- For New ‘Ring’ Set, Met Has to Buy Steel Supports: "Wagner’s “Ring” cycle concludes with the flaming destruction of Valhalla, the hall of the gods, a scene that will play out when the Metropolitan Opera mounts a new production of the cycle’s four operas over the next two seasons. Structural collapse is definitely not the fate you want for your actual theater. But at the Met, that was a distinct possibility. Engineers determined that the set, conceived by Robert Lepage, the Canadian director who is creating this production, would be so heavy — roughly 45 tons — that the floor under the stage might not hold..." Read the full story- - -
ALMANAC-
June 8, 1810: Robert Schumann, German composer, was born. "Robert Schumann was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous and important Romantic composers of the 19th century. Schumann had hoped to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, having been assured by his teacher, Friedrich Wieck, that he could become the finest pianist in Europe after only a few years of study with him. However, when a hand injury prevented those hopes from being realized, he decided to focus his musical energies on composition. Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with his piano instructor (Wieck), Schumann married Wieck's daughter, pianist Clara Wieck, who also composed music and had a considerable concert career, including premieres of many of her husband's works. Robert Schumann died in middle age; for the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, he was confined to a mental institution at his own request. Schumann exerted considerable influence in the nineteenth century and beyond, despite his adoption of more conservative modes of composition after his marriage. He left an array of acclaimed music in virtually all the forms then known. Partly through his protégé Brahms, Schumann's ideals and musical vocabulary became widely disseminated. Composer Sir Edward Elgar called Schumann "my ideal." "- - -
June 8, 1829: Sir John Everett Millais, English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was born. "Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot (1852), which depicts a young couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in many later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world. This style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics. Millais' friendship with Ruskin introduced him to Ruskin's wife Effie. Soon after they met she modelled for his painting The Order of Release. As Millais painted Effie they fell in love. In 1856, after her marriage to Ruskin was annulled, Effie and John Millais married. He and Effie eventually had eight children including John Guille Millais, a notable naturalist and wildlife artist.After his marriage, Millais began to paint in a broader style, which was condemned by Ruskin as "a catastrophe". It has been argued that this change of style resulted from Millais' need to increase his output to support his growing family. Unsympathetic critics such as William Morris accused him of "selling out" to achieve popularity and wealth. His admirers, in contrast, pointed to the artist's connections with Whistler and Albert Moore, and influence on John Singer Sargent. Millais himself argued that as he grew more confident as an artist, he could paint with greater boldness. Millais was also very successful as a book illustrator, notably for the works of Anthony Trollope and the poems of Tennyson. His complex illustrations of the parables of Jesus were published in 1864. He also provided illustrations for magazines such as Good Words. In 1869 he was recruited as an artist for the newly founded weekly newspaper The Graphic."
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June 8, 1867: Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, was born. "Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater and Graycliff), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House, the Westcott House, and the Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time".
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June 8, 1921: LeRoy Neiman, American painter, was born. "LeRoy Neiman is an American artist known for his brilliantly colored, semi-abstract paintings and screen prints of athletes and sporting events. Neiman worked as an illustrator for department store Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. in Chicago in the early 1950s alongside a copywriter named Hugh Hefner. After Hefner started Playboy magazine in 1953, Neiman's artwork was featured in several issues. To this day, Neiman continues to illustrate the "Femlin", a Playboy character that is featured every month on the jokes page. He is considered by many the premier sports artist in the world challenged only in recent years by younger artists Stephen Holland and Richard T. Slone. Neiman works in oil, enamel, watercolor, pencil drawings, pastels, serigraphy and some lithographs and etching."- - -
June 8, 1949: Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist, was born. "Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American-Jewish classical pianist. He is currently a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century. Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons; Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng. He also performs works by such diverse figures as Sir Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner and Paul Hindemith, as well as more traditional composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin. Ax regularly performs duo recitals with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and played quartets with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo."- - -
June 8, 1959: Missile Mail is debuted... "In 1959 the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the United States Postal Service, in its search for faster mail transportation with the only delivery of "Missile Mail". On 8 June 1959, Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile — its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers — at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later, the missile struck its target. The USPS had officially established a branch post office on Barbero and delivered some 3000 pieces of mail to it before Barbero left Norfolk, Virginia. The mail consisted entirely of commemorative postal covers. Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." Notwithstanding the Postmaster General's enthusiasm, in reality the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified."Well, darn.
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ON OUR SHELVES-
“Moorcroft. A Guide to Moorcroft Pottery 1897-1993”
By Paul Atterbury.
Published in Somerset by Richard Dennis & Hugh Edwards in 2008. 2nd edition.
“Moorcroft is one of the most important names in the history of British art and studio pottery, representing as it does an unbroken line of production that reaches back over a century to 1897. Throughout this period collectors all over the world have enjoyed the characteristic style and colors of Moorcroft pottery, and today both the decorative wares of the past and the new ranges in production at the factory are highly sought after. This new enlarged and completely revised edition includes many new photographs, making it invaluable for all Moorcroft collectors' and those interested in decorative arts of the 20th century”.
$95.00
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