Roland Scahill claimed to have purchased the rights to soprano Kathleen Battle’s life story and that he was producing a one-woman show starring Lupita Nyong’o about Battle’s firing from the Metropolitan Opera.
Tag: 04.26.17
What The Two French Presidential Candidates Propose For The Arts
“[Emmanuel] Macron … has declared his intention to maintain the cultural budget in exchange for greater efficiency. He wants all schoolchildren to have access to cultural and artistic education, and has proposed a €500 annual ‘culture pass’ for young people. … [Marine] Le Pen, meanwhile, … has made no overall budget commitment. However, as part of her focus on French patrimony, she wants to increase funds for heritage and conservation by 25%. She also wants to stop the sale of national buildings and palaces to foreigners and the private sector.”
Ban On Indian Movie For Being ‘Lady-Oriented’ Overturned
“Lipstick Under My Burkha, a drama that explores the sexual awakenings and personal struggles of four small-town Indian women, was initially denied classification [by the Central Board of Film Certification] … On Wednesday an appeals board overturned that decision, saying … ‘There cannot be any embargo on a film being women oriented or containing sexual fantasies and expression of the inner desires of women.'”
Brand-New Music Director Quits Oslo’s Opera House Because He (And Everyone Else) Can’t Get Along With Artistic Director
“Karl-Heinz Steffens announced that he’s already decided to leave his post next year. Steffens was popular and had been viewed as a unifying force in an organization riddled with conflict, but he claims he simply hasn’t found a good tone with the Opera’s incoming and embattled Artistic Director, Annilese Miskimmon.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.26.17
A failure of SHIFT — there wasn’t much buzz
Why I’m writing these posts about SHIFT, a festival featuring orchestras from around the U.S., coproduced in Washington by the Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts, with all tickets affordably priced at $25): … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-04-26
Out-of-Towner Downer: Metropolitan Museum Considers a Xenophobic Admission Policy
Saul Steinberg‘s famous New Yorker cover portraying how Manhattanites view the rest of the world came to mind when I read Robin Pogrebin‘s NY Times article about the Metropolitan Museum’s tentative (to my mind, wrongheaded) proposal to discriminate against out-of-towners in charging admission fees. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-04-26
Sotheby’s Pumps A Nascent Market
It may have been just a matter of time: today Sotheby’s announced an inaugural sale of contemporary African art, saying that this market in recent years has undergone “a long-overdue correction.” … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-04-26
How Charles Lloyd stays marvelous
During the 50 years since his breakthrough album Forest Flower (released in February 1967, recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival the summer before) … saxophonist-flutist Charles Lloyd has been unusually popular for an adventurous jazzman. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-04-26
Claire Chase Wins This Year’s $100K Avery Fisher Prize
Chase, 38, became the first flutist to receive the Fisher Prize, which is awarded every few years to recognize musical excellence, vision and leadership (and whose payoff was increased this year from $75,000). The prize comes half a year after Ms. Chase stepped down from leading the International Contemporary Ensemble, the vital new-music collective commonly known as ICE, to focus more on her performing career.
Can Berlin Really Afford A Dazzling New Museum Of Modern Art?
“The museum, set to be built in the center of the Kulturforum—a collection of museums that includes Mies van der Rohe’s New National Gallery, the Kunstbibliothek art library, and neighboring the Hans Scharoun-designed Philharmonic—has been controversial from the outset. Herzog & de Meuron won a second competition, after the initial one hailed no winner.”
Director Jonathan Demme, 73
Mob wives, CB radio buffs and AIDS victims; Hannibal Lecter, Howard Hughes and Jimmy Carter: Mr. Demme (pronounced DEM-ee) plucked his subjects and stories largely from the stew of contemporary American subcultures and iconography. He created a body of work — including fiction films and documentaries, dramas and comedies, original scripts, adaptations and remakes — that resists easy characterization.