Italy will return a fragment of the Parthenon to Greece as a “gesture of goodwill”. “The fragment is part of the statue of Peitho, the daughter of Mercury and Venus, which once adorned the eastern side of the Parthenon. A 14-by-13.6- inch piece of marble, it depicts the goddess’s foot and a portion of her tunic. The frieze was regularly purchased by the museum between 1818 and 1820 from the widow of Robert Fagan, the British consul for Sicily and Malta” and has nothing to do with the Elgin Marbles.
Tag: 01.22.03
Salon’s Survival At Stake?
It appears as though it’s the moment of truth for Salon, the online magazine. “Once the Web was crowded with nervy upstarts such as Suck and Feed, new media sites that disparaged their traditional rivals as dinosaurs but were actually the first to disappear. Salon was one of the most celebrated – and, with 30 million page views a month, one of the most popular – but the online magazine has been struggling for years to reach profitability and recently has been teetering on the edge of insolvency. Now in what may be a last-ditch effort to stay alive, Salon is about to dramatically change its business model.”
Invisible Plays – The Names You Can’t Advertise
What happens when you’re producing a play with a controversial or offensive title? How do you advertise it? How do you get newspapers to accept ads for it? “Boston is the toughest market for controversial titles. Considering that we’re called the Athens of the East, it’s a very conservative, stodgy and puritanical market.”
Opera Australia In The Red
Opera Australia reports an operating deficit of $2 million this year “as a result of last year’s costly season.” The compan y is undergoing an audit and is also beginning a search for a new music director after clumsily deciding not to renew Simone Young’s contract.
Hamburgers Over Art In NY Parks?
New York’s Parks Commissioner is trying to get evict artists from selling their work in the city’s parks. This at the same time he’s been proposing awarding a prime park space to a hamburger franchise. “He said artists and other vendors have overrun popular park sites and that his letter was in support of City Council legislation that would allow the department to restrict sales in the park.”
Nagano to Montreal?
“The name game at l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal got a lot hotter on Monday, as Kent Nagano was outed as the top contender for the music director post abandoned last spring by Charles Dutoit. Nagano, a 51-year-old American conductor, is in negotiations with the orchestra after being chosen by its search committee, according to a report in La Presse. The Montreal newspaper cited an unnamed source ‘very close to one of the most influential members’ of the 13-person committee. Marie-Josée Desrochers, the OSM’s director of communications, said that the committee has made its selection, but would not confirm that Nagano is the man. She said the matter is in the hands of the OSM hiring committee.”
How To Win Friends And Influence People, RIAA-Style
The Recording Industry Association of America has discovered a whole new way to tick off consumers looking for ways around being gouged by CD distributors and, well, the RIAA. The new plan calls for the prosecution of internet service providers whose users illegally download and share copyrighted music. The strategy is most decidedly not getting good reviews, and one internet security consultant has compared it to prosecuting the highway department because drug smugglers use roads. “But the RIAA scored a big win against an ISP on Tuesday, when a federal judge ruled that Verizon Communications must turn over the name of a Verizon Internet subscriber who allegedly downloaded 600 songs through file-trading network Kazaa in one day.”
The Best-Selling Band You’ve Never Heard
Mannheim Steamroller is a man, a band, and a marketing juggernaut, and no one really seems to understand why. The music is new age pop with just enough intelligence to be slightly more palatable than, say, Yanni or John Tesh. “Mannheim is really just one person, a 53-year-old, bearded, wool-sweatered and slightly rotund former jingle writer named Chip Davis. He lives near Omaha, composing what he calls ‘Elizabethan-style rock’ by himself, recording with hired hands as he needs them, for his own label, American Gramophone. He pockets about $4 for every album he sells. He owns three mansions and a Saberliner jet. He smiles a lot.”
Kronos At 30
The Kronos Quartet, which revolutionized the chamber music experience and breathed life into a faltering new music movement when it formed back in the 1970s, turns 30 this year. Thirty years is a very long life for any quartet, let alone one which makes its living, as does Kronos, playing exclusively modern music. And while there are probably more daring ensembles about today, Kronos remains a revered original, and none of today’s successful contemporary music groups would deny that they owe much to the San Francisco-based foursome.
Retirement By Increment
Evelyn Hart has been a star with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for more than a quarter-century, and has been a darling of critics around Canada, and internationally. But now, at the age of 46, Hart is feeling her age, and seems to be on the verge of retirement. The trouble is, no announcement has been made of Hart’s departure, and the ballerina continues to dance with the company when she feels able, which is less and less often. Cancellations by the star are coming fast and furious, infuriating audiences and fellow dancers, and relations between the Royal Winnipeg and its brightest light are said to be extremely strained.