenting view: “No one under the age of 30 or 35 reads “Peanuts” at all. Why should they? To convey what is so magnificent about Schulz’s achievement, it’s necessary to look at just where his comic strip went so catastrophically wrong.” – New York Press

“Robert Bresson made films that stood apart from the mainstream even in their day, but now seem even more distinct because of their Spartan look, spiritual content, largely nonprofessional casts and utter obliviousness to fashion.” – Boston Herald

CBC
New York Times account

83-year-old dance legend Bella Lewitsky has had her leg amputated. – Los Angeles Times