Rudolf Bing served as general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera for more than two decades, and built a formidable reputation along the way. But few realize that Bing almost ditched his career in opera before even getting to the Met: “In Berlin I was asked to find sopranos who would be willing to sing Isolde and God knows what else at a fee of three hundred marks a month — and I would then have to choose among some eighty screaming wretches… I hated the job with a vengeance.”
Tag: 07.07
An American Character?
“Despite manifest differences, knitting together most of the masterpieces of modern American art is a web of shared temperament. One of the key aspects of this temperament is an overarching sense of solitude–rarely oppressive, usually not neurotic, but nevertheless omnipresent. Our landscapes are unpeopled, our fictional narratives full of isolated souls, our music and architecture characterized by a right-angled plainness whose unadorned simplicity runs in parallel with our inclination to be alone even in a crowd.”
Looking For A Post-Holywood World
“Doomsayers have been bellowing through the Hollywood hills for years. Clearly, there’s something about this industry, which has held the planet in its twinkly thrall for almost a century, and which has transformed so much, that summons wishful thinking of the deathly variety. Artists would like to see it suffer and die for its philistinism. Small businesses want it dead for its muscular monopolism. Non-American film makers would kill it for killing non-American film industries. Minorities loathe its stereotypes.” But “with the advent of digital distribution, the film industry will fragment, diversify and take root again in national cultures. Logic is not on Hollywood’s side.”
The Art World’s Top Ten Collectors
ARTnews compiles its annual list, in a super-heated market. “Last year at least 810 works of art were sold for over $1 million at auction, according to Artprice.com, which added that we should keep in mind that ‘until the end of the 1990s only 100 to 200 auctions per year broke through the million-dollar threshold.’ At least 200 works went for more than $1 million at the recent auctions.”
An Architecturally Significant Merry-Go-Round?
“The architects at Weisz + Yoes didn’t set out to reinvent the merry-go-round. But when the firm was asked to transform Manhattan’s Battery Park into a tourist magnet, that’s exactly what it ended up doing… Instead of garishly painted horses, the seats will be translucent fiberglass molded into dolphins, turtles, clownfish, and other marine life. And unlike a traditional carousel, which spreads out from a center column like an umbrella, these creatures will be supported from below on a turntable, allowing unobstructed 360-degree views.”
Report From The Book Reviewing Trenches
Book reviewing is under stress as newspapers cut. “The pressure for book reviews to keep pace is understandable. Newspapers are, after all, in the business of being up-to-date. They are also conscious of the fact that stores don’t keep books on-hand for that long. And, as we have seen, there is no mercy on those who fall behind. The pipeline is always full of more product jockeying for attention. But this is a real problem for book reviewers. Books take time to read.”
Roger Kimball’s Dismay At Art
“The art world has wholeheartedly embraced art as an exercise in political sermonizing and anti-humanistic persiflage, which has assured the increasing trivialization of the practice of art. For those who cherish art as an ally to civilization, the disaster that is today’s art world is nothing less than a tragedy. But this, too, will pass.”
Speaking Truth To Faith (Should We Even Bother?)
In an age when many in the religious right deny evolution, teach their children that Christian law supercedes scientific law, and persist in believing that dinosaurs and humans roamed the Earth together, should responsible science even try to engage the pious? The scientific community is sharply divided on the question, with some saying that science and religion needn’t be mutually exclusive, while others insist that any organized belief in God is a slap in the face of serious science.