“Achim Freyer’s audacious vision for the four-opera cycle, met with boos and spotty tickets sales early on, is ultimately vindicated with a triumphant finale from L.A. Opera.”
Tag: 06.28.10
Huntington Library Raises More Than $300M In Cash And Donated Items
“The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is announcing Monday that it has raised an estimated $243 million – surpassing its target of $175 million – during a six-year campaign that was the most comprehensive in its history. In addition, the San Marino institution says it has received more than $100 million worth of donations of other types, including works of art and rare books.”
Sadler’s Wells Names Three New Associate Directors, Only One Of Whom Dances
“The composer and musician [Nitin Sawhney] and his fellow appointee Michael Hull, the experimental lighting designer, are the first non-dance associates the theatre has ever had and they are joined by Kate Prince, the choreographer behind the hip-hop troupe ZooNation.”
The Agnostic’s Manifesto
Ron Rosenbaum: “Let’s get one thing straight: Agnosticism is not some kind of weak-tea atheism. Agnosticism is not atheism or theism. It is radical skepticism, doubt in the possibility of certainty, opposition to the unwarranted certainties that atheism and theism offer. … Indeed agnostics see atheism as ‘a theism’ – as much a faith-based creed as the most orthodox of the religious variety.”
England’s Free-Tickets-For-Youth Scheme Gets Nine-Month Reprieve
“Venues participating in Arts Council England’s A Night Less Ordinary scheme can continue to offer free tickets to under-26 year olds until next March, despite the government’s announcement that the scheme is to be ‘curtailed’.”
Wild Afternoons: The Sordid Affair That Saved Emily Dickinson’s Poetry
We owe the very fact that her verse was retrieved from that old wooden chest, edited and published to the afternoon trysts that Emily’s very respectable brother was having with a married neighbor lady on Emily’s dining room sofa.
Once Again, Classical Music Works As Teenager-Repellent, This Time In Ontario
For several years, packs of teens had been loitering at the front doors of the London Public Library, blocking entry and intimidating some patrons. Last week, the library started playing a two-song rotation of Vivaldi and Mozart over the public address system at the doorway and the problem just melted away. (Who says classical music isn’t relevant?)
Inside A Matchbook, A 300-Character Lit Mag
“For a dime an issue, Kyle Petersen publishes a quarterly literary magazine. He charges his customers nothing. And he’s seen enough success to debut Issue No. 2 on Thursday…. Published inside a book of matches, each issue of Matchbook Story has room for only a single 300-character tale.”
J.M. Coetzee Makes Actual Public Appearance, Is Funny
“Coetzee had the audience roaring as he railed against the ridiculousness of the once-fertile Karoo area of South Africa, now only good for eco-tourism, and of a whole country’s ‘light grade of sorryness’. His neat repetition of words and phrases were as adept as a stand-up comic’s. Some were sure a smile had cracked his lips.”
Cuts Threaten Authors’ Income From UK Library Loans
“Authors receive just over six pence per loan, up to a cap of £6,600, through the Public Lending Right (PLR) scheme, something many describe as a ‘lifeline’. … [T]he scheme’s budget is being reduced this year by 3%, to £7.45m, and authors are desperately concerned that further reductions will be forthcoming in the autumn….”