“Has the Sydney Festival abandoned classical music? Or, to put it another way, has classical music become so terminally unfashionable that image-conscious publicists have run out of ways to pretend it is something it isn’t? …Those looking for what we rather clumsily call the classical concert experience are left feeling like people refused entry to a fashionable bar on the grounds of poor dress sense.”
Author: sbergman
Eyring Leaving Mpls Children’s Theatre
“Teresa Eyring, managing director of Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, has been named executive director of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for nonprofit theaters… The CTC was recognized with the 2003 Tony for Outstanding Regional Theater. The largest youth theater in the nation, CTC’s annual budget has nearly doubled, to $11 million, during Eyring’s tenure.”
Partying For Art
You can often measure a city’s art scene by the number of parties, galas, and other hoity-toity social events built around it. L.A. has never been much of an “art party” town, but lately, that seems to be changing, as art and artists become the focal point of a diverse array of events. “Changes in the art world social milieu may reflect a larger cultural shift… All the partying is great for art. It plays an important function. At the heart of great art is great social energy.”
They Say The Music World Is Small, But… Wow.
A rare Eugenio Praga violin that was stolen in Montana from Turtle Island String Quartet violinist Evan Price has been recovered intact in a police sting operation in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. “The violin was feared gone forever because, as with the art world, legitimate instrument buyers want documented provenance and the black market is hard for inexperienced thieves to access. In this case, the would-be seller phoned a dealer thousands of kilometres away and had the misfortune of finding a personal friend of the instrument’s former owner.”
Canadian TV/Radio Strike Likely
“The union representing 21,000 film, television and radio workers across Canada said early Thursday a major labour disruption could be a few days away. Talks between the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, or ACTRA, and the producers’ organization broke down late Wednesday… The union’s main contentions centre around wage increases and the use of performances on the internet.”
Hollywood Invests In Africa (Sort Of)
Brangelina jokes aside, Hollywood has done awfully well by Africa of late, shooting several hit movies there at cut-rate prices. And while some have accused the movie industry of exploiting poor Africans, some in the industry have attempted to return Africa’s hospitality with trusts, technology upgrades and other measures designed to combat the extreme poverty that plagues much of the continent.
Italy Warns Getty: We’re Not Going Away
“Italy’s culture minister warned on Wednesday that his government would not budge from its demand that the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles return all of the ancient artifacts in its collection that Italy contends were illegally separated from their heritage… The Italian government was not satisfied with a proposal made by the Getty on Nov. 21 to return 26 of 46 contested objects to Italy.”
Going Where The Censors Can’t Reach You
Last weekend, NBC censors drew the line on a bawdy Saturday Night Live sketch, repeatedly bleeping a certain word as it went out over the air. It was hardly the first time SNL has gone up against the censors, but this time, the show’s creators had a Plan B. The sketch was immediately posted, sans bleeps, on NBC’s website, and on YouTube.com. “In the process, Saturday Night Live appears to have become the first scripted comedy on a broadcast network to use the Web to make an end-run around the prying eyes of both its internal censors and those of the Federal Communications Commission, whose jurisdiction over “Saturday Night Live” effectively ends at the Web frontier.”
Squeaky Clean Or Look-Away Smutty? Both, Natch.
“You could be forgiven for thinking that the world of pop music is smuttier than ever. “But look again… For all those who bemoan the coarsening of popular music (not to mention the dear, perverse souls who celebrate the same), this year’s sales figures complicate the story. Is it possible that our favorite records are getting dirtier and cleaner at the same time?”
Teaching Us To See The Spaces Around Us
Architecture may be the one art form that everyone in the world can’t help but encounter and interact with on a daily basis, and yet, most people understand as much about architecture as they do about a Brahms symphony. Boston architect Stephen Chung is hoping to change that, with a new television show that “decodes contemporary public-space architecture” for a general audience.