Category: people

“To detain one of India’s biggest celebrities would itself attract international headlines, but this, he said, was the third time that he had been held then released while traveling in the United States.”

“In 1944 at the age of 76, Foster Jenkins sold out Carnegie Hall – more than 2,000 people were turned away from the door – with a recital of opera arias that she performed off key. Listen to Streep recount this history in the audio above and watch the entire interview in the video below.”

“For all of conductor Robert Page’s accolades, there may be no better example of his prowess in choral music than this: He improved a Robert Shaw choir.”

“In 1962, Neizvestny met Khrushchev at an art show held by the Moscow Manege. Khrushchev derided the sculptor’s work for being ‘degenerate'” – to which Neizvestny, a burly war hero, replied, “I’m not afraid of your threats.” The sculptor emigrated to the U.S. in 1976, and went on to have public works on three continents.

“His path crossed Buddhists and crusading warriors, the Bedouin and Venetian sailors, ambassadors, monks, sorcerers, and snake charmers. Along the way he wrote the Seyahatname (‘Book of Travels’), a magnificent ten-volume sprawl of fantasy, biography, and reportage that is utterly unique in the canon of travel literature, and which confirms Evliya [Çelebi] as one of the great storytellers of the seventeenth century.”

At age 17, she became the youngest singer ever to debut at the Met, where she was known for soubrette and coloratura roles and sang 225 performances over 15 years. She sang popular standards on her own radio show in the 1940s, became a beloved leading lady on Broadway, and even had her own variety series, The Patrice Munsel Show, on ABC in 1957 and ’58.

“[She] directed productions for Opera Company of Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro Colón, and New York City Opera. Since 2012, she had been associate professor at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan.” Says former Opera Company of Philadelphia chief Robert Driver, “She is probably the only director who never raised her voice.”

“Here on St. Joseph Street [in Mobile, Alabama], on July 23, 1927, one of the most fortuitous meetings in American literary history occurred. … When Hurston invited [Hughes] to join her expedition – in her little car, nicknamed ‘Sassy Susie’ – Hughes happily accepted.”

The trouble really started around 1880, when the wife of a congressman wrote, “By what right must the people of the world ask Mr. Levy for permission to visit the grave and home of Thomas Jefferson? Surely he does not want a whole nation forever crawling at his feet for permission to worship at this shrine of our independence.”