John Sutherland has been named head of this year’s Booker Prize jury. “He is professor of modern English literature at University College London and writes a column for The Guardian. He has also written or edited 50 books ranging from critiques of classic novels to a book about alcoholism, partly based on his own experiences.”
Tag: 01.20.05
San Diego’s Newly Cooperative Partners
The pact reached this week between the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera to share a common orchestra is significant for both organizations, and the deal appears to have been reached without much acrimony, an accomplishment for two groups which have not always played well together. Part of the success of the deal was getting away from traditional notions of a merger, which usually imply pending unemployment for some musicians and staffers. Instead, orchestra and opera officials are taking pains not to use the m-word, and are instead calling the pact a “contract for services.”
Copy-editing The Skin Mag (A Personal Reflection)
Then there was the time Daniel Asa Rose took a job as a copy editor – at a porn publication. Even here, (at least some of )the niceties of style need to be followed. Let’s see, do you hyphenate…
Salzburg On A Mozart Binge
The Salzburg Festival will produce all 22 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s operas and musical theatre works next year in a marathon 250th birthday present to the Austrian musical genius…
True Genius (According to Whom?)
Attempting to make a list of American musical geniuses is an exercise doomed to fail, writes Joe Nickell. First there’s the problem of how you define genius. And it gets even more difficult from there. “Why attempt to narrow the field of geniuses when so many have clearly existed, in many different cultures and traditions and disciplines, throughout history?”
Does Classical Music Cure Petty Crime? Anything Else? (Hint: Think Finland)
So some rail stations in England are playing classical music to scare away hoodlums. Bust doesn’t music have a more profound effect? “Which country achieved the best Year 10 results in science and mathematics last year? Finland is the answer. Yes, Finland, with a population the size of Scotland’s and an impenetrable language. What are the Finns doing right? Every child in Finland is given an instrument to play from the first day at school. They learn to read notes on stave before letters on page. They spend hours at drawing and drama. The result is a society of with few tensions and profound culture. Finnish Radio broadcasts in Latin once a week. Finnish railways do not need to play Sibelius, except for pleasure.”
Success = Risk
What’s the formula for success in the theatre, asks Michael Billington? “I’ve argued till I’m blue in the face that, in the arts, caution kills while risk ultimately pays off. It’s an approach made possible only by subsidy. But if you look at which theatres have prospered in recent decades, it is invariably those that have been artistically daring.”
West End Considering Matinees (Is This Really Good For Theatre?)
Producers in London’s West End are considering adding Sunday matinees to their schedule. “This makes complete sense from the perspective of the public. Alongside retail and sport, all other forms of secular entertainment are now freely available on Sunday afternoons, when it’s cheaper to drive into city centres and park. It’s also better for families and older people to be on their way home by 6pm, it’s nice not to have to rush straight from work, and you can easily eat before or afterwards. Broadway has been doing it for years, so why don’t we?”
Selling Off Some Jazz History
Major icons of the jazz era are being auctioned. “Jazz artifacts have been auctioned before, through Christie’s and Sotheby’s, but there has been no single auction of this size entirely dedicated to jazz. And though there have been jazz collectors of one kind or another since the 1930’s, it seems to have taken many of the families of jazz’s royalty this long to dislodge the once mundane items, long buried in closets, that now have great value not only to jazz aficionados but also to the larger community of collectors.”
Guggenheim Loses Its Whale
The Guggenheim has lost its chairman and biggest donor. Citing “differences in direction,” Peter B. Lewis, the Cleveland philanthropist who has been a trustee of the museum since 1993 and most recently its chairman, resigned yesterday. He has given the institution about $77 million, nearly four times as much as any other board member in its history.