Tag: 08.24.00

DAMAGES FROM RESTORATION

Scientists tell the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society that “collectors and curators have been unknowingly using risky techniques that cause the polymers forming their paints to fall apart. Poor preservation techniques, including the cleaning of paintings using harsh chemicals, could soften and deform the paint.” – Ananova

ARTIST SUED OVER WOODS TRADEMARK

An Alabama artist painted a picture of golfer Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Master’s tournament. Woods sued the artist claiming violation of trademark. Though a Cleveland judge threw out the case, Woods has appealed and new organizations “believe that if Woods’ appeal is successful, it would increase the potential for publicity rights laws to extend into the newsgathering process.” – USA Today (AP)

BRITISH MUSEUM SCAMMED

The British Museum was scammed by a stonemasonry company that substituted a cheap stone for the stone it had offered as a sample for building a portico for the museum. The company “mixed samples of Portland stone with a cheaper French limestone to get approval – and then secretly went ahead with building in the French stone. The result has appalled experts. The portico is dazzling white and stands out from the Portland stone that surrounds it. ‘We were mugged,’ said the museum’s managing director Suzanna Taverne.” – London Evening Standard

BLOWING UP SHAW

The genteel, well-mannered Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake is a picture postcard. So how did Neil Munro get to be its resident director? “Plays help to get a dialogue going so we have a sense of who we are as opposed to being so fucking middle-class that when tragedy comes stomping into your living room like Godzilla, you have absolutely nothing to refer back to. You’re surprised because you thought the middle-class concept of how the world works is how the world works.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

OPERA BOOM

The number of opera production in North America has doubled in the past decade, says a report by Opera America. “The 166 professional opera companies Opera America polled — including the Metropolitan Opera, the Canadian Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera — have increased their domestic productions from 31 in the 1990–91 season to 60 in the 1999–2000 season.” – Sonicnet

REAL-TIME REAL-PLACE TRAVIATA

Earlier this summer  a production of “La Traviata” was filmed in real time in various locations around Paris where the story might have happened. An all-star cast and a $25 million budget still don’t make for a satisfying experience. The telecast tries to “convince you this is a real-life parallel universe where people happen to sing rather than speak. That is dishonest. And in coping with Verdi’s sense of ‘opera time,’ which is a slower than normal TV time and even slower than real time, Griffi’s camera zooms in and out for tight close-ups in a show of virtuosity that alienates you from the story.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

TOP DOWN

Choreographer Jiri Kylian is in Australia to stage his work “Bela Figura” with the Australian Ballet. But he’s surprised that some dancers and the media are fretting over the fact that the female dancers are topless. “I know it is just that they are not used to it. But in Europe it is so natural that dancers don’t think anything of it.” – The Age (Melbourne)