Tag: 11.23.13

Piano And Kahn – A Dance That Never Happens At The Kimbell

“Indeed, the two buildings hardly speak to each other. Rather, Piano’s addition sits implacably behind a screen of sentry-like elms, generally mirroring Kahn’s building in scale and materiality, but otherwise failing to engage it in any kind of meaningful dialog or to charge the grassy space between them. The head-to-head battle of architectural heavyweights never truly materializes.”

Chaos At The Rome Opera: Bankruptcy, Layoffs, Strikes, Cancelled Shows

“Massive job losses are expected at Rome Opera after it was announced that the theatre would go into receivership after debts of 29 million euros ($39m) at the end of 2011 were [revealed].” Union reps have announced that there is “zero chance” that this week’s season-opening production of Verdi’s Ernani (conducted by Riccardo Muti) will proceed.

Composer Conrad Susa, 78

Best known for his operas Transformations (set to Anne Sexton’s retellings of fairy tales) and The Dangerous Liaisons, Susa’s oeuvre “also included more than 200 theatrical scores and a wealth of choral music … [It] was marked by a combination of tonal harmonies, judicious dissonances and a gift for the well-turned vocal phrase.”

What Renzo Piano Has Done Next To Louis Kahn’s Classical Kimbell

“It is clear that Piano has thought deeply about the work of Kahn and created a building that echoes the earlier one rather like an old Gregorian chant line woven into a newly composed Renaissance Mass: You have to look to find the subterranean connections, and in the process of looking, there is a deep and satisfying pleasure. And as you explore the tendrils of connection, you realize how much Piano has accomplished while subtly deflecting the biggest problem of all, that the modern museum is unsure of what it wants to be and why it exists.”