• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

You are here: Home / 2007 / October / Archives for 27th

Archives for October 27, 2007

SERENADING A TYRANT

October 27, 2007 by Terry Teachout

“In the Soviet Union under Stalin and Khrushchev, classical music was generally accessible and composers like Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich managed to write major works in spite of the rigid censorship to which they were subjected. North Korea, by contrast, does not have anything remotely resembling a serious musical culture–and what it does have is not available to ordinary citizens…”

TT: Serenading a tyrant

October 27, 2007 by Terry Teachout

The New York Philharmonic is currently discussing a possible visit to Pyongyang with the North Korean government and the U.S. State Department. I’ve been thinking about the matter for the past couple of weeks, and the result is the “Sightings” column that appears in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. Should the Philharmonic perform under the auspices of what may be the world’s most repressive government? The answer isn’t as obvious as you might think–no matter what you think.
To find out where I stand, pick up a copy of the Saturday Journal, where you’ll find my column in the “Weekend Journal” section.
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has posted a free link to this piece:

What would you have thought if Franklin Roosevelt had encouraged the Philharmonic to accept an official invitation to play in Berlin in the spring of 1939? Do you think such a concert would have softened the hearts of the Nazis, any more than Jesse Owens’s victories in the 1936 Olympics changed their minds about racial equality? Or inspired the German people to rise up and revolt against Adolf Hitler? Or saved a single Jewish life?
The New York Philharmonic and the Bush administration would do well to ponder these questions before consenting to put America’s oldest orchestra at the service of the man who turned off all the lights in North Korea.

To read the whole thing, go here.

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, ran earlier this season at New Orleans’ Le Petit Theatre. It previously closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

October 2007
M T W T F S S
« Sep   Nov »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Lookback: rediscovering Joe Mooney
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on politicians
  • Portrait of a good bad guy
  • Just because: Malcolm Muggeridge interviews Salvador Dalí
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on fake news

Copyright © 2019 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in