The Three Tenors franchise was hardly great opera, but it was effective, and Yo-Yo Ma’s various crossover projects are genuinely good. So how did we get from The Silk Road Project to Hildegard von Bingen club remixes to The Shirtless Violinist and the quartet Well-Strung? Basically, writes James Bennett, II, blame the suits. – WQXR (New York City)
What Barnes And Noble Did During Its Summer Non-Vacation
As so many of us have been doing, the store redecorated – or rather, some of the chain took what it calls first steps in redecorating. (Might it be useful to hire back some of those content experts who can hand-sell books when it’s safe to open back up, B&N? Oh, smaller front tables instead? OK.) – The New York Times
The Woman Who Made The Best Basketball Movie Ever Just Made The Best Action Movie Of 2020
Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of Love & Basketball (don’t @ us) and the also incredible, totally different Beyond the Lights, casually became the first Black woman to direct a superhero action movie. But 2020 was supposed to be big: “There were five other female-directed blockbusters. Obviously Patty [with Wonder Woman 1984], there’s Cate Shortland doing Black Widow, Mulan with Niki Caro, The Eternals with Chloé Zhao, and Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey. … I hope we can destroy this narrative that women don’t love action, because we do.” – The Atlantic
Should We Separate What An Artist Says From The Work They Make?
Words are, in the end, only words. But writers, and prize committees, must know more than anyone that words have power. Words have consequences, and we act accordingly. – Irish Times
Comedy Drive-Ins: Honking Replaces Laughter
Comedians are desperate to get back on stage, said Kai Humphries, and to hear the roar of laughter rather than car horns. He found that he had slipped into a familiar rhythm on stage, timing his gags around the honks signifying his audience’s laughter. “It was strange to adjust because the sound of a car horn usually has a negative connotation,” he laughed. “When I was driving back from the gig, another driver honked their horn at someone and I got a feeling of warmth from it.” – The Guardian
David Fisk Named New Executive Director Of The Charlotte Symphony
Fisk joined the Richmond Symphony in 2002 from the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland and has led the orchestra through many ups and downs, including the closure of the Carpenter Theatre that left the Symphony essentially homeless and performing in area churches from 2004 to 2009. – Richmond Times-Dispatch
How Awe Motivates Scientific Discovery
All clear cases of awe have the following two components: an experience of vastness, and a need for cognitive accommodation of this vastness. You might feel awe for things that are physically large, but also for ideas that are conceptually vast. – Aeon
Blockbuster King Tut Show In London May Violate Egypt’s Antiquities Laws
Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, a touring show conceived by “swashbuckling” Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and U.S. management and events company IMG, was pulling in big crowds at London’s Saatchi Gallery before the COVID lockdown. But new reporting suggests that the contract between IMG and Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities to provide artifacts for the show may be illegal. – ARTnews
Kennedy Center And Its Resident Companies Will Commission Series Of New Anti-Racist Works
“Led by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, the Cartography Project will create an unspecified number of new works from artists of color that promote healing and understanding, Kennedy Center [CEO] Deborah Rutter said Thursday. The project is named for its intention to become a kind of musical map, tracing events that have sparked marches and activism across the nation. Shorter orchestral pieces may be presented digitally as soon as this fall, while opera commissions will take much longer, Rutter said.” – The Washington Post
‘Carpenters Without Borders’ Aims To Show That Notre-Dame Can Be Rebuilt With Real Medieval Techniques
“Armed with axes and hand saws, the team of 25 craftsmen and women, who belong to a collective called Carpenters Without Borders, managed to build one of the 25 trusses that made up the wooden roof of Notre-Dame that they say is identical to the original.” – France 24
As Of This Weekend, Outdoor Performances May Resume In England
The announcement by UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden (which does not apply for Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, whose regional governments will make that decision) means that — with sanitary and social distancing procedures in place — the summer season may start at such venues as Shakespeare’s Globe in London, the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, where a special outdoor program has been developed. – The Guardian
Outdoor Theatre, Festivals Resume This Weekend In UK
The test events will feature the London Symphony Orchestra at St Luke’s Church, as well as performances at the London Palladium and Butlin’s holiday parks. “This is an important milestone for our performing artists, who have been waiting patiently in the wings since March,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said. – BBC
Steve Martin Remembers Carl Reiner
When I perform comedy, I can still hear echoes of my influences coming through. Jack Benny, certainly, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Lenny Bruce, Steve Allen, Carl Reiner, too. But it is not Carl’s comedic advice I cherish. Rather, it was how he affected my everyday life, the part that has nothing to do with movies or acting. – The New York Times
Uh Oh – Report Says Only 8 Percent Of Users Who Downloaded Quibi For Free Trial Have Stayed To Pay
The bad news, according to the report: Only 72,000 subscribers stuck around and decided to pay $5 a month (or $8 without ads) for the service. That conversion rate, around 8%, does not bode very well as Quibi battles its way through COVID-19 and a crowded streaming field.About 4.5 million total downloads of the app have occurred to date, Sensor Tower estimates. – Deadline
The Harper’s Letter Has Stirred Up Debate. Why Now?
“You can criticize what people say, you can argue about platforms. But it seems like some of the excesses of the moment are leading people to be silenced in a new way.” – The New York Times
Trump’s New Sculpture Park for “American Heroes”? Fuhgedaboudit! The Bronx Already Has that Covered
As a culturally curious teenager, I had made the 20-minute hike from my Bronx apartment to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a once popular, now little-known pantheon for bronze busts of great men and women, some by well-known sculptors (including four busts by Daniel Chester French, two by Augustus Saint-Gaudens). – Lee Rosenbaum
Germany’s Largest Cultural Institution Is Dysfunctional And Should Be Dissolved: Commission
Never heard of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation? It’s the body that manages Berlin’s Museum Island complex and all the other state-run museums in the German capital, along with the Berlin State Library and archives. It is notoriously big, slow, cumbersome, and inflexible — and it can be stingy with building maintenance, too. A German federal government commission is now recommending that the Foundation be broken into four separate parts and its funding be overhauled. – Deutsche Welle