She was known particularly for her performances of Brünnhilde (including at Bayreuth) and Isolde (opposite Jon Vickers at the Met). She had to give up performing in 1991 when her retinas began to detach from the sheer force of the vibrations from her larynx.
Tag: 03.28.17
Gainsborough Painting Back On View, Just Ten Days After Attack
“The much-loved 1785 painting, Mr and Mrs William Hallett (‘The Morning Walk’), received two scratches of about 1-metre and 65cm long in the incident, which happened on a busy Saturday afternoon.”
Another Principal Dancer Leaves Pennsylvania Ballet (But This Time, For A Happy Reason)
Amy Aldridge’s retirement evidently has nothing to do with the major personnel changes (and associated hard feelings) following the arrival of Ángel Corella as artistic director. She’s been dancing with the company for 23 seasons, 16 of them as a principal, and it’s time to retire.
Firestorm Erupts As Copenhagen Jazz Festival Turns Down Israeli Musician For ‘Political Reasons’
“In response to asking whether it was possible for his jazz band to attend the festival, the Israeli musician Alon Farber was informed that Copenhagen Jazz Festival did not accept Israeli musicians due to ‘political reasons’.” Farber posted this on Facebook, word got around the internet, Copenhagen’s deputy mayor demanded an explanation and made noises about city funding – and the festival’s director is claiming that this is all due to a misunderstanding of what he meant by “political.”
Philadelphia’s Old Metropolitan Opera House To Reopen (Though Not For Opera)
The 4,000-seat theater was built in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather of the Broadway lyricist) on what is now a gentrifying section of North Broad Street; it served as a cinema, ballroom, circus, and church before being abandoned a number of years ago. Now a real estate developer is renovating the Met and has signed Live Nation to operate it as a performance venue.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.28.17
Doin’ It
After almost two generations of declining emphasis on the arts in public schools we face communities largely made up of people who have little or no experience participating in the arts. Where once large percentages … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-03-28
“Emet” & Emmett: Why Truth-Telling (like Schutz’s) about Till’s Murder Should Be Ecumenical
The Whitney Museum has now composed what is, to my mind, the most succinct, sagacious response to the firestorm of castigation, pontification and rationalization swirling around Dana Schutz‘s powerful Open Casket at the Whitney Biennial. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-03-28
Here’s An Idea To Boost Engagement With The Arts
“I believe that there is a strong rationale for the creation of a Cultural Endowment Foundation. It should aim to synthesise existing evidence, promote greater evidence use and generate rigorous new evidence (through supporting and evaluating promising interventions) on one and only one issue: how can we narrow social class gaps in adult arts attendance?”
Who Invented The Telescope? The Answer Is Complicated (And Fascinating)
“For almost any device, claiming one individual as the inventor is problematic to say the least. Conception, demonstration and implementation can be very different things, and the path connecting them is typically not a line but a long, challenging and tortuous route.”
Study: Low-Quality TV Helps Create Audiences For Populist Politics
“Exposure to entertainment television, particularly at a young age, can contribute to making individuals cognitively and culturally shallower, and ultimately more vulnerable to populist rhetoric,” write Ruben Durante of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Paolo Pinotti of Bocconi University, and Queen Mary University of London’s Andrea Tesei. “By popularizing certain linguistic codes and cultural models, entertainment television may have contributed to creating a fertile ground for the success of populist leaders,” they add.
Today’s Philanthropies Have Some Issues (And Some Problems)
“I think the more people understand how much power the wealthy have through philanthropy, the more they’re likely to see it as part of this larger pattern of the wealthy speaking with a larger and larger voice, even as ordinary people struggle to be heard at all.”