“For every superstar castrato who graced Europe’s opera houses between about 1600 and 1828 (when Giovanni Battista Velluti became the last eunuch to appear on stage, in a crusader epic by Meyerbeer), there were hundreds whose ordinariness or unpleasantness of voice condemned them to a life in B-grade church choirs, or on the streets as beggars or prostitutes. And those were the ones who survived the operation…”
Tag: 02.27.06
Another Whitney Biennial? Hmnnn…
“The Biennial embodies the Whitney’s eternal identity crisis. The museum cannot abandon its American focus, but today there’s every reason to emphasize global rather than national perspectives. (Besides, art fairs churn out surveys constantly.) What’s the Whitney to do with the Biennial? Its predicament is serious but also funny.”
Art That Glamorizes The Slums?
“Scarred by violence and political repression, Brazil’s shanty towns have responded with an outpouring of art, music and film. But as “favela chic” becomes all the rage in the west are we in danger of glamorising slum life?”
A Flamenco Increasingly Made For Vegas
What’s happening to flamenco? “Alongside the remnants of flamenco puro, or at least flamenco interesante, that’s what we’re getting: a marriage of flamenco with MTV. What will come of this? Last year, Robert Browning said, of the flamenco innovators, ‘There is always the danger of ending up in a Las Vegas show. On the other hand, you have to be open to new ideas.’ Nice sentiment, but how come the resulting product so often tips toward Vegas?”
New – Art Of The Cell Phone
“In what is the boldest venture yet by an established media company to insinuate itself into millions of cellphones, the News Corporation has created a mobile entertainment store called Mobizzo and a production studio to focus exclusively on developing cellphone entertainment in much the same way that 20th Century Fox creates movies and television.”
Scientists Find Lost Civilization Under Volcano
Scientists say they have found traces of a lost civilization in Indonesia buried by a volcano almost 200 years ago. “Mount Tambora’s cataclysmic eruption on April 10, 1815, buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa Island under searing ash, gas and rock and is blamed for an estimated 88,000 deaths. The eruption was at least four times more powerful than Mount Krakatoa’s in 1883.”
NPR Affiliates Worry About Centralized Podcast Directory
National Public Radio has been getting into podcasting in a serious way. But “local stations worry that contributions from listeners will dry up if their programming is distributed through NPR’s uber-guide, NPR Podcast Directory.”
Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler, 58
“Butler, 58, died after falling and striking her head Friday on a walkway outside her home. The reclusive writer, who moved to Seattle in 1999 from her native Southern California, was a giant in stature (she was 6 feet tall by age 15) and in accomplishment. She remains the only science fiction writer to receive one of the vaunted “genius grants” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a hard-earned $295,000 windfall in 1995 that followed years of poverty and personal struggles with shyness and self-doubt.”
What’s In A Name? Loads Of Government Cash, Apparently
Much has been made of the troubles, both financial and artistic, plaguing Dublin’s historic Abbey Theatre. “The Abbey’s fortunes, sputtering for some time, went into a nose-dive during its centenary year in 2004. What should have been a triumphant celebration, marking the theatre’s role in forging the Irish nation and shaping a world-class dramatic canon, proved a shambles fit to make its hallowed founders, WB Yeats and Lady Isabella Gregory, spin in their graves.” Meanwhile, the Abbey’s closest rival, the Gate Theatre, is thriving, pulling in big stars and record crowds. Yet somehow, the Abbey continues to receive ten times the amount of federal funding that the far more responsibly managed Gate takes in.
Big Plans Come To Fruition All Across Scotland
“The launch night for the National Theatre of Scotland on Saturday could hardly have sent out a stronger signal that ‘National’ will mean ‘national’. A total of 10 happenings across Scotland, from remotest Shetland and Stornoway to Dumfries, put together by artists working under the thematic banner of ‘Home’, spelt out the intention that this theatre, possessing no big building, ensemble or bureaucracy, will be daringly, inclusively nomadic. Whether Scotland was picking up on the collaborative spirit of the occasion is another matter.”