“Many Italian monuments could meet the fate of the 2,000-year-old House of Gladiators which collapsed in Pompeii on Saturday, Italian experts warned. ‘With no maintenance and non-existent funds,'” said one advocate, “‘the entire country is at risk. From Bologna’s twin towers to the dome of Florence’s Cathedral and Nero’s Golden House in Rome, many other monuments could be reduced to rubble’.”
Tag: 11.08.10
Oscar Brockett, Leading Theatre Historian, Dead at 87
The University of Texas professor, author of several respected books, is best known for his ubiquitous 1968 college textbook History of the Theatre, which has been translated into dozens of languages and is now in its tenth edition.
Royal Flemish Ballet Director Lashes Out Over Merger
Kathryn Bennetts called the Flanders government’s money-saving plan to merge the ballet with the Flemish Opera “ignorant and arrogant … I do the programming.” Of the minister responsible for the decision, she said, “She shouldn’t pretend to know anything about the arts. She should listen to experts like me.”
Nadine Gordimer States Her Priorities
“[What] there is that is worthwhile at all, in my view, of life, is the fiction. When I am doing something with a purpose, with a direct public purpose, then it’s in the non-fiction. … If you are writing with a direct cause in mind, you are writing propaganda. It’s fatal for a fiction writer.”
A Culture Of Ballet In Havana (And A Cultural Exchange)
“The audience here is extremely well versed in ballet, people are knowledgeable, and they know the individual dancers, and they have their favorites, and you walk into the theater and there’s already a hum, people know ballets. It’s really wonderful because you have this engagement you don’t get in the United States.”
Do We Need Real Laws In Virtual Worlds?
“Virtual law is interesting because these environments are in one sense fictional, in another very real. People invest real money and time and create real relationships. So, the question is: to what extent should the things that are happening in these environments be treated as if they were happening in physical space or in conventional online forums, email or blogs?”
The Arts – Threatened By Corporate Ownership?
The arts are being challenged by “the corporation, and in particular the corporate ownership of culture, enforced by a copyright regime that has grown steadily since its eighteenth-century inception from fourteen years, to twenty-eight, to fifty and presently to seventy years after death for individuals and ninety-five for corporations.”
The New Billionaires Pumping Up the Art Market
“They tend to start by collecting art of their own nations, whether Middle Eastern, Russian or Chinese. But – perhaps as their own businesses become global businesses – their predilections shift towards contemporary art.”
Univ. of Texas Acquires Spalding Gray Archives
“On Monday the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities library at the university, said it had acquired Gray’s archives, comprising more than 40 years of work dating to the 1970s. Among the materials in the archive, the center said, are more than 90 performance notebooks and more than 100 diaries.”
Why Fancy Free Wasn’t a Hit in Havana
“One easy answer is that Fancy Free doesn’t boast the pyrotechnics and bravura that go a long way here, no matter the dance genre. … [And for] American audiences, Fancy Free can call to mind the history of World War II and an era of vigor. It is a healthy dose of New York nostalgia,” which Cubans wouldn’t share.