Houston Grand Opera is expected to report a $2.5 million deficit at summer’s end. The red ink is a result of slumping ticket sales and donations, and comes despite cuts the company has made in education and outreach programs in recent years. A major capital campaign is planned for next year to help the opera stabilize its finances.
Tag: 06.14.06
Please Hold Your Opinions
The Canadian Opera Company is thrilled with their new home at Toronto’s just-opening Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, but the company is also trying to temper expectations of the acoustic before audiences get their first listen later this week. “After decades of pushing out enough sound to fill the unresponsive Hummingbird Centre, he said, the musicians of the COC’s resident orchestra are going to need time to discover how much is enough in the new building, which hosts its first public concert tonight… When it comes to the acoustics of music theatres, it seems, nothing is easy.”
Comparing Toronto’s Opera House To the World
How does Toronto’s new opera house stack up against the world’s great opera houses? Architect Jack Diamond’s new Toronto theatre has “an almost dour grey-brick exterior, which belies the warmth of the hall’s interior, an effect created by ambient lights, a cozy horseshoe-shaped auditorium — small for an opera hall — and rich wood paneling. To make the opera-going experience less elitist than European halls built by and for aristocrats, Diamond has opened the main lobbies to the passing eye, with nothing but glass between show-goers and outsiders gaping from the street.”
Hall To Be Named US Poet Laureate
The Librarian of Congress will name Donald Hall as the US’ 14th Poet Laureate. “Mr. Hall, a poet in the distinctive American tradition of Robert Frost, has also been a harsh critic of the religious right’s influence on government arts policy. And as a member of the advisory council of the National Endowment for the Arts during the administration of George H. W. Bush, he referred to those he thought were interfering with arts grants as bullies and art bashers.”
Artist management Company Closes After A Decade
Janice L. Mayer is closing her classical music artists management agency after a decade. “Friends and associates said fatigue, a need for change, tough times in the business and a dispute with one of her singers might all have contributed to the decision.”