The new production by director David McVicar, which opens at the Met’s New Year’s Eve gala, has already lost its original star tenor (Jonas Kaufmann) and soprano (Kristine Opolais). Now its planned conductor, Andris Nelsons (Opolais’s husband), has withdrawn as well – and he’s being replaced by a maestro who is certainly available and knows his way around the house and the score. (But with Levine’s fragile health and this production’s bad luck, we can only hope he actually makes it.)
Osmo Vänskä Will Stay With Minnesota Orchestra Until At Least 2022
“The orchestra announced Monday morning that the longtime music director has signed a new, three-year contract through its 2021-22 season. The extension came early – Vänskä’s current contract expires at the end of the 2018-19 season. … The new contract would extend his total tenure to 19 years, matching the orchestra’s two longest-serving music directors, Emil Oberhoffer and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.”
$3.9 Million In Gems Stolen From London Art Fair – In Apparent Inside Job
“Detectives are hunting two men who calmly walked into the Masterpiece art show last week and unlocked a cabinet before stealing several pieces of diamond jewellery. The men, both white and casually dressed, then locked the cabinet at the stand of Swiss jewellers Boghossian before strolling away.”
Actress Elsa Martinelli, 82
“In an acting career that shifted between Europe and Hollywood and peaked in the 1960s, Ms. Martinelli won the Silver Bear for best actress at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival for the Italian comedy Donatella. Directors she worked for included Orson Welles (The Trial), Roger Vadim (Blood and Roses) and Elio Petri (The 10th Victim).” Yet the role for which she’s best remembered in the U.S. was as the love interest of Kirk Douglas’s character in The Indian Hunter.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.10.17
The problem with ranking cities’ cultural vibrancy
Two recent publications derive indices to rank different cities according to their cultural vibrancy … The problem is not with the quality of the data. Many of the raw data series will be of interest. The problem is in the very nature of the exercise. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-07-10
Shifting Power in American Orchestras
I have become more worried about what happens when [our students in Play On Philly] leave our “bubble” that is filled with peers, teachers, administrators and board members that truly understand their circumstances and enter a field that is dominated by white supremacy and unconscious bias. … read more
AJBlog: Orchestras Everywhere Published 2017-07-10
How To Create An Art-Lover
While at the Guggenheim Museum yesterday, seeing Visionaries: Creating A Modern Guggenheim, I witnessed an awesome sight – but it wasn’t the art. It was a little girl, still in a stroller, with a sketchbook in hand, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-07-10
Monday Recommendation: Another Bill Evans Discovery
Bill Evans, Another Time (Resonance)
For years, it was thought that drummer Jack DeJohnette’s only recorded appearance with the Bill Evans trio was at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival. Then, in 2013, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-07-10
Bolshoi Suddenly Cancels Ballet About Rudolf Nureyev
Speaking to journalists Monday, Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin denied reports that the show had been scrapped because of its frank portrayal of Nureyev’s gay relationships. The dancer was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and died in 1993.
How The Million-Dollar Netflix Prize Changed How We Get Our Movies
The forums, which are still viewable using thanks to internet archives, were a hotbed of problem-solving, discussion, and joyful discovery. Imagine a digital summer camp for researchers. “It was so much fun. The contest was structured so well. We had to learn so much to be competitive and I met so many people along the way.” As stressful as it could get, especially as the improvements to the algorithm slowed down and the years rolled along, the teams were buoyed by a sense of community.
We Keep “Finding” Lost Ruins. But They Usually Weren’t Lost At All
By ‘finding’ a lost city from the air, archaeologists fail to understand the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that communities have of their place and their past. The illusory ‘finding’ seems important. The ‘finding out’, the delayed gratification, is replaced by the immediacy of the ‘discovery’.
Meet The New Head Of US Artists: Who Is Art For And What Can It Do?
“What does it mean to raise money for individual artists at a time when our largest governing body says that thing has no value whatsoever? For me, the main goal is to make the organization sustainable. I want to know that if the NEA is cut today, tomorrow, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, that United States Artists can still be here, still doing the same work.”
One Literary Manager Says There Are Plenty Of (White) Women Writing Plays, But Where Are The Playwrights Of Color?
The literary manager of London’s Royal Court Theatre: “Diversity [in terms of] men and women has improved so drastically during my time working in theatre it is almost laughable.” But he’d also like to see more BAME – Black, Asian, and minority ethnic – playwrights being produced in his theatre and elsewhere.