By Jacob Stockinger
These days, the world seems plagued with calamities, from upheaval and violence the Middle East to the natural catastrophes in Japan (below) to terrorist attacks.
Yet for me it makes music and artistic beauty seem all the more relevant, not irrelevant.
Some events suggest I am not alone in that:
ITEM: Music in a time of woe. Despite the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor problems, the Japanese NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo (below) performed in Carnegie Hall as part of a festival. Here’s a review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/arts/music/andre-previn-and-kiri-te-kanawa-at-carnegie-review.html
And other information about the orchestra:
http://wn.com/NHK_Symphony_Orchestra
And it isn’t true just for classical music:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-musicians-are-raising-money-for-japan-relief-20110322
ITEM: A time of terrorism brings an appropriate opera, with a libretto by American poet J.D. McClatchy, based on Joseph Conrad‘s novel “The Secret Agent” (Conrad is below top; the opera set is below bottom):
ITEM: Ailing conductor James Levine (below) first leaves the Boston Symphony, now drops some Metropolitan Opera dates:
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist/2011/03/levine_drops_so.html
ITEM: Can Facebook solve labor disputes? The Detroit Symphony Orchestra players and management duke it out on social media:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/16/134573165/symphony-discord-plays-out-in-facebook-fracas
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Comment by James Madison University — November 9, 2011 @ 1:01 pm