By Alan Gilbert For many years I have been speaking about the idea of introducing a visual element to the auditory core of a concert with Doug Fitch, my friend and frequent collaborator. It’s a tricky matter as it is far from evident how to do so in a way that enhances the experience – [...]
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By Rachel Straus In 1932 BBC Television held it first broadcast, the Polaroid camera came into being, and Russell Markert made Radio City Music Hall a popular destination. The choreographer’s bevy of high-kicking girls—soon to be called the Rockettes—became the Art Deco house’s main event. If it weren’t for the ladies with the legs, I [...]
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By James Jorden Revival. Strange word, and creepy, when you think about it. Something used to be alive, then it wasn’t and now (presumably) it is, again. But it’s that last step, the actual reviving that seems so often to elude the revival of an opera production.
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By Alan Gilbert I’ve often spoken about the uniquely awesome capacity of the New York Philharmonic, but I really must tip my hat to the musicians for what they have done over the last few weeks. From Sunday, October 24, through Thursday, November 4, we were on tour in Europe, playing in familiar cities, such [...]
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By Rachel Straus “This is 200 percent authentic flamenco,” whispered a Seville-born audience member during Homenaje, the one-night show created by Spanish dancer Pepe Torres, presented by the World Music Institute, and held at NYU’s Skirball Center on November 13. I think I knew what she meant. My first introduction to flamenco involved watching a [...]
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By James Jorden When stage directors decide to intervene (as opposed to merely curating) there are a number of approaches they can take: deconstruction, gloss on the text, invention of an entirely new narrative. Or they can take the somewhat safer route of changing the epoch of the action, setting La bohème during World War [...]
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By Alan Gilbert As much as I enjoy putting my thoughts down in writing and sharing them here, in my blog, that is just not going to happen today. On Friday I returned from a very satisfying, very exciting, very busy tour, and although there is much about the time I spent in Europe that [...]
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By Rachel Straus On Oct. 28, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, which finished up its 12-day New York season over the weekend, offered a program by three choreographers whose treatment of dancers’ bodies was harsh. In Hubbub, by 27-year-old Alexander Ekman, 15 company members stripped to their underwear and stood in a line at the lip [...]
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by Cathy Barbash Within the last six months, a Ministry of Culture subsidiary actually hired a local foreign media expert to advise them on the use of social and other internet media tools to improve its cultural diplomacy (aka soft power) initiatives. Foreign expert told them to use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and the like. Ministry of Culture tossed the recommendation. [...]
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by Cathy Barbash Last weekend in Xi’an, my local cultural official friend, discreetly told us that artists in Shaanxi Province are quietly telling each other that “spring is coming.” Why their optimism? Shaanxi native Xi Jingping will become the next president of China. “The Tang Emperor is returning,” they say. They will need all the [...]
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