The Georgian National Opera House in Tbilisi has survived tsars, commissars, civil war and economic shock over its 165 years. Now, after a six-year, $40.5 million renovation paid for by the country’s richest man (a former prime minister), it’s open again.
Art Institute Of Chicago Receives Largest Cash Gift In Its History
“Massachusetts collector Dorothy Braude Edinburg, who died in Jan. 2015, donated the money” – more than $35 million – “in her will and, in an unusual move, earmarked it for new art purchases. The final figure is still being determined.”
New York’s Attorney General (*Finally*) Goes After Shady Ticketing Practices By The Biggest Firms Out There
“‘Ticketing is a fixed game,’ Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. ‘My office will continue to crack down on those who break our laws, prey on ordinary consumers and deny New Yorkers affordable access to the concerts and sporting events they love. This investigation is just the beginning of our efforts.'”
Experimental Theatremakers, Think Carefully Before You Take That Mainstream Gig
Lyn Gardner: “In a tight funding climate, it’s not surprising that independent theatre-makers are attracted to the opportunities and financial support that the mainstream can offer. But those opportunities sometimes come at a price … Sometimes it leads to a leeching of the very things that made an artist’s work most distinctive in the first place.”
Netflix Banned By Indonesia’s State Telecom
“State-owned telecommunications and internet provider Telekomunikasi Indonesia has blocked Netflix from all of its platforms … because of a permit issue and its unfiltered contents.”
Violinist Leonidas Kavakos Wins Sonning Music Prize 2017
The award, worth DKK 600,000 (currently about $88,000), “is Denmark’s highest musical honour and has been given annually to an internationally recognised composer, instrumentalist, conductor or singer since 1959.”
Berkeley Art Museum Steps Up With A Big New Home
“As much as anything else, the 83,000-square-foot, $112 million fusion of museum and movie house is a bid by UC Berkeley to put its museum on the arts map as a revived, vital West Coast cultural force.”
This Woman Is To Peter Brook What Jeanne-Claude Was To Christo
Well, except for the spouse part. “Trusted lieutenant, enforcer, co-writer, co-creator: however Marie-Hélène Estienne is described, she has been at Brook’s side for the last 40 years. For the past 20, he has barely made work without her. … Calling her unsung doesn’t quite do it: she might be the most famous theatremaker no one has ever heard of.”
Police Break Down Door After Neighbors Mistake Man Trying To Sing Opera With Screaming
“Police officers were surprised early Tuesday morning when they kicked in the door of an Amsterdam man they thought was in trouble and shouting, only to discover he was actually trying to sing along with an opera recording.”
The Useless Agony Of Going Offline
“After seventy-two hours without my handheld devices, I didn’t miss my smartphone or access to Facebook. I missed learning new things.”
Ellen Page: So Now I’m Typecast To Only Play Gay?
“There’s still that double standard. I look at all the things I’ve done in movies: I’ve drugged a guy, tortured someone, become a roller-derby star overnight. But now I’m gay, I can’t play a straight person?”
Fort Worth Symphony Reportedly Decides Not To Implement Musician Salary Cuts
“Last week, musicians voted to authorize a strike and also rejected what management had called its final offer. A news release issued by the FWSO on Friday said the final offer would be implemented on Monday. … According to the [musicians’ union], the concessionary terms, including a more than 8 percent pay cut, have not been forced on musicians.” Management won’t comment.
Thornton Dial, 87, ‘Outsider’ Artist Who Found Extraordinary Late-Life Success
“A sharecropper’s son who for decades spent his spare time soldering scrap metal, animal bones and other found objects into representations of black life in America, … Mr. Dial was untrained as an artist but by the end of his life saw his sculptures and paintings housed at … the most prestigious museums of the United States.”
La Scala’s Ballet Company Gets A New Director
Following the October departure of Makhar Vaziev for the Bolshoi Ballet, the Milan opera house has selected Mauro Bigonzetti to head the troupe. Bigonzetti was artistic director (1997-2008) and subsequently principal choreographer of Aterballetto, which concentrates on contemporary repertoire and was Italy’s first ballet company independent of an opera house. (in Italian; Google Translate version here)
Ai Weiwei Yanks His Copenhagen Shows To Protest Denmark’s New Asylum-Seeker Law
“Ai, China’s most prominent contemporary artist, went on social media to decry Denmark’s ‘shameless’ bill that among other things allows authorities to confiscate valuables from migrants and delays family reunifications for refugees for up to three years. The artist announced that as a direct result of the bill he will pull his exhibitions from ARoS Aarhus Art Museum and the Copenhagen gallery Faurschou Foundation.”
They Covered Up Some Nude Statues For Iranian President’s Visit To Rome – And Many Italians Object
Many started tweeting nude statues in protest; some called it an insult to the nation’s honor; one argued that the Iranians should strip statues if Italy’s prime minister visits; another called it “Italy’s shambolic appeasement of Islamism.” But perhaps it was just good manners? President Rouhani said as much, and thanked his hosts.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.27.16
Acquisitions In the Air – and In Reality
For some reason I cannot fathom, I’ve been receiving many press releases lately about museum acquisitions, by gift or purchase, and in one case, about a wonderful gift to make acquisitions. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-01-27
Another Erratic Outing: My Storify on the Taubman Old Masters Sale at Sotheby’s
I’ve asked Sotheby’s to explain a puzzling assertion that its spokesperson made to me and also to the NY Times‘ Robin Pogrebin at the end of tonight’s sale of the late A. Alfred Taubman‘s old masters … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-27
Hostages to fortune
I think it’s fair to say that most people think of me as a highbrow-egghead type whose tastes in pop music are meticulously consistent with his tastes in the other arts. For this reason, I … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-01-27
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Tommasini: Van Zweden A “Safe” But “Feisty” Choice For NYPhil
“Mr. van Zweden is an accomplished artist and a feisty podium presence who exudes energy. Those of us who want this institution to thrive should offer congratulations and wish him success. Still, my feeling lingers that his appointment represents a safe course.”
What Jaap van Zweden Brings To The New York Philharmonic
“He has been credited with lifting the standard of the Dallas Symphony, an achievement that gained wider recognition when he was named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 2012.”
Midgette on NYPhil’s New Music Director
“What the New York Philharmonic more urgently lacked under Gilbert was a dynamic, charismatic figure able to galvanize excitement around the orchestra’s concerts. It’s not clear that van Zweden fully offers that.”
New York Philharmonic Chooses Its Next Music Director
“At a press conference this morning, the Philharmonic introduced Jaap van Zweden, who will take up his duties in 2018. He was in transit from Hong Kong, where he conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic, to Dallas, where he leads the Dallas Symphony. He will simplify his schedule in order to make room for America’s oldest and testiest orchestra.”
Will Bands That Play Philly Have To Register With Police?
“A new bill from Philly City Councilman Mark Squilla would require owners of nightclubs, cabarets, bars and restaurants in the city to collect the names, addresses, and phone numbers of entertainers — bands, rappers and DJs — in a registry, and to share that personal information with police upon request.”
Hey, It Fooled Everyone Else, Too! Says Gallery Owner On Trial For Selling Fake Rothko
“The director of the Knoedler & Company gallery in Manhattan, which sold dozens of fakes as the work of modern masters, was not duplicitous, but duped by paintings so expertly forged that they also escaped detection by several prominent art experts, a lawyer for the director, Ann Freedman, told jurors in court on Tuesday.”
Nathan Gunn Out Of Opera Philly’s Run Of Jennifer Higdon’s ‘Cold Mountain’
“The most hotly awaited event of the opera season just got a new leading man. Cold Mountain, the years-in-the-works Jennifer Higdon opera based on Charles Frazier’s 1997 Civil War-era novel, was written with star baritone Nathan Gunn in mind – but he has been replaced by up-and-coming Jarrett Ott. Gunn withdrew from the Feb. 5-14 run at the Academy of Music. His stated reason was family illness.”
Actor Abe Vigoda, 94
“The sad-faced actor who emerged from a workmanlike stage career to find belated fame in the 1970s as the earnest mobster Tessio in The Godfather and the dyspeptic Detective Phil Fish on the hit sitcom Barney Miller, died on Tuesday morning in [New Jersey]. He was 94, having outlived by about 34 years an erroneous report of his death that made him a cult figure.”