Category: people

Eighty years after it disappeared, a 500-page dossier on Rasputin comes to light. It would seem to confirm that the semi-literate peasant prophet did have an affair with the Czarina Alexandra. The papers have cast new light on the myths, sexual conquests and power of the legendary figure in the Romanov court. – National Post (Canada)

Margaret Edson won a Pulitzer for her first play “Wit.” But while the enormous attention the play has received is gratifying, she says, she has no plans to write another. – Philadelphia Inquirer

Dmitri Shostakovich was both of these. But a new book adds gasoline to the controversy of whether the Soviet composer was a government stooge or brave artist. – The Observer (UK)

Britain’s Poet Laureate Andrew Motion reflects on the power of poetry. Just because he’s the government poet doesn’t mean he has to be a stooge. – The Guardian

If Ronald Lauder has his way, he will be responsible for the return of thousands of works of art to the heirs of Holocaust victims from whom they were seized. Yet in the two years since he formed his Commission of Art Recovery to achieve this, Lauder’s crusade has been mired in conflict. – The Art Newspaper

Dealer Jay Jopling helped bring the world Damien Hirst’s pickled shark, as well as a generation of British artists. Now he’s got new plans for an aesthetic revolution. – The Telegraph (UK)

Canadian composer Jean Coulthard, one of Canada’s first composers to achieve widespread recognition, has died at the age of 92. – CBC

Time Magazine art critic Robert Hughes pleads not guilty to reckless driving in Australia. Charges against him came out of a head-on accident on a remote road. He was trapped inside his rented car for three hours and then spent 12 hours on the operating table. “I believe that I am innocent. That I am in no way criminally culpable and naturally I hope that I will be fully acquitted,” Mr Hughes said. – The Age (Melbourne)

Midori was the classic prodigy, with a brilliant career. “The press constantly talked about how prodigies never succeed when they grow up. Imagine a child being told she’s going to fail. It was pretty terrible,” she says. After a crisis in her early 20s, she set up a foundation to help kids. Now 28, the violinist is about to graduate from NYU with a degree in psychology and gender studies. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

In a public school system that teachers routinely flee because of low pay and other concerns, one music teacher has outlasted seven principals and myriad budget cutbacks – even splitting her days between two schools during one three-year stretch. During that time, she’s fashioned one of Washington DC’s most successful elementary school music programs, one that sends students to perform at sporting events (including Capitals and Wizards games), sells out a local church at its annual musical (this year’s offering: “Brigadoon”) and lures professionals to join their performances (most recently, folk singer Tom Paxton). Oh yes, and the kids won a Grammy, too. – Washington Post