“Natalia Bessmertnova, a Soviet-era prima ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for decades, died Tuesday… Bessmertnova died at a Moscow hospital after suffering from a grave illness,” reported by Russian media to be kidney failure.
Tag: 02.19.08
More Dickens Than You Can Shake An Orphan At
“While 6½ hours of theatre may seem a bit of a marathon, consider that there are 27 actors playing more than 100 speaking parts, and a boy’s journey to manhood, to get through. Consider, also, that the version of Nicholas Nickleby landing at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre on Saturday is two hours shorter than the landmark stage version that opened in London in 1980.”
Investors Happy As Blu-Ray Bests HD-DVD
Toshiba is reportedly preparing to halt production of its HD-DVD discs and players, leaving Sony’s BluRay as the lone high-definition DVD standard. Stock in both companies is up as a result of the end to the confusion over which technology would become the standard.
Product Placement Comes To The Publishing World
“Specifying a character’s brand of lipstick, shoes or handbag is a commonly accepted way to add an aura of reality or consumer aspiration to books aimed at young readers… But what if writers and publishers enlisted companies to sponsor those branded mentions, as is the widespread practice in Hollywood?”
DPRK Agrees To Nationwide NY Phil Broadcast
“The North Korean government has agreed to a live national broadcast of the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang next week, the orchestra said on Monday — an unheard-of event in that isolated country… However, it was not clear how many North Koreans had television and would actually be able to see the broadcast.”
Barenboim’s Beethoven Binge
Daniel Barenboim recently spent three days in London, performing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas for rapt audiences. It was a unique event, unrecorded and unbroadcast at Barenboim’s request, and even jaded London critics (whose slings and arrows Barenboim knows well) are calling it a performance “beyond perfection.”