Valery Gergiev is one of the world’s busiest conductors. Presently he’s involved in a whirlwind of concerts celebrating St. Petersburg’s 300th anniversary. But he hints at taking a vacation. “A vacation? Gergiev? The two seem mutually exclusive. But maybe there are other signs that, having reached the magic age of 50, as he did at the beginning of this month, he has been tempted to slow down, or at least to go less fast.”
Tag: 05.20.03
What Gehry Means To LA
Los Angeles is about to get a major new Gehry – the Disney Hall. “For 50 years it’s been the world’s archetypical sprawling, privatised, centreless city of gated suburbs, fast food, fast, flashy architecture, malls and freeways; a city in which you need never sully your toes by touching a sidewalk. But now that Beijing, Shenzhen and the North Circular are out-LA-ing LA, LA has decided to become Paris. It’s been quietly turning its downtown into a proper city centre, like it used to be 80 years ago, before the car screwed it up. It’s introduced old-fashioned public space without security guards, lofts, pedestrian (gasp) boulevards, and posh, properly public buildings such as Rafael Moneo’s masterly Roman Catholic cathedral, and, the linchpin, the Disney Concert Hall.”
Nevada Opera Lays Off Staff, Cuts Production
After canceling a production, Nevada Opera has laid off three of its four full-time employees. “The Nevada Opera’s financial problems reflect a national trend among arts groups faced with declining donations and grants. Last year, one of Reno’s longest-running arts groups, Nevada Festival Ballet, closed its doors under the pressure of debt. ‘Unfortunately, we had to make some very difficult decisions. It’s like taking an organization, stripping it down to the bare bones and then slowly building it back up’.”
Is Literature Outgrowing Us?
Is reading an activity adults grow out of? Really? Alex Good wonders “how did a habit of mind (not to mention a form of artistic expression) traditionally associated with maturity and intellectual depth get turned into an essentially juvenile activity? I never would have thought, as a young man, that a love of literature would be something I would grow out of. Was I wrong?”
BBC Arts – Looking Up?
One of the biggest complaints about the BBC has been its declining arts coverage. But the arts fortunes seem to be changing. “Eighteen months of reassessment have resulted in a stream of new programme commissions planned to 2006. Twenty projects are listed in a special BBC booklet, including films on Michelangelo, Christopher Wren and Mary Shelley and landmark series, such as The Origins of Art. BBC1 is finalising plans for a series on British culture. Another strand, Arena, is being salvaged and turned into a biographical series.”
Europe’s Most Wanted Art Thief
A thief has been entering important libraries in Europe and cutting out pages of rare volumes. “Such is the concern that Scotland Yard has just included him on its ‘most wanted’ list alongside men wanted for questioning about murders, sex attacks and gangland crime. He is in effect Britain’s most wanted art thief.”
Museum Director Aquitted In Goldfish Massacre
A museum director in Denmark has been aquitted in a case that charged cruelty to animals. “The exhibit at the Trapholt modern art museum in 2000 featured live goldfish swimming in a blender. Visitors were given the possibility of pressing the button to transform the fish into a runny liquid. Artist Marco Evaristti, the Chilean-born bad boy of the Danish art scene, said at the time that he wanted to force people to ‘do battle with their conscience’. Two goldfish died after two visitors pressed the button, and the Danish association Friends of Animals filed a complaint against the artist as well as the director of the museum, Peter Meyer, for cruelty to animals.”