Tag: 01.18.06

Grassroots Opera

Seattle is seeing the birth of a new movement of new opera outside traditional channels. “These productions bracket an extraordinary and sudden flowering—a dozen or so examples in as many months— of what might be called ‘homemade opera.’ Singers and composers are taking the impresario reins, presenting small-scale productions both of new operas and of neglected works by established names, making their own opportunities to perform and be heard outside a mainstream operatic culture in which young singers face stiff competition and composers are all but ignored.”

What Makes Sam-I-Am A Classic?

“There are two ways to interpret ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’ The first–to which I do not subscribe–was suggested to me by a colleague with small children. It is as a terrifying torture-and-kidnap story… The second way to interpret the book is as a celebration, albeit a mischievous one, of two particularly American traits: salesmanship and open-mindedness.”

Will Disney Buy Pixar?

The two companies have had a tense business relationship, and their distribution deal is coming to an end. “Citing unnamed people familiar with the plan, the Wall Street Journal said Disney would pay a nominal premium to Pixar’s current market value of $6.7 billion under the deal being discussed in a stock transaction that would make Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs the largest individual shareholder in Disney.”

Jimmy’s Brother

Tom Levine is an artist. As the brother of conductor James Levine, though, he’s not the artist who gets most of the attention in the family. “For the last 15 years or so, Levine has been working the grid. He often takes multiple canvases, some square, some rectangular, and attaches them in back to create a larger, human-size painting surface. He works along the borders of the smaller, latched-together squares most of the time, effectively painting within the boxes. These oils remind people of windows, though Levine says that is not intended.”

Charleston Musicians: Don’t Rush Us

Musicians in South Carolina’s Charleston Symphony have walked away from the bargaining table after being given an ultimatum by the orchestra’s management that planning would not begin for next season unless a contract settlement was reached by February 1. The musicians’ contract doesn’t actually expire until the end of June, and the musicians claim that the ultimatum amounts to a “board strike.”

Two Paintings Authenticated As Rembrandts

Copenhagen’s National Gallery has discovered that two paintings thought to be fake Rembrandts are in fact real. “International art experts have re-evaluated 10 canvases that bear Rembrandt’s signature but were kept in storage for years because they were thought to be copies by his students. The five experts concluded that two of the paintings were by Rembrandt.”