“Smith, leaning in so far that she was almost doubled over, started with a preamble about how long and hard [Congressman Henry] Waxman has been working on behalf of health care. Then she tossed out her first question [to him]: ‘What is most underappreciated about all that work?’ If an interviewer wants to open a floodgate, is there a more inviting question? “
Tag: 10.04.09
Mercedes Sosa,74, The Voice Of Argentine Resistance
She was a folksinger and activist who “fought South America’s dictators with her voice and became a giant of contemporary Latin American music,” so important to her countrymen that her body is lying in state at the National Congress building in Buenos Aires.
Deconstructing A Theatre’s Seating Chart – On That Theatre’s Stage Curtain
“Best known for his metaphysical depictions of maps and architectural blueprints, [Guillermo] Kuitca began to explore [the possibilities] of seating plans one evening” when the chart for London’s Royal Opera House caught his eye as he was in the ticket line. So when he was asked to design the curtain for Dallas’s new Winspear Opera House, one could guess where he would turn for inspiration.
‘Almost As Ancient As The Beatles’: Monty Python At 40
“The principals are all in late middle age now, jowly and graying, and have in some ways become the very sorts of people they used to poke fun at. … The show, on the other hand, hasn’t aged a bit.”
The Age Of Anxiety: It Begins At Infancy
“Four significant long-term longitudinal studies … have reached similar conclusions: that babies differ according to inborn temperament; that 15 to 20 percent of them will react strongly to novel people or situations; and that strongly reactive babies are more likely to grow up to be anxious.”
Go Ahead With The Dudamania: New Maestro Triumphs In L.A. Phil Opener
Mark Swed: “Some have [even] taken to referring to the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by his initials, thus: G*D. It’s all too much, we critics judiciously caution. But in his first return to the Hollywood Bowl since making his U.S. debut there in 2005, the Dude pulled it off. Joy reigned.”
Making Ballet In A Concert Hall
With New York City Center undergoing renovation, ABT is doing its Manhattan fall season at (of all places) Avery Fisher Hall. The home of the New York Philharmonic presents challenges for ballet (relatively small stage, no wings or orchestra pit); rather than adapting its repertory, ABT has commissioned new works specifically for the Fisher stage.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Opera House: McCall Smith Re-creates Macbeth For Botswana
“The Okavango Macbeth – based on a real life encounter Mr McCall Smith had with two primatologists in the Okavango Delta – transfers the plot of the Shakespearean tragedy to a troupe of baboons.” Performances are in a converted garage outside Gaborone (the African nation’s capital).
In Praise Of Audacity On The Opera Stage
“Directors should claim the freedom to reinterpret a work.” But productions that don’t go far enough in breaking with tradition, like Luc Bondy’s “Tosca” at the Metropolitan Opera, can be far less successful than an “unabashedly avant-garde approach to a staple,” like Achim Freyer’s “Ring” cycle at the Los Angeles Opera.