“Ginstling arrives at a time of significant transition for the NSO. He will start his tenure at the same time as Gianandrea Noseda, who will officially be welcomed as the NSO’s music director at a free concert on the Mall on July 29.”
Tag: 06.05.17
The Internet Has Made Us Arrogant (And That’s Making Us Stupider)
“The defining trait of the age seems to be arrogance — in particular, the kind of arrogance personified by our tweeter in chief; the arrogance of thinking that you know it all and that you don’t need to improve because you are just so great already. But our culture’s infatuation with this kind of arrogance doesn’t come out of the blue.”
What It Was Like At Brooklyn’s Women-Only Screening Of ‘Wonder Woman’
The Alamo Drafthouse chain’s plan to offer no-boys-allowed screenings of the new superheroine hit made news when certain men on the Internet flipped right out about them. Cara Buckley, the Times‘s “Carpetbagger” during awards season, paid a visit to the screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Brooklyn to check out the (excited) vibe.
Brooklyn’s Bargemusic Gets A New York Times Op-Ed
“There is so much new life and affluence crowding the Brooklyn waterfront that traditionalists like Mark Peskanov, the master violinist who runs the Bargemusic concerts of chamber music aboard a handsomely converted coal barge, hard by the Brooklyn Bridge, might be tempted to move. Which he has no intention of doing.”
For The Sake Of The Planet, Arts Groups Should Stop Accepting Money From The Koch Brothers, Argues Philip Kennicott
Yes, Charles and David Koch “have given hundreds of millions of dollars to institutions such as Lincoln Center and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art,” but they’ve also “used their fortune to sow doubt about climate science and undermine the nation’s faith in basic science. … They have undermined a critical set of our most important human capacities, and some of the same ones that the arts are often thought to enhance. These include things such as critical thinking and deference to reason and evidence, but also empathy and fellow feeling, and a sense that we are connected to other people.”
Novelist Neil Gordon Dead At 58
“[His] cerebral novels about radical politics, most famously The Company You Keep, challenged readers with biblical parables and ethical dilemmas.”
Ex-Director Of Ukrainian Library In Moscow Convicted Of Inciting Hatred Of Russians
“Natalia Sharina was arrested in 2015 after a search of her Library of Ukrainian Literature found what officials described as anti-Russian propaganda. She denied the charges” and claimed that the books were planted by police. After spending 20 months under house arrest, she was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred and embezzling public funds; she was given a four-year suspended sentence.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.05.17
Discovery At The National Gallery
While I was in London recently (returning before the latest terror attack, thank God), I stopped in at the National Gallery to see its marvelous exhibition, Michelangelo & Sebastiano, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-06-05
A Call to Action
At least since 1600 leaders have been most afraid of two things: comedy and the theater. Both have helped America in the recent past. … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2017-06-05
The problem with “no problem”
I was amusing myself on Twitter before turning off the light and going to sleep last Friday night, and had occasion to post this deliberately curmudgeonly sentiment: “For the gazillionth time: ‘No problem’ is NOT the correct reply to ‘Thank you very much.’” … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-06-05
Monday Recommendation: Bengt Hallberg
Bengt Hallberg Trio, Dinah (Phillips)
When the Swedish pianist Bengt Hallberg died four years ago at the age of 80, most of his obituaries included a quote from a 1950s Miles Davis … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-06-05
Sublime: Country House Opera in Real Time
Our more or less local country house summer opera season has started with a pair of pieces at Garsington Opera at the gorgeous Getty estate, … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-06-05
Report: Enrollment In Humanities At American Universities Is Significantly Down
The trend is likely to alarm humanities professors and many others in academe. Many humanities departments have found themselves struggling to maintain tenure-track faculty lines and, in some cases, to continue departments. Humanities professors are quick to note that their departments play crucial roles in general education for students from a range of majors.
Taking ‘Great Comet’ From Cabaret To Broadway
First there was the experimental 87-seat Hell’s Kitchen theatre, then the specially constructed tent in the Meatpacking District, then a 540-seat theatre in Boston, and finally Broadway’s Imperial Theatre – and the designers had to figure out how to replicate, or imitate, or alter, the original design for each venue. Director Rachel Chavkin: “I can say with confidence that we never would have made this if it had started in a Broadway house, or even with that as our intention.”