Dallas Opera has a new leader in general director Karen Stone, who takes over at a challenging time. “It’s a company doing major-league work on a $10 million budget, half that of comparable operations in Houston and Seattle, but with nearly $800,000 in accumulated deficit. But it’s also a company preparing for a snazzy new opera house being designed by Foster and Partners for the Dallas Arts District.”
Tag: 09.01.03
Pricing Tickets To The Highest Bidder
Later this year, Ticketmaster plans to start auctioning off tickets to the highest bidders. “With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear. ‘The tickets are worth what they’re worth. If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it’s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket’s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients — the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves — are saying to themselves, `Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker’.”
Movie Lessons – Sequelitis Is An Affliction
There are lessons to be learned from this summer’s movie season. “The main conclusions? Big-budget sequels, previously considered a sure draw for fans of franchise films and the antidote to unpredictable studio profits, proved vulnerable.”
Money For Scottish National Theatre
Scotland is about to get its first government funding for a national theatre. “The sum required for the scheme is relatively small within the overall overspend – a recommended minimum initial investment of £2.5 million – and will represent an additional sum over and above the £38 million the Executive supplies to the Scottish Arts Council.”
Dancing To Relativity
Einstein’s theory of relativity is almost 100 years old. So how to celebrate and at the same time shed a little light on how to understand it? “The Institute of Physics has asked a contemporary dance company to produce a new work marking the centenary of the 1905 publication of Einstein’s most famous and important ideas. The show will be premiered at Sadler’s Wells theatre in May 2005, and if London audiences are wowed, a national tour is planned. ‘Dance is an expressive medium. It will be ideal for abstract concepts like the theories of Einstein on everything from tiny atoms to the dynamics of the whole cosmos’.”
Cable Beats Broadcast TV
US cable channels are beating traditional network broadcast channels for viewers. “As August draws to a close, early projections released Wednesday by Turner Entertainment Group showed the 60-plus cable networks enjoyed a record 18-point lead in summer audience share over the seven broadcasters. Despite more first-run programing on the Big Four broadcast networks than ever before this summer, the absence of a megahit such as ‘Survivor’ or ‘American Idol’ kept broadcasters collectively from posting year-to-year gains during the summer months.”
America’s Record Movie Summer
Despite what many critics have called a disappointing summer for movies, America’s theatres have scored a record summer at the box office. “The summer gross is expected to total $3.9bn – up 2% from last summer’s previous record figure, according to box office monitor Exhibitor Relations. But because of a rise in admission prices, the number of tickets sold will actually be down about 2% on last year – the first decline in three years.”
Visa Holdups Derail Cuban Musicians’ Visits For Grammys
The Cuban government says the US is holding up visas for Cuban music stars who have been invited to the Latin Grammys. “Nominees including Latin jazz stars Chucho Valdes and Los Van Van are unlikely to attend Wednesday’s ceremony because they have not been given visas. But US diplomats say visa requests were delayed by the Cuban government.”
Chicago Lyric Opera Contract Looming
Chicago Lyric Opera is down to the wire negotiating new contracts with its musicians and chorus. Will the contract be wrapped up before the season is scheduled to start? We’re sure it’s going to happen. We just don’t know what time of the day or night.”
In Search Of Thurber
James Thurber has had official honors. But “despite all this official appreciation, a doubt arises: Is Thurber still being widely read and enjoyed? The nod from the Library of America was meant as a coronation, but nobody can be funny for a thousand pages, and Thurber’s writing—occasional by definition—resists so exhaustive and formal an act of exhumation and canonization. As for the new collection of his letters, your pleasure in it will probably depend on how much of the Thurber literature you’ve been exposed to — I mean the literature about him, not the literature by him.”