“Such tales may be old hat for audiences in New York, but they are still new in Ireland. These scenes, based on the true stories of older Irish men willing to flout tradition by frankly discussing their homosexuality, form the spine of Silver Stars,” which runs briefly at the Public Theater in New York next month.
Tag: 12.27.09
Reuniting Ballet With Opera At The Met
“The two arts, once inseparable, have grown apart. The Metropolitan Opera, however, has been making a concerted effort to improve this situation under … Peter Gelb. … I can think of no dance company that has been able [as the Met has done] to commission new work by three of the biggest names in choreography today: [Mark] Morris, [Alexei] Ratmansky and [Christopher] Wheeldon.”
As World Architecture Boomed, Busted, Canada Was Calm
“The [2009] news in Canada, true to form, runs a relatively smooth, undisturbed course. Our minarets will stand unharmed. … Still, there’s an unsettling inconsistency within the Canadian story of architecture. Just when serious architecture and design occurs, something ridiculous jumps out on the scene.”
Did Theo’s Nuptials Prompt Van Gogh’s Self-Mutilation?
“A scholar has found evidence that a distraught Vincent van Gogh slashed his ear after learning that his brother, Theo, on whom he depended financially and emotionally, was about to get married.”
Arts Champion Peggy Amsterdam, 60
“As president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance since 2000, Ms. Amsterdam doubled the organization’s membership to 385 arts and cultural nonprofits and greatly expanded its reach to the broader community.”
Is Percussion The New Rock Star Of Classical Music?
“If you think about it, drums are the new violins. This is a realization I have come to relatively slowly, given the prominence of percussion in contemporary music, not to mention the number of performances by solo percussionists and percussion ensembles I’ve reviewed over the last two decades.”
TV Revenues Plummet In 2009
“Network television revenue fell 21.5 percent, and syndicated television stumbled a relatively benign 7.2 percent, according to a report from the Television Bureau of Advertising. Local broadcast television, stung by the absence of political advertising in a nonelection year, plummeted 28.1 percent in the third quarter.”
A Movie That “Gets” Dance
“La Danse is the only film I know that successfully conveys what it feels like, physically, to be a dancer–to get inside a step or a phrase and to make it work on your own body–but also to live, as dancers do, absorbed in the repetitive, ritualized, and seemingly timeless practices of their art. None of this is monkish or self-sacrificing, as it is often portrayed. It is simply what dancers do: it is their work.”
Is The Boston Symphony Losing Its Way?
Jeremy Eichler has a “lingering concern is the state of James Levine’s and the BSO’s larger artistic vision. Across the country, orchestras are updating their approaches to programming with the goal of engaging listeners – current and potential – more broadly, deeply, and imaginatively. They are also experimenting with new ways of bringing select composers and performers into the mix, assigning them key roles not only in making music but also in artistic planning and community engagement. In these departments, Levine and the BSO are notably lagging behind the curve.”
Claremont (CA) Museum Of Art Closes
“The museum has officially discontinued operations and will put its permanent collection in storage. The decision was made last week during a board meeting. The museum will go online sometime in January at its regular Web site www.claremontmuseum.org and become a virtual museum.”