How were the many other traditions Americans might have looked to as their musical roots, a rich seedbed and nearly lost cause I will describe later, trampled or left untended as Southern traditions — both African-American and Anglo-European — spread like Miracle-Gro magnolias? These questions have been nagging me.”
Elizabeth Swados, 64, Obie-Winning Creator Of Avant-Garde Musicals
“[Her] experimental and socially searching pieces of musical theatre were a mainstay of 1970s and ’80s theatre in New York,” often at Joe Papp’s Public Theater. One of her works, Runaways, transferred to Broadway in 1979 and won her five Tony nominations.
Paul Bley, Experimenting Jazz Pianist, Dead At 83
“[He] released more than 100 albums, each of them vastly different from the one before … stretch[ing] the limits of the avant-garde with his innovative and continually changing musical styles.”
Ten Poems for People Who Hate Poetry
“This list is an olive branch to the poetry skeptics. Prose is great for fiction, essays, and belabored introductions to lists, but poetry has its own place in this world. … Many wonderful poems exist, but the following selections will appeal to readers of prose: work that is approachable, funny, smart, but still verse. Take a chance on these 10 poems.”
‘A Peculiarly French And Savage Tradition’: Adam Gopnik On Charlie Hebdo And The Fine Art Of Blasphemy
“There is a huge space between an insult and a threat, and it isn’t actually that hard to tell one from the other. … Mocking your prophet is not at all like threatening your person. Blasphemy is ridicule directed at an ideology; hate speech encourages violence directed at individuals. … Blasphemy is just the fanatic’s name for criticism.”
A Mother Of Reinvention: Britain’s Oldest Dance Company At 90
“Rambert, which turns 90 this year, has discovered many of Britain’s leading choreographers, taken a long journey from the notoriously tiny Mercury Theatre to shiny new premises on London’s South Bank, and transformed itself from a ballet troupe into the UK’s flagship contemporary company.”
American Dance Institute Moving From DC Suburbs To Upstate New York
“It has already transformed itself from a dance school in Rockville, Md., to an organization with ambition to present contemporary dance and help choreographers develop new works. Now American Dance Institute is moving north: It announced on Tuesday that it would build a new headquarters at a former lumberyard in Catskill, N.Y.”
How Angry Spouses Brought Down An Art Dynasty
“What do a Manhattan-based billionaire, a naked Russian model, and a loaded gun have to do with one of the biggest tax fraud trials in French history now underway in Paris?”
Italy Says It Will Spend €300 Million On Cultural Projects
“The funds will be available immediately for the 241 projects, which includes the renovation of palaces, including Rome’s Palazzo Venezia, galleries, museums and libraries across Italy, the minister said in a statement.”
Paris Museums See Attendance Drop Linked To Terror Attacks
Attendance at the Musée d’Orsay was down 1% in 2015; at the Louvre, down 7%; at the Musée de l’Orangerie, 4%. “A major factor was the cancellation – both after the attacks of Nov. 13 and those of last January – of thousands of class trips from schools in the city and suburbs.”
Shakespeare’s Globe’s New Artistic Director Will Aim For 50-50 Gender Balance In Casting
“The fact that just 16% of Shakespeare’s characters are women – and that most of the memorable lines are spoken by men – will not stop Emma Rice’s mission … ‘There is no reason why Gloucester can’t be a woman. ‘If anybody bended gender it was Shakespeare, so I think it just takes a change of mindset.'”
28 Authors On The Books That Changed Their Lives
“We asked a number of writers across the board – from Eileen Myles to David Mitchell to Chuck Palahniuk to Alexander Chee to leading genre authors – about the books that changed their lives. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words.”
A Whole New Generation Of Hot Italian Conductors Is Taking Over
“Italian conductors are everywhere. The fact that Italians a generation younger than Mr Abbado and Mr Muti have followed in their footsteps may not be surprising. What’s more remarkable is that men in their twenties and early thirties have chosen conducting as a career, given that Italy’s opera houses—the bread and butter of the country’s music-making—are in such poor shape.”
‘Hamilton’ $10 Ticket Lottery Goes Online, Crashes From High Demand
“‘Service Unavailable. Please try again later.’ That’s what potential ticket buyers saw on the new website set up to handle the Hamilton discount lottery for much of its first day, Jan. 5. The site returned briefly at 4 PM, but went down again after a reported total of 50,000 applicants rushed the site for the 21 available seats in the front row.”
Confessions Of A Critic Who Wanted To Matter
I was 21 years old, I was brand new to being a critic, and I was desperate to get attention, to have “interesting” and “provocative” opinions. I didn’t even know how to write a book review, much less write one that was “interesting” or “provocative.”