It seems an apt time to weave together a few of the threads that made Bob Capanna who he was — the Bobness of Bob, if you will. Capanna embodied a set of high ideals that arts institutions might aim for as the sector struggles with questions of identity versus survival, art versus entertainment, flavor-of-the-month programming ideas to please funders versus core mission, and the endless strain of working harder for an ever-smaller slice of the attention pie.
Tag: 03.09.18
After 50(!) Years Singing At The Met, Paul Plishka Retires
The voice is a fragile thing, and few singers end up with 50-year careers at the Metropolitan Opera. The bass Paul Plishka is one of them.
‘Mostly He Gave Off Light, So It Was Like Being In This Incredibly Powerful Beam’: Alexander Bernstein Remembers Lenny
Jamie is the Bernstein child we usually hear from, but in this interview, Alexander talks about life with his father (and his mother) as well as Lenny’s music-making, social activism, and dealing with the demands of his work. “[As] he started conducting more abroad, the entourage around him grew larger and larger, and he became more and more of an industry. That was hard for him to handle. One day I remember him shouting, ‘I hate Leonard Bernstein!'”
New York DA Has A New Antiquities Trafficking Unit, And The City’s Antiquities Dealers Are Spooked
“Over the past year, the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance has stepped up seizures of allegedly looted artefacts, some worth millions of dollars, with highly publicised raids targeting the billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt, Phoenix Ancient Art gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. … One effect of the DA’s actions is clear: an increasingly jittery antiquities market.”