Mezzo-Soprano Stella Doufexis Dead At 47

“[She] was an acclaimed recitalist as well as oratorio-singer and opera-performer (in which her roles embraced Cherubino, Dorabella, Octavian, Niklaus as well as modern works like her husband, Christian Jost’s Hamlet). She was also a regular recording artist, appearing on, among other projects, Graham Johnson’s Schumann series for Hyperion … and [that label’s] Fauré song series.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.16.15

About that University of Kentucky mural
At the University of Kentucky a 1930’s WPA-funded mural by Ann Rice O’Hanlon has been temporarily covered while the university administration, faculty and students deliberate on the presentation of the work and its depiction of African-Americans. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2015-12-16

The Sun Shines (not so) Bright on My Old Kentucky Home
When I was a kid in Lexington, KY, the town was known for two things: being the centre of the Bluegrass thoroughbred horse-breeding industry, and the University of Kentucky. When I was born in 1941 it was a small college town with a population of 45,000. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2015-12-16

Bach at the Armory with gongs, noise-canceling headphones and deck chairs
Igor Levit and Marina Abramovic Every concert should be like this. Bach’s Goldberg Variations was heard in a piece created by the famous performance artist Marina Abramovic that was a marriage made in – well, the drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory in New York. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2015-12-15

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The Ugly Truth – That Is To Say, The Truth In Ugliness

“I can’t remember the last time I heard one person call another person ugly. Art: sure. But when it comes to other human beings, we seem to have invested almost totally in metaphoric deployments of the word: ‘ugly’ now describes degrading items like the steadily worsening rhetoric of Donald Trump; or, simply, sinful behavior, as in: ‘God don’t like ugly.’ … No longer does the outward merely track the inward: by an almost forgotten transitive process, the two have become one. … This creates an unnerving blind spot: What happens when evil is made beautiful?”

Being Charlie Kaufman

“The writer behind Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and, now, Anomalisa – a stop-motion animated dark comedy about a depressed customer-service expert who falls in love on a business trip, which Kaufman co-directed – discusses where his ideas come from, the TV shows he can’t get made, and the finer points of puppet sex.”

Win This Essay Contest And Get Your Own Movie Theater

“Tired of commuting 150 miles each way, the owner of a movie theater in Maine is holding an essay contest to give away his restored, nearly 100-year-old cinema. … The contest requires a typed 250-word essay describing why the entrant would make the best new owner. No name, address or other identifying details are attached to entries to ensure impartiality; that information is on a separate form.”