A fan campaign to nominate Harry Potter author JK Rowling for a Nobel has fizzled. “Not a single person sent a letter to the Nobel Committee suggesting her for the 2004 literature award despite an internet crusade asking them to do so.”
Tag: 08.21.03
Why Our Theatres Are Empty?
“With virtually every one of our companies — big and small — facing a distressing number of empty seats, it make sense to ask why the under-35s aren’t more devoted playgoers. I think it comes down to two things: For most of them, conventional theatre costs too much and means too little. It’s not that they hate the art form. Far from it. All you have to do is hang out at the Fringe or Summerworks to encounter hundreds of people who wouldn’t be caught dead at Stratford, Shaw or CanStage.”
Taking A Harder Listen At Bard
When Bard College’s new performing arts center opened last April, it got admiring reviews from critics, both for its looks and its acoustics. “Now, after a fuller range of musical and dramatic events at the just-completed annual Bard Music Festival and the new Bard SummerScape, one can better judge those acoustics — along with the aesthetics of the interiors and the prospects for how the center will be used year-round.”
Swimming Alone In A Five-Hour Korean Opera
In Edinburgh this summer, you can see a five-hour Korean opera. Maybe it’s good. But without some help, how are audiences supposed to figure it out? “How was the audience, unguided, supposed to navigate this terra incognita? It was not surprising that on my visit the Reid Concert Hall was half empty, with at least a dozen leaving at the first pause and more at the interval.”
Opera For The Short Attention Span
Is opera too long? Does it require too much attention? “Opera North, based in Leeds, will stage eight one-act operas in four varying double bills next spring as part of its 25th birthday celebrations. The cautious and the initiated alike will be able to buy tickets for either or both shows on any night.”
A Disney Spectacular
The hottest ticket in LA this fall is the opening of the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Hall, new home to the LA Philharmonic. “What does this do for the city? I’m quite amused by the fact that the hottest ticket in L.A. is a classical music/architectural event, not some Hollywood thing. I’m going to enjoy that. It won’t happen again.”
Getting Behind A Chinese Turandot
A new documentary by the maker of From Mao To Mozart details the making of an opulent production of “Turandot” in China. “The project was an extravagant collaboration created at the Florence Opera and taken to Beijing a year later in 1997, with a budget of $18-23 million for the Chinese leg alone.”