“On Wednesday, selected singers, orchestra members and various technicians” at Cagliari’s Teatro Lirico (a high-tech hotbed, in fact) will perform Puccini’s Turandot “wearing Google Glass to transmit the opera live from their individual points of view to audiences online. … Live links through the opera’s website, Facebook, and other social media will allow at-home opera aficionados to enjoy – and interact with – the company.”
What People Think Of You Based On Your Photo
“It’s impossible to deduce personality traits from a quick glance at a duckface iPhone photo. But a new study finds that, when it comes to first impressions, certain facial features do tend to convey specific personality characteristics to others with shocking consistency. You may not be an approachable-yet-dominant sexpot, but you sure look like one in your Facebook photo.”
Why Are Sopranos So Hard To Understand? (We Mean The Words They Sing, Not Their Psyches)
It’s just plain physics (with some physiology thrown in), argues Lauren Ackerman.
Ex Oregon Ballet Theatre Director Christopher Stowell Hooks Up With San Francisco Ballet
“As assistant to Tomasson, to whom he will report directly, Stowell will have his fingers in just about every aspect of the company pie on both the artistic and administrative (read financial) sides.”
What’s The Best Theatre Town In America Outside New York And Chicago? (And How Would You Measure?)
“The states with the highest per capita concentration of theaters,” concludes the NEA, “now include: Vermont, Alaska, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Oregon, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Minnesota.”
Why Is Hollywood’s Stereotype Of Kick-Ass A Blond White Woman?
“How is it that in a film whose premise rests on the idea of reimagining the past, present and future, we still end up with a blonde white woman with flashing blue eyes as the stand-in for what personifies evolution and supremely fulfilled human potential?”
Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre: Be Proactive, Think Big
“Hytner’s National has been characterised by several things: cheap tickets, NT Live, hospitality to experiment and, above all, a readiness to embrace the big issues of the moment.”
Theatre That Smells (And The Designers Who Make It So)
“It always locks in with the design. If you’re doing an ambient scent, really what you’re making is a part of the set that’s invisible. For that, you really want to work with the set and lighting designer to talk about what is the space — what kind of place do we want to evoke? As a scent designer I am supporting them in that — adding an extra dimension to what they’re trying to do.”
How Do You Build A New Professional Theatre In Madison?
“What could set Cap City apart in Madison is something most audiences never consider, but which means a great deal to artists trying to make a living in the business: a Small Professional Theatre Contract through Actors’ Equity, the theater union.”
DC Suburb Works To Be More Urban (Invisibility Is The Key?)
“To the extent that anyone can articulate a sense of aesthetics for this new landscape, it’s all very superficial: It should twinkle at night, bustle by day, have some nice green things here and there, and mainly not impose very much on our eyes or mind. The new Silver Line stations do all of that, and they do it well.”
It’s The Year Of The Posthumous Performance – Is That Good For The Artists Or The Art?
Michael Jackson performed at this year’s Billboard Music Awards. Rick James has a new memoir. Tupac Shakur had a Broadway musical. James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and River Phoenix (!) are in new movies. “It’s not weird that we miss those artists who’ve died. But it is weird that, increasingly, we expect them to keep producing art. The afterlife has become just another career stage – one that’s as lucrative and, in some cases, as productive as the pre-death career ever was.”
Quentin Tarantino Is Filming “The Hateful Eight” After All
The director – who called the project off in a fit of anger after the script was leaked – confirmed the news at, of all places, San Diego Comic-Con.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.28.14
John Luther Adams’s outdoor music needs to come indoors
AJBlog: Condemned to Music | Published 2014-07-29
Parklandia: Stretching, Striving To What End?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-07-29
Performance measures, indices and rankings
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-07-29
Osipova and Vasiliev Debut World Tour at California’s Segerstrom Center
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil | Published 2014-07-28
The Return of the the Clientele
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-07-28
Monday Recommendation: Ahmed Abdul-Malik
AJBlog: RiffTides | Published 2014-07-28
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Yet Another Appraisal Of Detroit Institute Of Arts’ Collection (And It’s Big)
“The new appraisal, conducted by Victor Wiener Associates, a New York firm, was commissioned by the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, a bond insurer that stands to lose hundred of millions of dollars in the bankruptcy. The insurer has called for the masterpieces from the museum to be sold or monetized in some other way, such as being used as collateral for a loan.”
Time For A New Leader At The Metropolitan Opera?
“What’s clear is that something needs to give and, after nearly thirty-five years of labor-management harmony, it’s apparent that the Met’s problems start at the top. The cleanest solution would be to appoint a new GM, preferably someone, unlike Gelb, with an actual background in opera, who unequivocally believes in the vibrant future of the art form, and who can work creatively within a budget.”
Margot Adler, One Of NPR’s Signature Voices For Three Decades, Dies At 68
“‘Her reporting was singular and her voice distinct,’ Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s vice president for news, said in an announcement to staff. ‘There was almost no story that Margot couldn’t tell.'”
Keeping Kabuki Populist – And Funny
“Compared with some other forms of Japanese theatre – Noh, for example – Kabuki had humble beginnings. It was made by common people for common people. … Other forms of Japanese theatre, such as Noh and Bunraku, subsist on government funding. Kabuki lives on ticket sales.”