“[Daniel] Lipton, 76, was the company’s second artistic director, succeeding 17-year director Anton Coppola in 2012. He had completed five years of a six-year employment agreement … His resignation is effective immediately.”
The ‘Gay Jewish Kangaroo’ Who’s Shaking Up German Opera
Barrie Kosky, for the past five seasons artistic director at the Komische Oper, “has had a revitalizing effect on the company, one of three full-time opera companies in Berlin, thanks to his riotous productions and his eclectic repertoire choices.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.24.17
Berkshire Museum Disposables: Bierstadts, Bouguereaus, Calders, Church, Inness, “George Washington”
The hit list is out. The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, today identified (see the above link) all 40 works that it intends to sell through Sotheby’s to bankroll its $60-million reinvention plan. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-07-24
Digging to France
When I tell a U.S. colleague about several concerts I’m playing in France he says: “You’re Jerry Lewis!” The French, it’s true, have a long tradition of appreciating U.S culture, and yes, that silly American … read more
AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2017-07-24
Into the Wilderness
At the bottom of the hill where I live is what used to be called a Dead End. Now, I believe, developers address them more euphemistically – No Outlet, for example. The pavement doesn’t stop … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-07-24
Recent Listening In Brief
It is impossible to review even a smattering of the dozens of albums that land in the Rifftides mailbox. With the Sweden trip looming, time allows for mentions of a few relatively … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-07-24
What We Learned About Fandom After Studying It For A Year
After a year of comprehensive and systematic research, we can safely say fandom is a relationship — a love relationship between the self and an object of fandom, whether that object is a show, movie, book, sport, team, league, band, genre, product, brand, person, activity, or idea. We actually refer to fandom as “love,” differentiating it from “liking something” by the loyalty, devotion, depth of interest, willingness to invest, and desire for closeness that it engenders. While at face value fandom may look unidirectional, reciprocity is underway nonetheless.
The “Beautiful Soul” Idea That Underpins Our Ideas Of Self-Improvement
“At the core of the beautiful soul is the idea that the individual possesses an innate cognitive potential. Subject to the right environmental and educational conditions, this latent potential can be developed to reach a more perfect state of intellect, morality, character and conduct. The beautiful soul is an aesthetic concept focused on developing human capacities and advancing knowledge and culture. It entails the pursuit of personal cultivation to create a convergence of the individual aesthetic impulse with a collective ethical ideal.”
How Parents Can Spark A Life Of The Mind
“Explaining all the way, my father introduced his children to Shakespeare, play by play, as well as to classic Westerns. He explained each and every joke in each and every Gilbert and Sullivan operetta (“You shall sit, if he sees reason, through the grouse and salmon season!”). He read aloud an astonishing number of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, explaining the jokes, however inappropriate.”
Stage Actors Must Fall In Love, Instantly, Performance After Performance
After a long rehearsal and a lot of planning, actors know how to substitute themselves for the characters (mostly without creating problems for the actors themselves). They can be “clear about drawing distinctions between performance and life. Ms. Grant believes in ‘really healthy, strong boundaries,’ she said, and as Mr. Hernandez put it,’This is literally my job. I went to school for it. I’m not skeezing on anybody. It is in the text.’ No carnal appetite here.”
Korean Broadcasters Decide To Stream Directly To U.S. K-Pop And K-Drama Fans
With a near-simultaneous translation plan, “Kocowa offers U.S. audiences access to a lineup of Korean TV programs from all three broadcasters — KBS, MBC and SBS — as soon as six hours after they’re broadcast in Korea. The service will compete primarily with DramaFever, the Korean-entertainment streaming service owned by Warner Bros.”
Rock Musician Alice Cooper Finds A Long-Lost Andy Warhol In A Tube In A Storage Locker
Yes, that headline sounds like word salad, but it’s real: “The work in question is a red Little Electric Chair silkscreen, from Warhol’s Death and Disaster series. Never stretched on a frame, it sat in storage alongside touring artefacts including an electric chair that Cooper used in the early 70s as part of his ghoulish stage show.”
Actor Michelle Terry Will Take Over From Emma Rice At The Globe
The Shakespearean actor said it was “a dream come true,” despite the fact that she’s succeeding another woman, Emma Rice, whose vision for the Globe was famously undercut when the theatre’s board decided to force her out (Rice is headed to the Old Vic).
Robots Need Morals, But Making Them Read Classic Literature Is Not Going To Help
Hmmmm. “Much fiction and drama will dizzyingly mislead poor robots about the world in which they have to make their decisions. Our favourite stories abound in ghosts, demons, wizards, monsters and every kind of talking animal. Human beings travel through time and fly through the air and get into or out of trouble by the use of magic.”
Gillan Moore Is Determined To Program Classical Music – And Women Composers – In London’s Southbank
Moore: “If we don’t support contemporary composers, their music is going to die. History is littered with people who struggled to get any recognition at all, even people who are big names now.”