With a concert last Friday at Paris’s Cité de la Musique, the Quatuor Ysaÿe made its adieux. Said violist Miguel da Silva, “This discipline requires such sacrifices that it’s legitimate to say, after 30 years, that’s enough.” (in French)
Anglo-American Lit Is ‘Massively Overrated’, Chinese Author Tells Jonathan Franzen to His Face
Xiaolu Guo, a Chinese-British writer and filmmakes on Granta‘s hotlist of best young British novelists, told Franzen this while both were on a panel at the Jaipur Literature Festival. (Jhumpa Lahiri piled on.)
The Best Medicine: When Art Meets Science
“There has, in recent years, been a surge in the number of projects, across all artforms, with a health or scientific issue at their heart, and a scientific or medical organisation as a key funding source.”
Why It’s Getting Harder To Prove Things
“It has been jarring to learn in recent years that a reproducible result may actually be the rarest of birds. Replication, the ability of another lab to reproduce a finding, is the gold standard of science, reassurance that you have discovered something true. But that is getting harder all the time.”
What Candlelight Tells Us About Jacobean Theatre
Mark Lawson writes of seeing The Duchess of Malfi at the new period-style Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – and how daylight or the lack of it affected the way plays were written.
Live Theatre Vs. Cinemacasts – Can They Avoid Being Enemies?
Elizabeth Freestone, who directs a small British touring company: “I’m thrilled live screenings give our audiences more opportunities to experience theatre near them. … But some of the infrastructure surrounding screenings can’t help but pitch one against the other. And if put into competition with each other, venues will always choose live screenings because they are much cheaper to buy than live theatre. The good news is, the problems are solvable.”
Why Harvey Weinstein’s Comments About Movie Violence Matter
“The question is, of course, how Harvey is going to reconcile being in business with Tarantino. The filmmaker has made a lot of money for the company with violent fare. … Weinstein is trying to tip the scales; to shift Hollywood from glorifying violence in films, to showing the true human cost and destructiveness of it.”
You Sure About That, Tough Guy? American Films Begin Reconsidering Masculinity
“Last year saw a handful of filmmakers take on the questions of what it means to be a man in America in the 21st century, but their films don’t celebrate archetypal images of frontier manliness. Rather, they seem to suggest that looking back to these old forms is another broken urge in an age of cultural nostalgia.”
National Theatres Of Scotland and Great Britain to Collaborate for First Time
The flagship companies in Glasgow and London will co-produce a trilogy of history plays this fall that could tie in with this September’s referendum on Scottish independence.
Ex-Theatre Mogul Garth Drabinsky Granted Parole
“The ex-CEO of the now defunct Livent Inc. and his friend Myron Gottlieb were convicted in 2009 in connection with a book-cooking scheme that eventually led to the company’s bankruptcy. The demise of the publicly traded company ultimately cost investors an estimated $500 million.”
Want That NY Loft? Prove You’re An Artist (Here’s How The City Decides)
“There are so many ways a person can be an artist, and we are aware of that,” Ms. Reisman said, “but if somebody doesn’t need the space and doesn’t have a consistent output of artwork, it’s hard for us to certify them.”
Not A Lot Of Big Sales At Sundance This Year
This time around, buyers are largely reacting to films with appreciation as indie film fans and disappointment as business people.
What If Great Painting Were Animated?
“It is entertaining to see Judith actually chop off Holofernes’s head, but it misses the whole point of Caravaggio, who makes us contemplate one moment of moral choice for all eternity.”
Another Structure Collapses in a London Theatre
This time, fortunately, it was a set rather than a ceiling, and only four people were injured.
Broadway Cancels Shows To Avoid Competing With Super Bowl
“Of the 28 shows which will be running on Broadway at that point, 14 have cancelled performances on the February 2, eight have moved up their show times, three have no shows on Sunday and three are keeping their schedule as is.”
As Life For Gays In Africa Gets Worse, Kenyan Author Comes Out
Seeing the ever harsher laws against homosexuality being passed in Uganda, Nigeria and elsewhere, Binyavanga Wainaina thought about his own life in cosmopolitan Nairobi and decided that, as “part of a generation of people in Kenya and Africa who [want to] change [Africa] to be accountable to itself,” he had to go public.
These Architects Are Livening Up Bulgaria’s Capital
Delcho Delchev “is one of the founders of a nonprofit group called Transformers that has been trying since 2009 to brighten up this former Soviet outpost with low-budget civic art and design projects.”
Bolshoi Theater Names New (and Brave) Music Director
It’s a tough and dangerous job, but someone’s gotta do it, and the last one up and quit the job last month. That someone is now 36-year-old Tugan Sokhiev – who is, like a certain Valery Gergiev, a native Ossetian who trained in St. Petersburg.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.20.14
Simon Rattle on Claudio Abbado
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-20
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-20
The Folk Art Museum Mess And Modern Architecture
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-21
Source: Jumper | Published on 2014-01-20
Source: Dancebeat | Published on 2014-01-20
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Conductor Claudio Abbado Dies At 80
“In a career that began in the late 1950s, Mr. Abbado was known for the directness and musicality of his performances. He almost always conducted from memory, insisting that using the score meant that he did not know the work adequately.”