Broad, whose money came from homebuilding and insurance empires, truly changed L.A. "Dogged, determined and often unyielding, he helped push and prod majestic institutions such as Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art into existence, and then, that done, he created his own namesake museum in the heart of Los Angeles." - Los Angeles Times
Dukakis was well-known as a working actress in the theatre when she took a role as the mom in Moonstruck. Then she won an Oscar for that role, and then she was in Steel Magnolias, Tales of the City (four series over several decades), and so much more. She never gave up theatre, though, and even played the (lightly...
"The tone of the letters consistently is that of a man still aflame after a violent argument, gradually subsiding into a hot puddle of guilt and shame from which now and then, in a renewed fit of rage, he surges up into yet another outburst of rancorous self-justification. On practically every page we seem to hear the slammed door,...
Over 27 years at the helm of the summer opera festival in Cooperstown, NY, Kellogg raised standards, doubled the productions per season, built a new theater, and earned the company a national reputation. In 1996, he took the reins at New York City Opera and began a very productive partnership between the two companies. Unable to fix City Opera's...
"If an artist is a bad person, should that change the way audiences interact with his art? In this particular case, if the author is a rapist, should that change the way we read Philip Roth: The Biography? Arguably, no. A book has an existence apart from its author, a truism that is extra true in the case of...
A longtime soloist at the Met and a mainstay of New York Grand Opera's summertime productions in Central Park, "over his 60-year career he gave nearly 800 performances in three dozen countries in opera productions (some 60 roles) and in concerts of arias, Broadway fare and Hellenic songs (a lifelong passion)." - The New York Times
The Lee family, including his widow and three children, expects to pay more than 12 trillion won ($10.8 billion) in inheritance taxes, which is more than half the wealth Lee held in stocks and real estate, Samsung said Wednesday. This would be the largest amount in South Korea and more than three times the country’s total estate tax revenue...
Says the curator of a new exhibit on the Roman monarch at the British Museum, "Nero's memory was contested after his death, and that really was divided along class divisions. You have a very hostile elite, but we also know that the common people in Rome, the plebs urbana, honored his memory for decades after his death. Already, you...
The actor didn't appear on video for his Best Actor win, leaving the Oscars production with a big letdown of an ending. A Los Angeles Times article explained that "while at 83 years old Hopkins became the oldest winner of an acting Oscar in any category, it wasn’t worth the risk of being exposed to the coronavirus to travel...
Young was an acclaimed poet, but he also wrote novels - and always, always, worked jazz into his readings and his life. And along with music, he had his voice. "Writing a poem, Mr. Young believed, was only part of the process. Reading it live — something he did with a compelling, resonant voice — was the other." -...
She spoke or could read 13 languages, ran the New York Marathon, and was the third-longest serving employee of the NYPL, where she catalogued rare books for more than 50 years. She wrote books, edited books, and told those taking tours of the underground steel stacks that catalogers were "the most important workers in the library." - The New...
Ludwig was most prominently associated with the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, but she also sang at the Met. She "rose from straitened origins in a shattered wartime Germany to the height of the singing world, aided by a sense of discipline instilled by her strong-willed mother — her only real teacher and a constant presence throughout...
One says, "It's kind of simpatico with Fern's story . My husband died, and we don't have kids, so I just sold everything and just thought that I would travel for a bit, and fell in love with it." And, just like Fern, she says, "I can't see me living a different way now." - BBC
He left behind "thousands of audio and video recordings; the countless notes scrawled on countless piles of music manuscript paper; and, of course, the memories of family, friends, and fans." Just about everyone who plays jazz today owes something to Corea, whether they know it or not (and most do). - Jazz Times
"As a record producer guided the reissue of vast swaths of the classic jazz canon, and … as a broadcaster helped build WBGO into the largest jazz radio station in the New York City area." - The New York Times
