Dean Benjamín E. Juárez's Arts, Culture and Leadership Blog. Mark T. Krone, Editor
January 13, 2011 at 6:18 pm
After 36 years as Director, Peter Brook is leaving the Bouffes du Nord, the experimental Paris theater, where his minimalist productions continue to influence how plays are staged, The Guardian reports.
I met him there in 1981 when he was staging La Tragedie de Carmen; my dear friend violinist Jacques Dejean played in the orchestra.
January 12, 2011 at 10:00 pm
April 22, 1980. James Spruill in the title role of a 1980 CFA production of Othello, with actor Jason Alexander (CFA’81, Hon.’95) (right).
School of Theatre Professor James Spruill ('75) died on December 31. Professor Spruill was an actor in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s before coming to Boston.
As a professor, director, and leader in the Boston theater community, he taught students with a generosity and warmth that many never forgot and brought to Boston a vibrant brand of theater.
He was the first person to receive the Martin Luther King, Jr. ('55, Hon. '59) Fellowship established by BU trustees to honor King’s ideals and awarded annually to an outstanding African American graduate student.
Former School of Theatre Director William Lacy said: "Many speak of the dignity of the individual, but few passionately give themselves over to the means of instilling and nurturing that dignity in the young. Jim understood the frightful adolescence that many confronted and sought to open doors. He did so in his teaching as well as through community action.”
A Public Memorial:
Jim, The Official Life Celebration
Saturday, February 12, 2:00-4:30pm
Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts
January 7, 2011 at 11:54 am
It is with sadness that I must report that Professor Raphael Hillyer, acclaimed musician, teacher, and mentor to so many students in our School of Music died on December 27, at the age of 97. Professor Hillyer had recently served on the Host Committee of the Roman Totenberg Centennial Celebration at Symphony Hall and had just completed teaching a course on Schubert’s String Quintet.
Professor Hillyer found time to attend countless concerts and recitals over the years in support of student musicians and was an active member of the College of Fine Arts community.
CFA Professor and BSO member Stephen Ansell told the Boston Globe: “His performances and his recordings inspired so many people,’’ recalled Ansell. “For me, as a kid growing up in Seattle, my rock music was the six Bartók quartets that the Juilliard quartet recorded. I used to play them on my stereo, and they were a revelation.
Professor Hillyer's obituary in the Boston Globe confirms that his remarkable career was at the center of classical music in the 20th century. I hope you will take a moment to read it.
January 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
The New York Times reports that at Roslyn High School on Long Island, a pilot program is underway to determine if iPads should replace textbooks for a generation raised on video games. Roslyn High is a strong school that has sent many graduates on to BU over the years. What they do will influence other schools.
But some educational experts say there is no evidence that iPads improve learning and that the money spent on the tablets should go elsewhere.
December 31, 2010 at 2:52 pm
(First learn Spanish. Then study Chinese.)
In the December 29, 2010, New York Times , Nicholas Kristof recommends Spanish comprehension for all Americans. He concedes that Mandarin is the "it" foreign language in schools right now and indeed, recommends studying it, but Spanish should come first as it is no longer as "foreign" a language in the United States as it once was and will have increased importance as the economic mixing of Central, South, and North America continues.
For an arts student, adding a language not only offers a passage to other cultures but an escape from the sealed envelope of one's own. Crucial, isn't it?
The added employment credential is of course, not a trivial benefit in the current climate.
December 22, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Gunther Schuller and A.B. Spellman. Schuller receiving award for jazz advocacy. Public Domain photo from Wikimedia Commons.
In today'sWall Street Journal, Gunther Schuller is called "the man of many music careers." The article points out that the well-known composer taught composition at Yale, ran the New England Conservatory, was music director at what is now Tanglewood, and played on the legendary Mile Davis album, Birth of the Cool.
I am pleased to announce that Gunther Schuller will work with our students this spring. He is a marvelous model for our students as a music renaissance man. We look forward to his arrival.
Schuller was the CFA Commencement speaker in May 2009. See his speech.
December 17, 2010 at 4:43 pm
The New York Times reports that some recent college graduates, tired of looking for jobs, have started their own businesses. It takes money but there may be help there, too.
December 16, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Film Artist Peter Greenaway (undated). Photo by Slawek
I mentioned in a post last week that I intended to see Peter Greenaway's installation, Last Supper, in the Park Avenue Armory while in New York. It was a visually spectacular show and it had some things to say about the way we experience art and the relationship between art and technology.
Art and Technology
We can no longer view art and technology as uneasy allies. Both serve each other and we should embrace this relationship.
An inventor of many prototypes including the submarine and airplane, it is difficult to imagine Leonardo Da Vinci objecting to Peter Greenaway's use of his iconic painting, Last Supper. Leonardo used the latest materials available to him in his own time; despite this, his paintings are rotting. Shows like Greenaway's, give them new life.
The Santa Maria delle Grazie, Home of Last Supper, Recreated in the Armory
You can buy tickets online far in advance to see the original painting, fly to Milan, wait in a long line inside Santa Maria delle Grazie (St. Mary of the Graces) and march past the painting. This is a moving experience but one that most people will not have. Greenaway has recreated Santa Maria delle Grazie within the Park Avenue Armory adding context to the experience.
The installation has already been viewed by thousands of people and counting.
Would you stare at a painting for 45 minutes -- even if it was Last Supper?
Visitors are kept moving in the Santa Maria delle Grazie but even if you could stay as long as you wished, how long would that be? Staring at a painting -- even a great one-- for more than fifteen minutes is not easy. With the use of lights and music, Greenaway's Last Supper renders new insights by the second, forever rescuing the work from cliche.
Informal Atmosphere
It is understandable that a certain decorum is maintained when viewing the original. The work itself is vulnerable; visitors are expected to move around the space with care and they are after all, in a convent within a church. But in Greenaway's Last Supper, people are at the Armory where they can walk around and talk to each other about the work. A relaxed, informal atmosphere mirrors the communal message of the work.
Is this high culture or low? Is it technology or art?
Answer: "yes."
643 Park Avenue
Closes January 6.
December 14, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Somewhere in the middle of the last century, the distinction between high and low culture passed into history under a tidal wave of modern communication. The distinction may have done more harm than good anyway as art cannot be so neatly categorized.
Take for example, a very young Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), who in 1910, met Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody, 1846-1917) at his Wild West Show in the old Madison Square Garden in New York. This trip to what was considered a decidedly "low culture" event nonetheless introduced Campbell to a life of scholarship. Late in life, Buffalo Bill wanted to portray the culture and complexity of Native American life. At the show, a ten-year old Campbell became enthralled with Native Americans and their culture.
There is no telling what a cultural event will do.
Attending La Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera this past weekend reminded me of the connection between Buffalo Bill and Joseph Campbell. The opera, based on a play by David Belasco, was staged the same year of their meeting -- 1910. It was the first opera commissioned by the Met. The "old west" setting was exotic for urban opera audiences and the production was not received as well in Europe as it was in the United States.
The Met's production rounded out the centenary celebration of La Fanciulla del West.
I thank CFA Professor Deborah Burton and the BU Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center for their work in this celebration.
Buffalo Bill in 1910, the year he met Joseph Campbell. Buffalo Bill performed in Boston 20 times between 1873-1916. Wikimedia photo. Public Domain.
December 13, 2010 at 1:30 pm
The New York Metropolitan Opera is in its fifth season of live simulcasting via satellite in theaters all over the United States and in 43 countries around the world, from Norway to Uruguay. The Guardian reports that the The Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden is challenging the Met's dominance in opera simulcasting by developing 3D.
An audience of operagoers in 3D glasses may be worth seeing even if the opera proves disappointing.
