“For a first-time festival, the Newport Contemporary Music Series boasted a program that might make even Tanglewood blush: a star-studded lineup featuring appearances by Philip Glass, four-time Academy Award winner André Previn, and Lord of the Rings composer Howard Shore.” It ended up, alas, as what an official with the Boston musicians’ union described as “probably the greatest amateur act the union has ever seen.” A bass player contracted for that festival orchestra says it was a disaster “epic proportions that will go down in the Boston freelancing lore of nonpaying gigs.” Malcolm Gay explains how it all came crashing down.
Tag: 09.13.17
Isabelle Faust Upsets Joyce DiDonato For Gramophone’s Record Of The Year Award
DiDonato’s disc “In War and Peace” won the Gramophone Awards’ Recital category and was a favorite for the overall prize, but the winner was a period-instrument recording of Mozart’s violin concertos by Isabelle Faust and the orchestra Il Giardino Armonico. (Giardino also won the Orchestral category with a recording of Haydn symphonies; both discs competed in mainstream categories rather than those limited to period instruments.) Artist of the Year went to conductor Vasily Petrenko.
Brazil’s First-Ever Major Queer Art Exhibition Shut Down In Face Of Right-Wing Outrage
The show at the Santander Bank Cultural Center in Pôrto Alegre, titled “Queermuseu,” had been running for more than three weeks without incident when a self-styled “libertarian” group called the Free Brazil Movement (which was heavily involved in the movement to impeach former president Dilma Rouseff) began vehement protests of the exhibition on social media, argiung that the show promoted pedophilia, bestiality, and blasphemy. (There are no images in the show depicting sex with children or animals.) Santander Bank abruptly shut the show down, not even notifying the curator. Now protesters have been gathering to demand that “Queermuseu” reopen.
Bramwell Tovey Headed From Vancouver Symphony To Boston
Tovey, the longest-serving music director in the VSO’s history, steps down at the end of this season and will become director of orchestral activities for Boston University’s School of Music.
Market Collapse: 22 Million Americans Will Have Cut Their TV Cords By The End Of This Year
“By 2021, the number of cord-cutters will nearly equal the number of people who have never had pay TV — a total of 81 million U.S. adults. That means around 30% of American adults won’t have traditional pay TV at that point, per eMarketer’s revised forecast.”
Movie Directors Have Declining Clout As Hollywood Gets More Risk Averse
“In an industry financially dependent on an ever-smaller handful of films, studio executives are less willing to take chances and more willing to make big changes if needed, even if the moves generate ugly headlines or expensive reshoots. When hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake in ticket sales and ancillary businesses, no one is irreplaceable.”
How David Simon’s Porn Drama ‘The Deuce’ Keeps Its Women Characters Real (And The Critical Praise Pouring In)
“Ensuring these women were not portrayed, in any way, as broken, was crucial. ‘The female characters are fully rounded,’ says one of the show’s writers, Lisa Lutz. ‘They might make some bad choices, they might have some terrible experiences, but they are not silent victims.'” Says director Michelle MacLaren, “We want the 1971 version of this show, not the present-day one. We had to remember this is the pre-Aids era and certain things we take for granted now, attitudes towards women and sex, were not looked at as clearly in this time.'”
Pop-Up Replica Of The Globe Theatre Presents Shakespeare – Well, Almost Anywhere
The founder/artistic director of the Pop-Up Globe was inspired when he read to his daughter about the original Globe and she asked if they could go there. It’s not an exact replica of the second Globe (1614) – it uses modern materials and electricity – but the shape and dimensions are similar and it can be erected and taken down in a matter of a few weeks; it’s already done two seasons in New Zealand and is just starting one in Melbourne.
At Age 30, Has Jazz At Lincoln Center Become Fuddy-Duddy? Not If You Look At It The Right Way
“It has been busily pioneering new angles of engagement and outreach, even as it holds the line against broader artistic changes sweeping the jazz world. At a time when canon-busting is nearly the national consensus, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s founding artistic director, Wynton Marsalis, maintains that jazz is a classical music with a fixed roster of heroes, and a nonnegotiable rhythmic foundation.” Says Marsalis, “We are a music that is constantly asked to abandon its own identity to become another thing. Why? What’s wrong with our identity?”
Miami City Ballet Says It Came Through Irma Very Well
“Lourdes Lopez, Miami City Ballet’s Artistic Director, has reported that the company’s Miami Beach headquarters, its dancers, students and staff are safe and have experienced Hurricane Irma with minimal damage.”