“Fallujah was developed in Vancouver, Canada, by City Opera Vancouver with the help of a playwright [Heather Raffo], a composer [Tobin Stokes], nine actors and an 11-member orchestra in a kind of performance laboratory. It will debut July 2 on explore.org/fallujah and will be marketed to opera houses.”
Tag: 07.02.12
How Derek Jacobi Lost His Religion
“As a teenager I was taken to a Billy Graham rally at Haringey. At the end of it I went down to the arena to give myself to Jesus. But as soon as Graham stopped talking it was like the choir stopped singing and [ he snaps his fingers] I felt totally conned and embarrassed.”
Enormous Painting From Uzbekistan Inspired By 1001 Nights To Tour Europe
“It’s longer than an Olympic swimming pool, took two-and-a-half years to complete and fulfils a 40-year dream — a new mega-canvas by one of Uzbekistan’s best-known artists,” Lekim Ibragimov. “[He] started working on the project – named One Thousand Angels and One Painting – in 2010 and put the finishing touches on it in April.”
Five Truths About Marathon Plays
Michael Billington: “Advertise an event that lasts the best part of a day and you will find the box office quickly besieged. Having sat through a couple of epics in the last fortnight – Gatz at the Noel Coward and Druid Murphy at the Hampstead – I not only have a new understanding of the phrase ‘putting in an eight-hour day’ but have come to several conclusions.”
Bolshoi Invites French Choreographer To Loosen Up Its Dancers
“Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has invited the modern choreographer and artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo” – Jean-Christophe Maillot – “to teach Moscow’s more conservative dancers how to let loose on stage.”
Piano Rolls For the 21st Century: Composer Knits Scarves That Control Disklavier
“By weaving conductive thread into the yarn, [Jeff] Bryant found that he could manipulate the fiber to control a musical instrument … So, with help from a costume designer, Bryant knit a few conductive scarves and asked a dancer to wear them. As the dancer performed Bryant’s push_push … the scarves activated the piano’s keys through wireless signals.”
Grave Robber Steals Teeth Of Brahms And Strauss – For His Own Museum
“The alleged Czech thief who has boasted about his crime on the internet says he wants to now display the famous teeth and dentures he has robbed not just from Austrian waltz king Johann Strauss Jr. and German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms, but from hundreds of other graves as well.”
Dan Brown Books Are Most-Donated To Charity (Part 4)
“Dan Brown may no longer be the fastest-selling adult author of all time, losing out on that record last week to EL James and her slice of erotica Fifty Shades of Grey, but The Da Vinci Code author has retained another, less sought-after honour: he has topped Oxfam’s list of the writers most donated to its charity shops for the fourth year running.”
Why Is Artspeak So Full Of Hype? (Does Anyone Believe It?)
The press release is evasive, couched in vacuous language overseasoned with superlatives: the show “connects absolutely local issues, the most intimate meanings of place and time, with great currents of art and thought”. No details about what these issues or currents may be, of course; and yet this, apparently, amounts to a “groundbreaking premise”.
European Commission Proposes €1.8 Billion Boost In Culture Budget
This is a 37% increase from the funds currently allotted. Approximately 70 of the 300 projects to receive funding from the EU in 2011 were related to conservation.