From: CastleNowhere
Johan Kobborg & Tamara Rojo in the final act of the Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote
06/05/2008
Whatever happened to Old Europe?
TLS
Europe has never been a matter of boundaries alone. “European civilization has entered into the truth, into the plan of Providence”, as the historian-statesman François Guizot put it. “It advances according to the ways of God. That is the rational principle of its superiority.” Borders themselves – the Sava River, the Bosphorus, the Urals – [...]
06/05/2008
Sergey Prokofiev: Diaries (1915-1922) – Behind the Mask
Unfair as it might be, Russian composers and artists of the 20th century seem to be unable to escape from their political context, their every gossipy aside or “hidden meaning” scrutinised for historical import. Richard Strauss’s Nazi sympathies or Elgar’s imperialist jingoism fail to elicit the column inches dwelling on Shos takovich’s was-he-or-wasn’t-he-a-believer relationship with [...]
