“And while he embraced a variety of visual styles over the course of his career, he became best known in the United States for the unapologetically traditional sets he designed for a memorable run of operas at the Met directed by Otto Schenk, particularly from the Wagner canon. The productions, which flew in the face of the modern reinterpretations that were in vogue, proved popular with operagoers.”
Tag: 06.04.15
Dudley Williams, 76, Alvin Ailey Dancer For Four Decades
“Mr. Williams was dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company when he was recruited by the choreographer Alvin Ailey as a last-minute replacement for an Ailey troupe member in 1963. He performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater until 2005, continued to dance with Paradigm, a trio of older dancers he formed with Carmen de Lavallade and Gus Solomons Jr., and taught at the Ailey School, on West 55th Street in Manhattan, until he died.”
NY’s Park Avenue Armory Has Chosen Its Next Artistic Director
“He has led the Dutch National Opera since 1988 while also serving as artistic director of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam from 2004 until 2014. Somehow he found time to work as a critically acclaimed director, after founding London’s avant-garde Almeida Theater.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.04.15
The Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-06-04
The Frick’s Little Noticed “Prized Garden” Saved; Vital Expansion Still Planned
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-06-04
Multiplicity
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-06-04
What Silicon Valley means For Culture
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-06-04
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Frick Collection Abandons Controversial Expansion Plan
“Facing a groundswell of opposition to a proposed renovation that would have eliminated a gated garden to make way for a six-story addition, the [Fifth Avenue] museum – long admired for its intimate scale – has decided to abandon those plans and start over from scratch.”
What’s ‘Billy Elliott’ In Tagalog? Manila Street Kids Get Ballet Scholarships
“Despised as pests and preyed on by thugs, rapists, pimps and murderers,for tens of thousands of abandoned orphans and abused runaways life on the streets in the Philippine capital region is unspeakable misery. … In recent years, [a few lucky street boys have] undergone a complete transformation, thanks to an opportunity to join ballet classes at the Academy One Music and Dance Centre.”
Nico Castel, 83, ‘The Henry Higgins Of The Metropolitan Opera’
“A highly regarded operatic tenor, Mr. Castel was himself a mainstay of the Met’s stable, appearing in nearly 800 performances with the company from the 1970s onward. A well-traveled polyglot, he also had a parallel career as the company’s staff diction coach, a post he held for some three decades before his retirement in 2009.”