In case anyone’s keeping track, the Metropolitan Opera still hasn’t pulled off a performance of Tristan und Isolde with both of its billed stars, Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt, onstage together throughout. The latest is that Ms. Voigt is ill again, and “the Met was still holding out hope that [the two] would finally take the stage together for the last performance, on Friday.”
Tag: 03.26.08
Banking On Literary Success
“Chetan Bhagat, an investment banker, has become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India’s history… The novels, deliberately sentimental in the tradition of Bollywood filmmaking, are priced like an Indian movie ticket — just 100 rupees, or $2.46 — and have won little praise as literature… But he has touched a nerve with young Indian readers.”
Okay, So It’s Not Exactly Glamour Activism
A celebrated sculptor from Minnesota who uses sticks, twigs, and other natural materials in his work is taking on an unusual issue, and using his art to raise awareness of it. The issue: buckthorn, a devastatingly destructive plant that destroys entire forests from below.
Sydney Opera Revamp Unveiled
Could Sydney’s world-famous opera house soon become as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside? “This is the vision conceived by the original architect, Joern Utzon… But most of the changes will not be visible to the public. And that is where the political challenge lies.” The planned renovation will cost the public AUS$700 million.
Is Shreveport Symphony Plan Short-Sighted?
The Shreveport Symphony’s plan to convert all its full-time musicians to per-service players and slash their annual pay 75% is not sitting well with some of the city’s residents. “To pay professional musicians this rate is a disgrace and an insult… If this city wishes to attract young professionals then it would serve its best interest to fund the arts.”
Swedish Museum Attendance Plummets With New Entry Fees
“The report shows that visitor numbers for the 19 state-run museums decreased by 40% in 2007 compared with 2006, when entry was free. The report concludes that there are no other identifiable factors which would explain the drop.”
Landmark Seattle Jazz Record Shop Closes
Bud’s Jazz Records was an institution. “People in the jazz community could always depend on running into someone they knew there, and conversations often ran hot and heavy about the preferences for one artist over another. There was always an album on the CD player to compete with — or support — the conversation.”
New Book On Stravinsky/Craft Sparks Angry Denunciations
A new book about Robert Craft and Igor Stravinsky has elicited sharp attacks from Craft, now 80. “He denounces [the author’s] ‘total’ misunderstanding of Stravinsky as a human being” and deplores “the way that he became ‘disputatious, then rebarbative’, with a ‘sole interest’ in ‘gathering gossip damaging to me’.”