“The company, which usually presents three or four concert performances each season at Carnegie Hall, scrapped plans to perform Wagner’s Rienzi on March 19 and Cherubini’s Medea on April 21. It also canceled a concert with Ferruccio Furlanetto on Feb. 27. Its only performance this season was Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Czar’s Bride on Oct. 15.”
Tag: 01.28.09
Cleveland Critic Drops All But One Claim From Lawsuit
Donald Rosenberg, the Plain Dealer writer who was reassigned away from reviewing the Cleveland Orchestra last fall, has abandoned charges “that the newspaper defamed him, breached public policy and broke promises he had relied on,” leaving only a claim of age discrimination. (His claims against the Orchestra’s parent body remain unchanged.)
Lyric Opera Of Chicago, Ever Conservative, Weathers Downturn In Good Shape
The company has had to make no changes in its schedule for this season or next, thanks to “built-in buffers against any further economic weakening.” General director William Mason, “who has been criticized for putting on ultrasafe, conservative opera seasons that avoid adventurous initiatives, may be excused for having the last laugh.”
Voigt’s Tosca To Open Chicago Lyric’s 2009-10 Season
Said conservative company’s plans include Tosca, The Merry Widow and Marriage of Figaro, but there are also rare Verdi (Ernani), Janácek (Katya with Karita Mattila), and the Fausts of Gounod and Berlioz.
Bay Area Theatre Contracts
“With a few exceptions, most of the Bay Area’s large and midsize theater companies are cutting back. But most are also showing signs of fundamental strength in the first year of what is expected to be a long financial downturn.”
Washington Post Closes Its Sunday Books Section
“According to reports from Book World employees, the last issue of Book World will appear in its tabloid print version on Feb. 15 but will continue to be published online as a distinct entity. In the printed newspaper, Sunday book content will be split between Outlook, the opinion and commentary section, and Style & Arts.”
Manslaughter By Inflatable Art, Prosecutor Charges
“Two people died when a walk-through inflatable artwork broke free from its moorings because of the creator’s gross negligence, a court heard today. Maurice Agis, 77, designed the multi-coloured Dreamspace structure and was taking it on a UK tour when disaster struck in July 2006 in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.”
In Canada’s New Budget, A Greater Investment In The Arts
“The federal government has heard the arts community’s cries and offered its largest investment in culture, but some sectors will have to make do with the status quo. The Conservatives proclaimed the budget contains $276-million in new funds for arts and culture spread over the coming years. … [T]he scale of this year’s cultural spending far surpasses that in last year’s plan, which made only passing reference to culture.”
As Economy Suffers, Theatres Struggle To Stay Aloft
“From large theatrical enterprises to midsize houses to the vast array of 99-seat venues stretching from the San Fernando Valley to Orange County, many local stages are feeling the pinch, or in some cases the vise grip, of the world economic downturn.” For nonprofits, tight funds are nothing new. “But for some local theaters, years of thrifty budgeting may no longer provide a sufficient defense against looming calamity.”
Widow, Friends Say Bolaño Fabricated Some Of His Past
“Few writers are more acclaimed right now than the Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, who died of an unspecified liver ailment in 2003, at the age of 50. … [I]nterest in him and his work has been further kindled by his growing reputation as a hard-living literary outlaw.” But his widow and some of his friends say he invented elements of that biography: not only a heroin habit but his presence in Chile “during the military coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.”