“Witnesses in the Chelsea Barracks case ‘concocted an untrue story’ to cover up the involvement of the Prince of Wales and the Emir of Qatar in the cancellation of an £81 million modernist housing project, the High Court was told yesterday.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Brits Vs. Americans On Broadway? Isn’t It A Team Effort?
“Is [Catherine] Zeta-Jones’s win for A Little Night Music a feather in the UK’s cap? The film siren belongs as much to Hollywood as to Swansea. [Douglas] Hodge is a delight in La Cage, but surely its success has something to do with the local actors – including TV star Kelsey Grammer – who occupy the other dressing rooms?”
What Yannick Nézet-Séguin Needs To Succeed In Philly
“Nézet-Séguin’s conducting expertise is only one key component to a potentially successful tenure. He needs to connect with the musicians on a level that inspires them well beyond their basic professionalism. He has started on the right foot, partly because the musicians feel included in the selection process….”
What Tanglewood Will Look Like Without James Levine
“In summer … [a] large portion of [the music director’s] work is with the Tanglewood fellows, the young, talented players who have scored summer posts to study and perform works as an orchestra. While Levine is welcome to visit this summer, it is not clear whether he will be able to work at all with the fellows, [BSO managing director Mark] Volpe said.”
Participation Gains Traction In Classical Circles
“It’s particularly gratifying to see in classical music, where for decades the trend has been very much in the opposite direction: families who 150 years ago would have learned new music by playing it at the piano now buy recordings or attend concerts where they listen in stony silence.”
A Video Game Based On That Movie? Only If It’s Good
“A few years ago, game publishers were regularly releasing video games adapted from movies and tied to their opening in theaters. The games were routinely knocked by players and critics alike for their poor quality,” and now “consumers are saving their money for the highest-quality titles. As a result, publishers have cut back on production….”
Getty’s Sudden Leadership Void May Be An Opportunity
The unexpected death Friday of Getty Trust president and chief executive James Wood “leaves the top two positions at the institution vacant,” thereby creating what some see as “a unique opportunity to resolve a longstanding issue.” The institution’s “unusual organizational structure … has been a source of internal conflict over the years.”
Appreciation: LA Philharmonic’s Ernest Fleischmann
“[N]o one can deny he was a force of nature. His regular reinventions of the orchestra extended to arts institutions in general and influenced even the arts themselves. He was an Olympian and intellectual with a common touch and a social conscience, and that is ultimately what made him great.”
States Catch On: Representation Doesn’t Equal Glorification
“Among the states that began underwriting film and television production with heavy subsidies over the past half-decade — 44 states had some sort of incentives by last year, 28 of them involving tax credits — at least a handful are giving new scrutiny to a question that was politely overlooked in the early excitement: What kind of films are taxpayers paying for?”
Restoring 5 Harvard Rothkos, Minus The Actual Restoration
Conservators “used X-rays and spectrometers to distinguish paint layers and identify the pigments in Rothko’s paints, as well as enhancements of the original Ektachrome photographs taken of the murals when they were installed.” They then created “software that will use a digital projector as a light source to augment those now missing colors on the original canvases.”