“Volpe admits that ticket sales have plummeted at the Met, but blames 9/11 traumas. He points strenuously to a few innovative productions, but rests his laurels on a stubborn pursuit of tradition. There is no question that this dictator kept an orderly house in a world notorious for chaos. Even Volpe’s detractors praise his organisational skills. It cannot be surprising that he will soon join a consulting firm run by his buddy Rudolph Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York.”
Tag: 05.17.06
Joe Volpe, In His Own Words
The Legend of Joseph Volpe is well known to anyone with even a casual interest in New York’s Metropolitan Opera, thanks in no small part to Volpe’s own “grandiose self-aggrandizement.” And as the Met prepares to say goodbye to its outsized general director this weekend, Volpe’s own memoir of his time at the helm has just been released. And as you might imagine, a lot of ears are burning in the opera world…
Perhaps He Should Be Development Director, Then?
Earlier this month, Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz received a three-year contract extension, which will carry him through his 26th season with the orchestra. But when you talk to people inside the organization, it sounds as if the reasons for keeping Schwarz at the helm have very little to do with music. He has been sued by his own musicians, accused of having little to say musically, and while there can be no doubt that Schwarz has been a masterful raiser of money, one observer says that “The [symphony] board is already a laughingstock around the country for allowing itself to become hostage to the fund-raising abilities of its music director.”
Victoria Dreams Of Dance Series
Big plans are in the works for the Victoria Dance Series Society since receiving a major financial boost last week.
What Happened To The Promise Of Black British Theatre?
“Today’s theatre houses several outstanding, award-winning young black playwrights, such as Roy Williams, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Debbie Tucker-Green. But two decades since I was first inspired by British theatre, the black presence is little more than marginal.”
The End Of London’s Theatre Museum?
“The proposals on the table are hopeless. Either the museum is to stay in its current premises until its 22-year lease expires, bolstered by some undefined partnership with neighbours such as the Royal Opera House. Or the Covent Garden premises will be vacated, and exhibition space for the collection shoe-horned into the V&A’s South Kensington site. Such blinkered thinking has dogged the Theatre Museum ever since it was first mooted in the 1950s.”
David Robertson Revives St. Louis Symphony
“The nation’s second-oldest orchestra had been demoralized by contract talks and artistically adrift by the coming and going of dozens of guest conductors after illness forced Hans Vonk’s retirement in 2002, two years before he died. Robertson’s inaugural season, which wrapped up last weekend, featured eclectic, imaginative programs that juxtaposed classical and contemporary music by international and American composers.”
Arts Council England: Where Are Books By Asians, Blacks?
Why don’t UK publishers publish more black and Asian poets? Arts Council England wants to know. “The move comes after research indicated that 8% get work into print despite their popularity at poetry readings.”
Hot 97 A Little Too Hot For Its Landlord
A New York building owner is trying to evict popular hip-hop radio station Hot 97 from its Manhattan studios, saying that the station encourages violence and has been the site of multiple shootings tied to various gangsta rappers and their entourages. The carpenters’ union that owns the building says it is just trying to protect its other tenants, and is also seeking to bar entourages from accompanying rappers to the station for appearances.
But The Posters For Saw II Were Fine, Huh?
“The Motion Picture Association of America has censored a poster advertising a film about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The image that ran afoul of the MPAA is tame by the standards set by the amateur photographers of Abu Ghraib. It shows a man hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.” The MPAA says the picture depicts torture, and is therefore not appropriate for general viewing. But Philip Kennicott points out that the U.S. government has officially approved the use of the techniques depicted in the poster, and that brings up an interesting side debate concerning what constitutes torture, and what Americans are willing to turn away from.