lunes, 29 de noviembre de 2021

CHIARA MASTROIANNI, PREMIO DE HONOR DEL FESTIVAL DE CINE DE GIJÓN AND IN ENGLISH, LIST OF AWARDS

El Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón (FICX) ha concedido el Premio de Honor de su 59 edición a la actriz francesa Chiara Mastroianni por su "brillante carrera", ha avanzado este lunes la organización del certamen, que se celebrará del 19 al 27 de noviembre.

Galardonada con el premio a la mejor interpretación en el Festival de Cannes de 2019 por su papel en "Chambre 212", laureada en Locarno en 2010 y dos veces nominada a los Premios César, Mastroianni (París, 1972) se ha convertido en una de las actrices más valoradas por el público y la crítica internacional contemporáneos.

La premiada es hija de la actriz Catherine Deneuve y del actor Marcello Mastroianni, dos figuras clave en la historia del cine a lo que ha sumado una sólida trayectoria artística labrada desde los años noventa.

Mastroianni se encuentra actualmente inmersa en la filmación de “Eureka”, la nueva película del director argentino Lisandro Alonso, que acompañará a la actriz en un encuentro especial con el público del FICX.

https://www.efe.com/efe/espana/cultura/chiara-mastroianni-premio-de-honor-del-festival-cine-gijon/10005-4670565


Gijón Festival Awards 2021

OFFICIAL SECTION RETUEYOS

  • Best Feature Film: Nothing to give a fuck (Belgium) by Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre
  • Distribution award: Neptune Frost (Rwanda) by Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams
  • Best Actress: Anastasia Budiashkina for Olga (Switzerland)
  • Best Actor: Jean-Michel Lemoine for Chicken fries (Belgium)

OFFICIAL ALBAR SECTION:

  • Best Feature Film: Social hygiene (Canadá) by Denis Côté
  • Special mention: Whole (Romania) by Radu Muntean
  • Special Jury Prize: In Front of Your Face (South Korea) by Hong Sang-soo
  • Distribution award: The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (Israel) by Avi Mograbi
  • Audience Award: The divide (France) by Catherine Corsini

OFFICIAL SECTION LANDS IN TRANCE:

  • FIPRESCI Award for Best Feature Film: Gym (Argentina) by Juan Pablo Basovih and Sofía Jallinsky
  • FIPRESCI Award for Best Direction: The close ones (Argentina) by María Álvarez
  • Audience Award: Welcome to my head (Spain) by Andrés Goteira

UN VIOLON À PARIS. RENAUD CAPUÇON, NOUVEAU CD

En mars 2021, un an jour pour jour après le début du premier confinement, Renaud Capuçon et Guillaume Bellom décident de se retrouver en studio pour enregistrer ces petites pièces qu’ils avaient partagées tout au long de ces semaines si spéciales. Ils ont eu une joie immense à les enregistrer pour les partager de nouveau avec vous.

« Avec le pianiste Guillaume Bellom, invariablement et à heure fixe, comme un rituel, nous avons joué pendant 56 jours, liés par ce même amour de la musique, ce même désir de nous tenir debout. Vous avez été si nombreux à nous écouter chaque matin, à nous écrire ou à nous témoigner votre reconnaissance : cet album est pour vous. »

Renaud Capuçon

https://www.fnac.com/a16243659/Piotr-Ilitch-Tchaikovski-Un-violon-a-Paris-CD-album

RESTITUTION: HOW THESE OLD MASTER WORKS CONFISCATED BY THE GESTAPO WERE RETURNED MORE THAN SIX DECADES LATER


Works by El Greco, De Witte and the Master of Frankfurt — seized from the Vienna apartment of Julius and Camilla Priester in the early years of the Second World War and rediscovered over the last 15 years — are offered in London on 7 December

On a cold March morning in 1938, German troops crossed the border into Austria and annexed the country. In the immediate aftermath of the ‘Anschluss’, Austria’s Jewish population were subjected to violent attacks. That early, uncontrolled ferocity soon gave way to a more orchestrated aggression as the Nazis looted and confiscated art collections and forced Jewish owners, who were frantic to leave the country, to sell their possessions at knockdown prices.

Among those who found themselves on the brutal end of these policies were the industrialist Julius Priester (1870-1954) and his wife Camilla (1885-1962).

The couple were art lovers and had amassed a stunning collection of Old Masters, particularly Flemish, Dutch and Italian artists, including Franz Hals, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacopo Tintoretto and Anthony Van Dyck. The works were housed in their elegant apartment on the Ebendorferstrasse, in Vienna’s historic centre.

Their immediate concern that spring, however, was their own survival. Two weeks after the Anschluss, the couple fled Vienna for Paris. By June 1940 they were in Bordeaux, where the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued them with visas. A month later, they had joined the thousands of refugees hoping to secure safe passage from Portugal to the Americas.

The writer Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, memorably recorded this desperate world in his 1962 novel The Night in Lisbon:

‘The coast of Portugal had become the last hope of the fugitives to whom justice, freedom, and tolerance meant more than home and livelihood. This was the gate to America. If you couldn’t reach it, you were lost, condemned to bleed away in a jungle of consulates, police stations and government offices, where visas were refused and work and residence permits unobtainable, a jungle of internment camps, bureaucratic red tape, loneliness, homesickness, and withering universal indifference.’

The Priesters were lucky. That August, they crossed the Atlantic aboard the SS Quanza  to Mexico, where they remained for the rest of their lives. From the safety of Central America, the couple began making extensive efforts to trace their missing artworks.

It was revealed that, in the months after they left Austria, the Gestapo — assisted by art appraisers — had inventoried the couple’s apartment and begun removing works of art. Over the next four years, their entire collection was confiscated.

This systematic stripping of Jewish belongings led to vast warehouses being filled with priceless art and antiques. Most of the Priesters’ collection was taken to the Gestapo’s centre for the redistribution of Jewish property, on Krummbaumgasse in Vienna.

The Nazis had a clear vision, vigorously upheld by organisations such as the Militant League for German Culture. They were intent upon leading a national revival of Germanic art and culture, and their tastes were extremely conservative.

Any confiscated art that was anti-realist or created by a ‘non-Aryan’ was denounced and sold to fund the German Reich. Works that met the Nazis’ narrow artistic criteria entered museum collections, were held for Hitler’s proposed ‘Führer-Museum’ or found their way into the private collections of prominent Nazi officials.

After the war, it was discovered that some of the art appraisers who had worked for the Gestapo were now dealing privately in Nazi loot. The Priesters learned that the art assessor Bernhard Witke had sold their Tintoretto and an early El Greco masterpiece, Portrait of a Gentleman (1570), above, while their highly prized Rubens, Man with a Fur Coat  (circa 1630-40), was in the collection of Nazi art dealer Julius Strecker, who was put on trial in 1953.

The court case attracted considerable media attention, prompting Julius Priester to publish a list of 17 paintings still missing from his collection. Among the works unaccounted for were the extremely rare Interior of the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (1655), by Emanuel de Witte, and a half-length portrait, traditionally identified as the Emperor Ferdinand I, by the Netherlandish Master of Frankfurt, below.

Sadly, the couple died before those works could be recovered. ‘Getting restitution in the post-war era was an uphill struggle,’ says Christie’s restitution expert Andrea Lehmann. For many Jewish survivors, the problem was that, without photographs or documentation, it was nearly impossible to establish proof of ownership.

The Priesters, however, did have photographic evidence, which helped the not-for-profit Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) to trace some of the paintings for their heirs. Founded in 1999, the CLAE works to recover cultural property stolen by the Nazis.

In 2006, the CLAE identified the Priesters’ Master of Frankfurt at auction in London. Later, it discovered the El Greco and the De Witte. All three are now offered in the Old Masters Evening Sale in London on 7 December.

An unknown number of Nazi-era looted artworks are still unaccounted for. ‘It would be impossible to speculate on how many works of art are out there,’ says Lehmann, ‘but in recent years there has been renewed momentum in identifying them.’

At a 1998 conference held in Washington, D.C., the governments of 44 countries committed to the principle of identifying and tracing artworks looted between 1933 and 1945, and negotiating ‘just’ and ‘fair’ claims resolutions. As a result, many institutions and collectors have become more proactive in engaging with the process.

Perhaps the most famous example of restitution was the return of five Gustav Klimt paintings to the heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family in 2006. This high-profile case did much to alert the public to the issue, and has helped reshape the auction world.

‘At Christie’s we have a dedicated in-house team of researchers and specialists who review works offered for sale and engage with claimants and their advocates,’ says Lehmann.

https://www.christies.com/features/Reunited-three-Old-Masters-from-the-Priester-Collection-11985-1.aspx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent04144B87Section_A_Story_1_0&COSID=42665747&cid=DM469087&bid=290329623

domingo, 28 de noviembre de 2021

NEW BOOK: "CAPOTE'S WOMEN" BY LAURENCE LEAMER

In his new book "Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song," Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote’s never-published final novel, Answered Prayers—the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote’s ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans."

Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer delves into the years following the acclaimed publication of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1958 and In Cold Blood in 1966, when Capote struggled with a crippling case of writer’s block.

While enjoying all the fruits of his success—including cultivating close friendships with the richest and most admired women of the era—he was struck with an idea for what he was sure would be his most celebrated novel...one based on the remarkable, racy lives of his very, very rich friends.

https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2021-10-13/capotes-women-by-laurence-leamer

Capote's Women: An Afternoon with Laurence Leamer & Julia Cooke

ROBERT CAPA FINALMENTE TIENDE UN PUENTE DE VALLECAS AL MUSEO REINA SOFÍA


La famosa foto del reportero húngaro de los bombardeos de la guerra civil sobre Madrid se hace un hueco en la nueva colección permanente del museo

LUIS DE VEGA

El fotoperiodismo sobrevive entre el optimismo de los que no dudan de su utilidad para martillear conciencias y enmendar conductas y el pesimismo de aquellos que se dejan llevar por la corriente de indiferencia que inunda una sociedad anestesiada por la sobrecarga de imágenes que nos rodea. Que un retrato hecho hace más de tres décadas y publicado en la portada de National Geographic haya servido estos días para que su protagonista haya sido evacuada desde Afganistán a Italia es un ejemplo interesante. Pero tenemos casos mucho más cercanos.

Hay una foto de Robert Capa (1913-1954) de los bombardeos de Madrid durante la guerra civil a la que el paso de los años está sentando de maravilla y demuestra que, muchos años después de muertos, el trabajo de algunos fotógrafos sigue siendo de enorme utilidad. Esa imagen, tomada en 1936 a la altura del número 10 de la calle Peironcely del barrio vallecano de Entrevías, no era en principio de las más conocidas del reportero nacido en Hungría, pero estos días ha pasado a formar parte del nuevo recorrido de la colección permanente del Museo Nacional Reina Sofía.

Desde este viernes la fotografía, con medidas de 30 por 40 centímetros y que lleva por referencia Children in front of a bullet-riddled building, Peironcely, 10, Vallecas, Madrid, puede verse en la sala 205.04 de la segunda planta del edificio Sabatini titulada España, mito trágico. Es la única foto que convive junto a obras de Le Curbusier, Jacques Lipchitz, Joan Miró y David Smith. Se trata de una sala que “refleja la respuesta de la comunidad artística internacional en el contexto de la Guerra Civil. La situación española se convirtió en un campo de experimentación y compromiso, de forma que se produjeron obras inspiradas en la guerra”, comentan fuentes del museo. “La fotografía de Capa, el reportero que alcanzó mayor renombre en esos años, muestra el contraste entre guerra y paz, retratando a unos niños en una calle bombardeada. Los niños fueron además un sujeto muy representado en las manifestaciones propagandísticas y reivindicativas de la época”, añaden.

El pasado 15 de octubre, cerca de medio centenar de intelectuales de varios países, entre los que se encuentran Rosa Regás, Ian Gibson o Federico Mayor Zaragoza, pidieron al director del museo, Manuel Borja-Villel, que la foto de Capa de los bombarderos de la capital pasara a formar parte de los nuevos recorridos. Argumentaban que debía ser así por la importancia del autor para la historia de la fotografía, porque esa foto formaba parte de la primera vez que la firma de Capa aparecía dentro de un reportaje -revista Regards el 10 de diciembre de 1936-, porque gracias a sus numerosas apariciones en medios ha acabado convertida en un icono de la vulnerabilidad infantil ante el horror de la guerra y por los cambios sociales que sigue propiciando 80 años después de ser realizada.

La solicitud fue respondida este jueves, la víspera de la inauguración, cuando les llegó el escrito de confirmación de que la referida foto se ha incorporado. Los firmantes de aquella carta han recibido con satisfacción lo que consideran una decisión de justicia por parte de las autoridades culturales. El director del museo, además de disculparse por el retraso al contestar, explica que ya tenían pensado con anterioridad a la solicitud incluir esa foto de Capar en el nuevo recorrido. También la concejal socialista Mar Espinar se había dirigido al museo para solicitar la inclusión de la foto de Vallecas en la nueva reorganización.

Gracias a esa fotografía y al movimiento social y cultural que ha generado a su alrededor en los últimos años, encabezado por la Fundación Anastasio de Gracia, se ha conseguido otorgar protección al edificio de Peironcely, 10, que finalmente ha sido expropiado por el Ayuntamiento de la capital y salvado de ser demolido. También se ha logrado que las familias que habitaban en sus infraviviendas fueran realojadas. El equipo de gobierno que encabeza el alcalde José Luis Martínez Almeida no ha concretado el uso definitivo al que será destinado. En todo caso, el pasado mes de abril la plataforma #SalvaPeironcely10 presentó el denominado Plan Robert Capa-Entrevías al gobierno municipal.

Robert Capa, uno de los fundadores de la agencia Magnum, realizó la foto delante del número 10 de la calle Peironcely de Madrid a finales de 1936. Recientemente se ha sabido que apareció publicada en The New York Times Magazine el 24 de enero de 1937, algo más de un mes después de se publicara en las páginas de Regards, de cuya publicación pronto se cumplirán 85 años.

Esta foto de Vallecas llegó al Reina Sofía en 1998 dentro de un grupo de 205 fotos realizadas durante la guerra civil española por Robert Capa. Fueron seleccionadas y donadas por su hermano, Cornell Capa, responsable hasta su muerte en 2008 de su legado. La mayoría formaron parte de una exposición Capa: cara a cara inaugurada en el museo en febrero de 1999. La foto de Entrevías también estuvo expuesta de forma temporal en el Reina Sofía en 2019 durante un festival que organizó la Fundación Anastasio de Gracia.

En la nueva colección hay, además, otras siete fotografías del mismo autor que se muestran en el contexto del exilio, en la cuarta planta del edifico Sabatini. Se realizaron en 1939 siguiendo los pasos de personas que salían a pie por carretera desde Barcelona hacia el norte o ya en territorio francés. Todas son copias póstumas, es decir, realizadas tras la muerte del autor, y cuentan también con medidas de 40 por 30 centímetros como todas las donadas por el hermano del fotógrafo en 1998.

https://elpais.com/espana/madrid/2021-11-28/robert-capa-tiende-un-puente-de-vallecas-al-museo-reina-sofia.html

"RED SPANIARD" SPANISH FORCED LABORERS DURING WORLD WAR II

 

04.06.21 - 02.01.22Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre

In 1939, 140,000 Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War began a seven-year odyssey through the concentration and labor camps of fascist Europe. They became victims of internment, exploitation and deportation by the Nazi and Vichy regimes in France, Germany, North Africa and the Channel Islands.

This trilingual exhibition presents the story of these forgotten forced laborers of World War II to a European audience for the first time.

Approximately 13 million prisoners of war, civilian workers and concentration camp inmates were deported to the German Reich during World War II to perform forced labor in the German war economy. However, forced laborers were also deployed outside of Germany. In countries occupied by Nazi Germany, the civilian population was recruited for forced labor and used locally.

A special case was the anti-fascist Republicans from the Spanish Civil War. Defeated by the military under General Franco, some 450,000 men, women and children fled to France in 1939. There they were interned in camps.

Nazi propaganda referred to Franco's opponents as "Red Spaniards".

https://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/en/exhibitions/rotspanier/

sábado, 27 de noviembre de 2021

CARAVAGGIO E ARTEMISIA: LA SFIDA DI GIUDITTA. VIOLENZA E SEDUZIONE NELLA PITTURA TRA CINQUECENTO E SEICENTO. PALAZZO BARBERINI

 25 Novembre 2021 - 27 Marzo 2022

Dal 26 novembre 2021 al 27 marzo 2022 a Palazzo Barberini si terrà la mostra Caravaggio e Artemisia: la sfida di Giuditta. Violenza e seduzione nella pittura tra Cinquecento e Seicento a cura di Maria Cristina Terzaghi.

Ospitata nelle nuove sale al pian terreno di Palazzo Barberini, la mostra celebra i cinquant’anni dall’acquisizione da parte dello Stato italiano e i settant’anni dalla scoperta del celebre dipinto di Caravaggio conservato a Palazzo Barberini: Giuditta e Oloferne.

31 capolavori provenienti dai musei di tutto il mondo, inclusa la straordinaria Giuditta e Oloferne di Artemisia Gentileschi del Museo di Capodimonte a Napoli, documentano la dirompente novità della rivoluzione caravaggesca nella pittura a lui contemporanea.

Il percorso espositivo si snoda in quattro sezioni e si apre con Giuditta al bivio tra Maniera e Natura, una selezione di opere cinquecentesche che mostrano le prime avvisaglie di una nuova rappresentazione del tema

La tela Giuditta che decapita Oloferne del Merisi è il fulcro della seconda sezione dedicata a Caravaggio e i suoi primi interpreti e inscena un vero e proprio omicidio mediante decapitazione, costituendo un momento di rottura con la tradizione e trovando un corrispettivo solo nella coeva produzione di rappresentazioni sacre e drammi teatrali.

Ci volle però una donna per calarsi completamente nei panni dell’eroina biblica. La massima interprete del soggetto è stata, senza dubbio, Artemisia Gentileschi, cui è intitolata la terza sezione Artemisia Gentileschi e il teatro di Giuditta. Artemisia, insieme al padre Orazio, si cimentò più volte con il tema, comprendendone le potenzialità in relazione alla rappresentazione della figura femminile come donna forte, ed exemplum virtutis, ed il tema, grazie al suo lavoro, diventerà un genere richiestissimo nelle corti europee.

La quarta e ultima sezione, Le virtù di Giuditta. Giuditta e Davide, Giuditta e Salomé è dedicata al confronto tra il tema di Giuditta e Oloferne e quello di Davide e Golia, accomunati dalla lettura allegorica della vittoria della virtù, dell’astuzia e della giovinezza sulla forza bruta del tiranno che finisce decapitato. La decapitazione è alla base anche del testo evangelico del martirio di Giovanni Battista, e il tema di Salomé viene spesso confuso nella raffigurazione pittorica con quello di Giuditta.

La mostra è accompagnata da un catalogo edito da Officina Libraria.

Attività didattiche:

Dal 28 novembre 2021 e fino al 27 marzo 2022, ogni domenica alle ore 11.00, in programma i laboratori didattici Eroi ed eroine a misura di bambino a cura dell’Associazione sipArte!. Le bambine e i bambini sono invitati a scoprire la figura dell’eroina biblica attraverso attività mirate.

Massimo 10 partecipanti. Attività gratuita per i bambini tra i 6 e i 12 anni. Biglietto ridotto con tariffa speciale a 6 euro per gli accompagnatori mostra + museo.

Prenotazione obbligatoria all’indirizzo didattica@siparte.net

Dal 28 novembre 2021 al 27 marzo 2022, ogni domenica, alle ore 11.00 (Galleria Corsini) e alle ore 15.30 (Palazzo Barberini), in programma le visite guidate “Seicento al femminile: la seduzione della forza e dell’ingegno” a cura dello storico dell’arte Francesco Sorce, destinate agli adulti.

Un itinerario dedicato alla condizione femminile nel Seicento che crea un ponte fra le due mostre in corso al museo: Caravaggio e Artemisia: la sfida di Giuditta (a Palazzo Barberini) e Una rivoluzione silenziosa. Plautilla Bricci pittrice e architettrice (a Galleria Corsini): la storia di Giuditta, spesso utilizzata per elaborare e promuovere modelli di donna ideale esaltando di volta in volta la castità e la forza dell’eroina biblica o, per contro, la pericolosa seduzione della sua bellezza, trova un contraltare nella carriera di Plautilla Bricci, che offre una finestra rara sul mondo concreto di una professionista del tempo barocco, capace di superare i confini simbolici dei ruoli sociali.

Visita guidata gratuita previo acquisto del biglietto di ingresso al museo. Durata: 60 minuti circa, gruppi max 10 partecipanti. Appuntamento davanti alla biglietteria. Prenotazione obbligatoria all’indirizzo: giudittaeplautilla@gmail.com

https://www.barberinicorsini.org/evento/caravaggio-e-artemisia-la-sfida-di-giuditta-violenza-e-seduzione-nella-pittura-tra-cinquecento-e-seicento/

ALWAYS FREDDIE MERCURY: 30 YEARS FROM HIS DEATH AT 45.TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

 https://freddiemercury.lnk.to/NeverBo...

‘Time Waits For No One’ available now: https://FreddieMercury.lnk.to/TimeWai...

 


For the first time ever, after four decades buried deep in the vaults, a previously unreleased version of ‘Time’, recorded in 1986 by Freddie Mercury for the concept album of the hit musical of the same name, has finally emerged after two years of work by the globally successful musician, songwriter and producer Dave Clark, a long-time friend of Freddie’s, using the song’s full title, ‘Time Waits For No One’.

‘Time Waits For No One’ shows Freddie Mercury at his most compelling; a completely stripped-down performance, accompanied by just a piano, showcasing one of music’s most beloved and show-stopping voices.


NEWS: STEPHEN SONDHEIM, THE BROADWAY LEGEND, HAS DIED AT 91

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in New York in 1976. Sondheim died on Friday at age 91.

R. Jones/Getty Images


Stephen Sondheim, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Broadway songwriter has died at age 91. His death occurred early this morning, according to Aaron Meier at DKC O&M, the producers of Company on Broadway.

Sondheim would have been the first to tell you he was a Broadway baby. As a teenager, he learned about theatrical songwriting from a master – Oscar Hammerstein, the author of Showboat and Oklahoma!, among others – and, by the time Sondheim was twenty seven, he had his first show, West Side Story, on Broadway.

Even though he only wrote lyrics to Leonard Bernstein's music for West Side Story, it was the beginning of a remarkable career in which Sondheim – as lyricist and composer – elevated what was, essentially, a lighthearted, optimistic commercial entertainment into an art form.

Sondheim's shows, with their intricately crafted scores, reflected his restless curiosity about human nature – from the barber exacting murderous revenge in Sweeney Todd, to the struggling painter Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George. Sondheim looked at contemporary marriage – and ambivalence – in Company, the culture clash between 19th-century Japan and the United States in Pacific Overtures, the dark side of fairy tales in Into the Woods, and even surveyed presidential Assassins.

Over the course of a career which stretched for more than 60 years, Sondheim received both critical praise and brickbats for his adventurous work. Frank Rich is a columnist for New York Magazine and former drama critic for The New York Times.

"Perhaps no one more than Sondheim contributed to just keeping the form alive of what had been the classic Broadway musical. He reinvented it," Rich says. "He kept it fresh, interesting, figuring out new ways, to, you know, muck around with it for each show."

Sondheim was notoriously painstaking in his craft – and actually published two large books featuring his lyrics and explaining his writing process. He told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2010 that before he wrote a bar of music or came up with a rhyme, he needed to consult the show's script.

"I always write after the librettist has started to write a scene or two," Sondheim said, "so that I can divine and imitate the style the writer is using, both in terms of dialogue and approach and getting to know the characters as he is forming them."

And that specificity made performers like Bernadette Peters love his work. "He writes as if he's an actor, as if he's playing the role ... If you have a quarter note, there's a reason – the quarter note helps you express what you're feeling at that moment."

"Send in the Clowns" was the only hit song Sondheim ever wrote. It's from his show A Little Night Music, which itself was a modest success. The musical was originally directed by Hal Prince, one of Sondheim's most frequent collaborators.

Laurence Maslon, who co-produced the PBS series Broadway, says their envelope-pushing work was never really commercial.

"Not a single show he ever wrote ran more than a thousand performances," Maslon observes. "And they play all over the world and they're revived every five minutes, but they simply don't have that commercial traction, that even Hammerstein had back in the day."

In fact, starting in the 1980s, Sondheim exclusively developed his work at not-for-profit theaters, a period that also saw the start of his collaborations with James Lapine.

"My first not-for-profit show was Sunday in the Park with George and that was because of Lapine," Sondheim told Fresh Air. "And, of course, it was such a pleasure, compared to doing it on Broadway. I mean, the lack of pressure, not having to worry about everything from budget to backers, and it was just fun to do. And that's the way theater should be done – just for the love of it."

Sunday in the Park with George, written with James Lapine, eventually migrated to Broadway, where it won a Pulitzer Prize — but again, it wasn't a commercial success. Like many other artists who are now considered masters, it took a while for Sondheim's shows to catch on, and for Sondheim to move from a cult figure to a cultural icon. He said he was always keenly aware of making an impact with his writing.

"I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences," Sondheim said. "Otherwise, I would be in concert music. I'd be in another kind of profession. I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry — just making them feel — is paramount to me."

And the feelings he stirred in audiences will continue well beyond his death.

The attached audio story was produced by Bob Mondello.

Neda Ulaby contributed to this report.

Stephen Sondheim

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/26/528777499/stephen-sondheim-broadway-legend-died-at-91?t=1638014458640

EL PARÍS DE BRASSAÏ. FOTOS DE LA CIUDAD QUE AMÓ PICASSO EN EL MUSEO PICASSO MÁLAGA

19 Oct. 2021 – 3 Abr. 2022

La exposición que presenta el Museo Picasso Málaga, El París de Brassaï. Fotos de la ciudad que amó Picasso, muestra la obra de uno de los más reconocidos fotógrafos europeos de la primera mitad del siglo XX, quién con su trabajo contribuyó a elaborar la imagen universal del Paris eterno.  Su trabajo se exhibe junto a obras de Pablo Picasso, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Lucien Clergue, Fernand Léger, Dora Maar y Henri Michaux, además de películas de época, carteles, partituras y abundante documentación.

Las fotografías de Brassaï invitan a quien las observa a pasear por el París del Sena, de Notre Dame, los lupanares y los mercados. Su evocación del universo social es notable en muchas de sus imágenes del ambiente intelectual, literario y artístico parisino de los años treinta y cuarenta del pasado siglo, de Sartre a Beckett.

Esta exposición - organizada con el patrocinio de la Fundación Unicaja y la colaboración especial de Estate Brassaï succession, Paris; Institut Français, Sevilla; y Musée national Picasso-Paris - ilumina la relación profesional y de amistad que Brassaï mantuvo con Picasso que lo consideró como el mejor fotógrafo de su obra.

Procedente de Hungría, Brassaï llega a París en 1924. Poco a poco va descubriendo el dinamismo urbano y la particular idiosincrasia social de la gran metrópolis. Si primero explora sus noches, con el paso del tiempo llegará a realizar una precisa radiografía fotográfica de su arquitectura y de sus gentes. De este modo se integra en la fascinante comunidad intelectual y artística vanguardista parisina - de la que Picasso forma parte, convirtiéndose en uno de sus más brillantes testigos fotográficos. Pero Brassaï no es solamente fotógrafo, es también un artista proteico que dibuja, escribe, esculpe, decora y hace películas.

Como fotógrafo, Brassaï construyó una topografía visual de la ciudad de la luz (y de las sombras) de los años treinta y cuarenta del siglo pasado, pero esta exposición quiere además mostrarlo como un creador prolífico. El París de Brassaï. Fotos de la ciudad que amó Picasso presenta más de trescientas obras entre fotografías, dibujos y esculturas provenientes en su mayoría de los fondos de los archivos de la familia Brassaï (Estate Brassaï Succession). Mostrará además fotografías y obras de arte de Pablo Picasso junto a trabajos de de Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Lucien Clergue, Fernand Léger, Dora Maar y Henri Michaux. Películas, carteles, partituras, programas de espectáculos y abundante documentación del París de aquellos años conforman un conjunto expositivo que transporta al visitante a una época y a una ciudad inolvidables.

La exposición se ha estructurado en cuatro secciones en las que se relacionan el cine, las artes visuales, la literatura y la música, en torno a la fotografía de uno de los más reconocidos fotógrafos europeos de la primera mitad del siglo XX. El recorrido se inicia con Quién es Brassaï, mostrando una producción artística que se caracteriza por su libertad de expresión; París de día, plasma escenas de la vida cotidiana como si se mostraran por primera vez; París de noche, es un viaje a través de una ciudad en sombras, evocando la melancolía que emanan sus calles y personajes; y Conversaciones con Picasso aúna trabajos de dos artistas que mantuvieron una larga relación profesional y personal.

El París de Brassaï. Fotos de la ciudad que amó Picasso está organizada con el patrocinio de la Fundación Unicaja y la colaboración especial de Estate Brassaï succession, Paris; Institut Français, Sevilla y Musée national Picasso-Paris. Han prestado obra para esta exposición el Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée national d’art moderne-Centre de créaton industrielle; Colección Abelló, Madrid; Collection La Cinémathèque Française; Fundació Museu Picasso de Barcelona; Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte - Faba; IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Musée national Picasso-Paris; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; y Museum Ludwig Kóln, entre otras instituciones y colecciones.

LOOKING FOR LOUIS, FILM ON LOUIS VUITTON. AND, AT MIAMI MARINE STADIUM, GOOD BYE TO VIRGIL ABLOH


The Search for the Next Generation of On-Screen Documentary Talent

“I am very excited to be part of this initiative. For me, one of the best parts of launching Mindhouse is being involved behind the scenes with new talent who can tell fresh stories in different and exciting ways. To paraphrase Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, I’m getting old for this shit, and my knees aren’t what they once were. We need to safeguard the future of irreverent and intelligent on-camera reporting by bringing up the next generation of presenters."

Louis Theroux

The TV Foundation (the umbrella charity of the Edinburgh TV Festival), is teaming up with internationally renowned journalist, documentary maker, broadcaster and author, Louis Theroux, to launch a new talent search to discover the next generation of on-screen documentary makers who want to follow in his investigative footsteps.

Looking For Louis will culminate in a must-see session at this year’s Festival where Theroux and his production company partners Nancy Strang and Arron Fellows will reveal the talented winner.

The search has been launched through Theroux’s production company, Mindhouse Productions, in partnership with The TV Foundation and Amazon Prime Video with support from The TriForce Creative Network.

https://thetcn.com/lookingforlouis/


Critic’s Notebook: Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh Tribute Sparked Gamut of Emotions for Star-Studded Front Row

Critic’s Notebook: Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh Tribute Sparked Gamut of Emotions for Star-Studded Front Row
Only one element marred the Louis Vuitton men’s show Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Miami Marine Stadium, a moment that unfortunately felt decidedly inappropriate to some guests — indeed, to employ the word used by one high-profile fashion editor, it veered into “offensive.” But more on that later.

It’s not too big a leap to arrive at such an opinion, especially as Tuesday night’s focus was clear: to honor Virgil Abloh in a show produced less than 48 hours after the artistic director’s death Sunday, Nov. 28, from a rare form of cancer. 

viernes, 26 de noviembre de 2021

EGYPT REOPENS RESTORED 'ANCIENT AVENUE OF THE SPHINXES' IN LUXOR

 A grand ceremony marked the reopening of the 3,400-year-old walkway in the ancient city of Thebes. Egyptian authorities hope to boost the country's struggling tourism sector.

Egypt hopes to give its tourism sector a boost with the unveiling of the renovated Avenue of the Sphinxes


The newly renovated Avenue of the Sphinxes has been reopened with a spectacular ceremony in the city of Luxor on Thursday.

The Karnak and Luxor temples are linked by the promenade which dates back nearly 3,400 years in what used to be the city of Thebes. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi attended the televised event along with other senior officials.

Performers drive chariots along 'Road of the Rams'

The 2.7km (1.7 mile) walkway has had a number of restoration efforts since it was discovered in 1949.

The path which is also known as the Road of the Rams is flanked by hundreds of ram and human-hThe ceremony had a reenactment of an ancient procession along the walkway which involved hundreds of performers who rode in chariots who were dressed in clothing from the New Kingdom era.

According to Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Enani around one third of the statues have been unearthed and searches would continue for more.

Egypt wants to revive tourism

The country's income from tourism has taken a large knock since the 2011 uprising that saw the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak.eaded sphinxes.

The global pandemic also hit tourism hard causing revenue to plummet to $4 billion (€3.5 billion) in 2020 from $13 billion the year before.

Egyptian officials said that Thursday's event is part of a push to promote the southern city of Luxor as one of the world's largest open-air museums.

In April, 22 royal mummies were taken in a procession from Luxor to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The elaborate procession was dubbed the "Pharaohs' Golden Parade" and was also televised before a global audience.

Officials hope these events will heighten the profile of Luxor and Egypt's other sites, restoring Egypt's prestige in the global tourism sector.

kb/dj (AP, dpa, Reuters)

https://www.dw.com/en/egypt-reopens-restored-ancient-avenue-of-the-sphinxes-in-luxor/a-59941561?maca=en-rss-en-world-4025-rdf