“Ballet fans, meet your guitar heroes. Pop musicians, unbound by the traditions that confine ballet as much as preserve it, are increasingly turning to the art form for inspiration and finding new ways to do what so many ballet companies yearn to do in their quest to keep audiences: plug it in to contemporary life. At least for three minutes.”
Tag: 04.08.11
London’s Cock Tavern Theatre Closed Because Of Staircases
“A theatre in north-west London which has spent the past two years stirring critics with challenging productions could be forced to close – not because of a lack of funding or meagre audiences, but because the height of the steps on its Victorian staircases do not match strict council regulations.”
New Zealand Air Force Flies To Aid Of Nation’s Ballet
“In a first for the air force and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, all of the ballet company’s sets, costumes and other essential material for its European tour in July will be flown for free to Britain. … Royal NZ Ballet general manager Amanda Skoog said the free offer would save the company about $20,000 in freight costs.”
Royal Opera House And BBC Begin Joint TV Project
“The Royal Opera House is to co-produce content especially created for television under a new partnership it has entered into with the BBC. The partnership, announced today, will see the two organisations work together on a number of commissions for 2012, with the content being broadcast on television prior to going on to the stage.”
How Understanding Language Is Like Swinging At A Baseball Pitch
How? Context, context, context. Alva Noë explains.
Can A Raging Avant-Gardist Compose A Proper Oscar Wilde Opera? (Absolutely.)
Mark Swed writes that Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest “is hysterically funny. The score is highly sophisticated and indescribably zany. … The world now has something rare: a new genuinely comic opera and maybe the most inventive Oscar Wilde opera since Richard Strauss’ Salome more than a century ago.”
Giant Phallus On Bridge Wins Russian Art Prize
“Radical art group Voina won a major art prize founded by the Russian culture ministry for painting a giant penis on a bridge in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg, organisers said Friday. Voina won the prize for best work of visual art at the annual Innovation awards.”
US House Votes To Reverse Net Neutrality Rules
“The vote is largely symbolic, however, because President Obama has promised to veto any legislation reversing the rules.”
Movie Theatres Experiment With More “Live” Events
“While theatergoers have been feeding our addiction to the high of the live, a new kind of “live” has been created in the mad laboratories full of digital-marketing test tubes: theater being presented sort-of live — in strictly limited runs — in movie houses around the country and the world.”
A Tale Of Two American Conductors
“Why is David Zinman, despite a long track record of strong performances, a successful tenure at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a history of involvement with new music, and one of the most-listened-to Beethoven cycles of all time, still consistently underappreciated in his home country? Second question: why does Robert Spano’s career appear to have plateaued?”