“After going without pay for a month, the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra accepted a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, barely averting a postponement of the fall season. The deal will cost players $5.2 million in compensation over two years, change their pay structure, and cut their numbers significantly.”
Tag: 09.26.12
Broadway’s Rebecca Ready To Start Rehearsals (Money Must Have Come From Somewhere)
“The producers of the troubled Broadway musical Rebecca notified cast members on Wednesday that rehearsals would begin on Monday morning, yet it remained unclear if the producers had closed the $4.5 million gap in the show’s $12 million budget that they had deemed necessary for rehearsals to start.”
San Sebastián Film Festival Hit By General Strike
“Movie screenings were canceled and souvenir stands closed at the San Sebastián film festival Wednesday due to a general strike in Spain’s Basque Country against goverment austerity measures. Only seven movies [were] shown compared to about 70 on other days of the festival.”
Palm Beach Opera’s Conductor Walks Out
“Conductor Bruno Aprea has left Palm Beach Opera. The Italian maestro, who restored luster, vitality and musical consistency to the West Palm Beach company in the chaotic years following the death of longtime artistic director Anton Guadagno has abruptly left the company he led for the past seven years after rejecting his contract for the upcoming season.”
Tickling Makes Us Human (Heck, It Makes Us Mammals)
“Pick a mammal. Squirrels engage in play that looks a lot like tickling. So do – of all species – elephants. So do rats … But only chimpanzee and human mothers gaze deeply into the eyes of their infants – and then tickle them. … It’s a social dance: Tickling is the way we and the chimps establish, without words, that we’re in this thing together.”
Construction Begins On Australian Ballet’s New HQ
“Tutus mixed with hard hats as the first sod was turned on the Australian Ballet’s $12 million production facility in Melbourne. The 12,000 square metre facility in Altona North, to be finished early next year, will be a work space and home for the ballet company’s props, scenery and costumes.”
What LA’s Cultural Institutions Are Doing For Carmageddon II
The second weekend closure of the 405 freeway (the first was last year) is leading the Getty Museum and the Skirball Cultural Center to shut down for the duration. Some organizations are braver: the Hammer Museum is offering free admission for the weekend, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble is hosting an improv series, and a group of organizations are sponsoring “Artmageddon.”
An Answer To Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen? Reykjavik, About Reagan, Gorbachev And Nukes
“Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 24 books, has written his first play, and it spins off of his research into the history of nuclear weapons. … Reykjavik is a dramatic reconstruction of the two-day summit during which the world leaders almost reached agreement on the total abolition of their countries’ nuclear weapons.”
Brooklyn’s New $1 Billion Concert (And Basketball) Hall
“Sadly, the Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards has become an object lesson in how form follows finance.”
Chicago Symphony Musicians Ratify New Contract After Short Strike
“There was a very serious possibility that substantial parts of our season would have been canceled, including the (upcoming New York/Mexico) tour. I think both sides realized that that was a catastrophe, and we couldn’t afford that. So they gave a little, and we gave a little.”