Bass-Baritone John Shirley-Quirk Dead at 82

PEOPLE Posted: April 9, 2014 12:32 am

The beloved and widely-recorded singer was admired for his Bach and Handel and English art song, but he was best known for his work with Benjamin Britten, who wrote a number of roles for him.

Berserk in the Berkshires: Lawsuit Filed Against Berkshire Museum Sales
As I previously wrote, the only realistic hope to stop Berkshire Museum’s misguided course would be legal action, either by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (which is reviewing the case but has not yet announced ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-10-20
The return of Torch Song
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the first New York revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song and the East Coast premiere of the stage version of Shakespeare in Love. Here’s an excerpt. * * ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-20
Replay: Fred Steiner talks about composing the Perry Mason theme
Fred Steiner talks about how he composed “Park Avenue Beat,” the theme for the Perry Mason TV series: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-20
Almanac: Christopher Shinn on theatrical success
“Whether or not your play succeeds is essentially arbitrary.” Christopher Shinn (interviewed by Jessie Thompson in the Evening Standard, August 10, 2017) ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-20
The Society of the Spectacle
Does one really need to see Swiss filmmaker ... read more
AJBlog: Fresh PencilPublished 2017-10-19
What’s Growing in Albion?
Victoria Hamilton as Audreyphotograph Marc Brenner The title of the new Mike Bartlett/Rupert Goold collaboration at the Almeida Theatre (until 24 November) tells you everything. “Albion” is, after all, just another name for this island, ... read more
AJBlog: Plain EnglishPublished 2017-10-19
Resurrecting a Broadway masterpiece
In this week’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I report on plans for the first revival of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway since it closed a quarter-century ago. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Most people who ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-19
So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-19
Almanac: Christopher Shinn on why playwrights write
“Apart from needing money, the only reason to write is to face one’s pathologies.” Christopher Shinn (interviewed by Jessie Thompson in the Evening Standard, August 10, 2017) ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-19
Dandy Danforth: Framingham Approves Win-Win University Partnership to Rescue Museum & Its Collection
I recently denounced as a bad role model for the Berkshire Museum the deplorable disposals by the New-York Historical Society 1995. Those selloffs were recently touted by Felix Salmon in a Berkshire Museum-related article as ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-10-18
Lauren Greenfield and “Generation Wealth”
GENERALLY, I think the art world has missed the opportunity to address the Great Recession and the amping up of income inequality and the one percent that followed. But some visual artists have made ... read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-10-18
Snapshot: Pablo Casals plays Bach
Pablo Casals plays Bach’s First Unaccompanied Cello Suite in 1954 at the Abbaye Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in Prades, France: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-18
Almanac: Ross Macdonald on juvenile delinquency in California
“There was really nothing to be done about Ronnie, atleast that I could do. He would go on turning a dollar in one way or another until he ended up in Folsom or a mortuary ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-18
Excellence and Engagement: II
Last time I began a discussion of excellence in community engagement, saying “Advocates for community engagement in the arts often get pushback from people who assume that concern for the interests of our communities ... read more
AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2017-10-17
Not just for rich white people
In which I tell orchestras in the US — or at least the National Symphony — that maybe they should stop taking so much time to thank donors (and other upper-crust supporters) — at their ... read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2017-10-17
Warhol Effect: Can Leonardo’s Strange Bedfellow Make Christie’s Bidders Salivate for “Salvator Mundi”?
It seems Christie’s couldn’t resist the chance to pair Leonardo da Vinci‘s Jesus with one (or, more accurately, 60) by art-market megastar Andy Warhol, whose 32-foot-long “Sixty Last Suppers” (riffing on the Italian Renaissance master’s ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-10-17
Lookback: how to use reviews wisely
From 2003: I suppose I was offering a counsel of perfection when I suggested that reviews should be saved for after the fact. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to at least approximate the ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-17
Almanac: Ivy Compton-Burnett on writing fiction about real people
“And people in life hardly seem to be definite enough to appear in print. They are not good or bad enough, or clever or stupid enough, or comic or pitiful enough.” Ivy Compton-Burnett, interviewed by ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-10-17
Salvaging “Salvator Mundi”: Inside Look at “Extensive Restoration” of Leonardo at Christie’s
“Without question,” Christie’s confidently declared last week, Leonardo da Vinci‘s “Salvator Mundi” (being auctioned on Nov. 15 in New York) is “the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 21st century.” Really? With 83 years still remaining ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-10-16
The Voracious Collector
That headline could apply to dozens of people, especially nowadays in this age of competitive, ostentatious collecting of contemporary and modern art. But I was referring to J. P. Morgan, who in his lifetime purchased ... read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2017-10-16

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