Choosing from country music generators that know the long road from “flirt” to “hurt” or Goth-inspired generators that will search for that perfect rhyme for “pierced skin” (“fierce kin”?), phonetically challenged songsmiths and Web surfers looking for distraction can now pick up the mouse and sit back as the poetry springs forth from the computer screen. – New York Times
Tag: 08.03.00
LEAVING SANTA FE
After 43 years John Crosby is stepping down from running the Santa Fe Opera. “A first-rate visionary and a second-rate conductor, Crosby has run his festival like a reasonably benign dictator, amassing an extraordinary record of significant premieres to counterbalance the tourist-attraction repertory. He has done much to cultivate domestic exposure to the neglected operas of his favourite composer, Richard Strauss, and has also helped discover several generations of important American singers. Glyndebourne was never like this.” – Financial Times
THE HOCKEY OPERA
- “I’ve lived with opera for a long time,” composer Leslie Uyeda told Canada’s National Post. “And one thing that a Canadian does not have when she watches opera is an intimate knowledge of the rolling hills of Italy — the landscape where [a typical Italian opera] takes place. I wanted to write something that North Americans would have no trouble relating to.” – Sonicnet
SEIJI TO THE RESCUE
After conducting “Falstaff” this weekend, Boston Symphony conductor Seiki Ozawa was driving home when he came across a car wreck. The car was on the edge of a cliff and Ozawa held onto it and stayed with the driver for 30 minutes until police arrived. – CBC
THE WRITE STUFF
Some writers insist if you want to be a writer, you must write everyday. Nice theory, says playwright Zinnie Morris, but it’s not the way it always works: writing is a creative force with a will of its own. “My own experience of writing plays has taught me that it will come in its own time, but unfortunately also on its own terms. No amount of pencil-sharpening, toe-tapping, or switching the computer on and off will quicken the process.” – The Guardian
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY BALLET
A former ballerina – now 82 – who grew up training with the Tsar’s mistress in the 1930’s played an instrumental role in bringing about the Kirov Ballet’s recent production of “The Sleeping Beauty.” Through a complicated trail of purchased dance companies, post-Tsar revolutionary politics, and deep friendships based on trust and a passion for dance, she helped smuggle the precious original ballet texts out of Soviet Russia. – The Telegraph
WASHINGTON TO CUBA
Following in the footsteps of the Baltimore Orioles and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which both visited Cuba last year in an effort to increase contact between the two countries, the Washington Ballet will go to Cuba this fall to perform in an international festival in Havana. – Washington Post
INDEPENDENT BOOKS
The American Booksellers Association rolled out its new site to sell books from independent bookstores. “The ABA’s ‘save the indies’ plan (nearly half of such stores have disappeared since 1994 due to the rise of chain stores and online booksellers, the organization estimates) has found some adherents while others remain skeptical.” – Inside.com