New Opera Cancelled In Russia After Venues Refuse To Host It, Composer Gets Beaten Up, And Death Threats Are Made

MUSIC Posted: August 29, 2014 1:22 am

Ilya Demutsky’s New Jerusalem is about a vigilante who tracks down and kills pedophiles. Once a video trailer for the premiere was made and word got around, all hell started breaking loose.

Mike Zito: Keep Coming Back
After sideman work, then membership in cooperative groups with Cyrille Neville, Devon Allman and others, in 2012 the St. Louis blues guitarist and singer Mike Zito formed his band, The Wheel. Few dedicated jazz listeners ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-09-26
Monday Recommendation: Mike Zito
After sideman work, then membership in cooperative groups with Cyrille Neville, Devon Allman and others, in 2012 the St. Louis blues guitarist and singer Mike Zito formed his band The Wheel. Few dedicated jazz fans ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-09-26
African roots, Middle Eastern extensions in Hyde Park Jazz Fest
Randy Weston in Rockefeller Chapel, photo by Marc PoKempner Pianist Randy Weston, a magisterial musician at age 90 inspired by jazz traditions and its African basics, and trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has devoted himself to ... read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond JazzPublished 2016-09-26
Boundaries
A recent discussion with my friend Robert Carl has me pondering the ways we think of epochs in art. As many are quick to point out, there aren’t hard-and-fast beginning dates for various periods – ... read more
AJBlog: Infinite CurvesPublished 2016-09-26
More inspiration from DePauw
Only one event at the seminal 21CMposium at DePauw University (see my last post) was in standard conference format — a panel discussion. That was deliberate, and was one reason the symposium was so pwerful. ... read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2016-09-26
Thinking and speaking
Most of us have been admonished from an early age to “think before you speak.” But it turns out that speaking doesn’t work that way. Studies in psycholinguistics (Smith and Wheeldon 1999, for example) suggest ... read more
AJBlog: The Artful ManagerPublished 2016-09-26
Just because: Oscar Levant on What’s My Line?
Oscar Levant appears as the mystery guest on What’s My Line? (Levant’s segment starts 21:52 into the video.) This episode was originally telecast by CBS on October 17, 1965. The panelists are Milton Berle, Bennett ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-26
Almanac: Patrick Kurp on snobs and snobbery
“Snobs are always insufferable, even when they’re right, though holding strong opinions is not the same as snobbery. Some ideas and tastes are worthy only of contempt.” Patrick Kurp, “‘Sanding Off Such Pretense or Exploding ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-26
This Week in Understanding Audience: Baby Boomers Reinvent The Movie Experience
This week: Baby boomers are breathing new life into movie theatres… Dance clubs are languishing as millennials stay away… Netflix reveals at what point we get hooked on TV series… How the audience changes when ... read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2016-09-25
Five Stories/Trends From This Week’s ArtsJournal: How The Arts Speak To Real Life
This Week: Why is it so hard to tell if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry ... read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennanPublished 2016-09-25
Re-envisioning Shreds of Memory
John Jasperse presents a new work at BAM Harvey, September 21-24. John Jasperse’s Remains. (L to R): Burr Johnson, Claire Westby, Heather Lang, and Maggie Cloud. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu John Jasperse’s new Remains has a ... read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-09-25
Pap goes the easel: Painting After Postmodernism, Belgium-USA
Paul Manes, Departure, 2013, oil on canvas, 264.1 x 396.2 cm Brussels—It’s being billed as a “manifesto exhibition,” and the curator, my friend, the art historian and filmmaker Barbara Rose, is happy to ... read more
AJBlog: Plain EnglishPublished 2016-09-25
They Could Have Danced All Night
New York City Ballet opens its fall season (September 20 to October 16) with four new ballets. New York City Ballet’s Indiana Woodward in Lauren Lovette’s For Clara. Photo: Paul Kolnik The New York City ... read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-09-24
John Coltrane At 90
There are so many options that it is difficult to know what to bring you today to observe the great saxophonist John Coltrane’s (1926-1967) 90th birthday. Among Coltrane’s hundreds of recordings and videos, no doubt ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-09-23
A view from the gasworks
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review an important off-Broadway revival of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Shelagh Delaney wrote her first play, “A Taste of Honey,” a ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-23
Replay: Betty Comden and Adolph Green in 1979
A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a 1979 TV version of the 1977 revival of their two-person 1958 Broadway revue. Paul Trueblood is the pianist: originally telecast in 1979: (This is ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-23
Almanac: Ivy Compton-Burnett on self-sacrifice
“‘I never know why self-sacrifice is noble,’ said Miss Burke. ‘Why is it better to sacrifice oneself than someone else?’ “‘It is no better,’ said Hester, ‘and it is not really held to be.’” Ivy ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-23
Little man, big trouble
Mrs. T and I just watched Conquest, a delicious 1937 movie in which Charles Boyer and Greta Garbo played Napoleon Bonaparte and the Countess Marie Walewska. Seeing Conquest reminded me that I reviewed two books ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-22
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 2016-09-22
Almanac: Ivy Compton-Burnett on altruism
“It is no good to think that other people are out to serve our interests.” Ivy Compton-Burnett, Elders and Betters ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-09-22