Category: people

In an appearance with Günter Grass, Norman Mailer “said he searched his own life to figure out why Mr. Grass didn’t speak about his (Waffen-SS service) earlier. ‘What have I held onto for so long?’ he asked, and then answered: stabbing his second wife, Adele, in 1960. ‘It’s something I’ll probably never write about,’ he said. ‘I’ve never felt ready to write about it.'” (first item)

“Beverly Sills, the opera diva who won over fans worldwide with her sparkling voice and charming personality and later became a powerhouse in the New York arts world, is gravely ill with cancer, The Associated Press has learned. … The Met would neither confirm nor deny news of her illness, but people close to the situation said Sills was at a Manhattan hospital, with her daughter at her side.”

“James Purnell is to be the new secretary of state for culture, media and sport. Mr Purnell, who once worked for the BBC and spent a year after the last election as a junior minister in the culture department, has been given the post by new prime minister Gordon Brown. Outgoing culture secretary Tessa Jowell has retained responsibility for planning the 2012 Olympics and will remain in the cabinet.”

“A man who could command a stage in any country and who chose to make his career in Canada, William Hutt was a formidable presence at The Stratford Festival since its founding in 1953, appearing in myriad roles from Prospero, Lear and Falstaff to Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. … The stage was his home, and no stages were more familiar to him than those at Stratford where he performed in 130 productions over 39 seasons.”

“Looking for the busiest conductor in Britain, the most active and influential? You won’t find him in the obvious places,” Norman Lebrecht writes. “The baton who spends most time in Britain is music director at Glyndebourne and head of two orchestras, both of them resident at the reopened Royal Festival Hall. Vladimir Jurowski has more bands on the run than any boss since Thomas Beecham.”

“From her 12′ x 16′ wood cabin in the Virginia mountains, Annie Dillard spoke with Daniel Asa Rose in an exclusive phone interview. (ROSE:) So you granted Book World your only in-depth interview for this book. Was it because of that affair we had back in ’82? (DILLARD:) [Laughing] It slipped my mind. Refresh my memory.”

“Nazik al-Malaika, one of the Arab world’s most famous poets, an early exponent of the free verse movement in Arabic, died last Wednesday in Cairo. … In a country riven by sectarian strife, her life and work as a poet and a literary critic were poignant reminders of Iraq’s cultural renaissance in the mid-20th century. Baghdad was then considered the Paris of the Middle East, and poets and artists flocked here to work.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, 30-year-old Canadian conductor Julian Kuerti has emerged to become one of the fastest rising talents in a highly competitive business. He runs a new-music ensemble in Berlin, has served as assistant to Ivan Fischer in Budapest, and this fall, he’ll step into the position of assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony. Not bad for a guy who’s been conducting for less than a decade…

A major retrospective of the work of David Macaulay is underway at the National Building Museum. “Macaulay created imaginary buildings that felt more alive than real ones. And in the process, he demonstrated the power of a sometimes maligned theory of education — that far more important than the recitation of particulars and facts is the understanding of systems and methods and context.”

“Heather Hitchens will serve as the executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, the governor’s office announced yesterday. She is currently the president of the Meet the Composer organization… Before joining Meet the Composer, Ms. Hitchens worked for the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and at 24 became the youngest person to ever lead a symphony orchestra in America.”