Nike Wagner, director of Bonn’s Beethovenfest: “The connoisseurs of bygone times are giving way to the consumers of today. And these people tend to gravitate toward the mainstream, toward popular big events with pop, rock and entertainment. Yet classical music, in the widest sense, has always been written and intended for a minority audience. So it’s paradoxical – but this way, the highest quality, ‘elite’ works are also getting exposure.”
Tag: 07.10.15
Are Human Beings The Only Political Animals? (Nope)
“If all social life is political, won’t it be necessary to think of the designation ‘political animal’ as a genus name, including many species, rather than as something unique to human beings? After all, and as Aristotle knew well enough, there are many highly social species of animals.”
Mikhail Baryshnikov: Why I Finally Agreed To Play Nijinsky
“It is a sign of Baryshnikov’s confidence in his director” – Robert Wilson – “that he has agreed to play Nijinsky, a role that has been suggested to him ‘at least 15 times’ in his life and which he had always turned down.” (One f those invitations came from no less than Ingmar Bergman.)
How The World’s Most Popular Tarot Deck Was Designed (In 1909) And Came To Market (In 1970)
No, the set of cards most of us know doesn’t come from the Middle Ages. It’s “is a product of the intuitive thoughtfulness of an American-born occult scholar in late 19th century London, a British-born creative visual genius who studied art in New York City and lived in Jamaica, and a businessman whose first book was about coal mining techniques … These three people, essentially, are the only reason any of us know much of anything about tarot.”
Leonardo Da Vinci Invented A Refrigerator
“The design, which has been dated to around 1492, included both a drawing of the machine and a theoretical explanation of how it would work … It was likely designed for drinks, or perhaps sorbets and desserts, the report says.”
Fighting Back: The Battle Against Ticket Bots That Buy Up All The Best Seats For That Show You Want To See
“Ticket resale, at its pricier end called “ticket scalping,” is legal in Seattle. But bot critics argue that computerized purchasing prevents ordinary users from getting the seats they want, forcing them to buy from a third party at exorbitant prices. With a new state law outlawing bots going into effect in late-July, ticket sellers are gearing up to take legal action against bot users in future sales.”
Ludovic Morlot Extends With Seattle Symphony
“The Seattle Symphony has extended music director Ludovic Morlot’s contract for two additional years, through 2019 …. Morlot’s original agreement covered the time span of September 2011 through August 2017.”
Ira Glass Takes Full Ownership Of ‘This American Life’
“Both [Chicago Public Media] and WBEZ will still benefit from This American Life, having agreed to kick over their shares in exchange for a portion of future profits from both TAL and Serial. In turn, all 22 employees of This American Life will become Glass’s employees.”
Guy Who Tried To Charge His Phone On A Broadway Set Gives Press Conference (With The Play’s Publicists)
Nick Silvestri, age 19, in a prepared statement: “I don’t go to plays very much, and I didn’t realize that the stage is considered off limits. I’ve learned a lot about the theater in the past few days – theater people are really passionate and have been very willing to educate me.” But the Hand to God publicists organized the event. Does that mean the entire thing was a publicity stunt?
It’s True: Le Corbusier Was An Anti-Semitic Fascist
“[He] was involved from the 1920s until the mid-1940s with a series of far-right fascist publications that were anti-Semitic, often racist, and always totalitarian and ultra-nationalist. … [ He] attended fascist rallies in the 1920s, privately supported the Nazis, and sought work between 1940 and 1942 in Marshall Pétain’s Vichy. (Albeit Le Corbusier, intriguingly, also sought employment in Soviet Russia, but was turned down.)”