“Touting itself as the world’s only opera house to perform all of Mozart’s stage works every summer, the Warsaw Opera will perform the marathon programme this year from June 15 to July 26, but ensemble officials warned it could be the final curtain come August. With the subsidies cut, the opera house will no longer be able to pay salaries after the summer season, nor will it manage to afford its rent in central Warsaw. Director Stefan Sutkowski has announced he will resign once the Mozart festival is over.”
Tag: 05.29.12
James Earl Jones At 81
“The real part of theater is being onstage with your fellow actors. The fake part is the glitter of it — that’s got nothing to do with the work of show business. Otherwise, it can do real head tricks — you start believing your publicity.”
Japanese Film Industry Thrives Despite Lack Of International Cachet
“Japan doesn’t seem that phased by its lack of clout. Inside its borders, it’s getting on perfectly fine: it’s still (just) the second-largest film market in the world, buoyed by the teeming V-cinema circuit. The industry is in a far healthier state in the early 90s, when its own studio system, undermined by VHS and US imports, was teetering on the brink.”
Russian Violinist Wins Queen Elisabeth Competition
Andrey Baranov beat out 77 international participants to win the Queen Elizabeth International Competition in Brussels on Sunday. Baranov, 26, from St. Petersburg, will receive a prize of 25,000 euros ($31,300) and use of the “Huggins” Stradivarius (1708), on a three-year loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Doc Watson, 89, Country Guitar Legend
Over a seventy-year career, “the blind folk singer and guitarist whose dazzling string work and homespun stage manner transported concert audiences … influenced such diverse musicians as Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Clarence White of the Byrds, the innovative acoustic picker Leo Kottke and bluegrass multi- instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs.”
Yet Another Record Box-Office Year On Broadway (Thanks To Higher Prices)
“Broadway musicals and plays had another record-setting season at the box office, grossing a total of $1.139 billion … Revenues increased at a faster rate than theater-going because several Broadway producers have raised the prices of so-called premium tickets.”
Lady Gaga Cancels Indonesia Concerts After Threats
“The fundamentalists had threatened violence if Lady Gaga went ahead with her Born This Way Ball concert in the world’s most populous Muslim country, saying her sexy clothes and provocative dance moves could corrupt the young.”
Security Tight As Israeli Theatre Company Performs Shakespeare In London
“Security around the Globe to Globe Festival escalated last night, to put it mildly, when Habima, the National Theatre of Israel, presented The Merchant of Venice. These precautions are hardly surprising, given the controversy aroused by the decision to invite Habima to participate in the international Bard-binge. Nor were the peaceful, heavily policed protests outside.”
Florida Libraries Un-Ban “Fifty Shades Of Grey”
Yesterday Brevard County announced that “in response to public demand, but also … after considerable review and consideration by the library system”, its 19 copies of Fifty Shades of Grey would be made available again.
Howie Richmond, 94, Last Of The Old-Line Pop Music Publishers
“[He] was among the last of a Runyonesque breed that was long a vital if largely unheralded segment of the music business. … In representing the commercial interests of song, lyricist and composer, publishers of Mr. Richmond’s vintage were equal parts tout and talent scout, matchmaker and midwife, broker and bill collector.”