Tag: 05.22.05

Where Have You Gone, Bob Fosse?

Broadway is booming, but what’s happened to the grand old tradition of theatrical dance? “From the galumphing knights in Spamalot, to the interminable Old Navy commercial that was Good Vibrations, to the ballroom gliding in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that brought to mind the Geritol-flavored heyday of Lawrence Welk, the choreography in musicals this season often seems intended not to capture your attention, not to illustrate the breathtaking possibilities of the human body in motion, not to make a case for dance as an indispensable ingredient in musical theater.”

Is 24 Promoting Torture?

Fox’s terrorist drama 24 has been hailed by critics as a well-written, well-acted, edge-of-your-seat drama since it debuted three seasons back. But of late, the program, which focuses on a counter-terrorist agent who constantly finds himself with 24 hours to save America single-handedly, has introduced a disturbing plot twist: torture. “At least a half-dozen characters have undergone interrogation under conditions that meet conventional definitions of torture. The methods portrayed have varied, and include chemical injection, electric shock and old-fashioned bone-breaking.” The shocking nature of the torture would alone be enough to cause concern, but there is a wider problem: 24 frequently seems to justify such tactics as the necessary breaking of eggs to fry the terrorist omelette.

Fogel: Utah S&O Situation Will Improve

American Symphony Orchestra League president Henry Fogel is on the ultimate road trip, meeting with musicians and managers at orchestras across the country in an effort to get a firsthand picture of the industry he’s devoted his life to. This week, he’s been in Salt Lake City, where he defends the beleagured CEO of the Utah Symphony & Opera, who has been accused of gross incompetence and poor planning by some of the US&O’s musicians and donors. Fogel’s take on the controversial merger of Utah’s two largest classical music organizations is that such plans take time to come to fruition, and he believes that better days are ahead in Salt Lake.

Austrian Art Loans Canceled

A dispute between the Albertina Museum and the Austrian government has led to the cancellation of hundreds of loans worldwide. These include “the cancellation of the Schiele exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, following the dropping of the Dürer show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Loans of individual works have also been withdrawn from other venues, including major shows in Paris, Berlin and Ottawa. So far over 400 promised loans have been banned from leaving Austria.”

Let Art Be Art

Have we begun expecting too much of art and music? These days, as an on-demand world drives us to demand ever more instant gratification, fewer and fewer people seem to have time for anything that cannot be appreciated in an instant. Worse, we’ve trapped ourselves in a mindset that says that the arts exist to bolster our cities and make our children smarter, and nothing that doesn’t quickly accomplish those goals is worth having. “It’s hard to argue for art on its purest grounds, because describing what makes art so powerful is hard to put into words… Often, the thing that makes a piece of art so important to you means nothing to the next guy.”

Just Don’t Let Seacrest Conduct, Okay?

Let’s be blunt. Fox’s runaway smash hit, American Idol, is a worthless piece of television dreck featuring horrible singing, vacuous songs, and predictable fake snarkiness from three judges so caught up in their own brilliance that they seem to have forgotten that the show is supposed to be about music. But still, Idol has become a huge part of America’s pop culture, and Dominic Papatola says that the arts world ought to be taking notice. “I’m willing to bet that the main reason for the runaway success of American Idol” lies in its cunning ability to link the worlds of art and competition.” Americans love a winner, and they love watching the loser squirm even more, and the arts could use an injection of that type of (admittedly manufactured) excitement if it ever again wants to compete for large-scale attention.

The New Epicenter Of Classical Music

It’s China’s century to lose, according to nearly every newsmagazine and commentator, but much of the country’s projected economic and military dominance is still years, even decades away from materializing. Still, in the realm of classical music, China may already be the new frontier. “Conservatories are bursting at the seams. Young people crowd symphony concerts. Private music schools are flourishing, and urban parents jockey to hire the best tutors, seeing music as a path to status and educational achievement… Curiously, some experts say the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, the cataclysmic period of turmoil from 1966-1976, may be one reason Chinese-born composers and performers have soared to world fame, deepening a passion for Western classical music.”

Palme d’Or To Belgium’s Dardenne Brothers

A Belgian drama has won the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “L’Enfant is a gritty urban tale of a young couple living on the breadline in France, directed by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne… It was the second Palme d’Or for the Dardenne brothers, having previously been awarded the prize in 1999 for controversial drama Rosetta. US director Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray as an aging Don Juan searching for a son he did not know he had, won the Grand Prix award – the runner-up for best film.”

Canucks Shut Out

Canada’s film community had high hopes going into Cannes, with critically acclaimed new films by David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan leading the pack. But when the festival wrapped up this weekend, Canada went home empty-handed. So what went wrong?