“Part of the excitement of being a critic was that I never knew when a work was going to undo me in this fashion: to leave me so intoxicated that, when writing about it hours or days later, it was still racing through my bloodstream.” — The Observer (UK)
Tag: 01.19.19
Those Who Disagree Are ‘Fearmongering’: Mark Rylance Flogs His Shakespeare-Wasn’t-Shakespeare Theory Again
In his foreword to an upcoming book by a Baconian, the award-winning actor and former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe writes, “I continue to be regularly and passionately attacked … for my doubt about the attribution of the works of Shakespeare to the uneducated man from Stratford-on-Avon. … Time will celebrate those who were not daunted by the fearmongering of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.” — The Observer (UK)
The Next Chapter For Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre
“I think our job as cultural leaders is to empower that conversation, to say ‘Let’s elevate artists’ leadership at this time when we need people to articulate a future that we can all get behind.’” – Toronto Star
Why Have Netflix’s Recent Movies Attracted Such Massive Audiences?
Netflix published the figures for some of their biggest recent releases – Sex Education, You and Bird Box. And those numbers were pretty impressive, with the two series on course to be watched by 40 million accounts by the end of the month. Bird Box, which features Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock as the lead, has already passed more than 80 million views. — BBC
Lin-Manuel Miranda Chides Audience Member Without Breaking Rap
“LADY FILMING IN THE 4th ROW, PLEASE STOP IT, I gotta holler just to be heard…” he rapped, according to his tweet. The clever diss replaced the line, “The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish,” and then he picked right up with the next verse. – CBS News
Is Singing Opera In English An Accessibility Issue? Is So, To Whom?
Mark Wigglesworth wants to make “opera accessible to all” and “all”, by definition, includes riff-raff. He sees this as the ENO’s mission. “Accessibility,” he writes, “is not really about the price of a ticket. For accessibility to be meaningful and long lasting it has to come from the work itself… When Mozart wanted to write for ‘the people’ he did so in their native German. He trusted that if more people understood the piece, more would enjoy it.” – The Guardian (UK)
What’s Art Worth? At Heart, It’s An Easy Question
Though the art market is often described as capricious, it has a clear logic: the art that commands the most money at a given moment is that which best reflects its collectors’ view of themselves—pious or powerful, beautiful or deep. Jeff Koons—whose shiny objects, vendor-babble, and dead smile recur like a fugal motif throughout the film—has provided this service for decades, celebrating the crass while flattering his buyers that they are clever and superior for being in on the joke. – New York Review of Books
Legacies of Music Makers
The deaths of multi-instrumentalist Joseph Jarman, best known as the face-painted shaman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Alvin Fielder, Alvin Fielder, drums re-conceptualizing drummer, remind us. – Howard Mandel
Idaho Parents Demand Better Orchestra Program, Get It
The Pocatello school district had been struggling to provide instruction for the 400 students enrolled in orchestra programs, and proposed changes that would have made it even worse. Parents protested and the school district made changes. – Idaho State-Journal
Sociologist Nathan Glazer, 95
A longtime professor at Harvard University, Glazer, was among the last of the deeply-read thinkers who influenced culture and politics in the mid-20th century. Starting in the 1940s, Glazer was a writer and editor for Commentary and The New Republic. He was a co-editor of The Public Interest, and wrote or co-wrote numerous books. – Washington Post