The company launched its third season last weekend with Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, staged by former Balanchine colleague Patricia Neary. “One of that ballet’s greatest interpreters of the title part, Miami City Ballet director Edward Villella, loaned them costumes and sets (modeled on Georges Rouault’s originals).” And the dancers of the fledgling troupe performed the piece “flawlessly.”
Tag: 03.09.09
Grand Rapids Symphony Opts For Pay Cuts Over Staff Cuts
The western Michigan orchestra, “in an effort to cut costs and balance its budget, has imposed salary reductions of 3 percent for most of its administrative staff, and 5 percent for its senior staff for the remainder of its current fiscal year.”
Univ. Of Missouri Receives $1 Million To Support New Music
The gift from Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield “will provide funds for scholarships for student composers and a graduate-level new music ensemble, which will perform in non-traditional venues on campus and throughout the state… The money will also fund a summer composition festival… that will feature guest composers and professional ensembles-in-residence.”
Another Veteran Returns To The Stage: 92-Year-Old Kirk Douglas
In Before I Forget, “Douglas shares tales about his life, work and family, intertwined with video from his long career in Hollywood.” Charles McNulty finds the evening “genuinely touching and amusing by turns”; Bob Verini says that “Douglas’ insights may not be deep, but they’re pithy, witty and heartfelt.”
Tech Gremlins Return To Haunt L.A. Opera’s Rheingold
Three years ago, the company had to postpone the world premiere of Grendel when the computer controlling some elaborate and expensive stage machinery malfunctioned. Now the same problem is bedeviling L.A. Opera’s latest high-stakes production, the first installment in its Ring cycle: a “computer glitch” caused two different machinery problems during a performance last week.
Museum Of Funeral Customs May Be On Its Own Deathbed
“A stone’s throw from Lincoln’s tomb, this unusual cultural repository is an unmistakable reminder that everyone’s days are numbered. Now it seems the same might be true of the museum itself.”
In Royalties Row, Music Videos Pulled From YouTube In UK
“YouTube in the UK is to be stripped of its most popular music videos after the site failed to agree a new licensing deal with the Performing Rights Society for Music, the trade body that collects music royalties. YouTube said today that after the expiry of its former deal, PRS had proposed new payment terms that would be financially prohibitive for the site and would require YouTube to pay out more than it makes from the ads next to each video.”
Synergy’s Downside: Layoffs Amid The Box-Office Boom
“[T]he box office seems to get better as the evening news gets worse. But unlike in the first Great Depression — when Americans would cough up 27 cents to watch Fred and Ginger dance — the bad news isn’t necessarily good news for Hollywood moguls and their employees. That’s because today, movie studios are small divisions in much larger conglomerates. … So what is happening is a strange intersection: a thriving box office, along with serial layoffs at movie companies.”
From Michael Eisner’s Foundation, $1.25M For CalArts
“Former Walt Disney Co. chief executive Michael Eisner and his family’s Eisner Foundation are giving $1.25 million to a program at California Institute of the Arts that brings arts instruction to Los Angeles schoolchildren. The grant, to be paid in $250,000 installments over the coming five years, is the largest ever received by CalArts’ Community Arts Partnership, university officials said, and is the first grant the Eisner Foundation has made to an arts institution.”
No Increase In Federal Funding For CBC, Minister Says
“The beleaguered CBC will not be getting any help from Ottawa to cope with its economic woes. Heritage Minister James Moore says the public broadcaster already receives substantial public funding each year and should not expect more.”