Tenor Zach Finkelstein: “Below I’ll show you four case studies demonstrating that the inability to continue in a performing career and support yourself financially has very little to do with the expenses of running an opera business, although they are onerous. Or your abilities as a performer, although it is a necessary condition to be best-in-class. Success has to do with two major decisions you make when you are most vulnerable and know the least about the business: the amount you pay for your undergraduate and graduate school education, and the cost of living in the city where you build your career.” – The Middle-Class Artist
Thousands March Against Hungarian Regime’s Plans To Tighten Control Of Performing Arts
“Actors and directors led Monday evening’s rally in Budapest against a bill that they say threatens artistic freedom and extends the nationalist government’s reach into areas that should be politically independent. The city’s liberal opposition mayor Gergely Karácsony also addressed the crowd. … [The legislation will] establish a national cultural council to determine ‘the unified strategic direction of various segments of culture’.” – The Irish Times
The Wonder Of Merce Cunningham In 3D
We watch the dancers from close up and on all sides, our proximity enhanced by the magic of 3-D. The elegance of the cinematography (by Mko Malkhasyan) turns these passages into the stanzas of a visual poem. – The New Yorker
How The Hawaiian Language Was Rescued From Near-Oblivion
“In the ’60s, estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 people could speak Hawaiian fluently, and just a few dozen of them were children. But then something remarkable happened. An unlikely Hawaiian renaissance blossomed in the ’60s and into the ’70s, initially driven by artists who sought to reclaim traditional music and dance. … Today, roughly two dozen of Hawaii’s public schools teach exclusively in Hawaiian, about a third of them charters. The number of Hawaiian speakers in the state is now 18,000, roughly half of them fluent.” – The Atlantic
How Brexit Will Affect Independent UK Publishers
There is an ever-increasing fear that smaller publishing houses may be put out of business as a result of potential changes to requirements surrounding distribution of literary materials. – The Boar
Dance Therapy Is Being Used To Combat Depression And Other Mental Illnesses
“Dance/Movement Therapy goes beyond simply dancing. DMT uses dance and movement to promote insight, integration and well-being, as well as to diminish undesirable symptoms in various clinical populations. Unlike mainstream talk therapies, DMT uses the entire body to approach the client primarily on a non-verbal and creative level. The body in motion is both the medium and the message.” – Quartz
The architect who uses performance to open up public space
“Working primarily in the public realm, Bryony Roberts Studio is a collaborative practice focused on how cultures, histories, and systems of power and politics are represented or erased in space. Through site-specific performances and installations, Roberts addresses themes of democracy, spatial justice, historic preservation, and identity in a way that’s widely accessible to the public. … Roberts’s work is urgent at a time when the politics and sensibilities of public space are under more scrutiny.” – Curbed
The Responsibility Of Intellectuals
Intellectuals, in order to be able “to speak the truth and expose lies” must understand how ideology works in the form of official institutions and everyday life. Ideological analysis is not simple and requires specific knowledge and skills. – 3 Quarks Daily
Ugly? What’s That?
Umberto Eco: “Are there universal ways in which people react to beauty? No, because beauty is detachment, absence of passion. Ugliness, by contrast, is passion.” – LitHub
Why Buying Music On Physical Media (CDs, Vinyl) Is Growing
Services like Spotify and Apple Music can’t just upload whatever music they’d like. Legal disputes, sample clearance issues — when permission can’t be obtained for the use of part of a song in a new song — and rights-holders withholding music can all get in the way of music being available on your streaming platform of choice. And that can make the music even more difficult and more expensive to get your hands on physically. – The Conversation
Local Library In China Burns Books, Enraging Many
“Reports and photos of two women burning a pile of books outside the Zhenyuan county library in Gansu province emerged at the weekend. According to Chinese media, an article on the county’s website detailed a ‘removal and destruction’ cleanup at the end of October, focusing on illegal, religious, and biased books. … [The reports have] prompted a wave of criticism from commentators and internet users who were reminded of the Qin dynasty, when books were burned and scholars burned alive as a way to control the populace and prevent criticism of the regime.” – The Guardian
Serpentine Taps LA Art Star As Next Chief Exec
Bettina Korek, who currently runs the Californian outpost of the Frieze art fair, will start work in March and team up with the gallery’s artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist in time for next year’s 50th anniversary. – London Evening Standard
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Demands Correction On Clint Eastwood Film
The Clint Eastwood film looks at the media circus that broke out around Jewell, a security guard who came under suspicion for orchestrating the Centennial Olympic Park bombing before being exonerated. Scruggs, an employee at the paper, broke the story that Jewell was under investigation by the FBI. The film shows Scruggs, portrayed by Olivia Wilde, sleeping with an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) to get the story. Scruggs died in 2001 at the age of 42. The paper has maintained that there is no evidence that Scruggs slept with anyone involved in the Jewell investigation. – Variety
In The Footsteps Of Peter Handke In Bosnia, Seeing What He Did, And Didn’t, See
Controversy has raged over the awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature to the Austrian writer, acknowledged as an accomplished author but accused by many observers of denying or defending Serbian war crimes in Bosnia in the 1990s. So John Erik Riley decided to reread the Handke essays at the heart of the dispute and visit Sarajevo, Goražde, Višegrad, and the site of the massacre at Srebrenica. – Literary Hub
The Seattle Symphony’s Miraculous Reinvention (And Now New Challenges)
Ten years ago the Seattle Symphony was badly broken. Miraculously, a new leadership team emerged, the orchestra chased reinvention and its fortunes soared. Now that leadership has departed and there are big questions about what’s next. – Post Alley
William Luce, Playwright Of ‘Belle Of Amherst’ And ‘Barrymore’, Dead At 88
“Over a 40-year career, Luce … worked with the likes of Zoe Caldwell, George C. Scott and Claire Bloom as he wrote about the private lives of Charlotte Brontë, Lillian Hellman, Isak Dinesen, Zelda Fitzgerald and others. The Belle of Amherst, his portrait of the reclusive Massachusetts poet Emily Dickinson, won [Julie] Harris the fifth of her six Tony Awards … Barrymore, about the gifted and self-destructive actor John Barrymore, earned [Christopher] Plummer his second Tony and was filmed for television.” – The Hollywood Reporter
St. Petersburg Museums Struggle With Surge Of Chinese Tourists
Visits by Chinese citizens to Russia have been growing by 20% a year, and that rate will likely increase in 2020, when electronic visas become available. The extra crowds have caused particular problems at the Hermitage and, especially, at the Catherine Palace in nearby Tsarskoe Selo, where there are wait times of up to four hours as Chinese groups flock to see the famous Amber Room. – The Art Newspaper
Elena Ferrante’s Literary Success Has Changed The Role Of Women Writers In Italy
Her ascent, and the rediscovery of some of the last century’s great Italian female writers, has encouraged a new wave of women and shaken the country’s literary establishment. Women writers here are winning prestigious prizes, getting translated and selling copies. Their achievements have set off a wider debate in Italy about what constitutes literature in a country where self-referential virtuosity is often valued over storytelling, emotional resonance and issues like sexism or gender roles. – The New York Times
Ailey’s First Resident Choreographer Talks Disruption
Ailey formed his company, in part, to give people of color a place to dance, Jamar Roberts said. It was also a place for him to to tell their stories. Mr. Roberts wants to continue that, but times have changed. “Are we just saying, ‘Yay, we have a place to dance’ and is that a responsible conversation?” he said. “Is that relevant considering all that’s still going on? I feel wrong for asking these questions. I have a problem when I feel like I’m being disruptive.” – The New York Times
La Scala Gala Opens With 15 Minutes Of Applause For Italy’s President
For the second year, the performance opened with long applause for Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, sitting in the royal box with four government ministers. As last year, the Italian government is struggling, and the long applause was seen as a show of support for Italian institutions, which Mattarella represents in a non-partisan role. – Washington Post (AP)
A First: Netflix Edges HBO In Golden Globe Nominations. Broadcast Networks Shut Out
It was a crowning moment for Netflix, and not just for the jeweled one on Queen Elizabeth’s head. The streaming service, which dominated the Globe nominations overall, edged out HBO to win the most TV nods on Monday. Netflix got 17 TV nods, to go with its 17 on the movie side. HBO was a close successor at 15. – Washington Post
This Year’s Golden Globe Nominations – Some Surprises
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Killing Eve received nominations this chilly L.A. morning, as did the apparent final season of Amazon’s Emmy-winning Fleabag and the first season of the star-studded The Morning Show on AppleTV+. – Deadline
The Impossible Body Standards Of The Modern Superhero
Superman was “too chubby” to play James Bond, Kevin Hart (The Rock’s “non-ripped” co-star) starts at the gym at 5 every morning, and movie men are partnering, i.e. getting sweet but addicting brand money from, a variety of “fitness” products, companies, and routines. “It is a worrying state of affairs when the measure of an actor is how hard they work on their bodies rather than how good they are at, you know, acting.” (Uh, yes, the women in these movies probably have a thing or two to say about that as well.) – The Guardian (UK)