Tag: 07.03.07

Why Classical Music Isn’t So Popular

“It’s obvious that classical music is not important to most people. Why not? The obvious implication is that classical music, like 19th-century narrative, is not popular because its form of narrative has become antiquated. If the symphony is in decline, and love of great literature is in decline, too, then clearly something important has changed in our culture. But what? And what does it mean?”

Beverly Sills Had It Right

“Sills had a beautiful, silvery voice. In her prime, she displayed a wonderfully agile coloratura. But neither quality was one of a kind. There are many gorgeous voices out there today. And many more virtuosic ones. Sills was a good actress. Today in opera there are better, and certainly more daring, ones. Yet no one else sounded like Sills or had her stage presence. She was exactly right for her time, just as, say, the Beatles were for their time.”

Manchester United, But Around Culture This Time

“It’s unlikely that this city will ever have the tourist appeal of such summer festival faves as Edinburgh, Salzburg or Aix-en-Provence. Nor can it ever expect the cachet of the capital city festivals in Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Still, the Manchester International Festival 2007, which began Thursday and runs for 18 days, is trying very hard with 25 world premieres.”

Can Street Performers Stop Crime? Seattle Hopes So.

“These crime fighters aren’t in uniform and don’t carry weapons or badges. They wield guitars, Hula-Hoops, washboards, paintbrushes, and will hopefully have the ability to draw a crowd. Last week, Seattle parks began paying street performers — mostly musicians, but also a few visual artists and some vaudevillians — to entertain in five downtown parks in hopes that with more people around, a park will be less hospitable to illegal activity.”

The Bubble Will Burst. But Let’s Define “Bubble.”

“If a bubble, or bubbles, exist in the fine arts–as opposed to the decorative arts–it is in the highly-touted trendy contemporary market; in the late 19th and 20th centuries; and in markets that appeal to Russia and the newly super-rich Asian countries. The 16th and 17th century Italian, French and Flemings; the 18th and 19th-century British; and the pre-Impressionist French have been forgotten in this inundation of liquidity into the art market.”

Appreciating Beverly Sills, Complicated Human Being

“She was the telegenic ‘diva next door,’ a friendly redhead from Brooklyn whose friends called her Bubbles; she was an aggressive Manhattan snob who never let it be forgotten that she did hold grudges. She was the warmest and most brilliant American coloratura soprano of her time; she was a high-culture power broker and adept political infighter. Those who knew her slightly liked her enormously; those who knew her better were sometimes a little afraid of her.”

On View In Hong Kong, China’s Most Famous Painting

“Politics and art don’t always mix well, but the combination has yielded a rare chance for Hong Kong residents and visitors to see what is arguably China’s most famous painting. … (T)he Chinese government has sent 32 artworks here for an exhibition to mark the 10th anniversary of Britain’s return of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997. Among them is Zhang Zeduan’s ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival,’ a scroll painted in the early 12th century.”