Tag: 07.12.17

Alex Ross: When Trump Evoked Symphonies (And Symphonies Evoked Power)

Presuming to speak for that civilization, Trump said, “We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes . . .” The Internet cried with one voice: “We write what?” Like many of Trump’s utterances, the line was at once ludicrous and sinister. His veneration for orchestral music came as a surprise to almost everyone, and the implication that some cultures are incapable of creating symphonies stirred bad memories.

Ben Brantley And Jesse Green Talk Broadway Musical Second Casts (Donna Murphy Rules As Dolly)

Green: “Not that we and the rest of the world didn’t adore Ms. Midler in the part. But Ms. Murphy so immediately makes it her own, and has such a different take on it, that you are not left wanting what you cannot have.” (They also talk about Brendon Urie in Kinky Boots and Norm Lewis and Carolee Carmello – who “would be a great Dolly if Ms. Murphy herself wants an alternate” – in the pie-shop Sweeney Todd.)

Ilya Glazunov, 87, Populist, And Controversial, Russian Painter

“His lifelong infatuation with the czarist past, the art and architecture of the Orthodox Church and the mystical conception of Holy Russia found an eager audience among audiences disillusioned with Communism and distraught by Russia’s loss of standing in the world. Liberals, on the other hand, regarded Mr. Glazunov as an obscurantist, xenophobe and anti-Semite, in thrall to the darkest forces in Russian history. He preferred to think of himself as a patriot.”