Kiri Te Kanawa’s farewell recital tour is causing major headaches in Vancouver, where venue problems have given way to waves of angry ticketholders who are only finding out this week whether their tickets will get them into Thursday’s or Sunday’s show. The Vancouver Recital Society is “desperately worried that a concert that sold out more quickly than anything in VRS history will wind up being a bust – with empty seats at both performances.”
Tag: 09.19.07
Detroit Museum Returns Venetian Gem To Its Ceiling
“Tintoretto’s enormous ‘The Dreams of Men,’ one of the stars of the Detroit Institute of Art’s permanent collection, was reinstalled last month in a specially designed octagonal ceiling perch 24 feet above the ground. The painting — an oil on canvas measuring more than 12 feet long and 7 feet wide and depicting gods and mythological figures — was painted for the bedroom ceiling of a well-to-do Venetian merchant around 1550. More than 450 years later, the DIA has returned the work to its original ceiling orientation, offering Detroiters an exhilarating perspective that no other museum in the United States can match.”
Buildings That Let You Know They’re In TV
Three new buildings headquartering broadcasting concerns are opening this week, and all three were designed by the same innovative architecture firm. “Each of these media-themed clients was looking for a strong new physical identity,” and each now has a building with striking physical attributes tied directly to the business of broadcasting.
Holocaust Photos Offer Chilling Counterpoint
A new collection of photos on display at the Holocaust Museum amounts to “a scrapbook of sorts of the lives of Auschwitz’s senior SS officers that was maintained by Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the camp commandant. Rather than showing the men performing their death camp duties, the photos depicted, among other things, a horde of SS men singing cheerily to the accompaniment of an accordionist, Höcker lighting the camp’s Christmas tree, a cadre of young SS women frolicking and officers relaxing, some with tunics shed, for a smoking break. The photos provide a stunning counterpoint to what up until now has been the only major source of preliberation Auschwitz photos, the so-called Auschwitz Album.”
Volkov To Depart Scotland
Conductor Ilan Volkov is stepping down from his role as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. “Volkov’s first child, Nadia, was born this August in Israel, where he is co-owner of a new music club. He will pursue a freelance career with orchestras like the Washington Symphony and the Czech Philharmonic as well as keeping ties to the BBC SSO.”