American Ballet Theatre’s season at the Metropolitan Opera House is a crowd pleaser. “Whether it or any company could be great and grand enough to fill the 3,900-seat Metropolitan Opera House consistently on the highest artistic level week after week is another matter. Ballet Theater needs the Met to certify its grandeur; the Met needs Ballet Theater to plug a two-month hole in its schedule with a lucrative rental. The match is not ideal.”
Tag: 07.17.06
“Rings” Scores Hit With Orchestra Audiences
The hot work on the orchestra circuit these days? Howard Shore’s symphony made up of music from the “Lord of the Rings” movies. “Shore’s two-hour distillation of his epic, 11-hour soundtrack to the film trilogy has been making the rounds, not always endearing critics, but delighting the people who matter most. It received its 100th performance over the weekend in San Francisco’s Davies Hall.”
Chinese Investors Drive Up Art Prices
“Chinese investors are beginning to collect contemporary Chinese art as they accumulate wealth. Oil paintings, statues and other works created by artists since the 1980s used to sell for no more than $1,000 a piece a decade ago. Today, they can go for $600,000 or more. Sales at the latest autumn and spring contemporary art auctions in Hong Kong more than doubled to HK$276 million ($35.5 million) from a year earlier.”
Vatican To Collect Modern Art
The Vatican Museum houses one of the world’s great art collections, but it doesn’t own much contemporary art. Now the Vatican says it’ll start collecting modern art. “The Vatican’s museums are among the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with three million visitors seeing its art, sculptures, tapestries and maps every year.”