Tag: 11.18.20

The Opera That Changed Everything: Mark Swed On ‘Einstein On The Beach’

“Almost nothing about what composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson put onstage was opera. Einstein has no narrative. Einstein has no Einstein, even though a great many onstage are dressed in the iconic image of frizzy-haired scientist. Einstein on the Beach has no beach. … Everything about [the piece] seemed new and revelatory in 1976. … When the Metropolitan Opera presented the touring production that fall after an ecstatic European tour, in which every seat at every performance was sold out, the company hadn’t performed a new American work in decades. Here was a new beginning for opera in America.” – Los Angeles Times

Groundbreaking: “Wonder Woman” Will Be Released Online And In Theatres Simultaneously

The decision to forgo a traditional theatrical release is surprising because “Wonder Woman 1984” was expected to be one of the biggest films of 2020 and had the potential to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales. The $200 million-budgeted movie was originally supposed to hit theaters this past summer. However, it was delayed time and time again amid the coronavirus crisis. – Variety

Neighborhood Dance Studios Struggle To Survive Pandemic

From the small operations that give youngsters their first lessons (especially in lower-income areas) to big establishments like the Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan, dance studios, and the skilled pros who run and teach in them, still have to pay the rent and other expenses even as income has plummeted since COVID-19 struck last spring. Here’s how a few of them are trying to avoid closure and keep dance available to their neighborhoods. – The New York Times

For The Second Time, D.C. Director Is Ousted From A Theatre Company He Founded

“Complaints by staff members and months of internal conflict have led to the ouster of Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Ari Roth. … The end to Roth’s tenure at the company he set up in the final days of 2014 is a bitter close to what had seemed a successful revitalization of his career as a theater leader in Washington. Just before creating Mosaic, in December 2014, Roth was fired as artistic director of Theater J, the company he ran for 18 years as part of the DC Jewish Community Center.” – The Washington Post

Art Dealers Are Making Buyers Commit Not To Flip The Art. Are Such Contracts Enforceable?

“Contractual terms preventing buyers from reselling works at auction for a fixed period of time — which have become increasingly popular as dealers seek to stamp out speculation that can damage young artists’ prospects — as well as agreements granting galleries the right of first refusal on resales may violate consumer rights, according to Martin Wilson, chief general counsel at [auction house] Phillips. … Fellow lawyers in the UK and US largely agree.” – Artnet

Unknown Da Vinci Sketch Of Jesus Discovered, And Scholar Says It Proves ‘Salvator Mundi’ Is Not By Leonardo

“[This] is the true face of Salvator Mundi,” said Annalisa Di Maria of the UNESCO Center in Florence. “[It] recalls everything in the drawings of Leonardo: it is his language, and speaks loud and clear.” Di Maria argues that this sketch is the study for the real Salvator Mundi by Leonardo; the painting under that title which was sold three years ago for the highest price in history ($450 million), and whose authorship is still debated, looks very different. – Artnet

2020 National Book Awards Winners Are Most Diverse Crop Ever

“Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown, a satirical, cinematic novel written in the form of a screenplay, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Tamara Payne and her father the late Les Payne’s Malcolm X biography, The Dead Are Arising, was cited for nonfiction and Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies for young people’s literature. The poetry prize went to Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony and the winner for best translated work was Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, translated from Japanese by Morgan Giles.” – AP

Produce Theatre? In A Pandemic? In Finland? Of Course – It’s “Essential”

“I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Art has played a major role in bringing this once poor and isolated country into the international arena, and the government subsidizes culture in a big way. That’s why artists continue to be employed — and why, even though socially distanced performances will never cover their costs, companies in Finland are putting them on, secure in the knowledge they have a financial cushion.” – The New York Times