“When Cirque du Soleil first set up in Moscow’s Kremlin theatre in February, Russian circuses were nervous about losing their audiences. That hasn’t happened, as the Montreal troupe’s Zarkana differs from the traditional Russian circus fare. However, the Cirque then began hiring away their performers.”
Tag: 04.27.12
Hugo Fiorato, 97, Longtime Conductor At New York City Ballet
“Mr. Fiorato, who was with the City Ballet for 56 years, was a figure of continuity surpassed only by George Balanchine, who founded it in 1948 with Mr. Fiorato’s mentor, the conductor Leon Barzin. Mr. Fiorato held almost every job the company had to offer, starting as its first concertmaster in 1948. ‘I was concertmaster, librarian; I did everything except sweep the floors,’ he once told an interviewer. ‘It was wonderful to be there in those early days.'”
How The Met’s HD Movie Theatre Productions Are Changing Opera
“At an HD broadcast are you at the movies or at a performance? The most disconcerting part of the HD experience comes when it is time to applaud. Or not.”
UK Performers’ Union Starts Campaign Against Exploitation Of Performers
“Working for nothing is becoming too usual for newcomers to the profession, and not just newcomers. An Equity working party has been examining this whole matter. Underlying our whole approach is the belief that if anyone makes money out of a show, then the performer makes money.”
Five Myths About Classical Music
“The implication is that those institutions or lineups can’t have anything to contribute to musical thinking, that the musical ideas that composers in the past have dreamed of in their orchestral works, quartets and operas, have filled the repertoire, and our imaginations, to the brim.”
12,000 Events, 900 Venues, £52 Million: London 2012 Festival Launches
The £52m London 2012 Festival, which launched on Thursday, is the culmination of the cultural olympiad and is meant as a showstopper – a blinding array of arts events across the UK between 21 June and 9 September, staged in the spirit of “once in a lifetime”.
Conductor Kurt Masur Falls Off Podium In Paris During Concert
The 84-year-old, who was conducting the National Orchestra of France, lost balance during a movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.
Why Vinyl Records Are Making A Comeback
“After a quarter of a century of obsolescence, the LP is making a comeback worthy of any religious resurrection. How it has risen from charity shop basement to wealthy living room is a parable for our times, a classic example of popular resistance to the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and market forces. This is a turnaround equivalent to the vindication of homeopathy, the revival of newsprint and the return of the French monarchy, a romantic defiance of intellect and reality.”
How Do You Put A Price On Angst? The Scream On The Auction Block
“Sotheby’s experts anticipate the work will fetch more than $80 million, the highest presale figure the auction house has ever set.” Who might pay such a price, and why?