“The theft occurred in the 1840s, when a German scholar visiting the university surreptitiously snipped a page from an 11th-century manuscript known as the ‘Cambridge Songs.'” The thief wasn’t busted until 1982, and the page turned out to be the key to the collection, without which the songs’ melodies probably couldn’t have been deciphered.
Producing Radio Has Dramatically Changed These Imprisoned Women’s Lives
“Palabra Libre — translated it means ‘free word’ — began as a way to humanize those in the nation’s penal system and nurture inmates’ life skills. The program is a collaboration between Ecuador’s Ministry of Justice and provincial government of Pichincha to help ‘personas privadas de libertad’ — people deprived of physical liberty — to reintegrate into society by participating in the arts.”
Is There Any Point Anymore To The ‘European Capital Of Culture’ Business?
“Initially celebrating the wealth of European heritage, the title, with its attendant year-long cultural extravaganza in the host city, went to the obvious candidates, including Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin … But, hand on heart, who can say that in the intervening years they have beaten a path to Maribor in Slovenia, Mons in Belgium or Essen in Germany? Who can name five cultural highlights in Guimarães in Portugal, Stavanger in Norway or Umeå in Sweden?”
Lost Score To Missing Malcolm Arnold Symphony Discovered On EBay
It is thought that Sir Malcolm Arnold, a manic depressive, schizophrenic and alcoholic, could have given the work away in lieu of payment to a plumber or repairman, after the Court of Protection stopped him accessing his bank account.
The Way We Release Movies In Theatres Hurts Independent Films
“A policy that’s centered on the concept of week-long theatrical release leaves out movies of significant artistic merit (such as “Losing Ground”) that don’t get a week-long run at all.”
White Actors ‘Blacking Up’ For Othello Isn’t Inherently Awful, Says Simon Callow
“Is it so offensive? I don’t know. People say it’s offensive because it reminds you of the Black & White Minstrel show. But, it’s a different thing altogether. … The great point of acting is that it is an act of empathy about someone you don’t know or understand. I continue to defend Laurence Olivier’s performance as Othello.”
Scorsese, De Niro, Foster Et Al. Talk About ‘Taxi Driver’, 40 Years On
“[Robert] De Niro reunited with director Martin Scorsese, co-stars Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd and Harvey Keitel, screenwriter Paul Schrader, and producer Michael Phillips for an onstage chat moderated by the director of the New York Film Festival, Kent Jones. They talked about everything from how they came up with Bickle’s mohawk to Foster’s fear of hot pants and Keitel’s improvisations with a pimp. Then Vulture typed it all up for you.”
Chaos At Bucharest’s National Opera House: Latest General Manager Lasted One Day, Performances Cancelled, Musicians And Dancers Split Into Factions
Last week, in an attempt to win back Johan Kobborg, the house ballet’s artistic director – along with his superstar fiancée, Alina Cojocaru, and all the company’s non-Romanian dancers – the culture minister brought back the former general manager whose replacement led to the crisis. But that general manager, George Călin, had been removed because of corruption charges; when he returned, the opera side of the house and the orchestra went on strike (shutting down ballet performances as well). Călin stepped down the next day, and the house has been leaderless since; the culture minister has tried to convince legendary Romanian-American stage director Andrei Serban to return to Bucharest and turn the company around, as he did with the National Theatre after the Ceaușescu regime fell. Now the pro- and anti-foreignerKobborg sides (which roughly but not entirely align with the ballet and opera sides) are bitterly hurling accusations at each other, with the deputy prime minister attempting to mediate. (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)
Johan Kobborg And Alina Cojocaru Barred From Entering Bucharest’s Opera House Unescorted
“In a letter dated April 25 that was sent to the Bucharest National Opera’s security department, Cojocaru, Kobborg” – who is supposed to have been reinstated as artistic director of the house’s ballet company – “and seven others can only enter if they are permanently supervised by security.”
The Award-Winning Radio Show Broadcast Live From A Women’s Prison
Palabra Libre (“Free Speech”) is “hosted and produced by female inmates from a studio inside the Center for Social Rehabilitation. The prison, which holds approximately 700 inmates, is in Latacunga, nestled close to Cotopaxi, the world’s most monitored volcano.”
Why A Rethink Of Canada’s Canadian Content Rules Is In Order
“You can no longer use control, like we used to do in the past, in order to try and steer things in a certain way. … [The government’s] regulatory levers are becoming fewer and fewer, and so it’s going to be more difficult and we have to rethink how we do this and how we do it effectively.”
How America’s First Movie Megastar Became A Studio Mogul (PS – She Was Canadian, Too)
She negotiated herself a high salary from D.W. Griffith while she was still a teenager, made dozens of films in a huge variety of roles, co-founded one of today’s major studios, and was the first Hollywood producer to bring over a major European director.
How A Memoir About Homosexuality And Suicide Was Sold (Very Successfully) As A Family-Friendly Musical
“Tom Greenwald recalled the main goal for marketing the show: ‘Make sure that it’s never ever associated specifically with the ‘plot or subject matter,” he said, ‘And make sure that people realize that it’s a beautiful, universal, family story of self-identification, reflection, and ultimately, hope.'”
Another Unknown Harper Lee Work Discovered (And Tonja Carter Didn’t Find This One)
“The piece was written for the March 1960 issue of The Grapevine, a magazine for FBI professionals … The article was about the gruesome murder of Herb and Bonnie Clutter, and their teenage children Nancy and Kenyon at their farmhouse in Kansas” – the crime that Lee helped Truman Capote research for his book In Cold Blood.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.25.16
This Week In Audience 04.21.16
We’re Not Doing This Anymore: So we love libraries but we’re going to them less. Perhaps it’s because we have “library anxiety” (yes, that’s a thing)? When finding things online is as easy as … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-04-24
Trading Places: The Met Museum and–Not MoMA
The news late last week twinned the Metropolitan Museum of Art* and the Museum of Modern Art,* making them a study in contrasts: The Met had just announced programming cutbacks, buyouts and other financial woes, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-04-24
My Q&A with President Daniel Weiss–Part I: How Did Metropolitan Museum Fall Into Financial Hole? How Will It Climb Out?
Last week’s revelations about the Metropolitan Museum’s disturbing financial reality check left a lot of unanswered questions, raising concerns about how prudently the museum has been managed under the seven-year leadership of its director and … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-04-25
‘The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft’
I’ve discovered that my recent blogpost, An Experiment in Reading, doesn’t work on mobile devices. The gizmo that embeds the book (to let you turn the pages) gets hung up. So here’s a static presentation … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-04-25
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Study: Restrictions Help Creativity
Working with constraints “allows a deeper exploration of fewer alternatives.” They “limit the overwhelming number of available choices to a manageable subset,” allowing us to “explore less familiar paths, to diverge in previously unknown directions.”
A Decade Of Dances Gone Viral
“Thanks to social media, short videos of these dances – sometimes incidentally – spread quickly and inspire a rash of copycats. At once silly and profound, these dance phenomena demonstrate the speed at which something can unexpectedly go from being an inside joke among friends (often teen-agers in cities) to a universal dog whistle for joy.” (video)
When All Music Is Just Music You Get… Big Ears
“Many attendees had the happily disoriented look of people who are accustomed to being considered freaks and suddenly find themselves part of the gang. None were more blissed-out than the contemporary-composition types, who endure scornful dismissal within the classical field and outside it. At Big Ears, composers serve as a center of gravity, a point of reference.”