“When New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves got into an online spat last summer over the success of austerity in the small Baltic nation, they probably never considered that their argument might find its way to the rarefied world of opera.”
Tag: 03.13.13
Meet The Last Of The Great Light-Bulb-Munching Sword-Swallowers
Todd Robbins “is among of the last in a dying breed: a spectacle-creating live performer who aspires not to the Vegas-style stardom parodied in Jim Carrey’s new sendup The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but rather to attaining a middle-class income and carrying on the waning tradition of the Great American Sideshow.”
The Taste Of Art – How Reputations Wax And Wane
“The long view suggests that while some artists inevitably go up and down in the rankings, especially when it comes to the second best, there are exceptionally few genuine rediscoveries of slumbering giants.”
The Art Market, As Analyzed By An Economist
“While art has shown relative resilience to the recent global financial crises compared to other asset markets, its fate as a whole is increasingly tied to wider economic events, in particular the expansion and distribution of global wealth.”
Opera Dead? That’s Not What The Evidence Says
Opera, then, seems to me “not completely dead”; in fact, it seems to be doing rather well. Call off the funeral and get in line to see for yourself.
Structural Engineers To Study Stability Of Watts Towers
“Chief among the concerns are cracks that have plagued the towers for many years. Sensors have been placed around the site to measure variables such as wind and sun exposure. Experts are also measuring the effects that earthquakes have had on the sculptures.”
National Gallery Rehab – A Silver Lining?
“The East Building was going to have to close anyway for building repairs costing $38.4 million. But it secured an additional $30 million private gift to carve out new space, which will mean that when it reopens, visitors will find more exhibition space and a rooftop terrace with stellar views of Pennsylvania Avenue — ideally well before the 2017 inaugural parade. The gallery will spend $68.4 million on both projects.”
Want To Be Smarter? Listen To Vivaldi
In an experiment, the work’s evocative Spring section, “particularly the well-recognized, vibrant, emotive and uplifting first movement, had the ability to enhance mental alertness and brain measures of attention and memory.”
What’s Going To Happen To Trisha Brown’s Dances
Her “proscenium works” (i.e., those created for theaters) will be licensed to other companies, while Brown’s designated successors will concentrate on the performance and re-creation of Brown’s site-specific dances and those intended for staging in museums and gallery spaces.”
Vasily Petrenko Extends Indefinitely With Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
“A new, on-going agreement will see the charismatic Russian maestro stay at the helm of the UK’s oldest professional symphony orchestra for the foreseeable future, with a minimum three-year notice period.”