Category: today’s top story

“It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg.” The contraption can print and bind any of half a million (and counting) out-of-print books in about five minutes.

“In life, the playwright August Wilson had an all-but-official rule: No white directors for major productions of his work” — a rule that’s been broken in a big way, albeit with his widow’s consent, with the selection of Tony winner Bartlett Sher to direct the Broadway revival of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” The choice “has prompted concern and even outrage among some black directors, who say this production represents a lost opportunity for a black director, for whom few opportunities exist on Broadway or at major regional theaters.”

“Lest you think [New York City Opera’s] disastrous financial situation reflects a melting economy, the damage has been largely self- inflicted. A clueless board led by Susan Baker has squandered the company’s endowment and ruined its good name. To top it off, a strike is possible. … Expecting artists to pay for the mistakes of a wealthy board is something Beverly Sills might call chutzpah. Remember her?”

Not to worry: work on the high-tech concert hall for the New World Symphony is proceeding on time and on budget. But, with the scheme well underway, the city of Miami Beach is now balking at the cost of the adjacent 2½-acre park – and at Gehry’s fee for it. So the architect has withdrawn from the park component and is threatening “to walk away from the [entire] project completely if city commissioners continue to harp on his fees, which he says they have exaggerated and misrepresented.”

“Broadway’s best-known collection of show tunes is to come under the same ownership as work by Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten after a $200 million (£137 million) deal expected to be announced today. Rights to The Sound of Music and other musicals written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein are to be sold by their daughters to Imagem Music, the owner of the Boosey & Hawkes classical library.”

“Finally, the curse is over. New York Times art critic Holland Cotter today won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He’s the first art critic to get the nod in 35 years, since the late Emily Genauer of Newsday won in 1974.”

“Pinteresque, Dickensian, Shakespearean. Not many writers are so distinctive and influential that their name becomes an adjective in its own right. J. G. Ballard, who died yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 79 [sic], was one of them.” Among his prominent works are Empire of the Sun, High Rise, Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition.

“The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra [sic] has canceled its remaining concert this season and its entire 2009-10 season for the full orchestra because of a drop in donations.” The orchestra will continue its education programs (which are already funded) and Michael Christie will remain as music director.

“The 51-year-old company is a victim of lower ticket sales, reduced contributions and defaults on pledges, said Jim Ireland, the company’s president and CEO. The group announced three weeks ago that it could not continue if it did not raise $500,000. A recent three-week fund drive brought in only about $25,000.”

“[W]hat everyone was really hoping for was a wonderful musical experience to complete the fairy-tale idea that strangers at all levels of ability, from professionals to music students to hobbyists, could come together and join in top-flight musicmaking. Unfortunately, as Wednesday’s concert demonstrated, that’s the stuff of video, not reality. Music, it turns out, isn’t a language universal enough that people can converse in it easily right off the bat.”