“An Italian museum director told AFP he is asking for asylum in Germany, saying he is fed up with mafia threats and a government that is failing to protect Italy’s rich cultural heritage.” The would-be refugee is Antonio Manfredi, director of the Contemporary Art Museum in Casoria, near Naples.
Tag: 02.05.11
Carmen in Leeds Gets Not-for-Children Rating
“An opera company has added a minimum age recommendation to tickets for its latest production – which includes bare breasts and buttocks. Opera North added the 12+ age suggestion after receiving an ‘extraordinarily varied’ reaction to Bizet’s Carmen.“
One Toronto Theatre’s New Business Model: Change Supply of Plays to Meet Demand
“What’s the biggest economic problem with the way non-profit theatres operate in North America? The inflexibility of inventory.” So the Soulpepper Theatre Company is trying out a “flexible inventory” approach to programming.
How IBM’s Supercomputer Plays Jeopardy
“Developed over four years at an estimated cost of more than $30 million, IBM’s Jeopardy-playing computer, Watson, will face the quiz show’s grand masters, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in two games to be aired [this month]. … [Yet] doubts remain about how well Watson can process the endless subtleties of human language.”
‘Preternaturally Observant, Detached but Compassionate’: Dana Gioia on Elizabeth Bishop
“One hundred years after her birth … [she] is admired in every critical camp – from feminists to formalists – who agree on little else. … Bishop is, for the time being at least, the most popular woman poet in American literature after Emily Dickinson. … What makes her pre-eminence particularly remarkable is that she wrote so little.”
Syracuse Symphony Raises $474K to Keep Running Through February
“With much anticipation and fanfare, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra announced it has raised $473,787 at a Saturday afternoon press conference.” SSO management had revealed in late January that the orchestra needed $375,000 to meet February payroll or it would shut down.
Where Have All the Book Editors Gone? (They’ve Gone Freelance)
“With the publishing industry in turmoil, … the long-lunching gentlefolk who once managed the mysterious process of literary midwifery are being replaced by fast-paced production workers, paid by the paragraph and often operating from home.”
How the Civil War Turned Samuel Clemens Into Mark Twain
“In May 1861, while Clemens was traveling up the Mississippi aboard the steamer Nebraska, a Union artillery battery blockading the river fired a warning shot across her bow. When the vessel failed to stop, a second shot smashed through her smokestack. … The Mississippi River that Sam Clemens had known suddenly existed no longer.”