“Many fear her, a few turn her down and some of those who play Wagner’s famous heroine in Tristan und Isolde never quite recover. We talk to singers who have been brave enough to take her on.”
Tag: 09.24.09
For Banned Books Week, A Poem By A Persecuted Author
“An author of young adult fiction whose books have provoked bans and complaints in the US for tackling controversial topics such as teenage prostitution and drug addiction has written a poem that is being used to champion the cause of banned books across America.”
Cash-Strapped, East London’s Largest Theatre To Go Dark
“Hackney Empire – London’s flagship variety theatre – is to go dark in the new year due to financial difficulties, making much of its workforce redundant. The venue will continue to operate a full programme until the end of its pantomime in January 2010,” then close the house “‘for a period of reflection’ of between six and nine months.”
Inside Alan Gilbert’s Office
The New York Philharmonic’s new, 42-year-old music director “radiates a youthful vigor, an almost boyish sense of the casual, that is meant to draw a bright line separating the future of the august institution from its European-influenced and somewhat stuffy recent past. So, too, does his suite.”
Stoppard, Hadid Win Japan’s $158K Praemium Imperiale
“The Japan Art Association on Thursday named British playwright Tom Stoppard as a recipient of the Praemium Imperiale, one of the richest awards in the arts world. Two more Britons also won the prize — Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid and sculptor Richard Long — as did Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel.”
Snapshot Of Philadelphia Orchestra: Not A Pretty Picture
“Against the dark backdrop of financial crisis and a leadership overhaul in progress, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association met yesterday to present its traditional state-of-the-orchestra snapshot.” Though “the meeting was notable for what it did not cover,” the institution’s “leaders emphatically articulated the seriousness of the orchestra’s financial condition.”
In Broad Daylight, Thieves Steal Magritte’s Olympia
“Masked thieves stole a painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte today in an armed daylight raid on a museum dedicated to his life and works. The security breach at the Musée Magritte on the outskirts of Brussels came at around 10 am this morning.”
NEH Head Fights Against The Culture Wars
“In this era of Internet blasts and ornery town-hall meetings,” National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Jim Leach “wants to buck what he considers one of the 21st century’s most insidious trends: the end of civility. It’s something he’s been harping on since the mid-1990s. ‘I am appalled by the notion of cultural wars,'” he says.
At San Francisco’s Presidio, Disney Museum Honors Walt
“Too many people associate the name only with the business he built, Walt Disney Co., and forget the man behind it, said Diane Disney Miller, 75, a daughter of Walt Disney and a board member of the foundation that funded the $110 million museum,” which opens Oct. 1.
Authors And Readers Face A Glut Of E-Book Formats
“The options are proliferating quickly for readers and the authors they love. While devices like the Kindle, the Apple iPhone and the Sony Reader get much of the attention, practically any electronic device capable of displaying a few lines of text can be adapted as a reader.”