Category: people

Visa problems have resulted in the cancellation of another artist’s visit to Tanglewood. Earlier this season it was tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones, who had been slated to perform in Act I of “Tosca.” Now, the composer and conductor Oliver Knussen has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Festival of Contemporary Music, where he was to conduct a keenly anticipated memorial program in honor of the composer Gunther Schuller, featuring premieres by Schuller and Charles Wuorinen, on Thursday evening.

“Subtly subversive in his fiction – less so in his left-wing political writing – he consistently upended expectations with a cocktail of fiction and fact, remixed in book after book; with clever and substantive manipulations of popular genres like the Western and the detective story; and with his myriad storytelling strategies.”

“In a protean acting career, he played King Lear and other Shakespearean roles and appeared in countless television shows, from The Twilight Zone to Gunsmoke to Dynasty” – to say nothing of giving more than 2,000 performances as Tevye and creating the role of Captain von Trapp. “[He] could speak nine languages and sing in 21 … [and] helped found the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.”

In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Keillor said he plans to step down as host after next season, following four decades of entertaining listeners with his baritone voice and folksy comedy sketches about Lake Wobegon, his mythical Minnesota hometown “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

“Watchman may leave Mockingbird fans equally horrified, and critics disappointed, but it’s a crucial biographical document. For every question it raises about its profoundly famous and private 89-year-old author, it also answers a mystery or two about Lee’s life and motivations.”

“‘David gave opportunities to everyone from composers to singers. It’s such a huge loss,’ said Christy Kramer, a member of the opera’s board of directors and its recent president.”

“One of the first things I ask [a filmmaker] is, ‘What is the saddest moment in the story to you?’ That is important for me. I want to know if I felt the same way. When I ask the question, I’ll know emotionally if we are going to be in the same place.”

“Mr. Rocco had fairly limited screen time in ‘The Godfather’ (1972), but he emerged from that film with a collection of signature lines, including ‘You don’t buy me out. I buy you out’ and ‘Do you know who I am?’ (both spoken to the Godfather-in-waiting, played by Al Pacino), and a Hollywood reputation for stealing scenes with little more than a Boston attitude and his eyebrows.”

“It used to be you couldn’t be gay. Now you can be gay but you can’t smoke. There’s always something.”

A candle left at the scene led to speculation that Murnau’s corpse was part of a ceremony staged by “Satanists” or those practicing “black magic.”