Tag: 01.06.07

Nice Problems To Have, Though

Michael Riedel says that 2007 should be a big year for Broadway, but not all will be sweetness and light. The recent run of boffo box office could make life tough at the bargaining table, when contracts for stagehands come up for renewal. Also, the seemingly endless ticket price escalation will likely continue, with some seats reaching $400 a pop, and “Broadway audiences [becoming] richer – and whiter – than ever.”

Less Flash, More Substance

Minneapolis is one of those cities with a bad habit of bulldozing old buildings every few decades and starting over architecturally. So it was a big deal last year when the city mounted a major overhaul of a long-vacant architectural icon in its urban core. The old Sears/Roebuck store in the city’s Midtown district has been transformed into a global food marketplace and residential tower, and in the process, it has brought Minneapolis into a world where architecture can be used not only to draw oohs and aahs from tourists (as several other recent high-profile projects in the city were clearly intended) but to revitalize a moribund sector of the city and preserve an icon of a bygone era.

Remembering Toscanini

It’s been 50 years since the death of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and tributes are springing up all across the music world. “Commemorations will take place throughout 2007, mostly organized by countries and musical institutions that were touched by Toscanini’s work as an artist and by his political stance as a staunch opponent of fascism and Nazism.”

Sentencing In KC Symphony Murder

A dark chapter in the history of the Kansas City Symphony was closed this week with the sentencing of a man convicted of killing symphony bassist Steven Peters in a home invasion in 2005. The shooter, who was intending to burgle the house when he was confronted by an armed Peters, will serve a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder.

The Tusa Turnaround

London’s Barbican Centre was considered a prime example of how not to build and run a performing arts complex when Sir John Tusa first took up the reins back in 1995. Twelve years on, Tusa prepares to depart his position having led a near-complete turnaround at the Barbican.

Losing Shakespeare

Shakespeare has been a tantalizing influence for many composers across the centuries, but Philip Kennicott says that most musical adaptations of the Bard’s work are sadly lacking. “Classic Shakespearean titles grace staples of the concert hall repertoire… But each of these works is successful on its own terms, as a piece of music, a music drama or dance. None of them ever leaves the audience with the sense that they have seen Shakespeare successfully transformed or translated into a new medium. With other writers, something is always lost in translation. With Shakespeare, almost everything is lost.”

City Ballet’s New Music Man

There aren’t many conductors who specialize in ballet repertoire, so when New York City Ballet’s music director announced that she was leaving the company two years ago, officials scrambled to find a replacement who could do more than just give the beat. They found Fayçal Karoui, a flamboyantly energetic Frenchman without much ballet experience, but with an enthusiasm for the work that seems to dovetail nicely with City Ballet’s “unusually broad musical repertory and Balanchine-derived belief in the primacy of the music.”

Taking A Chance On A 4-Way Marriage

It’s been over a year now since Geraldine Walther made a daring professional leap, giving up her position as principal viola in the San Francisco Symphony to join the Takacs Quartet. The Takacs is considered one of the world’s great string quartets, but orchestra jobs are considered to be more secure, and furthermore, there’s never a guarantee that the chemistry necessary for a great quartet to succeed will develop properly with a new member. For her part, Walther says that she’s having the time of her life.