“It is the most violent five minutes of New York theater in memory: A soldier rapes the main character of ‘Blasted,’ then sucks out his eyeballs and eats them in nearly plain sight of audiences — which, night after night for weeks, have been watching in shock.” It’s an awful thing to watch, but it’s even more difficult for the actors who must enact the scene every night.
Author: sbergman
Michael Crichton’s World
“As a writer he was a kind of cyborg, tirelessly turning out novels that were intricately engineered entertainment systems. No one — except possibly Mr. Crichton himself — ever confused them with great literature, but very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down.”
What’s In A Name?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the title of a piece of music is as important to its success as what it sounds like. So why do composers seem to be so uncomfortable with the titling their works? “Perhaps the notion of giving a work a title makes composers feel awkward.”
Vienna, Berlin, New York… Beijing?
“The idea of China as the gravitational center of a globalized world is something most countries have gotten used to. But classical music hadn’t seemed like it would be part of that mix, if only because Western opera and the Eastern world never made a natural fit.” But that’s been changing fast, and China is experiencing a classical boom that may yet make it a global center of the art form.
A Symbol Of Hope To Be Heard Again
“It survived, broken but not destroyed, a remnant of a World War II Nazi concentration camp. Then, for more than 60 years, the violin emblazoned with a Star of David was silenced… On Tuesday, this violin, one of 16 ‘klezmer’ violins that [have been] painstakingly restored, will be heard for the first time in the United States and for one of the first times since the war.”
Scheduling Against Yourself
The Toronto Symphony will be in Ottawa next week, playing Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes. Problem is, a local orchestra is scheduled to play the same piece at the same venue four days later. “It’s the second time in recent years that the [National Arts Centre] failed to cross-reference the programs of the Ottawa Symphony and a touring orchestra.”
Broadway Investors Holding Onto Their Cash
“With the U. S. economy in tatters and neither investors nor ticket buyers rushing to part with cash, Broadway producers are also seeing red: Hit shows are playing to half-filled houses, while investment capital for all but the safest bets is drying up.”
Six Words To Sum Up A Life
The problem with memoirs tends to be that they’re so darned long! (Does anyone really want to read 30 pages on your time in elementary school?) So a new collection of six-word memoirs by “writers famous and obscure” would seem to be just what the reading public ordered…
Starting From Scratch
Two former principal dancers at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater are making waves in their native China. “The husband and wife team were hired as ballet master and mistress for China’s latest ballet company, only the sixth in this land of 1.3 billion people.”
Canadian Opera Company Bucks Economic Gloom
“With the Ontario economy likely facing economic recession in coming months, COC president David Ferguson announced the sixth surplus year in a row at the organization’s annual general meeting… Box office revenue was the COC’s highest ever at $12.3 million, representing 41 per cent of total revenues. Private and corporate giving were also up over previous seasons.”