dirac

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau turns 80 this month. Martin Kettle interviews him for the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayrevie...1487391,00.html

The article Leigh posted seems to raise more questions than it answers. The timing is odd. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

A review in the Sunday Times (London) by Roland White: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-1609775,00.html

I thanked atm711, but it occurs to me that I should have extended that thank-you to all of you for posting! Simon is a regular contributor to The New Criterion on matters literary, so he's not disappearing from the map. (He could be advantageously substituted for Mark Steyn as theatre critic, IMO.......)

A recent article from The New York Times entitled “College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age.” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/educatio...html?oref=login

I agree, GWTW, it turned out to be not much of a debate, didn’t it? An interesting piece from the Chicago Tribune, by Steven Zeitchik: http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/c...ack=1&cset=true

Thanks for posting, atm711. Shanley won an Oscar for Moonstruck, if memory serves. I'll have to settle for reading the play, at least until it toddles out West. Has anyone else seen it?

Thank you, atm711. Simon was very kind to “The Light in the Piazza,” too, which I thought he would hammer. Another article on the topic, from the Los Angeles Times: http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/c...1,6868963.story Stanley Kauffmann has been film critic for The New Republic since about 1968, and he started writing for the magazine well before that. He’s going strong, too. I hope TNR doesn’t follow suit and throw the geezer out on his ear.

Well, I wouldn’t expect him to get all weepy. Simon isn’t the most sympathetic of victims, but there are very few critics out there who know as much and have seen as much as he has, which I thought was more to the point.

Ashley would be just plain tall, wouldn't she?

When I first picked up Following Balanchine, I skipped around rather than beginning at the beginning. That’s not a very good way to treat a book as a rule, but I found it helped me in this case.

Steven Johnson debates Dana Stevens of Slate, in Slate: http://slate.msn.com/id/2118550/entry/2118588/

Out with the old, in with the new: New York magazine fires soon-to-be octogenarian John Simon and replaces him with Jeremy McCarter of The New York Sun: http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=512102 There are things I dislike about Simon's writing, but there are very few critics around with his background in the arts and he's shown no signs of senility in print. I cancelled my subscription to New York when Tobias got the boot, but if I hadn't already done so I'd cancel it now. (Nothing against McCarter.)

Jane, I would be interested to hear what you thought of Haggin and Garis. I love Garis' book. Paul's description of it as an "intellectual autobiography" is apposite. Some things might seem a tad eccentric to the non-balletomane -- a friend of mine raised an eyebrow at Garis' talk of "collaborating" with Balanchine and of Garis not appreciating a work sufficiently because he hadn't "worked on it" with Balanchine. Beautiful pictures, too. Haggin took some getting used to for me. I first came across his work in a book called Music for One Who Know Hamlet and I thought his dance criticism was unduly harsh and repetitive, at first.

I second Bart's request. This sounds like a worthy program and I was very interested to hear about it. Thanks!

Just finished a biography that made me have second thoughts on the above post. There are some biographers who tell you what they think, and tell you, and tell you, and tell you...... I

Yes, I bet that one sent 'em home happy.

You are not confused. The film version of "A Death in the Family" stars Preston and Jean Simmons, and it's called "All the Way Home." "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," from Inge's play, also starred Preston, with Dorothy McGuire as his wife. And they're both dark family dramas, as you know.

A report from The New York Times on the memorial service for Miller held yesterday: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/arts/10m...html?oref=login

Sorry for posting a gala query so long after the fact, but I was curious if it struck anyone as odd that there was nothing from Balanchine a/o Robbins on the program? I understand wanting to showcase the company's aspiring choreographers, but still........

A new and supposedly more authentic edition of James Agee’s “A Death in the Family” is in the works. Associated Press report in the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/book...syndication=rss

Thank you, Drew and GWTW, for the long and thoughtful posts. Exactly. Yes, a program like Seinfeld has multiple story lines involving supporting actors, in contrast to an Old Style sitcom like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which there is one main story line and the entire cast kibitzes. This does require the viewer to distinguish the A story line from the B and C story line, although I wouldn’t regard that as rocket science. I was also puzzled by having reading categorized as “explicit learning.” It depends pretty much on what you’re reading. It’s true that when I read The Golden Bowl, I’m entering a world created, or a narrative controlled in Johnson’s terms, by Henry James. But my imaginative and analytic faculties are also fully engaged. We can concede Johnson’s point that, for the most part, television series of today are technically better and more sophisticated than those of the past, in general. However, I watched for the first time in many years the old BBC series, The Six Wives of Henry VIII starring Keith Michell. It’s true that, by today’s standards, the camera is static and the pace is glacial. Writer and director think nothing of having everything stand still while actors discuss court intrigue or debate the good and bad points of the English Reformation or Henry’s Continental policy. If HBO did it today, it would have great production values, fancy shots, lots of snappy dialogue, and actresses far more glamourous than Annette Crosbie and Dorothy Tutin. (And lots more sex and violence.) But I don’t think it would necessarily be better or more challenging.

Put it down to despair.

Thank you for that beautiful post, Drew. I seem to remember from Makarova’s autobiography that she and Dowell did not click immediately, onstage or off, but after a period of adjustment they were fine. (She had unalloyed enthusiasm for MacLeary, Nagy, and Bruhn as partners, as I recollect.)

Do chime in when you're ready, bart.