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After 24 years, a conductor returns to the Met Opera
NEW YORK, NY.- Among the ample attractions of the Metropolitan Operas forthcoming performances of Richard Wagners Die Meistersinger von NÃ¼rnberg, which runs Tuesday through Nov. 14 with a cast including Michael Volle as Hans Sachs and Lise Davidsen as Eva, is the long-awaited return of conductor Antonio Pappano. There are few more reliably inspired conductors at work today than Pappano, who has been music director of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London since 2002 and of the Orchestra dell Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome since 2005. Yet Meistersinger will be Pappanos first appearance at the Met since his debut leading Eugene Onegin in 1997. The run comes at a turning point in his career. Pappano, 61, will leave Covent Garden in 2024, a year after he does the same in Rome. But he wont be ... More

Christie's appoints Deidrea Miller as Head of Communications, Americas
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announces the appointment of Deidrea Miller as Head of Communications for Christies Americas, based in New York. Deidrea will oversee strategic communications for Christies Americas as a member of Christies Americas Executive Committee. Deidrea will report to Bonnie Brennan, President of Christies Americas and Natasha Le Bel, Global Head of Communications. Deidrea brings to Christies 15 years of experience providing strategic counsel and issues management to leaders in the arts and culture, energy, higher education, and public sectors. Previously she was a Director with Brunswick Arts in New York, where she advised cultural organizations, art institutions, and luxury brands. Her client experience included the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and its museums in New York and Abu Dhabi, and The ... More

Fearsome dinosaur that stalked Australia was a timid plant eater
NEW YORK, NY.- For more than 50 years, the giant fossilized footprints have been one of the most tantalizing finds in Australian paleontology. At the time of their discovery, scientists believed the three birdlike tracks had been made 200 million to 250 million years ago by a two-legged predator. The tracks were the first evidence that dinosaurs roamed Australia in the Triassic, when the creatures first appeared on the planet. By 2003, some paleontologists even suspected that the footprints represented the worlds earliest evidence of a giant carnivorous dinosaur, one that may have stood up to 6 1/2 feet high at the hip. But new analysis has brought down this Australian idol. The tracks belonged to a smaller, meeker herbivore no taller than a person, not a ferocious giant carnivore, scientists said in a paper published Thursday in the journal Historical ... More

Dee Pop, drummer and downtown New York fixture, dies at 65
NEW YORK, NY.- Dee Pop, a drummer who first found grimy rock stardom as a founding member of underground New York band Bush Tetras during the no wave and post-punk scene of the late 1970s, and who later became an elder statesman of the citys alternative music scene, died Oct. 9 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 65. His brother, Tom Papadopoulos, said the cause was heart failure. Some 40 years ago, an avant-garde punk movement was rumbling from the underground scene below 14th Street. Bands like the Contortions, Liquid Liquid, DNA and 8 Eyed Spy led the charge, playing nightly at venues like the Mudd Club, Tier 3 and CBGB. Amid the fray emerged the moments must-see band, Bush Tetras, who disbanded just four years later but left a profound impact on the scene. The female-fronted quartet, often clad in headbands and leopard-print ... More

Imperial 'dragon' throne carpet to be sold by Christie's in Paris
PARIS.- A rare survivor from the original carpets woven to adorn the halls of the Imperial Palace within the Forbidden City, will be offered at auction by Christies in Paris for 3,500,000-4,500,000. The carpet, woven in the 16th Century during the Ming dynasty, will be on exhibition in London at Christies King Street from October 23rd to 7th November. Adorned with two five-clawed dragons and with a seed pearl at its centre, it would have been placed on a raised platform upon which the throne of the Emperor, the Son of Heaven would have been positioned, signifying his connection between the earth and the celestial heavens, it is in pristine condition. The carpet, which would have originally been woven in rich Ming Imperial red, now faded to a golden yellow, measures 5 x 4 meters approximately and is one of the highlights of the Exceptional Sale ... More

James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther on 'Friends,' dies at 59
NEW YORK, NY.- James Michael Tyler, who played the deadpan, smitten barista Gunther on the TV show Friends, died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 59. His manager, Toni Benson, said the cause was prostate cancer, which was diagnosed in September 2018. After his diagnosis, Tyler shared his story to encourage others to get screened for prostate cancer as early as 40. Friends helped launch the careers of its star-studded cast, which included Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. It debuted on NBC in the fall of 1994, ran for a decade and typically had around 25 million to 30 million viewers each week. Although Tyler was not a main character, he was widely considered to be the seventh friend and appeared in 150 episodes. He played the part of Gunther, a ... More

Review: In 'Fairycakes,' Disney and Shakespeare go camping
NEW YORK, NY.- Did you ever want to see a fairy-tale mashup, set amid the magic of nature, offering clever rhyme and delightful song, with a powerful theme to bring it all home? Well, this isnt that. Fairycakes, the laborious new comedy by Douglas Carter Beane that opened Sunday at the Greenwich House Theater, dares to enter the precincts of Into the Woods, upping the ante and losing the bet. Written mostly in ear-scraping doggerel, it throws characters from the fairy-world subplot of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream into the mixer with Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty, then presses the button marked beat to death. I say this with no glee; I went in needing and fully expecting an old-fashioned good time from the author of The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees in Honey Drown and many other hilarities. ... More

Jay Black, soaring lead singer of the Americans, dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY.- Jay Black, whose majestic voice on songs like Cara, Mia and Only in America made Jay and the Americans a potent force in pop music in the 1960s, died Friday in New York City. He was 82. His son Jason Blatt said the cause was pneumonia that led to cardiac arrest. He also had dementia, his family said. Jay and the Americans began to thrive before the arrival of the Beatles in the United States in 1964. With Black as their lead singer, the groups first major hit was Only in America, which peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963. That was followed the next year by Come a Little Bit Closer, which rose to No. 3, and Lets Lock the Door (and Throw Away the Key), which hit No. 11. In 1965, their version of Some Enchanted Evening, from the musical South Pacific, peaked at No. 13. Black whose original ... More

Michael Jordan sneakers sell for nearly $1.5 mn, an auction record
NEW YORK, NY.- A pair of sneakers worn by NBA superstar Michael Jordan early in his career sold for nearly $1.5 million on Sunday, setting a record price at auction for game-worn footwear, Sotheby's said. The white leather shoes with the red Nike swoosh and soles were worn by the iconic player in the fifth game of his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls, when Nike's Jordan-affiliated brand was only just taking off as a sensation both on and off the court. "The most valuable sneakers ever offered at auction -- Michael Jordan's regular season game-worn Nike Air Ships from 1984 -- have just sold at $1,472,000 in our luxury sale in Las Vegas," the auction house said in a statement on Twitter. The astronomical price easily beat the record held by a pair of Nike Air Jordans which sold for $615,000 in August 2020 at a Christie's auction. A ... More

Apollo-flown Robbins medallions from Buzz Aldrin Family ready to take off at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- Gold and silver medallions, made specifically by the Robbins Company for flight missions in space, started all the way back on Apollo 7. Created as a commemorative gift for the astronauts, as well as for friends and family, somewhere between 255 and 450 were made for each Apollo mission. The finest Apollo 11 example ever offered by Heritage Auctions will cross the block in HAs Space Exploration SignatureÂ® Auction Nov. 12-13. Coming directly from the Potter-Aldrin Family Collection, this MS69 NGC Sterling Silver Robbins Medallion, Serial Number 52 (estimate: $40,000+) was aboard the famed Apollo 11 in mid-July 1969. This medal once belonged to Fay Ann Aldrin Potter, an older sister of astronaut Buzz Aldrin who gave her brother his iconic nickname (which he eventually legally changed from his given name, Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.) ... More

In 'Unedited,' the revisions are part of the tradition
NEW YORK, NY.- For a dancer to explain, mid-show, that she has never before performed with her accompanying musicians and that they have barely rehearsed might seem like an excuse or an apology for roughness. But in her solo performance at Dixon Place on Thursday, Rachna Nivas said those words with pride. The title of her show, after all, was Unedited. And such in-the-moment risk is part of the tradition of kathak, the Indian classical dance form to which she has devoted her life. She wasnt making excuses. She was educating. The show was a production of Leela Dance Collective, which Nivas helped found in 2016 with fellow disciples of kathak guru Chitresh Das. The collective, started in San Francisco, also runs a series of schools across the country. Nivas recently moved to New York to open an outpost here. At ... More