“The online world is not just about millions of newborn writers exulting in their powers. It’s also about millions of readers who need to sort through this endless universe and figure out which writers are worth reading. Who is going to sort out the exceptional ones? Editors, of some type. Some smart group of people is going to have to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
Tag: 07.24.07
Wagners Battle For Succession At Bayreuth
“A real-life drama of succession as riveting as any Richard Wagner opera is casting a shadow over this year’s Bayreuth Festival, raising the anticipation level among devotees of the German master even before the first curtain rises Wednesday at the musical shrine he inaugurated 131 years ago. No matter what the outcome, chances are good that whoever heads the famous German festival — a traditional battleground for Wagner clan members vying for influence — will be part of the family for some time to come. But which Wagner will it be?”
Humor With Claws: When Comedians Steal Jokes
“An earlier generation of comics was self-policing, careful about giving credit, often adhering to an unwritten code: Any comic who stole another’s material faced being shunned by his peers. Now, though, the competition is so much greater and the comedy world so decentralized that old taboos about joke theft seem to be breaking down. That, in turn, has led to an outbreak of finger-pointing among comics that some say is starting to smack of McCarthyism.”
Debussy Does Debussy — But Is His The Last Word?
“Debussy left behind piano music in the form of black marks printed on a page. He also left behind a little of himself: piano rolls of Debussy playing Debussy. So elegantly conceived is the first part of this legacy that we sometimes wish the second part did not exist. The scores imply a ‘this is it’ permanence. The composer’s playing of them (now on a CD from the Pierian Recording Society) could just as well be the impulse of a moment.”
Athens And Epidaurus Festival Suddenly A Must-See
Under artistic director Yorgos Loukos, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival “has been transformed from a moribund event into a vibrant arts experience. … Mr. Loukos, a genial round-faced man, has made sweeping changes that have radically altered the nature of the festival. First he reduced the leisurely five-month Athens portion to two high-concentration months in June and July. Then he set about finding new sites to expand performance possibilities and audiences.”
Old Vic-BAM Bridge Project Delayed By Illness
“Illness has forced postponement of the Bridge Project, a joint venture involving the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Old Vic theater company of London and the director Sam Mendes. … As a result, the Bridge Project will open at the Brooklyn Academy in January 2009 with Shakespeare’s ‘Winter’s Tale’ and Chekhov’s ‘Cherry Orchard,’ after rehearsals beginning in New York in October 2008.”
NYC To Rate Schools, Principals On Arts Programs
“Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city’s Department of Education will require all schools to maintain arts programs, and that principals will be rated in their annual reviews on how well they run those programs. The announcement came just months after the department infuriated arts groups by eliminating a multimillion-dollar program to finance arts education.”