Meet Morris Robinson. At 30, in finally attempting to sing professionally, he tried out for the chorus of “Aida” at the Boston Lyric Opera, the biggest company in New England. A week later, the music director handed him music for a solo role, accompanied by a plea: ‘Please don’t screw it up’. “A lot of the purists, they don’t believe my story,” Robinson said. “They don’t believe it until they witness it themselves.”
Anti-Selfie Sentiment Is High (And Rightfully So), But Selfies Fall Into The Tradition Of Art, Right?
“It is easy access to self-portraiture, probably, that makes the educated uneasy about it. The fact that we all carry high-quality cameras and the ability to instantly exhibit our work globally has made every goofball tourist an international artist. It’s embarrassing when they don’t respect sombre memorials to serious things, yes. But resistance to self-promotion generally is mere snobbery.”
Bullish Jacksonville Symphony Extends Season, Gives Musicians A 37 Percent Raise
“With this new contract, the Jacksonville Symphony season will expand from its current 35 weeks to 38 weeks during the 2017-2018 season, 39 weeks in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, and finally 40 weeks beginning in the 2020-2021 season. The symphony is also increasing the number of full-time musicians from 53 to 60. Musicians’ weekly salaries will increase 19 percent over the term of this agreement, and with the added weeks, annual salaries will rise 37 percent.”
‘By All Accounts A World First: Nude Dancers In Front Of Nude Paintings Before A Nude Audience’
Sydney Dance Company and the Art Gallery of New South Wales created a show for which Rafael Bonachela choreographed dances to be performed alongside such artworks as Rodin’s The Kiss and Francis Bacon triptych. Then they took the slowest-selling performance and branded it nude-audience-only; tickets sold out that day. Kate Hennessy went, and she writes about her experience there – as an art-lover and as a female.
A Female Flemish Old Master Gets Her First Modern Exhibition
“Michaelina Wautier is probably the first woman who successfully painted works in nearly all the genres – portraits, history pictures, still-lifes and scenes of everyday life. At that time most successful Flemish female artists specialised in flower compositions.”