Georg Baselitz is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing his early life and his recent contributions to the Glyndebourne  Opera Festival.  “They tell me it’s rather conservative and more than just a bit elitist,” he says. “I don’t even like classical music that much – it bores me. Except for Bach. But he didn’t write opera so that’s not much good.” (more…)

Marina Abramović’s opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, is set to open this December 12th in The Park Armory’s spacious Drill Hall.  Staged by Robert Wilson, the show includes performances by Abramović, playing herself and her mother, and also features performances by Willem Dafoe and Antony.  The show has already garnered an overwhelmingly positive critical response at each of its previous performances, and marks the first time the work will be performed int he US. (more…)

William Kentridge, Untitled (Drum Machine) (2012), via Marian Goodman

On September 17th, Marian Goodman Gallery opened its new exhibition of films, drawings, sculpture, and prints by William Kentridge. Entitled “Second-hand Reading,” the exhibition will continue through October 26, 2013.  Emerging from a series of projects Kentridge started in 2012 called Six Drawing Lessons, originally showed at The Norton Lectures series at Harvard University that year, the works capture the artist developing a concept of the studio as a place of deep meaning, placing an emphasis on work in the studio as a significant act. During that time he also created his sound installation and breathing machine, entitled The Refusal of Time. (more…)

Elizabeth Peyton, Jonas Kaufmann, March 2013, NYC (2013), via Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

Gavin Brown’s west-side gallery is currently playing home to a new set of works by artist Elizabeth Peyton, continuing the artist’s ongoing series of portraiture through a series of works taken from the New York Metropolitan Opera, as well as Peyton’s well-documented self-portraits and depictions of celebrities.   (more…)

Performance artist Terence Koh has announced that he is currently working on an opera to premiere at the new Thaddeus Ropac complex on the outskirts of Paris.  The work will be done in collaboration with composers from the Philharmonie de Paris, and follows in the footsteps of Marina Abramovic, who debuted her own opera last year in Madrid. (more…)