Seattle Opera has been led by Speight Jenkins for 24 years. Now he’s made plans to step aside after the 2013 season, when he’ll be 76. The Seattle Symphony has been led by Gerard Schwarz snce 1985 and shows no signs of leaving. So how do you plan for transition of leadership?
Tag: 07.26.07
Saving The Bolshoi
“Boris Yeltsin will be remembered by some for his erratic, drink-induced behaviour. To the Bolshoi, however, ‘Tsar’ Boris was the hero who saved the company from the uncertainties of privati sation. ‘During the 1990s, there were those who fought to turn the Bolshoi into a corporation. It was Yeltsin who created the special law to protect our theatre as a national treasure; and it was under him that the £400m reconstruction began’.”
Dallas Art Scene On The Move
Art galleries are springing up everywhere on Dragon Street in Dallas’s Design District, drawn by low real estate prices and the allure of a hot new scene. Of course, gentrification doesn’t happen overnight. “Art connoisseurs new to the area might be surprised to find, as they enter Dragon Street from the south, that the pavement is bumpy and sports more than a few divots and potholes. As with fine art itself, Dragon Street at the moment is a work in progress.”
California Wrangles Film Tax Credits
California’s movie and TV industries have been trying for years to get state tax credits for filing in California. Last week it looked like they might have succeeded. “Just over half of the $140 million would provide nonrefundable film and TV tax credits — $70 million for film production and $5 million for commercials. But even that tax-credit provision — modest compared to the incentives offered in New York, Louisiana, and other states — caused controversy in the deeply partisan California State Senate.”
Spam – Food For Poetry?
“Here, perhaps, is the new poetry of the 21st century, a reinvention of language that pushes the cut-up technique of William Burroughs or the randomly generated ‘liquid writing’ of Jeff Noon’s Cobralingus into new brave new territories. Here is the future language of poetry: part machine, part human, all good.”
Is Russian Art Market Slowing?
“According to many, the emphasis is shifting to works of higher quality. The starkest example of this phenomenon was at Christie’s 14 June Russian sale, its first ever in the summer, when three paintings accounted for half the sale’s total value. While some works set records, more than one-third of the lots at both auction houses were unsold.”
Would Bach Have Composed On a Laptop?
“When Johann Sebastian Bach grew up in late 17th century Germany, his obsession with keyboard instruments propelled him towards becoming a classical great. But if young Bach were around today, he’d probably be holed up in his bedroom with a laptop, composing avant-garde electro.”
Are British Archtecture’s Best Buildings Outside UK?
Four of the six projects nominated for the Stirling prize, the most prestigious annual awards for British architecture, are for buildings overseas.
Art Donations Boost UK Museums
British museums took in £25.3 million worth of objects last year, donated in lieu of inheritance taxes. “Objects accepted last year include the collection of vintage boats assembled by the late George Pattinson on Lake Windermere; paintings by Gainsborough and Reynolds; a rare early work by Francis Bacon, who destroyed as much of his youthful output as he could get hold of; and a fairytale Cartier diamond tiara, once owned by Consuelo, Duchess of Manchester, the 19th-century American heiress.”
Bayreuth Wagner Debut Greeted With Boos
“Later this year, the Bayreuth Festival foundation is to decide who will follow the ailing 87-year-old Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of the composer, as festival director. His youngest daughter, Katharina, 29, has thrown her hat into the ring, and this ‘Meistersinger’ was widely seen as an audition for the job. No staging could ever have lived up to such expectations. Hers certainly didn’t. Bayreuth needs change, and in its convoluted way, this production was a plea for that.”