“Conductor Kurt Masur fractured his shoulder blade when he lost his balance and fell off the stage at a concert in Paris on April 26, his assistant said on Monday. He remains in Paris’s Pompidou hospital and has canceled his scheduled concerts through June.”
Tag: 04.20.12
Will Self Complains That Intellectually Challenging Art Has Been Marginalized
“I don’t for a moment mean to suggest that no-one produces anymore cultural artefacts that are ‘difficult’ in this sense – of course they do – it’s just that these works are no longer regarded as the desiderata that any well-cultivated person aspires to an appreciation of. Rather, ‘difficult’ works are parcelled off, and the great plurality and ubiquity of our media means that their specialist audience can be readily catered to.”
Tokyo String Quartet To Disband
“After more than 40 years, the members of Tokyo String Quartet have decided they will disband at the end of the 2012-13 season.”
Remembering Groucho Marx At Carnegie Hall
Dick Cavett, who was on hand to introduce the aged, weakened icon on that 1972 evening, recalls the enraptured crowds and how they energized the star – and the energetic, ambitious woman who got him back into performing.
Why Charles Aznavour Is Still Touring At Age 87
“I have the strength to live more than others. Most of the time when you meet someone and they say, ‘I’m 50,’ they do this (Aznavour slumps down in his chair) and then 60 and so on. I refuse! One day it’s going to be impossible but I’m sure I can do something with a (mimes a walker).”
New Rules For Making It In The Art World
“We’ve decided to present our own version of performance art: a tongue-in-cheek rulebook for how to make it in the art world now–as artist, gallerist, collector, hanger-on. Many of the case studies demonstrate this period’s impish contradictions. And many of them show how to walk a line that has become particularly well trod of late.”
Rise Of The Hobbyist Comedians
“We’re seeing the rise of a permanent class of hobbyist comedians; weekend warriors who do five minutes of material once or twice a month at alternative rooms. Heckling is forbidden. These guys shouldn’t be charging their audience, any more than club tennis players should be charging people to watch them hit. But neither should they be singled out for scorn for daring to play tennis.”
How Filming/Streaming Opera Is Changing Opera
“In 1923 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham warned that concert halls would soon be left empty ‘if the wireless authorities are allowed to continue their devilish work’. Yet there’s still no sign of that happening. Despite all the recording innovations of the last 100 years, people are still drawn to the actual event: the atmosphere, the sense of occasion, the close proximity of the performers – and the risk of it all going wrong.”
DC’s Howard Theatre Shows That Dreaming Can Lead To Action
The historically important black theatre reopens after years of work. One of its cheerleaders says, “at a time when apathy dominates much of the civic scene, when activism is associated with acting out, not acting together, the relaunch of the Howard Theatre is a magnificent reflection of America’s ‘can do’ spirit.”
Proselytizing For Books On Monday’s World Book Night
“To the cynics, World Book Night must seem like windmill-tilting. After all, aren’t books meant to be going the way of Ceefax, or good manners? Well, no, they’re not. Polls show that reading has been rising in popularity for decades; literary festivals such as Hay are attracting huge crowds; and even if sales of paperbacks are falling, those of eBooks are shooting up. The real challenge is not to save books, but to widen the circle of those who love them.”