Theatre critic and reporter Mel Gussow wrote more than 4000 reviews for the New York Times over 35 years. “Gussow was long associated with Off and Off Off Broadway, the traditional home of experimental writers. He was often one of the first to take the city’s young emerging playwrights seriously, as he did with Sam Shepard, David Mamet and John Guare. As a critic, he tended to view his role as advisory rather than adversarial and was an early enthusiast of talents like Robert Wilson, Charles Ludlam and Richard Foreman, and later Julie Taymor. “
Tag: 05.01.05
La Scala Loses A Tour, But May Gain Labor Peace
La Scala has canceled a planned tour of the UK after being unable to secure the services of conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. The tour was originally to have been led by Riccardo Muti, who resigned as La Scala’s musical director last month, leaving Milan’s famed opera house scrambling to find replacements. However, there is evidence that the labor strife which has engulfed La Scala for much of the last year may be ebbing, as union leaders rescinded their call for an ongoing series of opening-night strikes.
Connery: Scotland’s Arts Policy Inadequate
Actor Sean Connery has struck out at Scotland’s cultural policy and its culture minister. He “bitterly complains that the nation has had six culture ministers since devolution but there is little progress in developing the arts.”
Hong Kong Movie Industry Dives
“From a powerhouse that churned out 300 movies a year and had box office takings of more than a billion Hong Kong dollars annually in the mid-1990s, the industry is now just a shade of its past glory. In 2004, Hong Kong produced a measly 64 features and took $57 million at the box office.”
Based On A True Story
When art takes its inspiration from actual events, where should the line between fact and fiction be allowed to melt away? Do artists have a responsibility to the truth, or do the demands of narrative flow trump historical reality? Dominic Papatola isn’t conflicted: “Historians and journalists have their biases, but they’re at least working with the filters of balance, objectivity and completeness. Artists — at least when they’re making art — don’t have those filters, nor should they be expected to. We’re complacent — no, we’re brainless — if we assume otherwise.”
Maazel Finances Opera, Prompting Charges
Is a new Royal Opera House production a “vanity” project? “Lorin Maazel, the conductor-composer whose new opera of George Orwell’s 1984 opens tomorrow at the Royal Opera House, has put more than £400,000 of his own money into the production, the Guardian has learned, leading to accusations that Covent Garden is staging a vanity project.”
Ostrow: NPR Was Right To Dump Edwards
When National Public Radio unceremoniously dumped longtime Morning Edition host Bob Edwards last year, fans shrieked and critics almost universally blasted the move as unnecessary and insensitive. One year later, Joanne Ostrow is ready to admit she was wrong. “The revamped show wakes up fresher these days. Getting the anchors out of the studio and on location, something Edwards resisted for years, has paid off… The long-perceived East Coast bias is diminished. Arts coverage has grown in depth. The globe-trotting hosts have delivered amazing reportage.” And if numbers are your thing, listenership to the program is up 7% since Edwards was sent packing.
Will Sydney Opera House Lose Heritage Listing?
On the eve of major renovations to the Sydney Opera House, fears are raised that the work might endanger the building’s listing on the World Heritage List. “In the first major change to the appearance of the building, a 45m verandah – or loggia – is to be built along the western wall facing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The plans include the opening of nine large windows in the wall alongside the Drama Theatre, Studio and Playhouse to give theatre patrons million-dollar views of the harbour.”
The Science Of Architecture, The Architecture Of Science
Scientists tend to be far more focused on their work than on where they’re doing it, but a new generation of labs is embracing the idea that architecture can make for a more productive working environment. “[The new labs] are fun to work in and provocative purely as architecture,” but also take the very specific needs of the scientists who will work within them into account.
Acclaiming The Hype
The blurb-o-sphere has inflated the hyping of books (is that even a sentence?). “Acclaimed”, in this fulsome lingo of book ads and catalogs, now means merely “the author received at least one good review.” Widely acclaimed means “two or more, plus a cable TV plug.” Critically acclaimed means “it was decently reviewed in a specialized publication but didn’t sell.”