Joining the five-time Tony winner among the publication’s honorees are Written on Skin composer George Benjamin, conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, pianist and new MacArthur Fellow Jeremy Denk, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, directed by another new MacArthur winner, Claire Chase.
Tag: 11.05.13
Scotland’s Arts Agency To Do “Listening Tour” With New 10-Year Plan
“The sessions, to be held in Glasgow, Langholm and Inverness on November 22, 23 and 25, will give arts professionals the opportunity to quiz new chief executive Janet Archer and her deputy Iain Munro on their thinking behind the plan and their approach to funding. After Archer and Munro have set out the work in progress, there will be time for comment, discussion and debate.”
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Shipped To Siberia
“Tolokonnikova’s husband, Petya Verzilov, said he had received ‘100% reliable’ information that she was being moved to a prison in the Krasnoyarsk region, four time zones and 2,000 miles from Moscow. … Verzilov said he believed the move was punishment for Tolokonnikova’s public statements, and decision had been taken to remove her from the media spotlight as much as possible.”
Facing Death With Tolstoy
Mary Beard considers the ways that Tolstoy grappled with the end, in his own life and in The Death of Ivan Ilich and Confession – and offers an appreciation of how translator Peter Carson faced his own final illness as he worked on his new English versions of those two works.
Save The Houston Astrodome! (Says Architecture Critic!)
Christopher Hawthorne: “Forget Monticello or the Chrysler building: There may be no piece of architecture more quintessentially American than the Astrodome. Widely copied after it opened in 1965, it perfectly embodies postwar U.S. culture in its brash combination of Space Age glamour, broad-shouldered scale and total climate control.”
Kind Words For Norman Rockwell (From An Art Critic!)
Peter Schjeldahl: “Rockwell’s populous American mythos is ever more to be valued as the shared beliefs that used to gird it devolve into hellish divisions. His lodestar was Charles Dickens, naturalized to New England towns and to suburbs anywhere. And he drew and painted angelically, with subtle technical ingenuity, involving layered colors, that is still underappreciated.”
Actual Roast Turkeys And Cakes For L.A. Opera’s Falstaff
“Rupert Hemmings, the opera’s senior director of production, … said that if food is to be used in an opera, planning has to start months in advance. If we have to have food actually eaten on stage, then we have to start consulting with the singer way ahead of time. What will they eat? Are they allergic to something? Do they not like to eat? Will they pretend to eat? How much do they want to eat?'”
The Guardian’s Editor Speaks About The Repressive British Government
“I felt that a line had been crossed in which the state first of all was the arbiter of how much discussion was allowable. I don’t think it’s for the state to physically and under threat of law smash up your source material in order to stop you writing. I thought it was a very retrogressive thing for the government to be doing. It didn’t make much difference to our reporting, which made it all the more pointless.”
Distracted? So What Explains Our New Collective Turn To Depth And Quality?
“In Civilisation and its Discontents, Freud saw humanity oscillating between freedom and security. Today, nauseated by desultory freedom, we are flipping back to security – the long book, the immersive TV series, experiences deeper and richer than posting your “likes” on Facebook.”
Why A New Theatre For Dance In London? A Surge Of Interest In Dance From Older People
“The public appetite for dance has never been greater. We want to respond to this and give the creative talent in this country a proper chance to develop for the future growth of the art form.”