Tag: 08.21.05

Shakespeare – How “Authentic” Do You Want?

“For 10 years, London’s Globe, an obsessive facsimile overseen by Mark Rylance, has specialised in conjuring a theatrical time-warp. Its latest experimental project in the education of London’s theatre audience is a staging in OP (original pronunciation) of Troilus, starring David Sturzaker and Rylance’s daughter, Juliet, in the title roles. Some will complain that this is a pointless exercise in the pursuit of a will-o’-the-wisp – authenticity – that adds little to our understanding of Shakespeare. In practice, however, there’s no loss of clarity in the switch from RP (received pronunciation) to OP, though it is momentarily disorienting.”

Chicago – A Tale Of Two Festivals

“Like a summer earthquake, Millennium Park has tilted the playing field of Chicago-area classical music festivals, and Ravinia is clearly feeling the shock waves. The city of Chicago’s stunning $475-million cultural playground and outdoor recreation center — home to the Grant Park Music Festival since its opening in July 2004 — has been pulling in capacity crowds to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion for most of the Grant Park Orchestra’s 30 concerts this season. At the same time, Ravinia continues to grapple with a decline in pavilion ticket sales to the 22 Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts it presented.”

Ravinia, Grant Park See Increased Audiences

Chigao’s Grant Park Festival has had a great summer, with solid crowds. “The rush to become a member of the Grant Park Music Festival, which guarantees access to 2,000 of the pavilion’s 4,000 fixed seats, began last season. In 2004, the festival stopped taking memberships six weeks before the Pritzker Pavilion opened, fearing they couldn’t accommodate so many new members. This summer, the festival sold out its basic and premium memberships, priced at $60 and $150 per person respectively. With 3,764 members, 30 percent more than 2004, it stopped taking new members in mid-June.”

Olympic Comedy

Chicago is home to the granddaddy of sketch comedy troupes – Second City. But Improv Olympics, ecelbrating its 225th anniversary, would like some credit too. “So is I.O. a cliquish training camp with too many mediocre shows or a unique, bonafide, overlooked Chicago cultural institution? Maybe all of the above.”

LA’s New Center

What’s happened to Los Angeles? It suddenly has a center. “Downtown LA, previously considered a cultural wasteland, has emerged as a cultural centre: an arena for the more mature works of some of LA’s, and the world’s, finest architects, as well as for the architecture of the next generation.”

Try Anything… Orchestras Reinventing

Symphony orchestras look desperate to pull in new audiences. “As audiences seem to grow older and the public turns its attention away from concertgoing, orchestras around the country are adopting a wide array of methods, from the trivial to the thoughtful, to bring more people into the concert hall. They are hunting for the neophytes, the dabblers and mainly the ungray. This fall, a slate of innovations will be on display for the first time…”

Governor Rescues Soprano

Part way thyrough a performance of Handel’s Laudate pueri Dominum in Sydney Saturday night, soprano Miriam Allan suddenly colllapsed onstage. “A doctor jumped on stage and took charge, one witness said. The doctor was none other than the NSW Governor, Professor Marie Bashir, a psychiatrist. Allan had been sick with flu all week, but did not want to miss Saturday night’s Musica Viva 60th anniversary concert.”

CBC’s Ragtag Labor Dispute Lineup

With Canada’s CBC employees locked out of their jobs, the network is filling air with a ragtag lineup of reruns and shows produced by management. Oh yes, and apologies for the disruption in regular service. “By Thursday, the tone had shifted, as had the voice, to a young woman offering her regrets the way your grade school teacher might have offered juice and cookies.”