“With the start of its new season less than a month away, the San Antonio Symphony has no approved budget, no contract with its musicians and no date set to come up with a new plan. But despite mounting debt” – about $850,000, with the potential to top $1 million soon – “it does have a season planned – at least on paper.”
Tag: 09.05.12
Holocaust Museums In Israel Evolve
“It isn’t only the history of the Holocaust that you see on display in Israel’s Holocaust museums. It’s also the history of the history of the Holocaust. There is an archaeology of trauma to be found if you look closely, and in its layers and transmutations you see how a nation has wrestled with the burden of one of history’s immense horrors.”
Louisville Orchestra Is Back From The Near-Dead
“For the first time since May of last year, the Louisville Orchestra is an orchestra again. … The harmony comes after a year of orchestra members making their overtures on sidewalks, with protests filled with accusations of unfair labor practices and failure to bargain in good faith, while the orchestra [management] threatened to hire replacement musicians.”
Philip Roth Consents To Cooperate With Biographer
“Philip Roth has a new biographer: Blake Bailey, the author of highly regarded biographies of Richard Yates and John Cheever. … [In] June he and Mr. Roth signed a collaboration agreement guaranteeing him unlimited access to Mr. Roth’s archives and correspondence … The project will take him 8 to 10 years to complete, he estimated.”
Lost Medieval Church Found Under English Parking Lot
“The hunt for King Richard III’s grave is heating up, with archaeologists announcing today (Sept. 5) that they have located the church where the king was buried in 1485.” Greyfriars Abbey church in Leicester, recorded as the site of Richard’s grave, was destroyed during the Reformation and its location had been lost.
Milwaukee’s Skylight Theatre Chooses New Artistic Director
Viswa Subbaraman, founder/director of Houston’s contemporary opera troupe, Opera Vista, takes over at Milwaukee’s opera/operetta/musical theater company at the start of next season. He succeeds the widely-admired Bill Theisen, whose eight-year tenure included being fired and rehired (following a community and performer rebellion over his dismissal) over the summer of 2009.
Emma Thompson Writes An (Authorized) Sequel To Potter’s Peter Rabbit
“If Frederick Warne [the publisher of the Peter Rabbit stories] had sent some official letter I would have said don’t be ridiculous, I can’t think of anything I want to do less than step into the footsteps of a genius like Potter.” But Warne sent the actress/screenwriter a package containing a half-eaten radish leaf and a letter from Peter Rabbit himself instead. She tumbled for it.
Discovery: Ancient Mayan Theatre Was Political Tool
“Found at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas, the 1,200-year-old theater did not seem to be a place for art and culture, but was rather used by Mayan elite to legitimize their power and subjugate local minority groups.”
Warhol Foundation Strikes Deal To Sell Its Collection
“The sales will take several years to complete and are expected to garner about $100 million, increasing the foundation’s endowment, from which it makes grants to nonprofit arts organizations.”
Why Do Stereotypes Still Dominate The Dance World?
“The ranks of ballet companies contain dancers of varied backgrounds; race-blind casting and interracial partnerships have been widespread for decades. Yet clichéd and sometimes offensive views of race remain alive and well across the art form.”