The Vancouver City Council has approved a one-time grant of C$85,000 to keep Ballet BC afloat, but will it be enough? The grant will allow a visiting company to perform The Nutcracker as scheduled, and the hope is that revenues from that production will allow Ballet BC to hire back some of its staff and resume business.
Author: sbergman
Murakami Animation To Open Hollywood Studio
“Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, whose giant Buddha, bug-eyed monsters and magical mushrooms packed in huge crowds last year at the Museum of Contemporary Art, is putting down roots in Los Angeles. A multifaceted artist who embraces painting and sculpture, film and mass-produced goods as part of a single enterprise, he is planning to open an animation studio here next summer.”
Remembering A Theatrical Powerhouse
Michael Riedel writes that, “though he may not have been as well-known to the public as the impresarios of the past, Gerald Schoenfeld wielded more power than all of them put together… His death yesterday shocked the theater industry, for although he was 84, the Shuberts without Gerry – indeed, an opening night without Gerry – hardly seemed possible.”
Pittsburgh Plays Musical Chairs
Under new music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony becomes the latest American orchestra to move to what Honeck calls the “old German seating,” with antiphonal violins, and cellos and basses grouped at stage right. “Honeck feels the old German seating could lead to enhanced listening between sections and a ‘better feel’ for each other.”
A Major Label Finally Sees MP3s Surpass CDs
“Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group, says it has reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit: more than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones.”
Mood Swings In The Book Biz
“Talk about a business of extremes. In less than a week the book publishing industry has been set abuzz by the news that one publisher is so uncertain about the economic climate that it has temporarily shut its doors to most manuscripts while another is celebrating a banner year by handing out extra bonuses to all its employees.”
The (Gradual) Greening of Broadway
“Theater aficionados need not panic: the bright lights, flying scenery and lavish costumes are not going away, but washing those costumes with eco-friendly detergent and illuminating those lights with low-watt compact-fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes are on the list of conservation measures [New York’s theatrical industry] is already carrying out.”
Preservation At A Snail’s Pace
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is a well-intentioned group, to be sure. But efficient? Not so much. “A six-month examination of the commission’s operations… reveals an overtaxed agency that has taken years to act on some proposed designations, even as soaring development pressures put historic buildings at risk.”
Met Opera Allows Tenor Some Electronic Assistance
“There is an honorable tradition in opera of singers relying on a prompter to provide cues for pitches or words. But during rehearsals for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” which opens on Friday night, the German tenor singing Tristan, Peter Seiffert, has been using a personal electronic prompter: an earpiece through which he can hear the cues directly.”
An Anti-Brit Conspiracy? Or Just Honest Judges?
A French film journal is out with a list of the top 100 films of all time, and the number of British movies on the list is… zero. Gramophone’s list of the top 20 orchestras in the world included just one from the UK. “It seems as if the British judges might just have been honest about their choices instead of flying the flag.”