Mark Morris essays a Sylvia, and it’s a serious ballet, writes Joan Acocella. “In its classicism, “Sylvia” could start a fashion. The big ballet companies are always crying out for three-act story ballets, because that’s what the public wants. And what they end up with, usually, is either some same-old revision of “Giselle” or “Swan Lake” (the San Francisco troupe has these) or the opposite, a new-style, lurid, hauling-the-girls-by-the-crotch melodrama (San Francisco also has one of these, Lar Lubovitch’s “Othello”). “Sylvia” could point a new way: both purely classical—a symbol, not a soap opera—and also serious.”
Tag: 05.17.04
Looking At Our Radio Roots
Increasingly, scholars are studying the history of radio. “Occupying a research niche between the older, higher-profile province of film studies and the more cutting-edge terrain of television studies — and aided by an obsessive Internet-linked web of buffs devoted to old-time radio — scholars are shuffling through the metal disks, wax records, and audiotapes that compose the archival remnants of the original broadcasting medium. Collectively these researchers seek to break through the static of moving-image centricity in media scholarship and remind us of the first true network of simultaneous mass communications in human history.”
Seattle Public Library – Best Of A Generation
More praise for Rem Koolhaas’ new public library in Seattle. Paul Goldberger calls it “the most important new library to be built in a generation, and the most exhilarating. Koolhaas has always been a better architect than social critic, and the building conveys a sense of the possibility, even the urgency, of public space in the center of a city. The design is not so much a rejection of traditional monumentality as a reinterpretation of it, and it celebrates the culture of the book as passionately, in its way, as does the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. The Seattle building is thrilling from top to bottom.”
Edinburgh Fringe Has NY On Its Mind
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is starting a new award, worth several thousand pounds, to pay for winning performers to take their show to a major New York theatre. After ticket sales increased by a record 10 per cent last year, the Fringe sees further opportunities to draw both American performers and audiences to the biggest arts festival in the world. It is also keen to offer a chance for performers from Britain, Europe, or even the United States to get their big break in New York.”
The Bare Breasts Of The 1600’s
“Women of the 1600s, from queens to prostitutes, commonly exposed one or both breasts in public and in the popular media of the day, according to a study of fashion, portraits, prints, and thousands of woodcuts from 17th-century ballads. The finding suggests breast exposure by women in England and in the Netherlands during the 17th century was more accepted than it is in most countries today. Researchers, for example, say Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl baring would not even have raised eyebrows in the 17th century.”
Vancouver Arts Presenter Appeals For Programming Help
“After a season of ‘financial suicide’ at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, the co-owner of the troubled facility is appealing to Vancouver theatre-goers to tell him what kind of programming they’d like to see. ‘Most things haven’t worked in terms of audiences even though we’ve offered a huge variety’.”
Italy’s New Party Of Aesthetics
Italy has a new political party. “The Party of Beauty’s manifesto is simple: stop destroying Italy’s landscape with uncontrolled development and stop inappropriate new building in the cities. “We have got to protect the identity of places”, said Mr Sgarbi, who is well known to the Italians as an art historian and tv pundit. “We have to give this battle some political bite. I am realistic about the number of people likely to go for us, but…”
Racing To Save Sherlock’s Papers
Scotland’s “foremost expert on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has launched a last-minute campaign to ensure that recently-discovered papers by the Sherlock Holmes author, which are due to be auctioned by Christie’s, are saved for the British nation.”
Scottish Opera Gets Emergency Grant (But Company Cuts Are Made)
The ailing Scottish Opera is to be given £5 million of public money to bail it out of a financial crisis on condition that its chorus members go part-time and administrative posts are cut. The opera’s youth work could also be handed to a national youth arts company under plans to restructure the beleaguered organisation. Proposals to cut the 53-strong orchestra have been rejected, but the permanent contracts for the 35 chorus singers could be terminated, while administrative posts will also be scaled back.”
Denver To Get New Contemporary Art Center
Denver is getting a new contemporary art center. “The 15,000-square-foot art center is expected to open in late 2005 or early 2006 as part of Belmar, a $750 million retail, office and residential development. This facility, modeled after leading contemporary spaces such as P.S. 1 in New York City, will serve as a kind of artistic research center with world-class exhibitions, scholarly publications and regular symposiums. The Lab finally gives the Denver art scene what it has desperately needed – a flexible, high-level alternative art space to complement the Denver Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver.”