There were staggered arrival times, temperature takers at the entrance, plenty of hand sanitizer, mandatory masks (a few of them fabu-fied with sequins). Every second seat was kept empty. In the pit, Gustavo Dudamel conducting a 50-piece orchestra; onstage, 75 singers, headed by tenor Gregory Kunde and soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, in Verdi's Otello. "Spain is an outlier here in...
Several prominent individuals in the industry have spoken out against the restrictive election laws just passed by the Georgia legislature and signed by Gov. Kemp. Yet studios and other companies — who have been willing to threaten boycotts in the past over such issues as Georgia's abortion laws — are keeping silent so far this time. What are their...
"The Survive to Thrive grant program, created by Ingram Content Group chairman John Ingram, hopes to raise a total of $2 million by the end of May to support indie bookstores. The program will be administered by the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation. Initial donations include a $500,000 contribution from Ingram Charities and Ingram Content Group and significant gifts...
George R.R. Martin, who wrote the Song of Ice and Fire novels on which the megahit HBO series was based, is working with playwright Duncan MacMillan and director Dominic Cooke on a big, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child-type play that producers plan to open in New York, London, and Sydney and/or Melbourne. The draw is that the play...
As prices for the digital artworks soar, with payments made in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, some observers are throwing around words like "tulipmania." Says the CEO of a company that verifies NFTs, "We're in a frenzy of speculation. … We're living in a moment of collective hysteria." Especially now that the finance guys are moving in on the art...
"The counterfeit canvases came from a non-specialist collector based in the province of Toledo who had intended to sell the works as originals. … The asking price? A combined €12.5 million ($14.6 million). … Potential buyers had been lined up." - Artnet
The South African government allocated 300 million rand (roughly $20 million) to a rescue fund for artists who lost their livelihoods due to COVID-related lockdowns. Thousands of individuals and organizations applied and were approved for relief money which hasn't arrived. News reports have said that the money has disappeared; the Arts and Culture Minister claims that it was double-allocated....
“Cinema-going will inevitably initially be at much lower levels, the question is what level will they return to,” says Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis. “There have been changes in consumer habits, with the boom in streaming, and theatre owners aren’t in the same position to put their foot down with studios over exclusivity.” - The Guardian
"No wonder most people would rather read Instapoems, or listen to a spoken-word performance, than engage with traditional poetry: the barriers to entry are much lower. People who love traditional poetry might be tempted to say that such writing isn’t poetry at all. But the battle over nomenclature is a losing one. If millions of people think Rupi Kaur...
The museum was conceived by the Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, wife of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and opened to international acclaim in 1977. Just 15 months later, in the face of a massive popular uprising, the couple left the country on what was officially called a “vacation.” The revolution replaced the monarchy with an Islamic Republic weeks later. The...
This, of course, in contrast with the country's national museums, which have declined to repatriate the art. Evidently, the regionals have more flexibility in such decisions. "On Thursday, the University of Aberdeen confirmed it would repatriate a bust of an Oba, or king of Benin, which it has had since the 1950s, 'within weeks', a landmark move for a...
The French museum has released an online platform featuring all of the museum's artworks, consisting of more than 480,000 pieces, the Louvre announced Friday in a press release.Art lovers and researchers alike will now be able to view the entire Louvre collection online for free. - CNN
Way, way beyond the Proms: To mark the sesquicentennial of the hall's opening (Queen Victoria was all verklempt), the Beeb recounts some of the more momentous and offbeat events to have happened there, from the first-ever sci-fi convention (also the public debut of the only-the-English-could-drink-it concoction Bovril) to a séance for Arthur Conan Doyle to the first-ever sumo match...
Some of those outspoken industry figures have even gone as far as to call for a boycott of the state, a movement that's waxed and waned over the years as other controversial legislation, largely concerning abortion and LGBTQ rights, has come and gone. The impact of a boycott could be significant, though, as Hollywood regularly shoots TV shows and...
