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Arts & Entertainment

Michael Feinstein: Saving the Great American Songbook

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:44:09 EST

Fighting to preserve America's 20th-century musical treasures.

A Rush to Save Afghan Buried Treasure

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:40:15 EST

Archaeologists are racing to save Afghanistan's cultural heritage before the Chinese start digging on one of the world's most valuable new copper mines.

El Capitan's Nose in a Day

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:55:59 EST

In Yosemite National Park, no climb on El Capitan is more famous than the Nose. Michael J. Ybarra sets out to scale it in one day.

Successful Silliness

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:57:57 EST

The National Theatre's new production of 1773 comedy "She Stoops to Conquer" offers a raucously enjoyable evening.

Still Angry After All These Years

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:07:52 EST

It's easy to see why John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" was so electrifying when it was first staged half a century ago. What's surprising is that Sam Gold's revival should be so theatrically potent.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet: A Classicist in the Modern Age

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:38:24 EST

His standard repertoire includes Mendelssohn, Liszt and Chopin, but also Gershwin, Evans and Ellington as well as numerous film scores. It's the necessary course that a modern career must take, says Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Invading Cuba, Packing Artworks

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:43:18 EST

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros of Miami will bring part of her collection to Havana.

Aggressively Spanning the Blues

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:02:46 EST

It's a treat to hear Joe Louis Walker on his latest album, "Hellfire," shift among blues styles without altering his characteristic aggressive attack.

A Very Long Farewell to Béla Tarr

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:55:38 EST

This week's film calendar leads off with a career tribute to Hungarian master Bela Tarr at Film Society of Lincoln Center, followed by the sexy Cinekink series at Anthology Film Archives and "The Miners Hymns' at Film Forum.

Renoir at the Frick

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:49:48 EST

Nine full-length paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir hang together for the first time at an exhibit opening Tuesday at the Frick Collection in New York.

The Jet Set

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:38:34 EST

Thomas Flohr's upstart VistaJet is modeling itself as a luxury designer brand, featuring graffiti-tagged planes, chic stewardess uniforms and a foxy top exec who happens to be the owner's 25-year-old daughter.

A Foreigner at Home

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:42:07 EST

Anthology Film Archives pays tribute to the seminal New York filmmaker Amos Poe, who helped lead the downtown cinema scene out of the underground in the late 70s and early 80s.

Auction Houses Clean Up as Art Gains Appeal

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:24:23 EST

Art prices swelled last year, lifting sales at Christie's to $5.7 billion last year, up 14% from the year before. Sotheby's said it auctioned off $4.9 billion of art last year, up 14.5% from the year before.

Anjelica Huston Looks Back

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:57:23 EST

On the '70s fashion scene in New York City, ditching it all for Jack and Hollywood, and moving forward after the death of her husband.

Dancers Flow In After Opera's Exit

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:50:40 EST

The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, faced with a void left by City Opera's departure, is aiming to raise its profile as a focal point for world-class dance by bringing in companies from across the globe.

From Broadway to About Broadway

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:12:36 EST

After his musical closes, director Michael Mayer focuses on a TV show about a musical: "Smash."

Would You Like a Beer With That Movie?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:48:34 EST

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a state law last year allowing movie theaters to serve alcohol, the future of film exhibition in New York took an auspicious turn.

From Out of a Featureless Crowd

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:52:58 EST

For centuries up until the Renaissance, portraits adhered to strict, near abstract conventions that smoothed over individual attributes.

Made Better in Japan

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:43:00 EST

For decades, Japan simply imported wares of foreign cultures, but recession has led to invention. The country has begun creating the finest American denim, French cuisine and Italian espresso in the world.

Ideas Calendar: Feb. 4-10

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:37:21 EST

On the agenda: obsolete law in Washington, Harvard professors and the Ming dynasty in San Francisco.

And So the World Ended

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:14:28 EST

Robert Lepage's six-hour "Götterdämmerung," the final installment to Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle that opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday, needs to have more than a few flashes of magic to be compelling.

The Master Builder of Towers of Flowers

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:08:59 EST

As in-house florist for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Remco van Vliet creates arrangements that are usually 10 to 12 feet high. Those he does for parties sometimes reach 20 feet, making his arrangements perhaps the tallest in the city.

TV on DVD

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:53:26 EST

New releases of past television series include "Downton Abbey: Season 2" and a double episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" from Quentin Tarantino.

Forty Years of Great Dictations

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:30:42 EST

For the Dickens reading group, which has been meeting weekly for 40 years in Manhattan apartments, the purpose and pleasure is to read out loud and share the experience.

Shaky Cameras, Glimpses of Menace

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:40:58 EST

The makers of the "Paranormal Activity" movies bring their horror formula to TV.

The Short List: Steven Van Zandt Goes to Norway in 'Lilyhammer'

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:00:16 EST

Netflix premieres a fish-out-of-water series; plus eerie new stories from Dan Chaon and a new album from Bahamas.

A Monumental Composer in Context

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:24:01 EST

The Dessoff Choirs' "Refracted Bach" illuminates the composer's central position in the musical firmament of his own time and ours.

'W.E.' Is a Messy Windsor Knot

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:28:27 EST

Meanwhile, "The Woman in Black" features Daniel Radcliffe and the deathly horror flick, and "Windfall" shows "green" energy's dark side.

A Musical for Marilyn Monroe

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:28:20 EST

NBC's "Smash" starts off as a musical with a Marilyn Monroe fixation, but soon leaves the legend behind as its drama of rivalry and ambition takes flight.

Artist Transformed Everyday Craft Materials Into Art

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:36:41 EST

Mike Kelley, a Los Angeles artist who rose to fame in the 1980s by making fun-house sculptures from stuffed animals, has died, police said Wednesday. He was 57.

For the Love of a Fickle Woman

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:25:13 EST

With his third feature film, François Truffaut injected the French New Wave with an exhilarating does of life in "Jules and Jim."

A Nation of Drivers

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:02:47 EST

"Driving America," the new permanent exhibition at the Henry Ford Museum, tells the story of the automobile as it evolved from a rich man's toy to the essential object of our country.

Don't Miss: Feb. 4-10

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:41:53 EST

Exhibitions listed this week include baseball cards featuring African-American pioneers in the major leagues, Eugène Atget's photos and Bill Traylor's drawings.

Roberta Flack Puts Her Soul into the Beatles

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:26:17 EST

The 74-year-old singer's new album, "Let It Be Roberta," is a soul-house reloading of Beatles hits.

Changing the Way We See Art

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:36:26 EST

Anne Pasternak has installed floral carpeting in Grand Central and soothed a mourning city by bringing light to the September 11 memorial. Meet the visionary forging the path of public art.

In Paris, Islamic Art Under a Flying Carpet

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:30:36 EST

The Louvre's new project, designed by Italy's Mario Bellini and France's Rudy Ricciotti, will debut in September.

Surrealism's Startling Appeal

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:07:58 EST

The greats of European Surrealism come under the hammer at auctions in London. Miró leads with monumental canvasses that are a rarity at auction. Other Surrealist artists on offer include Magritte, Dali, Tanguy, Picabia and Ernst.

The Secret Appeal of 'Downton Abbey'

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:21:06 EST

Why do we adore a celebration of British pecking orders? Because hierarchies are as American as apple pie.

Curt Schilling's New Pitch: A Fantasy Videogame

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:40:00 EST

Curt Schilling, one of the most famous pitchers in recent Major League Baseball history, has a new career now as the head of a videogame company. His new game, "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning," a single-player, role-playing videogame, will be released Tuesday.

When Artists' Kodaks Were Supercool

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:39:14 EST

"Snapshot: Painters and Photography," looks at what seven late-19th-century European artists did with their new Kodak hand-held cameras.

An Enchanted House Becomes a Family's Curse

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:01:35 EST

Designed by Josef Hoffman and decorated by a cavalcade of Viennese artists including Gustav Klimt, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels is considered the best surviving realization of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art."

Fénelon's Gnarled 'Orchard'

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:52:45 EST

In director Georges Lavaudant's staging of "The Cherry Orchard" at the Palais Garnier in Paris, the new opera is a series of soliloquies, set to music that can't seem to find its way.