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Retooling 'La Bohème' for pandemic performances
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Its an evening of drinking and revelry at CafÃ© Momus. A group of young men chatter away as a femme fatale tries to get their attention, jumping on tables and tossing undergarments. But the night spot is not as crowded as usual. There are few waiters in attendance, and by the windows in the back three patrons dine alone. It is Act II of a pared-down production of Puccinis La BohÃ¨me at the Royal Opera House. In light of pandemic restrictions, the orchestra has 47 players, down from the usual 74. The act opens with only 18 of 60 chorus members onstage, the rest singing from the wings, and 10 (not 20) children onstage. There are four, not 10, waiters in the cafe. The cafe scene feels less bustling belle epoque cafe and more lonely-hearts establishment at the moment, simply because theres a limited number of people that we can have in the ... More

Back at the barre, lessons learned
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When students at the Royal Ballet School scattered to their homes around the globe during the first British lockdown last spring, classes went virtual and, at first, proved quite tricky. It was not just about time differences, with Chinese, Australian and Japanese students, among others, not keen to get up in the middle of the night to meet classmates on the virtual barre during the day in Europe. Technical issues also arose as the recorded music that teachers played was out of sync. When I would look at my screen, wed be doing grand battement and our legs would be in different positions, and everyone was on totally different timings, recalled Ava May Llewellyn, a 19-year-old British ballerina who has been at the school since she was 11. And the teachers would always say: Yeah, really good work. However, musicality wise, I dont really know who is right. ... More

Review: 'The Watering Hole' can't quite quench a thirst
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The day I went to the Signature Theatre, it was so hellishly hot out that it felt as if the air was clinging to my skin. So I stepped into the air-conditioned coolness of the Pershing Square Signature Center in Manhattan for The Watering Hole, a theatrical installation conceived and curated by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage and Miranda Haymon. What I had hoped for was refreshment. What I left with was a thirst for a more memorable and neatly composed offering. The Watering Hole, directed by Haymon, is a collaborative project featuring work by Haymon and Nottage along with Christina Anderson, Matt Barbot, Montana Levi Blanco, Stefania Bulbarella, Amith Chandrashaker, nicHi douglas, Iyvon E., Justin Ellington, Emmie Finckel, Vanessa German, Ryan J. Haddad, Phillip Howze, Haruna Lee, Campbell Silverstein, Charly Evon Simpson ... More

Guggenheim Bilbao presents 'Cecilia Bengolea: Animations in Water'
BILBAO.- From June 24 to October 24, 2021, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is presenting Cecilia Bengolea: Animations in Water, the second exhibition of 2021 in the Film & Video gallery, a space that the Museum dedicates to key works in video art, film, and the artistic languages associated with the moving image. Cecilia Bengolea (b. 1979, Buenos Aires) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice merges video, choreography, and sculpture. In her research, Bengolea explores forms of popular dance combining contemporary and archaic elements, giving way to constant redefinitions of the concept of figuration. Following the thread of water and movement flows, this exhibition presents a selection of works where the artists reflection on dance, the sensorial interplay between the bodys interiority and its surroundings, as well as the rhythmical relations of social communities and nature, ... More

39th EVA International opens phase 2 of biennial
LIMERICK.- EVA International announced the 2021 programme of the 39th Irish Biennial, its phase 2 featuring 14 presentations by renowned Irish and international artists and collaborating curators, across venues in Limerick, remotely and online. Taking inspiration from the Golden Vein, the bountiful pastures of Limerick and Tipperary region, the 39th EVA International programme seeks to address ideas of land, borders and its contested values in the context of Ireland today. Curated by internationally acclaimed curator Merve Elveren, phase 2 of the 39th EVA Internationals Guest Programme, Little did they know, extends across two venues in Limerick city (Park Point and Sailor's Home) and on a dedicated online platform. Functioning as an exercising ground for interpreting current social and political conditions in various geographical contexts, the exhibition centers ... More

Oscar-winning Russian director Menshov dies of Covid at 81
MOSCOW (AFP).- Russia's Oscar-winning film director Vladimir Menshov died on Monday aged 81 after testing positive for coronavirus. Menshov, who won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1981, died as a result of complications from Covid-19, Moscow film studios, Mosfilm, confirmed in a statement. "We knew he was suffering from Covid-19, but in a mild form. It is absolutely horrible and unexpected," film director Vladimir Khotinenko told AFP. "His death leaves a huge vacuum in our shared cultural space," Khotinenko added. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Menshov's death represented "a huge loss for our cinema and our culture". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin "expresses his deepest condolences". Menshov was born in 1939 in Baku, then the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan. He worked as an actor and then a director and gained international fame for ... More

'Talibanned': From kite-running to breakdancing, Afghan pastimes again under threat
KABUL (AFP).- The Taliban outlawed dozens of seemingly innocuous activities and pastimes in Afghanistan during their 1996-2001 rule -- including kite flying, TV soap operas, pigeon racing, fancy haircuts, and even playing music. These have made a comeback in the years since, but fears are growing they will be banned again if the hardline Islamists return to power. The insurgents have made enormous military and territorial gains since US troops began their final withdrawal in May, and their leaders say they want Afghanistan to return to being an Islamic emirate ruled by religious elders. AFP looks at some of the activities the Taliban banned, and the fears of those now taking part in them. Sayed Mohammad makes a living as a professional musician playing the japani, a traditional Central Asian stringed instrument he first picked up as a boy. He still remembers the ... More

Inked mummies, linking tattoo artists with their ancestors
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In the 1970s, hunters stumbled upon eight 500-year-old bodies preserved by the Arctic climate near Qilakitsoq, an abandoned Inuit settlement in northwest Greenland. Later, when scientists photographed the mummies with infrared film, they made an intriguing discovery: Five of the six females had delicate lines, dots and arches tattooed on their faces. For thousands of years, tattoos were more than just body decoration for Inuit and other Indigenous cultures. They served as symbols of belonging, signified coming-of-age rituals, channeled spiritual beliefs or conferred powers that could be called upon while giving birth or hunting. Yet starting around the 17th century, missionaries and colonists intent on civilizing Indigenous people put a stop to tattooing in all but the most remote communities. The practice so thoroughly disappeared in Greenland that ... More

Lydia Lunch's infinite rebellion
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- For nearly two hours on a recent afternoon, Lydia Lunch sat in her bright Brooklyn apartment and spoke with bracing speed, and at an alarming volume, about rape, murder, incest, genocide, racism, sadism, torture and for a thunderous encore the apocalypse. Because she has spent more than four decades broadcasting her belief that such brutal subjects lie at the heart of the human experience, critics have often cast her as a nihilist. Its the problems that are nihilistic, not me, said Lunch, 62. Im the most positive person I know. To me, pleasure and joy are the ultimate rebellion. For some reason, few people seem to know that. The War Is Never Over, a new documentary about the artist that opened Friday, will offer more people the chance to get a fairer sense of Lunchs life and work. Directed by her longtime ally Beth B, the movie ... More

'Superman' director Richard Donner dies at 91
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Richard Donner, a prolific filmmaker who directed the first "Superman" movie, "The Goonies," and other blockbuster hits, died on Monday at age 91, US media reported. Donner's other credits include the 1976 horror classic "The Omen," the "Lethal Weapon" cop franchise with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover starting in 1987, "Scrooged" (1988) and his final movie in 2006, "16 Blocks." He also directed episodes of iconic 20th century television shows such as "Get Smart," "Perry Mason," "Gilligan's Island" and "The Twilight Zone," according to IMDB, and took on a producer role for blockbuster hits including "X-Men" and "Free Willy." The Hollywood Reporter cited Donner's assistant in confirming his death, while Deadline said there was no cause of death revealed by Donner's business manage or producer wife, Lauren Schuler Donner. "Richard Donner had the biggest, ... More

MARGATE NOW announces artists, partners and projects for Sunken Ecologies
MARGATE.- MARGATE NOW announces the artists, partners and projects for the 2021 Sunken Ecologies festival programme curated by Anna Colin, with permanent commissions by Nicolas Deshayes, Lindsey Mendick and Olu Ogunnaike, and commissions for the festival duration by headline artists Ama Josephine Budge, Adam Chodzko, Kim Conway, Sonia Overall, Christina Peake, Shamica Ruddock, Holly Slingsby, Francesca Ter-Berg and Sara Trillo. Sunken Ecologies takes on the human-made natural environment, centering on the Sunken Garden, a public park in the Westbrook area of Margate, designed and landscaped in the 1930s. Sunken Ecologies comprises nearly 30 exhibitions, installations, performances, walks, talks and other events by over 20 artists, musicians and writers at the Sunken Garden, Nayland Rock Hotel, CRATE, Limbo, Cliftonville Cultural Space ... More