[contextly_auto_sidebar] WELL, it's really come to this, hasn't it? Having to defend the very existence of a piece of visual art not against Puritans or Nazis or Southern Fundamentalists or the Taliban but against.... other artists. The story of how the New York art world has been divided between people who think artist Dana Schutz should be able to paint (and exhibit) a picture of Emmett … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2017
Schubert, Meet Beckett
[contextly_auto_sidebar] TONIGHT I am looking forward to going to Disney Hall to see an odd pairing: the songs of Franz Schubert interspersed with the short plays of Samuel Beckett. The recital, put on by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, features several singers and actors including Irish actor Barry McGovern and soprano Julia Bullock. The whole thing springs from the twisted genius Yuval Sharon, … [Read more...]
Arts Journalism and the Culture Crash
[contextly_auto_sidebar] SOME things have gotten a bit better since I published my book two years ago; some have unraveled more or less on schedule. One thing that does not seem to be improving is the state of cultural journalism: Arts critics (and reporters, like yours truly) continue to be laid off as publications scale back and decide -- just as school boards do in lean times -- that … [Read more...]
A Musicologist Muses on John Adams
[contextly_auto_sidebar] One of the most insightful and eclectic thinkers on music I know is UCLA musicologist Robert Fink, who has written a book on minimalism -- Repeating Ourselves -- and both teaches music history and run the school's music-business program. On the occasion of John Adams' 70th birthday, and a series of related events in Los Angeles, I corresponded with Fink about the … [Read more...]
Nixon in China in Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IF you live in LA long enough, you might come to think you've seen John Adams' iconic opera not once but several times. There are few more talked-about or written about works from the last four or five decades; maybe "Einstein on the Beach" or "Angels in America." Adams' music -- his violin concerto, "El Nino," "Naive and Sentimental Music" -- gets performed all the … [Read more...]