“California Institute of the Arts’ long-awaited state-of-the-art performance space, the Wild Beast, is up and running.” The new building, designed by architects Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung, “can be used for classes, rehearsals, recitals or professional shows – for anywhere from a dozen students to 1,000 audience members, depending on how it’s configured.”
Tag: 10.17.10
Why Laurie Anderson Plays Her Violin Onstage
“Your mind just processes [different media] so differently. So for example, I’ll tell a story and there will be a violin solo, which is really a kind of comment in music on the story. You can say things in a violin solo like ‘I doubt it, but it’s a very beautiful thing, but it’s also sad and in the end I think it’s kind of hilarious’.”
How David Lang Got Control Over ‘Heroin’
When the Bang on a Can mainstay first heard Lou Reed’s Velvet Undergound song, “I just remember being completely terrified. I was danger and terror and drugs and sex. It was twisted and relentless.” 35 years later, Lang has rewritten the piece for voice and cello. (For the same LA Phil program, Michael Gordon has turned Vivaldi post-minimalist, and Julia Wolfe has made the drum set Stravinskian.)
Barbara Billingsley, Star of Leave It to Beaver and Airplane!, Dead at 94
“As June Cleaver, Billingsley was the personification of an Eisenhower-era stay-at-home mom – at least one residing in fictional Mayfield, U.S.A.: a mild-mannered, perfectly coiffed housewife who typically wore dresses, high heels and a strand of white pearls even while vacuuming or baking cookies for her boys.”
The Next Superstar Tenor (He Says So Himself)
Vittorio Grigolo: “It comes easy for me to play the romantic. When a role needs passion, romance, nobility of soul, Vittorio is the guy.” And of his Covent Garden debut: “It was like the whole theater was on fire. I always dream for the reaction of a pop concert, but at Covent Garden it’s a surprise.”