“John Adams and librettist and director Peter Sellars have enjoyed some success in previous collaborations with Sellars directing Adams’ first two operas. Yet even with a talented cast, striking visual design and some extraordinary and often beautiful music by Adams, Doctor Atomic is fatally undermined by Sellars’ convoluted libretto and silly, distracting directorial conceits, which at times provoked unwonted laughter from the opening-night audience.”
Tag: 10.04.05
Thinking About August Wilson
“Reading through Wilson’s cycle play-by-play today, there’s lots to enjoy and reflect on, but ultimately something exhausting and even programmatic in them, something forced and repetitive, although few critics say so. Reading the reviews of the early, more realistic plays, you would think that they stand alongside the masterpieces of the great American playwrights of the 20th century, or of the great playwrights of any century. At least one review compared Wilson to Chekhov. At their worst, Wilson’s plays are overly preoccupied by history. Wilson was a necessary playwright. His best work describes a world that few theater audiences had seen, and it punches holes in common wisdom about race.”
Harry Sells 300 Million Books
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series has sold more than 300 million copies. “The tales of the schoolboy wizard and his fight against the evil Voldemort have been translated into 63 languages.”
Vettriano: I Don’t Copy
Jack Vettriano has denied he copied from a book for some of his most famous works. “The painter said he had never made any secret of using a 1987 illustrators’ guide for some of his figure drawing. Vettriano denied newspaper reports that he had copied the work or that he had kept his use of the book to himself. He said he had always been upfront about being self-taught and that, like many other artists, he used a reference book for some of his figure drawing.”
Recording Industry Wrongfully Bullying, Suing Downloaders
“Attorneys representing some of the 14,000 people targeted for illegal music trading say their clients are being bullied into settling as the cheapest way to get out of trouble. Collection agencies posing as ‘settlement centers’ are harassing their clients to pay thousands of dollars for claims about which they know nothing, they say.”
Record Breaker – Missing It About “Les Mis”
“When Les Misérables turns 20 this weekend it looks likely to become the longest running musical of all time, on course to overtake Cats next year and, on the evidence of one night last week, still inspiring people to squeeze a little tear for Eponine and applaud the noble forbearance of Jean Valjean.” The question is – Why?
Marion True Resigns From Getty – And The Italian Charges?
“Ms. True goes on trial in Rome in November on charges of conspiring to receive illegally exported artworks. Reached by telephone, Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer for the Italian Culture Ministry, said that the departure of Ms. True might provide an occasion for the Getty to reopen negotiations with Italy. ‘It could be the basis for a gesture of good will on the part of the Getty to discuss with the Italian government the objects that it has’.”
“Dr. Atomic” – Music Good, Sellars Not?
“As was the case with the previous John Adams-Peter Sellars piece, the Nativity oratorio “El Niño,” Sellars’s idiosyncrasy and obsession with concept leeched much of the theatrical vigor from this promising project. Recent productions of “Nixon” and “The Death of Klinghoffer,” not directed by Mr. Sellars, brought out previously unnoticed power in those works. Perhaps it is time for Mr. Adams to find a different collaborator.”
August Wilson’s Ears
“People talk about an artist having an eye. But with playwrights, it’s the ear that counts. Mr. Wilson had a peerless pair. His writing comes closer to the sweep of Shakespearean music than that of any of his contemporaries.”