Tag: 04.04.20

The Planned Online Six-Hour Epic Pauline Oliveros Opera

The founder of Opera Povera posted the idea to perform an Oliveros opera, and the opera world responded quickly and in numbers. The plan for the participant opera and fundraiser for musicians: “More than 250 artists from around the world will gather for an epic online performance of the late composer’s The Lunar Opera: Deep Listening for _Tunes, an open-form opera in which the enlisted performers create their own characters, movements and sound based on sonic cues known only to themselves.” – Los Angeles Times

Arlene Schnitzer, Gallery Pioneer And Massive Funder To The Arts In The Pacific Northwest, Has Died At 91

The influence of Schnitzer – whose name is on the Oregon Symphony’s hall – on the Portland and Pacific Northwest arts scene can hardly be overstated. “Schnitzer was a towering cultural figure in Portland and the Pacific Northwest, giving many millions of dollars over several decades to the Portland Art Museum, other cultural organizations, health and medical organizations including Oregon Health and Science University, and Jewish causes. With her husband, fellow philanthropist Harold Schnitzer, who died in 2011, she helped shape Portland’s cultural scene: Between 1993 and Harold’s death they donated more than $80 million to various causes. Their naming gift helped transform downtown Portland’s run-down Paramount Theatre into what became the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, home of the Oregon Symphony, much of the White Bird dance series, and other performances.” – Oregon ArtsWatch

Hollywood’s Costumers Are Still Sewing, But Now It’s Face Masks For Survival

Tens of thousands of Hollywood and theatre workers are out of work right now. But they’ve found a rallying cause: “With no end in sight to the crisis, costumers — whose job is to create and fit costumes for actors on sets — are plying their sewing and design skills to help address the very real shortages of face masks and other protective clothing among medical workers.” – Los Angeles Times

Suellen Rocca, Fiercely Original Artist And Member Of Chicago’s Hairy Who, Has Died At 76

Rocca and five others, former classmates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, “came together under the sway of influences as disparate as Dubuffet, Native American art, hand-painted store signs, the Sears catalog and the natural-history displays at the Field Museum to create a rambunctious form of painting and sculpture that tacked hard against prevailing orthodoxies.” – The New York Times

Zoom Seemed Too Good To Be True

And, turns out, it was. This is why New York just banned it as a tool for teachers: “Zoom contains a number of critical privacy and security flaws, as educators have been learning the hard way. Anyone with a Zoom meeting link can ‘Zoombom’ attendees and broadcast inappropriate content, including pornography, depending on settings established by the meeting creator. In some cases, intruders have been able to hijack Zoom users’ webcams. In addition, Zoom’s iOS app has been sharing data with third parties including Facebook, in a potential violation of children’s privacy regulations.” – Fast Company

Julia Alvarez Says That We Should Rely On Literature To Get Through This

Alvarez, the author of In the Time of the Butterflies and the new Afterlife, isn’t trying to be facetious or to downplay the importance of health care workers or grocery clerks. But, quoting Robert Frost, she adds, “I use [literature] in the broad sense. I don’t mean just written stories. I mean oral stories. I mean music. I mean dance. All these things people are seeking solace in. Here are your waters and your watering place. Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.” – NPR

Can Looking At Art Online Beat The In-Person Experience?

“It’s definitely less trouble. You can stroll around the masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, while seated at home in front of your laptop. Naturally, it’s far less crowded that way than it would be in reality. In other respects, though, the process is almost the same. You can select a Vermeer or a Frans Hals, and move in to examine it close up, read the information, move back — and, if you want, listen to a rather noisy narrated analysis of Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’.” – The Spectator