Category: today’s top story

“I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite the heroic gesture it might seem, because I’ve learned, from working with translators over the years, that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself.”

“Why is it that we hear the E-flat major of Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony as heroic (and not just because of the symphony’s name)? Are such judgments inherent in the frequencies of the sound itself–in the way our brains process the wavelengths? Is our emotional reaction hard-wired or is it a matter of convention, a set of responses that are learned and that differ from one musical culture to another?”

“Michael Grandage, who for almost nine years has been at the helm of London’s most acclaimed small theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, is to step down in autumn 2011. … Grandage took over the 250-seat theatre in 2002 from Sam Mendes, who left to pursue his directing career in film and on stage in the United States.”

Before (and after) his Hollywood career – Bonnie and Clyde, The Miracle Worker, Little Big Man, Night Moves, and so on – Penn assembled an estimable body of work in television and on Broadway. “But during his heyday in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Penn was in the vanguard of American filmmakers and is considered a pivotal figure in American cinema.”

“Here we take you on a grand tour of the burgeoning field of neuroaesthetics. You’ll find out how Claude Monet bypasses your consciousness and plugs straight into your emotions, how Salvador Dali triggers neural conflicts and how Renaissance art and trompe l’oeil fool us into believing the impossible.”

The great jack-of-all-operatic-trades “will not renew his contract as general director of the Washington National Opera when it expires in June, 2011. His departure is not entirely a surprise – Domingo has long been thought to be chronically overextended. But it also means that the company is left without a marquee leader, its most recognizable brand.”

“The departure of Zarin Mehta, who has logged three decades in the concert world — running the Montreal Symphony in the 1980s, then Chicago’s Ravinia Festival in the 1990s, before arriving in New York — comes at a moment when uncertainty over the role of orchestras in our society seems to be growing.”

“The Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians announced Saturday they would go on strike Oct. 4, a move that threatens the start of the season and throws the financially beleaguered institution into more turmoil.”

Barry Jekowsky, the East Bay orchestra’s founding conductor, had no idea that his employment was even under review, and he found out about his termination through news reports. The firing was voted on by only seven of the board’s 28 members, the rest of whom may not even have been notified of the issue.

Attractiveness “is, if we accept it as a tool at theatre’s disposal, a legitimate object within critical judgment. Appearance is a part of the casting process. If we talk of miscasting, it may be because we consider a performer too attractive – or not attractive enough – for a given role.”