Was Rome named after a woman? “A fragment of writing by Stesichorus, a Graeco-Sicilian poet who wrote not long after Rome’s founding, suggests Rome was named after a Trojan woman called Roma.”
Tag: 05.20.03
Pittsburgh Musicians Facing Huge Cuts
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which has been facing choking deficits and cash-flow problems for much of the last two years, has opened negotiations for a new contract with its players by proposing that the musicians’ pay be slashed by $10,000 and that benefits be severely cut back. The PSO has cut costs already this year by reducing its cello section to ten players (twelve is standard,) and some musicians are already taking other auditions in anticipation of what many consider an inevitable downgrade in artistic quality. But the orchestra’s cash crunch is real: last year, then-executive director Gideon Toeplitz raised eyebrows across the industry when he threatened that the PSO would file for bankruptcy if community support did not increase.
Orchestra To Maestro: Take It Down a Notch
Orchestras are not in the habit of telling conductors how to do their jobs – it’s supposed to be the other way around. But with Yakov Kreizberg stepping in at the last minute to fill in for the ailing Wolfgang Sawallisch on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s South American tour, the orchestra has taken the unusual step of asking the maestro to tone down his ‘antics’ on the podium, and to leave the tempos where Sawallisch put them. Kreizberg, by all accounts, has taken the chiding in stride, and Peter Dobrin says that the unusual talking-to seems to have done some good.
“Hitler” Will Lose Money For CBS
Despite good reviews, CBS’ mini-series on Hitler looks to lose plenty of money. The first installment failed to attract premium advertisers. “The lack of a major advertisers will mean that CBS will not be able to recoup anything near its costs for the miniseries. The losses could top $6 million for the two nights, according to estimates. Apparently, advertisers were scared away by the movie’s provocative subject – the early years of Hitler – and by the controversy that was sparked last year before filming even began.”
Yawning At Cannes
“Walking out of bad movies has been all too common for many American studio film buyers at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Even films that stirred early interest have met with a tepid response from U.S. film distributors. That’s a major disappointment for companies such as Miramax, Lions Gate, Focus Features, IFC Films and others that rely on what they can pick up from film festivals for as much as half of their total slate.”
Iraqi Artists – How To Cope With Freedom?
Being an artist in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was to live under creative oppression, worrying about what was required to work or even survive. Many artists wonder if they will ever be able to develop their own voices after years of tyranny. “My professional life was lived during the years of Saddam Hussein. I developed my style of writing during these years and now it’s become my style, set in concrete. Maybe only the new generation can reclaim the Arabic language.”
Death Of The Single
Why are record singles dying? “There’s no question in my mind that when record companies sign kids up now, bar a very few exceptions, it’s a case of ‘bring ’em in, squeeze ’em dry, and throw ’em out again’. And if you tell the teenyboppers today that some band is the latest, greatest thing, eventually they get sick of being manipulated and stop buying the records – which is exactly what is happening. The sale of singles fell by 42% in number and value in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, and experts are predicting that the top 40 may soon be based on radio airplay, rather than how many singles people buy. “
Chicago Lyric Opera Posts Deficit
Despite selling 97 percent of its tickets, the Chicago Lyric Opera will end its season with a “deficit of $1.1 million, on an operating budget of $48.6 million. The deficit ends a 16-year winning streak in which the company posted operating surpluses every season. Expenses for 2002-03 exceeded budget by about $700,000, including charges related to revising next season’s repertory, while ticket revenues fell $400,000 short of expectation.”
Endangered Speaking
Languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. “According to new measurements, human languages face a greater threat of extinction than birds or mammals. Previously, the life of a language was measured rather arbitrarily by counting the people speaking it. But William Sutherland, a British ecologist, applied the standards of species classification to the 6,809 living tongues in the world to demonstrate what probably comes as little surprise to linguists: There are more extinct languages than species and more languages on the brink of vanishing.”
Up The Amazon With A Review
Newspapers are devoting less space to book reviews. “But one review venue is going strong and getting more attention of late: Amazon.com. Its customer-written reviews – some signed, some anonymous – are linked to book titles on Amazon’s website. Anyone can write one (sorry, you don’t get paid) and get it posted, and the opportunity has created a small cadre of people who have written hundreds – in some cases, even thousands – of reviews.” Amazon reviews are getting more and more attention from publishers and authors because they influence sales.