“It would be great if our definition of “excellence” in today’s opera-land could open up again and look beyond the boxes that conservatories and young-artist programs and teachers expect their students to fill in.”
Tag: 07.09.13
Pierre Cardin Gives Up On His Skyscraper Over Venice
“The Palais Lumière, a 254 metre-high skyscraper planned for the ex-industrial area of Marghera, 9.5 kilometres from the centre of Venice, will not now be built.” Cardin is “abandoning the project because two and a half years had gone by without the necessary permissions being granted,” due to opposition from local officials and residents as well as Italy’s culture minister.
Onstage Death Is Only Latest Of Cirque Du Soleil’s Woes
“Saturday 29 June was supposed to be the day that Cirque du Soleil turned the page on recent financial and artistic setbacks, and sent a message that it was still the most powerful player in live entertainment in Las Vegas. Instead, it ended with the worst tragedy in the French-Canadian circus company’s history.”
Why Disney’s Lone Ranger Was Doomed To Be A Financial Sinkhole
Andrew O’Hehir: “One could also understand big, stupid, money-losing pictures as a feature of Hollywood’s production system, rather than a bug. … The movie industry, at least at that level, operates on the same delusional principles as the military budget or Wall Street executive salaries, where bigness, waste and needless expenditure in all directions become markers of significance and ambition.”
Does The Noise Of A Coffee Shop Help Your Creativity? Now You Can Stream It Over The Web
“Recent brain research has shown that the moderate ambient noise of café chatter and espresso machines, in the range of about about 70 decibels, fosters creative work … Coffitivity plays an audio feed of the optimal noise level of clinking cups and people talking. It also makes recommendations on the volume at which to overlay your own music for maximum concentration.”
Pompidou Centre Takes Its Mobile Exhibition Hall To Saudi Arabia
“The Centre Pompidou in Paris is abandoning its mobile museum project at home and plans to launch instead a temporary exhibition in Saudi Arabia, modelled on the show that has toured the French provinces for the past two years.”
Placido Domingo Hospitalized
“A doctor diagnosed the condition as a pulmonary embolism that resulted from a deep venous thrombosis.”
Zaha Hadid Buys A Museum
“The Design Museum has been located in a former banana ripening factory at London’s Shad Thames, near London Bridge, since it opened in 1989. On Tuesday, the museum announced it was selling the building to Zaha Hadid Architects.”
New York Develops A Shortage Of Top-Flight Chefs?
“Lately, some cooks have begun to go elsewhere to make names for themselves. Among the reasons for the culinary exodus: Chefs’ obsession with local ingredients is making smaller communities a lot more appealing.”
Roger Ebert: Why Poetry Matters
“Is it unthinkable that today’s grade schools require the memorization of a poem or two? Sister Rosanne assured us we would thank her in later years. When I meet old classmates from those years, I find she was correct.”