“Publishers want to know what to publish. Readers want to know what to read. The traditional models are being smashed.”
Tag: 05.15.12
NY City Opera Shrinks (Only 8 Percent Of This Year’s Budget Came From Ticket Sales) And Takes Risks
“At this moment in its history, when it is battling its way back from financial disaster and reduced to a fraction of its former size and activity, City Opera feels like a small company in town, closer to the ambitious young Gotham Chamber Opera with its $1 million budget than the behemoth Metropolitan Opera. It will have to stake out its own ground in size and artistic profile to draw audiences and donors.”
“Avengers” Racks Up $1 Billion In Only Two Weeks
“After setting the record for the biggest domestic opening ever, the superhero adventure had a massive second weekend, raking in $103.2 million. That raised the film’s total in the U.S. and Canada to $373.2 million, and combined with the movie’s $628.9 million international haul, the picture joined the ranks of 11 other films that have sold over $1 billion worth of tickets.”
Chicago Lyric Opera Balances Books By Tapping Endowment
“Given the ever-rising costs of opera production, the company was forced to draw approximately $3.8 million from its reserve funds to break even for the fiscal year. Lyric had tapped into its Campaign for Excellence Fund to the tune of $4.3 million in fiscal 2011, and $2.7 million the previous year, to balance its books. All three were planned withdrawals.”
David Robertson Is Sydney Symphony’s Next Chief Conductor
“The newly appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will bring ‘groundbreaking’ digital initiatives to the role when he takes the reins in 2014. David Robertson, music director at the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, will take over from 75-year-old Vladimir Ashkenazy.”
Mike McGrady, 78, Architect Of American Literature’s Greatest Practical Joke
He was “a prizewinning reporter for Newsday who to his chagrin was best known as the mastermind of one of the juiciest literary hoaxes in America – the best-selling collaborative novel Naked Came the Stranger, whose publication in 1969 made Peyton Place look like a church picnic.”
Lincoln Center Theater To Open Third Stage
“The 112-seat theater, home to Lincoln Center Theater’s latest program, LCT3, aims to develop new talent, feed the company’s two larger theaters – the Vivian Beaumont and the Mitzi E. Newhouse – and attract younger, more diverse audiences. Even the drinks at intermission will be cheaper” – as will the tickets, at $20 each.
New Zealand Gets A New National Dance Troupe
“The new venture” – named the New Zealand Modern Dance Company – “has a long-term vision to create a permanent, high-calibre national contemporary dance company which from its Auckland base will represent New Zealand nationally and internationally.”
Leading Australian Aboriginal Actress Says She’ll Play No More Aboriginals
“Actress Ursula Yovich has quit playing indigenous roles, saying she has been typecast because of her race and that a career spent portraying the ‘tragic reality’ of Aboriginal characters has left her emotionally drained.”