Category: people

No other flutist did as much for the instrument as Jean-Pierre Rampal, who died earlier this week. – Boston Globe

A Canadian author has found a bizarre way to put his all into his latest book. Portions of Kenneth J. Harvey’s flesh, containing his DNA, will be embedded in small, pink swatches of paper stitched on to the cover of an abridged edition of his 11th book, “Skin Hound (There Are No Words)”, a book whose protagonist is a serial-killing English professor with a penchant for cutting away his victim’s skin. – National Post (Canada)

Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu – who first made her name at Covent Garden in 1994 in La Traviata – has been winning over opera fans ever since. “At a time when opera houses are in thrall to cost-cutting initiatives, she offers a glimpse of a previous era when passion and glamour were written into a diva’s job description.” – The Telegraph (UK)

— “was challenged only by Laurence Oliver for the title of greatest English actor of the 20th century.” – The Telegraph (UK)

CLASSICAL ACTOR: “He was the last survivor of that triumvirate of legendary theatrical knights – Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John – who dominated acting in England and vitalized Shakespeare in what became a golden age of classical theater.” – New York Times

THEATERS GO DARK FOR GIELGUD: Sir John continued working until a month ago, but had taken a break from working because of his failing health. – BBC

“History’s greatest speaker of Shakespearean verse.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

He “had the most perfect male vocal instrument of them all, and no one who heard it on stage or on screen will likely ever forget it.” – Los Angeles Times

Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry has won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, “awarded on behalf of the Queen by the Royal Institute of British Architecture, and still, despite the big bucks attached to newer international prizes, the most prestigious of its kind.” – The Guardian

Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry has won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, “awarded on behalf of the Queen by the Royal Institute of British Architecture, and still, despite the big bucks attached to newer international prizes, the most prestigious of its kind.” – The Guardian

— dies at the age of 96. – Dallas Morning News (AP)

Newly-disclosed documents show that London-born film star Charlie Chaplin was actively discouraged from returning from America to make a film about Britain’s war effort. British officials believed he was an eccentric who was likely to embarrass the Government. – The Telegraph (UK)

— one of the century’s most popular flutists, has died in Paris at the age of 78. – Dallas Morning News (AP)

Stephen Sondheim is 70 this year and sounding a bit glum. His most recent project failed to get out of workshop and onto Broadway. But “his works constitute a show business force of nature, unmatched and unapproached in their ardor, stylistic variety, intelligence, complexity, thematic depth, wit and stirring expansiveness.” – San Francisco Chronicle