Opinion
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events 10/31 - 11/ 6, 2011
Films, Dance, Play
By: - Oct 25th, 2011Gernan Films in conjunction with the 23rd Jewish Film Festival. Harvard Film Archives retrospective of Sergio Leone films and Nicholas Ray "We Can’t Go Home Again". Don’t miss Blanchard and Sanchez, with the backing of the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, as they unleash an unforgettable evening of high-energy Afro-Cuban jazz.
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Michael Conforti Discusses the Clark Art Institute
An Expanding Role for Contemporary Art with Mass MoCA
By: - Oct 24th, 2011Recently the Clark Art Institute held a press conference to discuss the final phase of a $145 million project for construction and renovation. We approached Michael Conforti, for the past 16 years the director of the museum, with follow up questions. In particular its relationship with Mass MoCA and future programming for modern and contemporary art. We also discussed concerns for the conservation risks of Parading the Relics as the Clark sends it treasures on an extended world tour.
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events 10/24 - 10/30
Dance, Film, Theatre
By: - Oct 24th, 2011A week full of exceptional films: Andy Warhol at the Harvard Film Archives; The Palestinian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine arts, Trisha Brown dance performance at the ICA; Shumann and Strauss at The Boston Symphony Orchestra and much more....
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Most of The Clark Art Institute Closes in November
$145 Construction and Renovation by June 2014
By: - Oct 21st, 2011While the primary galleries of the Clark Art Museum will close in November for the final phase of a $145 expansion and renovation it will maintain programming on a limited basis. How that reflects on the norm of 200,000 annual visitors remains to be seen. Reducing the Clark in the mix will have a major impact on cultural tourism in the Northern Berkshires for the next few years. The construction, however, will create 500 temporary jobs with a $9 million economic impact.
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Boston Calendar October 17 - October 22, 2011
Films Dance and Opera This Week
By: - Oct 15th, 2011This week highlights are: "Women of Will" at Central Square Theatre; Berlioz: Beatrice et Benedicte at the Cutler Majestic Opera Boston; the Palestinian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts; ICA Art Music: Babaa Maal
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Julianne Boyd of Barrington Stage Company
Producing Plays That Matter
By: - Oct 10th, 2011Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield is winding down its most successful season. It started with the riveting one man play Zero in May. Surged through Guys and Dolls to launch high season and is currently bringing back the riveting drama The Best of Enemies which was a hit during the summer. This is part one of an extended dialogue with artistic director Julianne Boyd.
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events 10/10 - 10/16
Tina Packer & Nigel Gore in Women of Will
By: - Oct 07th, 2011This week highlights are the not to be missed MFA Christian Marclay’s video: “The Clockâ€; Central Square Theatre “Women of Will†play; Fenway Theater MET High Definition screening “Anna Bolenaâ€; Harvard Film Archives “Dreamlife of Angels†and ICA Live performance “Knitting Nation Phase 7â€.
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Mary Zimmerman on Opera
Has Directed Three Productions for the Met
By: - Oct 06th, 2011Mary Zimmerman has adapted and directed the production of Candide which is enjoying a successful run at Boston's Huntington Theatre. During an extensive dialogue she discussed the controversy of her three Met productions which were harshly reviewed by critics and opera traditionalists. She is negotiating with the Met for a new production as well as revivals. She also spoke about working with and creating an opera with Philip Glass.
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Mary Zimmerman Doesn't Read Her Reviews
So What Else Is New
By: - Oct 06th, 2011In the third and final segment of a dialogue with adapter and director Mary Zimmerman she articulates why she doesn't read reviews of her work. She compares it to passengers telling the pilot how to fly the airplane. Where have we heard this before? It also focuses on the function of criticism. Does a well written review provide useful information to the potential audience? Or is the critic, as Zimmerman implies, simply a sadist intent on amusing the reader by attacking the best efforts of creators. Can there be a productive dialogue between a critic and a creator? Here we give it an honest try.
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events 10/3 - 10/9
Plays, Films, Classical Music and much more
By: - Oct 01st, 2011An exceptional week of cultural activities in Boston & Cambridge: Trisha Brown’s Floor of the Forest, a mixture of sculpture, dance & performance at the ICA. The Harvard Film Archives showcase the work of the British filmmaker Ben Rivers and Romanian Andrei Ujica.
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Boston Red Flops
Curse of the Bambino Strikes Out Again and Again
By: - Sep 29th, 2011Hey Terry Francona thanks for the memories. You're toast man. Nobody believed me when I called this flopperooo dead on back on April 18. In the spirit of accuracy and a bit of "I told You So" we have reposted that dire prediction now, sadly, all too true.
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Boston Cultural Calendar 9/26/11 – 10/2/11
Harvard Film Archives, MFA and Much More
By: - Sep 23rd, 2011A day by day calendar of selected cultural events from concerts, musicals, plays, and films in Boston and Cambridge.
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Malcolm Rogers on Contemporary Art
No Longer an Oxymoron for the MFA
By: - Sep 21st, 2011For most of its more than hundred year history Boston's Museum of Fine Arts had relatively little interest in the work of living artists European or American. That proved to be a costly error when it bought its first Picasso. It missed the boat on Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Minmal Art. With the opening of the Lind Wing for Contemporary Art Malcolm Rogers, the director of the MFA, assured us that the museum will be a player in contemporary art.
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Netflix Mea Culpa
Response to Subscriber Outrage
By: - Sep 19th, 2011Netflix screwed up big time. Jacking up prices and turning off long time customers. The stock took a dive and the company is in big doodooo with consumers. Now CEA Reed Hastings comes clean and wants us back big time. Read this and weep.
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Boston Cultural Calendar 9/19 to 9/25
Harvard Film Archives to MFA
By: - Sep 19th, 2011Directed by Susan Vogel (2011, 53 min.). Filmed over three years in Venice, Nsukka, and the United States, this is a powerful portrait of Africa’s most widely acclaimed contemporary artist El Anatsui. Fold Crumple Crush gives an insider’s view of the artist’s practice, the ingenious steps and thousands of hours of labor that convert used bottle tops into huge, opulent wall hangings. Anatsui explains how his artworks have become a marriage of painting and sculpture—objects that speak of African history but also reach for the ethereal—and he talks about his aspirations for artworks he has yet to make.
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Mary Zimmerman Directs Candide
Bernstein Musical at Boston's Huntington Theatre
By: - Sep 19th, 2011Tony Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Mary Zimmerman is directing and adapting Leonard Bernstein's Candide which opens this week at the Huntington TYheatre in Boston. It is her third production of the musical. She has also directed controversial new productions for the Metropolitan Opera which have been broadcast Live in HD. She is soon to announce more work with the Met. We discussed the production of Candide. There will be another interview that focuses on her feisty responses to criticism of her operas and views on the role of critics.
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Barrington Stage Company Reports Record Season
$ 1 Million Plus in Ticket Sales
By: - Sep 13th, 2011Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, announces that its 2011 season was the most successful season since its founding in 1995.
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Joe Manning on The Lewis Hine Project
The Mill Children at the Eclipse Mill Gallery
By: - Sep 12th, 2011Lewis Hine used his camera to expose the issue of child labor in America. In 1911 he created nine images of children about to start their 12 hour shift at the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, Mass. Through October 8 the Eclipse Mill Gallery is showing the special exhibition The Mill Children. The project was organized by gallerist Ralph Brill with Realist Painter William Oberst, Abstract Painter Dawn Nelson, Historian Joe Manning, Composer/Musician Matt Hopkins, Filmmaker Steven Borns and Educator Anne French. Wespoke with Joe Manning about his ongoing Lewis Hine Project.
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Willard V. Jenkins on NEA Jazz Masters
Grammy and NEA Cutbacks Evoke Protests
By: - Sep 10th, 2011Recognition and support for the diversity of American music is under attack. For the 2012 Grammy Awards the number of categories has been reduced from 109 to 78 with a particular elimination of ethnic performers. There are similar consolidations for the NEA. We discussed this with Willard V. Jenkins who helped to bring the NEA Jazz Masters Jimmy Cobb and Gunther Schuller to the 2011 Tanglewood Jazz Festival.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival Touts Record Season
Ten Cents a Dance Closes August 28
By: - Aug 22nd, 2011There is no question that the first season of artistic director Jenny Gersten has done well at the box office. In a release WTF announces that its sales for August are double what they were in August last year. Overall they are stating attendance at some 44,000. According to the wildly uneven reviews, however, Williamstown Theatre Company has slipped from its once dominant position among the four major Berkshire theatre companies.
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events
August 15 to 21 an Overview
By: - Aug 15th, 2011Nelida Nassar provides an overview of cultural offerings for the week of August 15 to 21. From Harvard Film Archives to previews of the anticipated Broadway bound production of Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theatre.
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Berg, Vivaldi and Menotti at the Santa Fe Opera
Summer Opera in the Burnt Sienna of Santa Fe
By: - Aug 13th, 2011A great case for opera during the summer is made by the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. Tried and true and up and coming talent come from all over the world to participate here. What a marvelous venue.
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Are Critics Obsolete?
Theatre Companies Facebook Text and Tweet
By: - Aug 09th, 2011Increasingly the marketing and pr strategy of theatre companies has turned to social networking sources like Facebook and Twitter to drown out the negative reviews of established print and on line critics. Today Williamstown Theatre Festival sent out an e mail blast with raves from unattributed sources. The majority of Berkshire theatre critics were less than thrilled by the world premiere of Touch(ed) by Bess Wohl. But, hey, who cares what critics think?
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events
Things To Do This Week
By: - Aug 08th, 2011During the dog days of Summer, here are some interesting leads on entrainment and culture for the week of Augst 8 for those of you hanging out in Boston. Summer in the City may simmer, but there are many cool things to do in Boston.
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Boston Calendar of Cultural Events
Film, Music, Concert, Performance
By: - Aug 05th, 2011Boston Calendar of Events. Welcoming a new feature of Berkshire Fine Arts. Clip and save.
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