“Booker Estee Adoram is still formidable, the bathrooms are still awkwardly placed, and the ‘family table’ is still terrifying. Even as much as the Comedy Cellar hasn’t changed over three decades, the talents who got their starts there have transformed the comedy world. Jon Stewart, Colin Quinn, Judy Gold, and more comedians share memories of the cramped basement venue that made their careers, and that they still call home.”
Forty Under 40: Young Opera Singers To Watch – Part One: The Gentlemen
This list isn’t meant to name “the best” (which isn’t truly possible); it’s “bringing to wider attention singers who may or may not have been known. … Here are 15 male singers who merit your attention, whether or not you have already had the pleasure of hearing them.” (Next up: the ladies.)
Building Next Door To Bosch’s Original Studio Collapses, Shortly Before Bosch 500 Show Begins
“A medieval building that was supposed to serve as the canvas for Bosch by Night, a lightshow commissioned as part of the year-long celebrations to mark the quincentenary of Hieronymus Bosch’s death, collapsed on 27 February – days before the project’s launch in the artist’s hometown of Den Bosch in The Netherlands.”
Porters And Auctioneers From Paris’s Best-Known Auction House On Trial For Stealing 250 Tons Of Artworks
Forty of the famous “red collar” porters at the Hotel Drouot, along with four auctioneers, are accused of a mafia-style operation in which more than 6,000 items – from works by Courbet, Chagall and Matisse to Ming porcelain to Marcel Marceau’s costumes – were “lost” while in transit.
The Theater Of Violence And The Violence Of Theater (And Sports)
“The great virtue of ancient tragedy is that it allowed the Greeks to see their role in a history of violence and war that was to some extent of their own making. It also allowed them to imagine a suspension of that cycle of violence. … From the beginning to the end, Shakespeare’s drama is a meditation on political violence.”
English National Opera Chorus Explains How They Came To The Point Of Striking
“It seemed fair enough to ask some members of the chorus I met – who have to remain anonymous for contractual reasons – exactly how this whole horrible if not totally unfamiliar episode in ENO’s beleaguered recent history began, and how it developed.”
The Rise Of The Millennial Sitcom
“But in the last few years, a new kind of sitcom has emerged on cable and streaming networks, complete with its own tropes. We now have ‘the cell-phone emergency’, ‘the mid-afternoon brunch’, the ‘dating-app disaster’, the ‘wander-the-city walk-and-talk’. Classic network sitcoms traded in the ‘will they, won’t they’ sitcom staple; shows like Broad City and Girls have embraced the ‘are they or aren’t they’ [tension].”
Pakistan To Host Its First Art Biennale
“Pakistan will join the roster of countries hosting contemporary art fairs with the announcement of the inaugural Lahore Biennale, which is scheduled for November 2017.”
Messy Divorce And Damning Charges Against Top Canadian Arts Exec
“The filing alleges that Jeff Melanson repeatedly got his personal and professional lives tangled up.”
Even In The Era Of E-Books, We Have Shockingly Little Data On How People Actually Read Books
“While e-books retailers like Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble can collect troves of data on their customers’ reading behavior, publishers and writers are still in the dark about what actually happens when readers pick up a book. Do most people devour it in a single sitting, or do half of readers give up after Chapter 2? Are women over 50 more likely to finish the book than young men? Which passages do they highlight, and which do they skip?”
Stephen Sondheim Says UK Audiences Listen Better Than Americans
“Of course British audiences are different from Americans: they listen. You have many centuries of being interested in the language. That’s true, and not as true as the United States. And when you care about the language like I do, it’s so much more gratifying.” (includes buried lede)
The Many Problems Holding The Organ Back
“Composers are afraid of it; it’s really complex, and each instrument is so different. when you go to play a concert, you can’t just go the night before or day of, like a singer or a pianist. And most conductors haven’t been trained to deal with it regularly; it’s different and strange, almost like bringing in another orchestra.”
Arts Leadership? We Need A Broader Definition
“Members of younger generations often see leadership as the fostering of a culture of connectedness, collaboration, and change—they believe leadership is rooted in the efforts of many. This view is in contrast to the more traditional, hierarchical structures and practices of many arts organizations and funders.”
Jeffrey Deitch Returns To Soho
“Jeffrey Deitch will take back the cavernous primo real estate at 18 Wooster Street that housed Deitch Projects during its glory days—which means it current occupant, Swiss Institute, will be looking for a new space.”
When The Artist Is A Friend Can A Critic Be Objective?
“I’m interested in a fundamental question that is at the heart of so much criticism: Does affection improve our judgment by making us receptive to ever finer nuances, or does it weaken our critical faculties and cloud our objectivity?”
Stop Calling The MacArthur Fellowships ‘Genius Grants’
Joan Acocella: “Why that term? Well: vulgarity, addiction to hot air, and brain poisoning in consequence of exposure to advertising.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.14.16
Worstward Ho! Is That How You Spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho) The above quote from Beckett’s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14
Lessons from Failure
Failure is one of our key opportunities to learn from experience. In many respects, we learn more from our failures, those efforts that did not work, than we do from … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14
“Unfinished” Business: Reflections As the Met Breuer Opens to Public
In my experience, whenever a critic writes a review, some observations have to be left out. There’s no room; they don’t fit thematically without great, leaping transitions, or some other reason intrudes. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-14
No more pocket versions of To Kill A Mockingbird
The estate of Harper Lee has decided to end its relationship with Hachette publishers, which was licensed through HarperCollins to produce a mass-market paperback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird. HarperCollins will continue to produce … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-03-14
All in the acting
You might think someone who had spent a hefty proportion of their evenings in the theatre, at the movies, in front of TV dramas or news broadcasts of politicians might have a few ideas … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-03-14
Quincy Jones’s Birthday
Quincy Jones turns 83 today. His story has had many chapters since his early days in Seattle and his apprenticeship in Lionel Hampton’s trumpet section. Jones went on to lead an important big band, score … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-14
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Top Ten Tips To Writing Like Shakespeare In This Anniversary Year
“Shakespeare introduced all sorts of problems to his characters, from falling in love with a man with a donkey’s head, to separating identical twins at birth, to meeting three witches on a moor.”
Amid Massive, Nationwide Protests, Brazil’s Artists Blindfold Statues
“Statues of former leaders, writers and even international figures have had red blindfolds placed around their faces. It is the work of a Brazilian artist, who asked to remain anonymous and who described the effort as a silent protest.”
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Pioneering Composer Of The Avant Garde, Dies At 81
“Famous for pushing boundaries, Sir Peter’s earlier works have been described as unplayable, generating controversy among audiences and critics alike. … But he made it his mission to connect with as many audiences as possible over his career, writing pieces for children, theatre and string quartet.”