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.”

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.”