The hall, which is opening in October, is getting its first acoustic tests. “The most striking quality was how consistently clear and detailed the sound was from several different positions in the hall, from the furthest back row of the balcony’s vertigo-inducing third tier to the side boxes and choral riser seats behind the stage.”
Tag: 08.21.06
Libeskind – Conquering Denver?
Since his World Trade Center tower project fell apart, architect Daniel Libeskind has move on. To Denver. “In giving Libeskind the freedom denied him in New York, Denver is taking a risk: Does Libeskind have the ability to design a building that will exert the magnetic pull of an icon and still work well as a museum? And can he set out a plan for an entire neighborhood, as he tried to do in New York?”
Demystifying The Conductor
What makes a good conductor? For that matter, what exactly does a conductor do to influence the course of a musical performance? Justin Davidson explores the dark art of leading an orchestra
Dance Out In The Wild
What happens when you ask choreographers to make a dance in a non-traditional location? “The idea was to inform five choreographers only five days before the event of the site where they would be performing.”
Best Of Times For Black Canadian Playwrights?
The fourth triennial meeting of the AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival has attracted more than 60 playwrights among the more than 200 theatre folk attending. “It is the best time (for black Canadian playwriting). I think these stories have not been heard enough; I think they’re being heard more and more and they can only enrich everyone’s lives.”
Prodigies Need Help Too
Too many child prodigies burn out by the time they reach adulthood. “There are two basic issues here: how to support exceptionally bright kids, and how to manage exceptionally ambitious parents who blur the line between a child’s will and their own.”
Warner Straight To DVD
Warner says it is launching a new division that will produce movies directly for DVD, skipping theatres. “The new division, called Warner Premiere, annually will produce up to 15 original titles made by well-known filmmakers, starring recognized actors and, in some cases, based on earlier feature films that played in movie houses.”
Mutter And Previn Call Off Marriage
“Anne-Sophie Mutter, at 43 one of the world’s most celebrated violinists, and renowned composer and conductor André Previn, 77, have quietly ended their four-year marriage, according to reports from the London Mail on Sunday and United Press International.”
The Mystery Picasso Buyer
Last May a mystery buyer bought Picasso’s Dora Maar for $95 million. The buyer is still a mystery. “Why did the Sotheby’s buyer want his Dora Maar so badly? Perhaps connoisseurship. Perhaps to impress his friends. But it could also have been an investment, even at such a high price.”
A Runaway Art Market
The sizzling art market only gets hotter. “Sotheby’s, which opened an office in Moscow a few weeks ago, has notched up, in the first six months of this year, sales of just under £60 million. This is an enormous amount considering that the company’s sales of Russian art for the whole of 2000 reached just £4 million.”