Arts
The Arts
James Levine, Former Met Conductor Fired After Abuse Allegations, Dies At 77
James Levine, the immensely accomplished conductor who wielded power and influence in the classical world, and whose singular tenure at the Metropolitan Opera ended in a flurry of accusations of sexual abuse, died on March 9 in Palm Springs, Calif. His physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, confirmed his death to NPR, saying that Levine died of natural causes. He was 77 years old.
BOOK REVIEW: Story Collection Puts A Ghostly Spin On Digital ‘Reality’
In John Lanchester’s collection, Reality and Other Stories, the supernatural manifests itself through cell phones, social media, computers, reality tv shows, and smart houses. “Signal,” the opening story, was originally published in The New Yorker and it’s a standout: an eerie homage to Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.
5 Lesser-Known, Late-In-Life Works By Frida Kahlo Now On View In Dallas
What more is there to say about Frida Kahlo? She died in 1954 at age 47. By now she’s a cottage industry. Her face (that unibrow, the red lips, the scores of self portraits) reproduced on mugs, matchbooks, pandemic masks, of course tote bags.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Once Upon A Quinceañera’ Has Fairy Tale Charm
Once Upon a Quinceañera opens in Miami, the summer after Carmen Aguilar’s senior year. Due to an incomplete internship credit, Carmen has yet to graduate high school. So she’s working for an event company called Dreams Come True, where she dresses up as a singing, dancing Disney Princess for birthday parties. She’s at one of these parties (dressed as Belle) with her best friend Waverly (dressed as Cinderella), when a Beast shows up who is not Carmen’s usual partner.
Author Explores Preacher Father’s Silence On Racial Injustice In 1960s Alabama
Decades later, Birmingham News Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald is trying to do just that. Archibald comes from a long line of Methodist preachers in the South; his father had a pulpit at a critical time and place in American history — 1960s Alabama.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Committed’ Remains Uncommitted — And That’s Its Strength
With smoke-and-mirrors panache, The Committed — Viet Thanh Nguyen’s sequel to The Sympathizer — continues the travails of our Eurasian Ulysses, now relocated to France and self-identified as Vo Danh (which literally means “Nameless”). Having survived a communist reeducation camp, a perilous sea crossing, and a long sojourn in an Indonesian refugee center, he arrives in Paris on July 18, 1981 — the birthday of Nelson Mandela — to become, once again, a refugee.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises Will Shelve 6 Books, Citing ‘Hurtful’ Portrayals
Dr. Seuss Enterprises will cease publishing six of the author’s books — including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo — saying they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” The books have been criticized for how they depict Asian and Black people.
In ‘Girlhood,’ Teens Across The Globe Write About Their Everyday Lives
NPR talks to Ahuja about the inspiration and process behind capturing the girls’ ordinary lives: their hopes, dreams, anxieties and frustrations.
Happy Birthday To The Phillips Collection, America’s First Museum Of Modern Art
One hundred years ago, America’s first museum of modern art opened in a private mansion in Washington, D.C. Founder Duncan Phillips was an early collector of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh. The Phillips was the first to buy a Georgia O’Keeffe. Decades ago, in this city of museums, it became my favorite one.
‘Minari’ Follows A Family’s Immigration With Humor, Humanity And Hope
The travails of immigrant life take a quietly beguiling form in Minari, a semi-autobiographical film by Lee Isaac Chung that brims with humor, humanity and hope. Showing us characters new to American screens, the story centers on a South Korean family named Yi who hope to make a go of farming in rural Arkansas during the Reagan years. Minari takes its title from the name of a spicy Asian plant that’s known for its hardiness and ability to grow seemingly anywhere. The question is, will the same prove true of the Yi family?
Metropolitan Opera Backstage Workers: ‘Without People, The Opera Is Nothing’
The Met is the largest performing arts organization in the United States, employing close to 3,000 people, with an annual budget of over $300 million. When it shut down because of COVID last March, the company cited the force majeure provision of its agreements, and made the decision to furlough all its union artists and craftspeople.
BOOK REVIEW: In ‘Nubia: Real One,’ Trying To Be A Hero When Society Thinks You’re A Threat
Nubia: Real One doesn’t take place on Wonder Woman’s home island Themyscira, but somewhere in modern-day America — though a modern-day America in which superheroes are a real thing. And Nubia is not an adult woman warrior who knows who and what she is (as she did when she first appeared in 1973’s Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #204), no. This is McKinney’s take on Nubia for real.
