“It had to happen. As the press release has it, “The first classical performance using an iPad in place of traditional paper music” – that’s sheet music, to you and me – happened on Wednesday night.”
Tag: 07.16.10
UK Tory Arts Funding Cuts = Cultural Wasteland?
“Back to basics was never a recipe for a rich culture. It looks as if the most culturally irresponsible policy in modern British history is about to lay waste our artistic landscape. Where’s the sense in that? And yet, the great and the good are confused and wrongfooted.”
New Theatre For Shakespeare Site
“Archaeologists who have been digging here since 2008 have uncovered a section of outer wall and floor surface from the building, completed in 1576 and known simply as The Theatre — whose timbers were later used to build The Globe theater. Now a London drama troupe plans to erect a new building on the site, bringing live performances back to the spot where Elizabethan drama flourished more than 400 years ago.”
Would You Buy A $75,000 Book?
“A handful of high-end publishing houses are pushing the boundaries of extravagance and novelty in the luxury book market. Such books are being treated as investments and sometimes commanding prices usually reserved for original art works.”
British Philanthropists: We Can’t Make Up For Arts Funding Cuts
“A number of leading arts benefactors have argued that philanthropy cannot fill the hole that the threatened 25 to 40 per cent cuts under the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review will leave if they are pushed through later this summer.”
UK Names First ‘British City Of Culture’
“Londonderry will be the first British City of Culture in 2013, it was announced on Thursday night.The title, which comes with no Government funding, is designed to help areas boost their economy through tourism and the creative industries. Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second city, had been competing against Birmingham, Norwich and Sheffield.”
Broadway Musicals Now A Worldwide Export
Overseas productions of The Lion King have grossed $2.2 billion (and counting). Tarzan, which fizzled in New York, has been a monster hit in Germany and Holland. They love Legally Blonde in Manila. Next to Normal opens in Oslo this fall. Broadway and West End shows are big business abroad. But making sure everything translates is a big challenge – as, for instance, the producers of Billy Elliott in Seoul have discovered.
Nureyev Honored By St. Petersburg (At Long Last)
“The Sheremetevsky Palace unveiled a new exhibition Saturday devoted to the famous Soviet ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev, who was for years ignored by his native country after defecting to the West.”