Holiday recess
An amuse-bouche and back to business soon.
Hello. I must apologize for my absence as my over-filled calendar finally got the best of me. I now write to you from a train traveling from Salzburg to Munich. I am currently on holiday and have deemed it necessary for my general wellbeing to log off. I will return in full force the second week of December. In the meantime I will leave you with a few abbreviated news items. Bis spater!
It seems we are getting closer to learning the “cause” of Sasha Suda’s termination at the Philadelphia Art Museum. A new filing by the museum accuses the former director of misappropriating funds and increasing her salary multiple times despite a lack of approval from the board. Suda’s attorney denied these allegations to ArtNews.
Former Metropolitan Museum of Art president and CEO Daniel H. Weiss has been named as her replacement, the New York Times reported.
Alma Allen has officially been selected to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale, but if you read this newsletter you were well ahead of this news.
People keep falling into a water feature at Cairo’s newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum.
Protesters were removed from a recent Carmen show at the Met Opera after they got onto the stage, but it’s unconfirmed what they were protesting (the New York Times reports that one did denounce the late David H. Koch, whose name is inscribed on the neighboring dance theater that serves as New York City Ballet’s HQ. You may also recall that Extinction Rebellion protested NYCB earlier this year).
I did, however, see a video by Davidson Boswell, a comedian who says that he and his friends were disrupting the Met. In a video, he explains that the Met Opera is funded by the Koch brothers (ignoring, it seems, the fact that David Koch died in 2019) and that this is the same money that supports the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. He also says that the Met’s production of Carmen depicts an undocumented immigrant seducing an ICE agent…which is an interpretation that has never once been expressed by director Carrie Cracknell. There are no costumes in the show that literally say “ICE.” It is also worth pointing out that this production of Carmen debuted in 2023.
As OperaWire editor David Salazar notes:
It’s a common misconception that people who go to the opera are stuffy and conservative elites. In New York City, that couldn’t be further from the truth. So ultimately, this entire action came off as dangerously performative. In fact, the last thing the opera needs is a “white savior.” While we’re on that topic, what would have happened if a person of color had attempted this stunt? Would they have gotten the chance to go back to the streets of New York to post a video explaining their reasons for storming a stage the way Boswell did?
Anyway…NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang and his wife have pledged a $5 million, multi-year donation to the San Francisco Opera, which seems to be doing very well with its production of The Monkey King. Looking at this, paired with the success of the Met’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I fear I must suggest that action-oriented operas may get the Marvel-inclined into the audience…
I can’t believe that Matthew Bourne—the celebrated British choreographer known for his Swan Lake—didn’t take his first formal dance lesson until he was 21. His production of The Red Shoes is touring the UK through May.
You can’t just buy art, you have to acquire it, you idiot—per the Financial Times.
If any wealthy patrons would like to fund my attendance at New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker this year, I would gladly accept. ▲