“[She] first became known in Cambridge when she started selling her photos in a pushcart in Harvard Square. When police tried to chase her away, [her husband], a civil rights attorney, successfully argued that photographs are not ordinary merchandise that required a peddler’s license but were an intellectual product protected by the First Amendment. … Far from a pushcart, at the height of her career a 20-by-24 inch Polaroid portrait by Dorfman cost thousands of dollars.” – WBUR (Boston)
Tag: 05.31.20
Mady Mesplé, One Of 20th Century’s Great Coloratura Sopranos, Dead At 89
While she did sing some Italian roles (Gilda, Lucia, Rosina) and even a few German ones (the Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta), Mesplé won worldwide acclaim for the French concert and opera repertoire — new works by Francis Poulenc as well as such famous parts as Olympia (The Tales of Hoffman), Leïla (The Pearl Fishers), and, most of all, the title role in Lakmé. – Gramophone
Taj Mahal Suffers Damage In Severe Thunderstorm
“A deadly thunderstorm that rolled across parts of northern India damaged sections of the Taj Mahal complex, including the main gate and a railing running below its five lofty domes, officials said Sunday.” No structural damage was reported to the main mausoleum building. – Yahoo! (AFP)
The Gershwin Threat/The Gershwin Moment
The Gershwin threat was seemingly felt by all American-born classical musicians: they feared his genius. European-born classical musicians weren’t threatened, and the list of Gershwin admirers includes Otto Klemperer, Jascha Heifetz, Dmitri Shostakovich, etc. The Gershwin moment is right now. Music historians study and esteem him (they never did before). We no longer segregate Rhapsody in Blue on pops concerts (as the Boston Symphony did until 1997). – Joseph Horowitz
Building A Sanctuary For Culture Lovers
April Gornik and Eric Fischl want to make the Sag Harbor Methodist Church into a community arts center … whenever people can gather again. Fischl: “We have to stop thinking about art as art. We have to start thinking about how the Church can bring creativity to the community on a larger scale.” – The New York Times
You Might Not Know Much About The Mother Of African Cinema
Sarah Maldoror was “a Euro-Caribbean filmmaker trained in the Soviet Union” – and the director, who died of the coronavirus in April of this year, never stopped; “she kept fighting in a world heading in the opposite direction she and her comrades had fought for.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Playing Satie’s ‘Vexations’ To Evoke The Spirit Of Our Times
The pianist Igor Levit played a livestream of Erik Satie’s famous, mysterious work, consisting of four lines repeated 840 times, on Sunday. And, well: “The fascinating livestream occasionally slid into something more disturbingly voyeuristic, like witnessing a private crisis of faith and bracing for it to all go wrong.” (It didn’t.) – The New York Times
Going To The Drive-In, But For Live Theatre
In Prague, the opening is going in fits and starts, but theatre companies like the Czech National Theatre are more than ready. “The drive-in theater at Prague’s vegetable market was an ambitious example. To circumvent restrictions on public gatherings, audience members watched plays, concerts and comedy from behind their steering wheels.” – The New York Times
This Club Has Returned To Booking Live Acts, But Audiences Have To Stay Away
The virus has devastated the jazz community in New York. But “there’s a funny thing about jazz: It keeps roaring back to life. Live music returns to Smalls on June 1, in a socially distant way, thanks to Mr. Wilner’s persistence, the club’s shift into full nonprofit mode and a windfall from a celebrity benefactor.” – The New York Times
The ‘Yesterday’ Writing Credit Kerfuffle Is Exactly How The Film Industry Works
In other words, it doesn’t work very well for writers. The Writers Guild of Great Britain: “‘Things are stacked up, not necessarily in favour of the writer.’ It added that funding, which is much easier to get for a film with an established name onboard, makes it even harder for new writers to break through.” – The Guardian (UK)