“The audience took a collective breath when Baryshnikov first appeared on stage. He looks not the athlete he once was but a gaunt, bedraggled traveler, suitcase in hand, seated on a wooden bench below the broken fuse of a dilapidated Art Deco apartment with large, dusty window panes.”
The 15 Seconds That Will Decide Your Orchestra Career
“If you want to absolutely precise, it boils down to about 15 seconds. We can tell with a pretty high degree of accuracy what kind of a player you are within the first 15 to 30 seconds. The rest of the time, we’re there to make sure that our initial assessment was correct.”
Translate: An Unusually High Number Of Translated Books Have Made This Year’s Top Critics Lists
The 13 translated works on this year’s NYT list mark a 62.5 percent increase over last year’s numbers.
The World’s First Computer-Generated Musical
“They have become brilliant at chess, had music performed by one of the world’s leading orchestras and seen their art enter major collections. But could a computer also generate a hit West End musical? The answer may be provided next year with the announcement of the world’s first computer musical, getting a run at the Arts Theatre accompanied by a TV series on Sky Arts.” (The music composition software used is called Android Lloyd Webber.)
Ballet San Antonio Names Artistic Director
“Ballet San Antonio has named ballet master Willy Shives, who has spent the past 16 years with the famed Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, as its new artistic director. Shives succeeds Gabriel Zertuche, who left the company in August alongside Executive Director Courtney Mauro Barker.”
Why Real Sex In Fiction Films Just Doesn’t Work
“The question we should ideally always be asking in a drama – I wonder what would it feel like to be that character in that situation? – is suddenly replaced by a less helpful (and essentially pornographic) one: what might it feel like to be the actor doing that or having that done to them? “
Germany’s Top Movie Comedy Right Now Is A Spoof Of Hitler
“Based on a best-selling 2012 novel, Er ist wieder da (‘Look Who’s Back’) imagines what it would be like if Hitler woke up in modern Germany and morphed into a media sensation. … Predictably, the movie has also raised a debate over what role – if any – the infamous Nazi ruler should play in popular culture.”
Behavioral Science Is Trying To Explain Your Taste In Art
“Art Basel-goers would surely love to believe that they, and they alone, are responsible for their impeccable taste in art. But recently, researchers have begun to study the neurological and psychological underpinnings that help explain why you may love an abstract Cy Twombly drawing, but your friend thinks it looks like a bunch of scribbles his toddler made.”
Senate Committee To Investigate Collectors’ Private Museums
“[R]ecent reports have raised the possibility that some private foundations are operating museums that offer minimal benefit to the public while enabling donors to reap substantial tax advantages,” Senator Hatch wrote in his letter.
Are Our Novels Getting More Conventional?
“Even beyond financial questions I would argue that there is a growing resistance at every level to taking risks in novel writing, a tendency that is in line with the more general and ever increasing anxious desire to receive positive feedback, or at least not negative feedback, about almost everything we do, constantly and instantly.”
Google’s New 360 Can Put You Inside An Arts Performance
“Just as you might poke around neighborhood corners on Street View, with Google’s technology, you can creep up behind a violinist, hover above Henry V during a monologue, even zoom in to explore every brushstroke on the theater ceiling.”
Ethics Of Reviewing? Why Assume Independent Critics Are Compromised?
“Independent critics may have to be self-policing in their ethics, but there’s no reason to assume those ethics are diminished.”
How Did Consciousness Become a Scientific Issue?
“Medieval theologians did not sit around debating the ontological status of zombies. They knew for a fact that humans are conscious and built a system of control and punishment around this principle. … Among scientists today, consciousness is being hailed as one of the prime intellectual challenges. … Given that it was off the table of science for so long, why is it now becoming such a hot research subject?”
Hollywood’s Lack Of Women Seems To Finally To Have Gotten Hollywood’s Attention
“For two days this fall, a group of 44 entertainment industry leaders gathered quietly, turning off their phones and setting aside their rivalries to tackle an increasingly visible problem in their business: the lack of women both in front of and behind the camera.”
Literary Taste Versus What Sells And Is “Successful”
“Many novels that do sell well are mass-market genre reads—romance, mystery, and the like—that travelers pick up in airports or shoppers grab off of discount tables at Walmart. Many novels that don’t sell well, meanwhile, are the kind argued over in highbrow publications.”
This Student Art Outraged Her University Community, And Ignited A Debate On Art And Racism
“At stake are questions over how universities can promote inclusivity and counter discrimination while protecting free speech. It also feeds into a conversation centered on whether and to what extent academic institutions should shield students from subject matter that might make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.”
Joffrey Foundation Says Joffrey Ballet Owes It $373K In Licensing Fees
“In a startling move Tuesday, four days before the Joffrey Ballet opens its final run of Robert Joffrey’s Nutcracker on Friday, the Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey Foundation announced that it had filed a demand for arbitration to compel the Joffrey Ballet to pay seven years’ worth of allegedly unpaid compensation, an amount it claims is about $373,000.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.01.15
Relationships All the Way Down
Two months ago, Jill Robinson and Amelia Nothrup-Simpson of TRG Arts and I (OK: the commercial – of ArtsEngaged) began exploring the fact that almost every important facet of arts administration is (or should be) rooted in developing and maintaining relationships with external constituencies, what I would call “communities.” This post brings that series to a close. However, see the note at the end about what the future holds. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-12-01
A Fitting and Fun Christmas Art Initiative
Many American museums ignore Christmas – except for the cards and gifts they sell in their shops and, sometimes, secular decorations. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn today of a new effort at the National Gallery … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-12-01
Monday Recommendation: Joseph Woodard On Charles Lloyd
Josef Woodard’s book about Charles Lloyd is more akin to a long conversation than a biography. A veteran jazz journalist and practicing musician, Woodard uses his story-telling and research skills to trace the saxophonist’s life … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-11-30
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Meet The Last Of the ‘Four Great Actresses’ Of Revolutionary China
“Their glamour onstage and on screen stirred audiences during the turmoil at the birth of modern China, nearly 70 years ago. When the Communists took over, these actresses concealed their affection for Ingrid Bergman and Bette Davis, tucked away their love of fashion and steered their careers toward movies that promoted proletarian values.”
Giza Pyramids Likely Have Treasures Still To Be Discovered
The pyramids (which are considerably older than the tombs of Tutankhamun and, perhaps, his mother) are apparently still full of marvels ready to be uncovered.”
The Top Movie In The UK Last Weekend? Shakespeare From The National Theatre
“The play – which stars Branagh alongside Judi Dench – was streamed live to 520 cinemas in the UK and more than 100 cinemas internationally on November 26. Benjamin Caron directed the cinema broadcast, which took more at the box office than previous number one The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two, according to overnight figures.”
Google’s Cultural Institute Finally Adds Performing Arts
“The Google Cultural Institute [is] a free website that made its name in recent years by digitizing and displaying the collections of more than 800 art museums and historical archives. The Google initiative is now moving into the performing arts, and this exhibition is the first fruit of its partnerships with more than 60 groups from around the world – with the groups providing the content and Google providing the gee-whiz technology.”
Director Of China’s Top Music Conservatory Fired In Corruption Purge
“As the latest development of the anti-corruption drive that has swept the music scene in China since 2015, Prof Wang Cizhao, renowned composer and the rector of [the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing], was dismissed yesterday.”