Baitzel ran Los Angeles Opera, and was “the administrator on the scene. And he was much more. To get an idea of how much more, you need only look at the artistic profiles of Placido Domingo’s companies in D.C. and L.A. The former is conventional. L.A. Opera is anything but. In the six years that Domingo and Baitzel managed things, it grew faster than any other company in the country.”
Tag: 03.14.07
Hollywood Dreams About A Hit-Filled Summer
American movie theatre operators have a glut of potential hits to choose from this summer. With so many strong movies lined up for this summer, the big question is: “Will the hits start to cannibalize each other? Typically, if a movie is making money, nobody is going to want to pull it off the screen, unless something even bigger comes along. It will be interesting to see how that plays out this summer.”
TV Quiz Shows Figure Out “Dumb” Sells
The questions on the new generation of game shows are easy by comparison with yesteryear. “Many of the quiz shows that riveted the nation in the 1950s were positively Einsteinian compared with today’s. It was a different era, of course. TV was a new medium, and trying very hard to prove it was respectable, even educational. So shows such as “The $64,000 Question,” “Dotto” and “Twenty-One” rewarded those with encyclopedic knowledge in such categories as opera, science and Shakespeare.”
Brazilian Government Invests In HipHop Culture
“With small grants of $60,000 or so to scores of community groups on the outskirts of Brazil’s cities, the Ministry of Culture hopes to channel what it sees as the latent creativity of the country’s poor into new forms of expression.”
Has French Culture Lost Its Relevance?
“The French art scene has lost its buzz. The culture of the past looks safe, with government-owned museums, opera houses and theaters all well attended. But today’s creators, from visual artists to writers, often seem out of touch with society. In a country gripped by uncertainty about its identity, in a campaign dominated by the word change, they have little to say.”
Broadway In Beijing
“Next week the Nederlanders, one of the big three Broadway theater owners, are planning to announce the details of a new company they have formed that, among other things, will present and market tours and live entertainment in China. But the entry of the Nederlanders into the Asian market is only the latest sign of how sizzling it has become.”
Opposition Mounts To Buffalo Museum Art Sales
“Since the decision was announced last November, the anger among a dedicated group of critics has stunned even the museum’s officials, who had not expected the move to be popular. The county legislature and the city council have both held hearings on the sale, which a committee of the council voted to oppose. The action was symbolic, since the museum board has broad authority to manage the collection.”