“For the LSD era there was something mythic about this initiation. Epic heroes have always descended into the underworld to emerge, however scarred, bearing new forms of wisdom. That was also the LSD archetype: descend into madness and emerge enlightened, seeing the world anew.”
Tag: 05.05.08
Livent Impressarios’ Fraud Trial Begins
Theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky and his business partner Myron Gottlieb falsified the books and bilked investors and creditors out of half a billion dollars when they were at the helm of theatre producer Livent Inc. and its predecessor companies, a court was told today.
The Prize Goes To Chicago
“In a classical music world of diminishing grandeur, the orchestra has hired one of the last lions of podium glamour, Riccardo Muti, as its music director and in so doing is lending a sheen to the city’s cultural profile. At the same time Mr. Muti’s embrace of a cold city on Lake Michigan — which he diplomatically likens to the Mediterranean waters off his native Italy — dampened spirits at the New York Philharmonic, which failed to lure him at least once and, by some accounts, including his own, possibly twice.”
What Muti Means To Chicago
“Landing him is a tremendous coup for Chicago, which has been without a music director since Daniel Barenboim’s departure in 2006–especially since Muti had already turned down an offer from the New York Philharmonic in 2000. He will become the orchestra’s 10th music director, effective with the 2010-11 season.”
Riccardo Muti’s Chicago Dreams
“At this point in my life, I don’t have to make a career. I don’t have to prove to anyone ‘Who is Muti,'” the conductor, who twice turned down offers in the last decade to become music director of the New York Philharmonic, said. “But I want both to devote myself to making music with the Chicago Symphony and to bringing music to the many communities of Chicago and to new generations. This is our future.”
Powerful Random House Exec To Depart
Peter W. Olson, the chief executive of Random House and one of the most powerful figures in American book publishing, will step down in the next few weeks, according to two executives at Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate that owns the division.
Can P.S.1 Survive Its Founder?
Over 32 years, Alanna Heiss built P.S. 1 into one of the city’s most refreshingly unpredictable venues for contemporary art, drawing crowds of young, aggressively hip visitors to see its exhibitions and join in its boozy summer dance parties. But when P.S. 1 was merged into the Museum of Modern Art in 2000, it became an open question how long its idiosyncratic impresario would remain at the helm. Now she’s leaving…
Andrea Bocelli: Fame Over Art
Bocelli has admitted that at times he sold his talent short. He said: I regret being forced by circumstances to do things that were very profitable, but occupied a lot of time I could have dedicated to more artistically satisfying work.”
Muti Named To Lead Chicago Symphony
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has named maestro Riccardo Muti as the next music director of the CSO. He’s the tenth conductor to hold that post.
A New Class Of Installation Artist
“Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-Icelandic inventor and engineer of minimalist spectacle, is so much better than anyone else in today’s ranks of crowd-pleasing installational artists that there should be a nice, clean, special word other than “art” for what he does, to set him apart. There won’t be.”