With Baltimore Opera in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its season cancelled, some company members who found themselves available have launched Baltimore Concert Opera. The troupe takes its first public steps on March 25 with a concert performance of Don Giovanni. “And [there will be] no orchestra; to keep things financially manageable, there will be only piano accompaniment.”
Tag: 02.18.09
Canadian Arts Groups Want Tax On ISPs To Fund Content
“Canadian arts groups say the time has come to protect homegrown content by making Internet distributors obey the same rules applied to radio and television broadcasters.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission “exempted new media from regulation in 1999, when few households had access to high-speed Internet connections and in 2007 it also gave a free pass to content broadcast to mobile devices.”
The Airport Was Evacuated; The Bike Was Not A Pipe Bomb
“The problem with naming punk bands after terrorist bomb threats is that sometimes people take those threats seriously. Memphis International Airport was partly evacuated on Monday, after a visitor’s bicycle was spotted bearing the sticker of a folk-punk band. The name of that band? This Bike is a Pipe Bomb.”
Caryl Churchill’s Gaza Play Is Labeled Anti-Semitic
“A fine old row is developing over whether Seven Jewish Children, Caryl Churchill’s eight-minute play provoked by the recent conflict in Gaza, is antisemitic. The work, now playing at London’s Royal Court, involves seven brief scenes, in which Israeli adults discuss how to explain moments in Israeli history to seven children. The last, about Gaza, includes the line: ‘Don’t tell her about the dead babies.'”
Atwood, In Protest, Withdraws From Dubai Festival
“Margaret Atwood has pulled out of the inauguraul Emirates Airline international festival of literature in the wake of a novelist being blacklisted for potential offence to ‘cultural sensitivities’. Other authors due to appear at the festival, including bestselling children’s authors Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child, are now also reconsidering whether to attend.”
Reinharz Critics: Rose Museum Debacle Part Of A Pattern
Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz “finds himself in the eye of the storm as he tries to steer Brandeis out of a financial crisis. His bungled announcement of a plan to close the Rose Art Museum – and subsequent backpedaling – have stirred anger among many faculty members and shaken their confidence in his leadership.”
Engineering A More Connected Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Institution’s new secretary, Wayne Clough, “took the helm in the wake of a raging controversy. His predecessor, Lawrence M. Small, resigned in March 2007 amid charges of flagrant spending and irresponsible management. Then came the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression. But Clough (pronounced cluff) seems to have found a comfort zone at the 163-year-old institution.”
Where Rent Was Canceled, Charlie Brown Steps In
The drama teacher at an Orange County, Calif., high school says the principal nixed “Rent” due to gay content; the principal says she asked only to review the script. “Now, amid growing backlash and consternation from some students and members of the gay community, the actors at Corona del Mar High are grudgingly preparing for a very different show: ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.'”
Sundance Director Moves East, To Tribeca Film Fest
“In a jolt to the independent film world, Geoffrey Gilmore has resigned his longtime post as director of the Sundance Film Festival to become the creative director of Tribeca Enterprises, a New York company that includes the Tribeca Film Festival among its ventures. The move promises to realign two of independent cinema’s most powerful institutions.”
Needed ASAP: A Stronger Case For The Arts
Arts partisans are celebrating their stimulus victory, but Greg Sandow contends that it really wasn’t such a coup. The arguments made on behalf of the arts “aren’t nearly strong enough,” he writes. “The arts are going to need a better strategy. And in the end it’s going to have to come from art itself, from the benefits art brings, in a world where popular culture — which has gotten smart and serious — also helps bring depth and meaning to our lives.”