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Arts

First, the Money

September 21, 2013 - 11:30am

In memoirs he wrote in 1896, conductor Luigi Arditi recalls a situation in which a stubborn baritone named Novara pursued his demand for money all the way into a performance. Novara had agreed to sing the part of Rocco for three performances of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio with the understanding that,...

Money Sings

September 21, 2013 - 11:30am

In the fall of 1974 soprano Kiri Te Kanawa was cast in the role of Marguerite in a Covent Garden production of Charles Gounod’s opera Faust . An American philanthropist had offered £500,000 for the staging of his favorite work. The money came with a string attached. The part of...

Wisconsin's Top Artists Exhibit At Madison Museum's Triennial

September 20, 2013 - 10:00am

Every three years, one of the most important Wisconsin art exhibitions opens its doors to the public.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Wisconsin Triennial celebrates the rich variety of artwork created across the state and highlights emerging trends in artistic practice. Widely regarded as the state’s most prestigious showcase of contemporary Wisconsin visual art, the MMoCA’s Triennial this year features 35 artists and five collaborative pairs.

However, finding the artists and their work to include in the exhibition isn't always easy. The curators reviewed the work of 530 artists and crisscrossed the state to visit 113 individual studios. The artists that...

That's All I Ask

September 20, 2013 - 11:30am

On September 20, 1850, Richard Wagner shared his aspirations with critic Theodor Uhlig, writing from Zurich about the key to achieving his latest artistic goal: What’s needed to accomplish the best, most decisive and important project that I can take on in the current circumstances, and to bring to fruition...

'Making Pictures Of People' Photography Show Debuts Online

September 20, 2013 - 9:00am

Photo editor and digital producer Andy Adams said he loves photography. However, he lives in Madison -- a city with a strong arts scene but with a limited number of venues for exhibitions of contemporary photography.

So, Adams created his own photography gallery and exhibition space on the Internet. Today, the website that he built, FlakPhoto.com, is at the center of an international conversation about the future of contemporary photography in the digital age.

FlakPhoto has pioneered exclusively digital exhibitions of contemporary photography. Adams recently curated “Making Pictures of People,” a collection of recent portrait photography. The project is...

Can One Person Change The World?

September 19, 2013 - 2:00pm

In 1989, Jim Ziolkowski was an idealistic college graduate, groomed for a life in financial management and business. But like many graduates do before entering the "real" world, he took a backpacking trip. It was there, on the streets of Nepal in Asia, that the direction of his life changed.

Upon returning to the United States, Ziolkowski said he couldn't shake the inequality that he witnessed abroad. So, he set out to address the challenges of poverty and education faced by children in urban America, and in the poorest nations around the world. The result was a non-profit group called BuildOn.

The group views...

Maggots

September 19, 2013 - 11:30am

Charles Jennens assembled the texts for five of Handel’s oratorios, including Messiah , but a letter that turned up more than two hundred years after he wrote it shows that he didn’t hesitate to make fun of the great composer. In 1738 Jennens and Handel were working on the oratorio...

Master or Student?

September 18, 2013 - 11:30am

In the fall of 1824 pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles was in Berlin, where he became acquainted with the family of fifteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s parents were concerned about the boy’s future, fearful that he would suddenly pass into obscurity, as many other talented children had done. Moscheles had no...

More Than 100 Milwaukee Buildings Open To Tours This Weekend

September 17, 2013 - 2:00pm

The doors to more than 100 Milwaukee buildings will be open free of charge this weekend as the nonprofit group Historic Milwaukee hosts the third annual Doors Open Milwaukee event.

Visitors can look at a variety of buildings -- from churches to office buildings, theaters to work sites, museums to hotels, clubs to universities. All the sites are of historic, architectural, cultural, or commercial interest and will be open for exploration.

Event founder, George Wagner said that it's an event not to be missed and is growing in popularity each year. The first year of Doors Open Milwaukee, the event drew about 8,000 people.

“Last year, the event grew to about 15,000...

Prime Minister of Opera

September 17, 2013 - 11:30am

“The only Italians here that merit attention are two musicians.” So wrote the French Ambassador to Spain in 1746. He went on to say that one of the two was harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti and the other was a singer named Farinelli. Farinelli had been born Carlo Broschi in Naples in...