Tag: 01.31.04

At The ENO – Plenty Of Questions

As the English National Opera gets set to move into its renovated home, some big questions have yet to be answered, writes Norman Lebrecht: “The critical public issue for ENO is, as it has been for a decade, the question of identity. The company is not English, except inasmuch as its singers mangle the vernacular. It is not National, lacking the resources to tour. And it is desperately keen to shed the corsets of Opera in the quest for new audiences and fresh relevance. It is, in sum, a product in need of rebranding, a relic of a very different society that has failed to adjust to post-industrial demand.”

Did Dickens Die From Performing?

Charles Dickens was a wilfly popular performer. “As well as being our greatest novelist, Dickens developed a new, composite art form in his stage performances, acting out specially adapted passages from his own works and varying his expressions and speech patterns, so that it seemed as if he were becoming possessed by the characters he created. His reading tours won him huge popular acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. And in all probability they contributed to his premature death, from a stroke, in 1870.”

Does Taste Matter?

One man’s taste is another’s “funereal” ugliness. “Taste is what we share with others, as well as what sets us apart. The word has sharply contrasting meanings, when taken individually or collectively. The history of taste, an absorbing subject, tends to concern itself with generalities, and its great categories apply across the board…”

Of Photos, Pictures, And Art

Where is the line between photo-journalism and art? “On the aesthetic side, many photographers are going through a soul-searching similar to that of painters in the late 1800s when, for some at least, photography made figurative, naturalistic work redundant. Now photographers are questioning their own realistic conventions and, above all, reacting against the new digital technology.”

A Link Between Religion And Success

A new Harvard study suggests that economic success around the world is linked to whether or not you believe in a religion. “Our central perspective is that religion affects economic outcomes mainly by fostering religious beliefs that influence individual traits such as honesty, work ethic, thrift and openness to strangers. For example, beliefs in heaven and hell might affect those traits by creating perceived rewards and punishments that relate to `good’ and `bad’ lifetime behavior.”

Was Hutton’s BBC Report A “Whitewash?”

Thom Yorke is disappointed by the Hutton Commission’s findings on the BBC. “Lord Hutton’s damning report of the BBC is a whitewash. The result will create fear at the Today programme, where there should be pride. As so many times before, they were there with a story that nobody else would touch. And I still cannot see why Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke have had to resign. It flies in the face of reality, ripping all evidence to shreds.”

The New Urban Lit

If 80 percent of Canada can be considered “urban,” is there something called “urban literature?” A new publishing imprint aims at defining it. “But urban’s presence in literature is still nascent. The form’s more characteristic themes — a sense of bravado, youth, hip-hop culture, a certain hypersexuality, and often some reflection of violence — are only just creating their own hood in the literary canon.”

Carnegie Hall Leader Dies At 47

“Robert Harth arrived at Carnegie Hall in September 2001 with a mandate to stabilize an institution bruised by the acrimonious tenure of his predecessor, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg. He quickly projected a combination of businesslike efficiency and musical adventure, adroitly navigating a series of potentially catastrophic shoals.”