Category: people

“For decades, it has been widely assumed that Oscar Wilde died from syphilis, acquired as an Oxford undergraduate, although this notion has been questioned over the years. Research published today by two medical experts, in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of Wilde’s death, says a chronic ear infection that spread to his brain was responsible for the death.” – The Herald (Scotland)

Gidon Kremer was such a hot young virtuoso that Herbert von Karajan called him the greatest violinist in the world. But to Kremer, playing the fiddle has always been about a lot more than great musicianship. Music is a political act. – The Guardian

In the first half of the 20th Century Chick Austin brought a showman’s touch to American art. “Not only did Austin promote artists like Picasso, Balthus, Mondrian and Dali when they were virtually unknown in the United States, but he also amassed an important collection of masterworks (especially Baroque painting, Dutch still lifes and Poussin) on view at the Atheneum to this day. Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, told Austin: ‘You did things sooner and more brilliantly than any one’.” – New York Observer

In the middle of the second day of the court case brought against her by her former manager, singer Charlotte Church settles the breach-of-contract case. The settlement is believed to be around £2 million. – BBC

A new show in Montreal ponders Alfred Hitchcock’s ties to the other arts. “The general idea is that Hitchcock has a great culture in literature but also in art, and sometimes he transposes to cinema some of the solutions that have been found by surrealist and symbolist artists.” – CBC

Arthur Sullivan was made famous and very rich by his collaboration with William Gilbert. And the musical plays they wrote are still performed 100 years after Sullivan’s death (the anniversary of which is this week). So why did he die believing he had wasted his life and cursing his partner? – The Times (UK)

“Robert Gottlieb’s near-legendary status in the publishing world owes much to sheer anomaly. Running Simon & Schuster, and then Knopf, he had just two interests: the books he edited and the books he balanced (”What people forget about Bob,’ says Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Gottlieb’s deputy at the New Yorker, ‘he was a terrific businessman’). – Boston Globe

It’s singer Charlotte Church versus her ex-manager in court, as the manager sues to get a percentage of all her earnings through 2002. – BBC

Just who is Gao Xingjian, the Chinese writer who won the 2000 Nobel for literature? “Mr. Gao has 18 plays, 4 works of literary criticism and 5 books of fiction to his name, but his entire oeuvre has been banned on the Chinese mainland since 1985, while his best-known novel, ‘Soul Mountain,’ a lyrical account of a long journey through the Chinese backlands, has so far been published only in Taiwan, Sweden, France and Australia.” – New York Times

In the 15 years since he founded it, Edward Villella has turned Miami City Ballet into a respectable, successful company. “But Villella, though exhausted by years of overwork and in failing health – he has a bleeding ulcer and underwent his third major hip operation last May – keeps pushing toward new peaks. It’s almost as if the closer he gets to the mountaintop, the harder he drives himself – and the more frustrated he becomes at not reaching it.” – Miami Herald