Tag: 04.20.03

San Diego’s First-Couple Of The Arts

Ann and Ian Campbell run San Diego Opera. As general director, Ian Campbell is the primary decision-maker, the one most responsible for determining the repertoire and singers as well as the artistic goals. Having headed the 38-year-old company longer than anyone else, he has come to symbolize San Diego Opera, whether in boardrooms or classrooms, radio or television. Ann Campbell is San Diego Opera’s director of strategic planning and special projects, responsible for the company’s earned and contributed revenue.”

It’s Piazzolla Time

“Although often vilified in his lifetime, in the years since he died in 1992, the Argentinian musician Astor Piazzolla, who invented what he called “new tango”, has become lauded by increasing numbers in the classical world as one of the greatest contemporary composers of the last century.”

Sarasota Opera’s Winning Formula

The Sarasota Opera in Florida is thriving. “Sarasota County – with a population of just less than 326,000 – is home to two professional orchestras, more than 10 theaters, 30 art galleries and a ballet company. None of them raises bigger budgets or draws on a larger local, national and international public than the $4.8 million Sarasota Opera. Ticket sales this year declined only 2 to 3 percent, for a loss of about $46,000, from last year’s record revenues of $2.04 million – not bad for any opera producer in a flat economy. The less obvious reason is that Sarasota Opera is giving its audiences – business-suited seniors as well as the jeans-and-Gucci-loafers younger crowd the company actively woos – the kind of opera they can’t hear or see anywhere else.”

Rap Music In Trouble?

“Rap music, which ushered the wonders of hip-hop culture from graffiti-splattered playgrounds to suburban front lawns, is in trouble. Nearly three decades since spoken wordscapes were married to beats to create a new musical vocabulary, rap music is flirting with creative bankruptcy. A genre once characterized by innovative, restless spirit now seems little more than an assembly-line product. Take a menacing scowl, a few platinum rings and pendants, a video filled with lip-licking, come-hither hotties, and someone who can rhyme about bullet-riddled mayhem, cognac, sneakers, dubs, or the latest Hummer — and an MTV or BET-ready rap star is born.”

Culture By Remote

Remote controls are one of the biggest innovations TV has undergone. “Ever notice, for example, that network series rarely have theme songs like in the old days? Thank the remote. Notice that there are no commercials between the end of one network show and the beginning of the next one? Thank the remote. Notice (if you’re old enough) that the commercials themselves are more sophisticated and less annoying than the ones the TV blared in the ’70s? Thank the remote. Notice those endless headlines crawling across the bottom of your screen? Thank the remote. Notice (ladies) that you can tell a lot about a guy’s control issues by watching an evening of TV with him? Thank the remote.”

The Power Of (War) Art

War is awful of course. But “war can produce gorgeous images and striking effects that furnish the raw material for sublime works of art. To anyone who has experienced war’s ravages firsthand, that idea may sound naive, grotesque, even absurd. Yet over centuries of human brutality, the aesthetic has seldom been at odds with the horrific…”

Pop Goes The Hip Hop

Hip hop is popular. Wildly popular. But it’s not like what you see in the pop culture, says Rennie Harris. “This culture, and specifically pop culture, has kind of convinced people that hip-hop dance is sort of a series of steps and patterns. A monkey can do that. They do regimented, synchronized movements in the military, but you don’t call it dance. This is not to disrespect that; the point is to let you know that what you are doing right now is not hip-hop, it has evolved into something else. And once it loses the soul, it is no longer dance.”