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Artists today are at a crossroads. With funding for the arts and
humanities endowments perpetually under attack, and school
districts all over the United States scrapping their art curricula
altogether, the place of the arts in our civic future is uncertain
to say the least. At the same time, faced with the problems of the
modern world-from water shortages and grave health concerns to
global climate change and the now constant threat of terrorism-one
might question the urgency of this waning support for the arts. In
the politically fraught world we live in, is the "felt" experience
even something worth fighting for? In this soul-searching
collection of vignettes, Patrick Summers gives us an adamant,
impassioned affirmative. Art, he argues, nurtures freedom of
thought, and is more necessary now than ever before. As artistic
director of the Houston Grand Opera, Summers is well positioned to
take stock of the limitations of the professional arts world-a
world where the conversation revolves almost entirely around
financial questions and whose reputation tends toward elitism-and
to remind us of art's fundamental relationship to joy and meaning.
Offering a vehement defense of long-form arts in a world with a
short attention span, Summers argues that art is spiritual, and
that music in particular has the ability to ask spiritual
questions, to inspire cathartic pathos, and to express spiritual
truths. Summers guides us through his personal encounters with art
and music in disparate places, from Houston's Rothko Chapel to a
music classroom in rural China, and reflects on musical works he
has conducted all over the world. Assessing the growing canon of
new operas performed in American opera houses today, he calls for
musical artists to be innovative and brave as opera continues to
reinvent itself. This book is a moving credo elucidating Summers's
belief that the arts, especially music, help us to understand our
own humanity as intellectual, aesthetic, and ultimately spiritual.
A TV production of Mark Adams's opera recorded in Houston, Texas in
2000. Patrick Summers conducts the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra,
with performances by Stephanie Novacek, Joyce Di Donato and Chad
Shelton.
Artists today are at a crossroads. With funding for the arts and
humanities endowments perpetually under attack, and school
districts all over the United States scrapping their art curricula
altogether, the place of the arts in our civic future is uncertain
to say the least. At the same time, faced with the problems of the
modern world--from water shortages and grave health concerns to
global climate change and the now constant threat of terrorism--one
might question the urgency of this waning support for the arts. In
the politically fraught world we live in, is the "felt" experience
even something worth fighting for? In this soul-searching
collection of vignettes, Patrick Summers gives us an adamant,
impassioned affirmative. Art, he argues, nurtures freedom of
thought, and is more necessary now than ever before. As artistic
director of the Houston Grand Opera, Summers is well positioned to
take stock of the limitations of the professional arts world--a
world where the conversation revolves almost entirely around
financial questions and whose reputation tends toward elitism--and
to remind us of art's fundamental relationship to joy and meaning.
Offering a vehement defense of long-form arts in a world with a
short attention span, Summers argues that art is spiritual, and
that music in particular has the ability to ask spiritual
questions, to inspire cathartic pathos, and to express spiritual
truths. Summers guides us through his personal encounters with art
and music in disparate places, from Houston's Rothko Chapel to a
music classroom in rural China, and reflects on musical works he
has conducted all over the world. Assessing the growing canon of
new operas performed in American opera houses today, he calls for
musical artists to be innovative and brave as opera continues to
reinvent itself. This book is a moving credo elucidating Summers's
belief that the arts, especially music, help us to understand our
own humanity as intellectual, aesthetic, and ultimately spiritual.
Patrick Summers leads the Wiener Symphoniker in David Pountney's
production of Mozart's last opera, recorded live at the Bregenze
Festival in 2013. The soloists include Alfred Reiter, Norman
Reinhardt, Anna Durlovski and Bernarda Bobro.
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