“With City Opera’s decline it has fallen to a range of even smaller companies to provide variety and intimacy.”
Tag: 01.04.12
NY Philharmonic Gets A New Exec Director
“He is Matthew VanBesien, a 42-year-old former orchestral player who put away his French horn a decade ago and went on to run the Houston Symphony and then the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia.”
The Alvin Ailey Company’s Odd Paradox
Alastair Macaulay: “Strangely, the difference between good and bad choreography counts for less at Ailey than at anywhere else. The lure is neither the individuals nor the material they perform so much as a more generalized feeling of large-spiritedness that the Ailey company always delivers. … Good or bad, taxing or simple, every work is accessible and appealing.”
China’s President Says Chinese And Western Cultures Are At War
“President Hu Jintao has said China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the West’s assault on the country’s culture and ideology.” His essay, published this week, “drew a sharp line between the cultures of the West and China and effectively said the two sides were engaged in an escalating war.”