“The Bolshoi Ballet’s current season here, the third in four years, is such a success that it has inspired standing, shouting ovations from audiences and superlatives from sometimes finicky critics, including one who deemed a performance worthy of six stars out of five. The overboard reception has noted not just the astonishing individual dancing … but also the overall look, speed and spirit of this revitalized company under Alexei Ratmansky, now in his third year as artistic director.”
Tag: 08.16.07
Books Into Film: A Case Of Irreconcilable Differences
Ken Russell, pondering the imminent release of the film version of Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” and looking back on the books he’s turned into movies, writes: “There’s no formula and no guarantee. There are a million more ways an adaptation can go wrong than right. … At heart, the two forms, movie and book, are irreconcilable.”
Let’s Not Burn Gustavo Dudamel Out
“Gustavo Dudamel is a musician of precious and precocious talents.” He’s also Esa-Pekka Salonen’s designated successor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and caution is in order. “The crucial thing is for Dudamel to be given time to mature naturally. … We as music-lovers must respect the fact that, however excited we might be by his infectious bonhomie on stage and his undoubted rapport with orchestras, he has not attained his full heights at the age of 26.”
In North Sea Village, Art Mingles With Coastal Defense
“The former coal-mining village of Newbiggin-by-the Sea has been watching its prime asset ebbing away over the past few years. The village’s beach has been rapidly eroding…. Now, the village is putting itself back on track by erecting a mighty, 5m tall bronze couple 350m out at sea, to create Britain’s first piece of off-shore public art.”
Portable Architecture Comes Into Its Own
“Ever since Le Corbusier and the Italian futurists salivated over biplanes, steam trains, ocean liners and automobiles in the early 20th century, architecture has been in awe of moving machines. But, as much as the modernist pioneers eulogised these dynamic inventions, they never dared disobey the sacred rule that says buildings stay where they’re built. Architecture is architecture. Unleash it from its static condition and you’re in some hazy no- man’s-land…. Yet this nebulous zone is becoming an intriguing place to visit.”