Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
“We were talking about old age and he said that nothing could be done about it, and that he had a very strong feeling that people died at the right moment, and that the greatness of a person included the time when he was born and the time he endured, but that this was difficult to understand.”
Benjamin Britten (quoted in Imogen Holst, diary entry, September 29, 1952)
Walter Brennan is the guest on This Is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards. This episode was originally telecast live by NBC on March 30, 1955:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“What makes Puccini a greater composer of operas than, in my humble opinion, a great composer, is that he knows how long it takes a person to cross the room.”
Benjamin Britten (quoted in Paul Kildea, Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century)
From 2004:
Read the whole thing here.Prior to the release in 1988 of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I no longer watched animated cartoons save on the rare occasions when I found myself in a hotel room on a Saturday morning with nothing to do. Seeing Roger Rabbit reminded me–forcibly, immediately–of how much I’d loved those old cartoons, and also got me thinking for the first time about why I loved them. Never before had it occurred to me that they might possibly be a serious form of cinematic art, stylistically continuous with the great live-action screen comedies of the classic period of American filmmaking….
“I am an arrogant and impatient listener, but in the case of a few composers, a very few, when I hear a work I do not like I am convinced it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.”
Benjamin Britten, contribution to “Verdi—A Symposium” (Opera, Feb. 1951)
Mrs. T’s doctors told me a few minutes ago that she is continuing to make excellent progress recovering from last weekend’s double-lung transplant surgery. She has been fully sedated since then, but the gradual process of bringing her around is about to get under way.
Given the emerging realities of coronavirus and the fact that there are patients at New York-Presbyterian who are being treated for COVID-19, the feeling has been that it would be sensible for me to stay home until Mrs. T is in a more wakeful state. That time, however, may come as early as tomorrow morning. Hence my plan is to head down to the hospital after breakfast (it’s a mile from our apartment) and stand by for further developments. She is intubated and so won’t be able to talk to me yet, but her doctors think there’s a pretty good chance that she will reach a point some time during the day when she is aware of my presence.
I cannot begin to tell you how ready I am for that to happen.
UPDATE: The doctors are most likely going to wait another day or so before starting to bring Mrs. T around from sedation. For the present, I’m content to sit by her bed and look at her.
* * *
For previous reports on Mrs. T’s surgery and subsequent recovery, go here, here, here, and here.
To learn more about her rare illness, go here.
To find out how to become an organ donor, go here.
“Night Club Boom,” a March of Time newsreel about New York nightclubs originally released in 1946. Among the musicians seen performing are Jimmy Dorsey, the Ink Spots, and Eddie Condon’s All Stars, featuring Wild Bill Davison, Brad Gowans, and Dave Tough:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“Do you wish to find out a person’s weak points? Note the failings he has the quickest eye for in others. They may not be the very failings he is himself conscious of; but they will be their next-door neighbors.”
Julius Hare, Guesses at Truth: By Two Brothers