“Last month, the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, unveiled a cache of antiquities seized from a Roman property developer. The objects, which include two Greek vases as well as a bull’s and a horse’s head, both in terracotta, are worth €900,000, the Carabinieri’s cultural protection squad says. … But when we sent this picture to five independent experts, all of them questioned the objects’ authenticity. Although the specialists said they could not offer a definitive opinion based on a photograph, all of them expressed grave doubts.”
Tag: 06.19.18
India’s First Trans-Led Dance Company
There’s a long tradition in India of intersex and trans women called hijras who show up at weddings and other celebrations and dance for money. Except for those special occasions, however, hijras are severely marginalized in Indian society, and many must turn to begging or sex work to survive. But one group in Mumbai has banded together to create a performing company called Dancing Queens. Reporter Priti Salian meets them.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.19.18
Two-Phase Engagement
Community engagement practitioners are frequently asked to justify their work using traditional arts marketing/development metrics: ticket sales and donations. Don’t get ahead of me. This is not a touchy-feely objection to practical outcomes. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-06-19
The Crossing’s Month of Moderns : A masterwork is born
The great but tragic American poet Hart Crane (1899-1932) can’t help but exert a magnetic attraction to composers with his fusion of lyricism, modernism and mad, extravagant fantasy. Of course, … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-06-19
Verdi v Shakespeare? Falstaff‘s no contest
Verdi’s Falstaff seems a modern piece to me; despite its première being 1893, it feels as musically up-to-date as say, Puccini’s 1926 Turandot. Verdi knew what was up in music. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2018-06-19
El Paso, Kurt Weill, and Tornillo’s Tent City
Readers of this blog may remember my last filing from El Paso – a “Kurt Weill’s America” festival, part of the NEH-supported “Music Unwound” consortium I direct, that ignited a week of discussion and … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-06-19
Glasgow School Of Art Building Is Still “Structurally Solid” After Fire
“Our intention and our focus will be to try to save that building and to find a future for it but it is very, very early days.” Experts have estimated the cost of rebuilding the gutted Mackintosh Building would be at least £100 million, if anything can be salvaged at all.
Britten’s ‘Rape Of Lucretia’, Staged With A Man Playing Lucretia And A Woman Playing The Rapist
“Directed by Kip Williams, this particular production … comes from Sydney Chamber Opera and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the performers and artistic directors are all aged in their 20s and 30s. They found one way around the gender problems of the text by reversing the roles of men and women in many scenes, including the rape scene.”
Billionaire Buys One Of London’s Oldest Theatres
“[Leonard] Blavatnik’s company Access Entertainment, headed by Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, announced it had purchased the Theatre Royal Haymarket for an undisclosed sum. … The theatre has an interesting history going back to 1720. It opened in its current John Nash-designed grade I-listed building in 1821 with a production of Sheridan’s The Rivals followed by a season which included Edmund Kean as King Lear.”