Tag: 02.20.07

At Paris Opera, Darkness Falls And Show Goes On

“The revival of Halevy’s ‘La Juive’ at the Paris Opera, after an absence of 73 years, started with a bewildering opening night. The stage was shrouded in various degrees of darkness. At the end, director Pierre Audi and his team didn’t appear at the curtain calls. This was not an artistic choice. … We were witnessing a strike of the lighting technicians.”

Music Floods Indian FM Band, And Radio Flourishes

“Deregulation by the government, rising consumer affluence and a growing youth culture have Indians tuning in to the airwaves in greater numbers than ever. They are drawn to a more traditional medium that is expanding even as other, newer forms of entertainment, such as cable TV and the Internet, are also reaching bigger markets. Against those options, radio continues to hold one clear advantage: It’s free.”

Online, Conversing Without Social Cues

Why is it so easy to say something in an e-mail or on a blog without having the slightest idea how it will come across to the reader? Turns out there is “a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain’s social circuitry and the online world. In face-to-face interaction, the brain reads a continual cascade of emotional signs and social cues, instantaneously using them to guide our next move so that the encounter goes well. … And in e-mail there are no channels for voice, facial expression or other cues from the person who will receive what we say.”

‘Richard III,’ With Arab Folk Songs

Director-adapter Sulayman Al-Bassam has brought an Arabic “Richard III” to Stratford-upon-Avon. “The form has freed him to consider contemporary Arab politics in a way that would have been all but impossible without the refracting mirror of Shakespeare, said Mr. Bassam, 34, who is half Kuwaiti and half British. ‘You could write such a play,’ he said, musing on the notion of a present-day political work, ‘but you’d be best advised to set it in England in the 1400s.’ “

In India, A Film Is Shunned By Nervous Theater Owners

The Indian film “Parzania,” about the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat that killed 1,100 people, is showing in theaters around the country — but not in Gujarat. “India maintains a storied and constantly replenished dustbin of cannot-be-seen movies. … ‘Parzania’ stands out, though, because theater owners are refusing to screen the film even after it was approved by the censor board.”

When The Bands Come Marching Back In

In New Orleans, belonging to a high school band is a mark of adolescent prestige, not loserdom. When Hurricane Katrina struck, closing schools and scattering the populace, those bands — which have long nurtured the city’s musical talent — suffered, and many of them disappeared. “But some of the top high school bands are back: a rare, heartening sign not only for the [Mardi Gras] parades but also for the long-term vitality of New Orleans culture.”