Montreal Symphony trumpeter Russell DeVuyst: “Unfortunately, the current image of a symphony-orchestra conductor is all about glamour and charisma, and that is what the audience now expects. People view the conductor as the only one who produces the sound and the music, as if he or she could do this by a magical wave of the baton.”
Tag: 11.04.12
Staging An Annie For Grown-Ups
“Director James Lapine and his cast and creative team have tried to dig the musical out from the high-gloss varnish that has been applied in thicker and thicker coats since the show premiered on Broadway 35 years ago.” Annie has ditched her bright red wig, and Miss Hannigan “comes across as more of a Eugene O’Neill washout than an outrageous lush.”
Author Han Suyin, 95
“She published almost two dozen novels, nonfiction books and memoirs – and countless essays for mainstream newspapers and magazines,” repeatedly provoking controversy with her defenses of the Chinese Communist government through the Cold War. Yet her most famous book was the semi-autobiographical novel A Many-Splendoured Thing.
The Avant-Garde Opera-Directing Twins
David and Christopher Alden, aged 63 and native New Yorkers, are known for daring and sometimes controversial stagings of the classics. David (finally making his Met debut) made his career in Europe, where his style is more or less mainstream, while Christopher “has persevered in America, doing what he wants to do, where it’s basically completely against the grain.”
Director David Alden On Verdi’s Ballo In Maschera
“Gustavo is a dreamer and a fantasist – a king who wants to escape his duties, who initiates an affair with the wife of his staunchest defender almost to create his own assassin (Christ and Judas?) – a king who laughingly (how many kinds of laughter there are in this piece, ranging from light to diabolical to desperate) plots his own death step by step.”
Is The Bookselling Market Becoming Balkanized?
Amazon inspires anxiety just about everywhere, but its publishing arm is getting pushback from all sorts of booksellers, who are scorning the imprint’s most prominent title, Timothy Ferriss’s “The 4-Hour Chef.” That book is coming out just before Thanksgiving into a fragmented book-selling landscape that Amazon has done much to create but that eludes its control.
Study: How Much We Give To Charity Depends On Who’s In White House
“Democrats apparently give less money to charity when a Republican is in the White House, and vice versa.”
Research: Political Polarization And Our Emotional Responses
“Research suggests that, in terms of our attitudes towards issues, we are no more polarized than we were decades ago. But our emotions, and the behaviors they drive, have largely uncoupled from our actual analysis of the issues.”
The (Beauty Of The) Skull Beneath The Skin
Simon Winchester: “When you see beneath the muscle and the skin something so beautiful, so finely constructed, you can understand the fascination that someone like Dudley has. It may sound rather corny, but it gives you a new reverence for life.”
Off-Broadway Woos Back Customers With Post-Sandy Discounts
With adjusted performance schedules – and hoping to woo back exhausted or dispirited New Yorkers and tourists after Hurricane Sandy – many Off-Broadway theatres are offering discounts to those who know the code.