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A changing of the guard at the Royal Opera
NEW YORK, NY.- After 22 years as the music director at the Royal Opera House in London, Antonio Pappano has a tried-and-true recipe for creating traction around the art form. “The choices you make and the energy which you share with audiences will keep them coming,” he said. The British-born conductor, 64, has left his mark on the house through a strong work ethic and an in-depth understanding of the voice. His final production is a David McVicar staging of Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier,” starring Jonas Kaufmann, that is onstage through Tuesday. He then leads the company on tour to Japan, from June 22 to July 2, with productions of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot.” Pappano, whose parents were Italian immigrants, gravitates naturally toward the works of that tradition. But he ... More

'The singer in the village' who became an opera star
LONDON.- Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina only just turned 28. Yet she already has a couple of operatic records under her belt: She’s the youngest artist ever to have sung “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Royal Opera House in London. Her trajectory began about 2,700 miles east of London. Akhmetshina was born in the village of Kirgiz-Miyaki in the Republic of Bashkortostan region of western Russia, closer to Kazakhstan than Moscow. She is one of three children of a single mother who worked in the passport office at the police station, whose own mother was a police officer in Soviet times. She was 3 years old when she first sang onstage, and 14 when she decamped to the nearest city, Ufa, to study music. Scouted in her teens at a voice competition in Moscow, she was invited to try out for the Royal Opera’s ... More

AstaGuru showcases the evolution of Indian art with two auctions: 'Stroke And Structure' and 'Visionaries'
MUMBAI.- After the outstanding success of the milestone 100th auction and ‘The Exceptionals’ Jewellery, Silver and Timepieces auction, AstaGuru is set to host two consecutive auctions dedicated to Modern & Contemporary Indian art. The Modern Indian Art Auction titled ‘Stroke & Structure’ is scheduled to be held on June 20-21, 2024 and will showcase a wide collection of works belonging to the oeuvre of important modernist figures. The contemporary art auction titled ‘Visionaries’ will be held on June 23-24, 2024 will offer works by leading contemporary artists. Talking about the auction, Sunny Chandiramani, Senior VP - Client Relations of AstaGuru says: "We are thrilled to curate these two back-to-back auctions, which provide a comprehensive perspective on the evolution of Indian art from the 20th to the 21st century. The 'Stroke ... More

Last chance to see Fashion City at Museum of London Docklands before it closes on 7 July
LONDON.- A red coat worn by Princess Diana and a tweed coat worn by EastEnders’ Dot Cotton is on display alongside clothing from M&S, Moss Bros and Wallis at Museum of London Docklands in an exhibition showcasing the role of Jewish designers, makers and retailers in making London an iconic fashion city. From East End tailors to the couture salons of the West End, Fashion City tells the stories of Jewish makers who became leaders in their industries, created some of the most recognisable looks of the 20th century, founded retail chains still on the high street today, and dressed the rich and famous- from David Bowie and Princess Diana to Mick Jagger and Muhammad Ali. Featuring fashion and textiles, oral histories, objects, ephemera and photography, Fashion City uses the places and spaces of London to weave individual stories together ... More

Philipp Modersohn installs sculptures in the garden of the Landesvertretung Niedersachsen
BERLIN.- In the garden of the Landesvertretung Niedersachsen (State Representation Lower Saxony) in Berlin, just around the corner from Potsdamer Platz, there is a group of statues with a golden patina on gray concrete pedestals, which appear explicitly historical against the backdrop of the building's modern architecture. In fact, they are copies of early modern sculptures based on models from the Herrenhaeuser Gardens in Hanover. The baroque park is one of the most important of its kind in Europe and contains the oldest and only preserved Hedge Theater in Germany. At the end of the 17th century, a total of 27 life-size, gilded lead figures of Greek gods and their mythological attendants were erected there, a small group of which found their way to Berlin in 1974 in the form of exact copies. It is these replicas that can be seen today ... More

Tapping art's power to heal wounds and open 'spaces of connectedness'
LEEDS.- Using her arms as a makeshift clapboard, a Sudanese woman in a black hijab and black-and-white caftan clapped her hands together, signaling the beginning of the rehearsal. The other amateur thespians, wearing comic stick-on mustaches, moved to their marks, improvising a scene in a women’s beauty salon where one patron’s hair is accidentally dyed blue. As the scene ended, all the women were in hysterics, ribbing each other over how they could better play their parts next time. Scenes like this are common at the Kuluhenna Creative Workshop, which is held at a community clubhouse on the outskirts of this Yorkshire city. The workshop is open to all local women, but with a focus on immigrant communities, including refugees and asylum-seekers. The 90-minute class, which the Mafwa Theater has held since 2019, is a happy ... More

In 'Breaking the Story,' all's unfair in love and war
NEW YORK, NY.- “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.” So Chekhov instructed playwrights, and so they are taught in drama schools everywhere. But perhaps there should be a corollary: If you start your action with a bang, a gun had better follow. In Alexis Scheer’s “Breaking the Story,” which opened Tuesday at Second Stage Theater, the initial bang is an earsplitting doozy: an explosion that throws a war journalist and her videographer to the ground. Nor is it the first life-threatening attack that the journalist has experienced. We quickly learn that in her 20 years on the front lines, Marina (Maggie Siff) has been knocked down, knocked out, cut up and resewn many times over. A scar runs up the right side of her face like a cherry gummy worm. Arresting and alarming though that is, ... More

Nonny Hogrogian, 92, honored illustrator of children's books, dies
NEW YORK, NY.- Nonny Hogrogian, an illustrator who mined her Armenian heritage to bring diversity and wonder to her woodcuts and watercolors — an approach that helped expand the world of children’s literature and made her a two-time Caldecott Medal winner — died May 9 at a hospital in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She was 92. Her husband, poet David Kherdian, said the cause was cancer. Hogrogian was among a small number of illustrators to win multiple Caldecotts, considered one of the highest honors in children’s literature. She received her first medal in 1966 for the book “Always Room for One More,” written by Sorche Nic Leodhas, and her second in 1972 for “One Fine Day,” based on an Armenian folk tale that she retold and illustrated. She also received a Caldecott Honor, an award for distinguished runners-up, ... More

Public Theater takes Shakespeare in the Park out on the town
NEW YORK, NY.- On a small stage, three actors practiced a sword fight — slowly, then faster. Behind them, board operators ran a sound check, and a wardrobe assistant shook out costumes. “This is the part of theater you never get to see,” Rebecca Martínez said. Martínez was speaking Saturday in the southeast corner of Bryant Park. Behind her, the cast and crew of the Public Theater’s bilingual musical version of “The Comedy of Errors,” performed in Spanish and English, accomplished their preshow rituals. Martínez, who adapted the production with Julián Mesri, is also the show’s director and choreographer. Typically, routines like these are performed backstage, out of sight. But at Bryant Park, amid the birders, the tourists and the library patrons, a backstage was not available. For more than 60 years, the Public Theater has offered ... More

Finding refuge on 'Mars,' for the characters and the writers
NEW YORK, NY.- The animated film “Mars” — about a ragtag group of civilians visiting the red planet on a trip financed by a billionaire with an asteroid-sized ego — will premiere Thursday at the Tribeca Festival. It will mark the end to a bittersweet journey for the film’s writers that began more than a decade ago. “Mars” was written as a live-action film in 2012 by Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger and Sam Brown, the founders of the comedy group The Whitest Kids U’ Know. They met thanks to living in the same dormitory at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where they performed lots of gigs. From there came tours of the city’s comedy clubs and a television show that ran from 2007 to 2011. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided animation was the best way forward for the feature and opted to crowdfund the film. But ... More

The story of 'how Liza became Liza'
NEW YORK, NY.- A new documentary celebrates the life of the singer and actress Liza Minnelli. And it kicks off with the death of her mother, Judy Garland. “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” (which premieres at the Tribeca Festival on June 12) opens with the vision of Garland’s rose-covered coffin being carried past thousands of mourning fans in New York in 1969. With that somber start, the director Bruce David Klein is making a point. Rather than dwell on Minnelli’s childhood years in the orbit of her prodigiously gifted mother, he sets out to show that Minnelli, 78, shot to fame almost immediately after her mother’s passing — as if it were a catalyst of her success. Klein includes interviews with Minnelli’s artistic mentors, stage partners and close friends, including actress Mia Farrow, who speaks of her with affection and insight. There are also glimpses of the media nastiness she faced ... More