“It’s both irresistible and odious. I was gripped by its melodrama, but its nightmarish view of both ballet and women is not one I’m keen to see again. … Though she enjoys triumph, we never see the willpower that gets her there, just the psychosis and the martyrdom.”
Tag: 02.10.11
Striking Detroit Symphony Players Reject Latest Contract Offer
“The musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have turned down management’s latest contract offer, setting up a showdown that could lead to the cancellation of the rest of the 2010-11 season by the end of the week.”
Finish Disney Hall! Cries L.A. Times Critic
Mark Swed: “[The] concert hall is not yet what it can be, or should be, or was originally intended to be. … [The] multimedia features Gehry had originally designed” – including the ability to project concert video on the building’s exterior walls, as at Gehry’s latest concert venue in Miami Beach – “were taken away from the architect to save a few pennies. … [But] it is hardly too late to implement them.”
Whatever Happened to Houston Grand Opera?
“That this renowned company’s international media profile has slipped since the departure of David Gockley, its general director from 1972 to 2005, is obvious. But … [if] the Houston company has worked more quietly under [Anthony] Freud’s leadership, on present evidence its products are no less distinguished.”
How Anthony Freud Is Changing Opera in Houston
The Houston Grand Opera general director’s major new project is HGOco, “a lab and a playground” that introduces composers and librettists to local communities (including immigrant groups) to develop new operas. “[It’s] an initiative to reach a very large number of people who may not normally get involved with an opera company.”