“The minister’s announcement apparently foretells nothing less than the dismantling of Italy’s entire opera system, as currently based on a network of 14 state-supported Fondazioni or chartered opera houses — the 13 singled out in the 1996 reform law plus the recently added Fondazione Petruzzelli at Bari.”
Tag: 06.23.08
The Good Side Downloading – Touring Is Up
“Before file sharing tipped over the music business, bands used to tour in support of a record. Now they tour to get the dough to make a record. Cheap recording technology, along with all manner of electronic distribution, means that bands don’t need to sign with a giant recording label to get their music out there.”
El Sistema In Prison
“In a project extending Venezuela’s renowned system of youth orchestras to some of the country’s most hardened prisons, hundreds of prisoners are learning a repertory that includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and folk songs from the Venezuelan plains. The budding musicians include murderers, kidnappers, thieves and, here at the women’s prison, dozens of narcomulas, or drug mules, as small-scale drug smugglers are called.”
Prominent Minneapolis Theatre Closes
Theatre de la Jeune Lune, which won a Tony Award in 2005 as the nation’s outstanding regional playhouse, is closing at the end of July. The performance company’s board voted Saturday for the closure. The company is $1 million in debt.