This past year the orchestra had “stronger than expected ticket sales, subscription renewals, fund-raising and deficit reduction. In an environment of concern about the future health of classical music, executives and board leaders of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association almost seemed surprised at the good news.”
Tag: 10.15.06
Richard Rogers Wins Stirling Prize For Spanish Airport
“As he received the £20,000 prize to a standing ovation, Lord Rogers described his £1.2 billion building at Madrid’s Barajas airport, with its mile-long wavy roof designed to look like billowing clouds tethered to the ground, as “the greatest experience I’ve had in architecture since the Pompidou Centre (his 1970s building in Paris).”
Stuff Happens… In Boston
A small Boston theatre stretches to do David Hare’s play about the Iraq war. “The play goes behind the scenes to try to show, step by step, how and why the Bush administration led America into war and persuaded the British to join it. The claims the play makes were controversial at the time… That Iraq was essentially an opportunistic venture where a small group in the White House chose to exploit 9/11 for their own political ends. That was controversial. It has now become standard history.”
Hollywood’s Latino Problem
“Although major studios are eager to court Latinos — a group that sees more English-language movies than any other ethnic or racial group — they have been hard-pressed to find Latino executives who can spearhead their efforts. An equally rare commodity: screenwriters, directors and producers who are successful at pitching movies about Latinos.”
Portland Theatre’s New Digs
Portland Oregon’s biggest theatre gets a handsome new home. “We really needed to be in a space where we could reinvent and expand our relationship with the community. We needed a place that said, ‘This is Portland.’ “
Can’t Buy Me Love (Or Happiness)
“Several economic studies affirm that the correlation of income and happiness is nowhere near what people think. One finds that in developed societies there is slightly more happiness at the 75th percentile of income than at the 50th, but that above the 75th percentile more money doesn’t matter.”
An Evolved NYCity Ballet Returns To Chicago
It’s been 26 years since New York City Ballet has been to Chicago. The company has changed, and along with it the Balanchine repertoire at its core. “He [Balanchine] would find it anathema if this company became a museum of his works. He expected they would evolve and change. `In 50 years, my ballets will be completely different,’ he said. He didn’t see that as wrong.”
XM – Back To Top 40
XM satellite radio recreates the old-style Top 40 format. “Weaving together tape-recorded snippets found in listeners’ attics, on eBay or in the possession of the nation’s obsessive subculture of radio-jingle collectors, Young captures the sound and spirit of the AM stations that once dominated American popular culture as hardly any phenomenon has in the four decades since.”
The New Met – Cue The Monkey Suits?
Peter Gelb is making wholesale changes in how the Metropolitan Opera does business. “Some critics no doubt will be waiting for the Met’s new GM to cross the line between selling that art form and selling it out. Gelb addressed that recently when he recalled seeing one of those “Euro-trash” productions that try anything to connect. It was a “Rigoletto” conceived by a German film director as “Rigoletto Meets the Planet of the Apes.” Set amid the shattered remains of the world’s opera houses, it had the singers dressed, yes, as apes. ‘There will be no ape suits in our new productions’.”
Britain’s Golden Age Of Culture?
“This is a golden time for the arts in Britain; we have an embarrassment of riches on our hands. Barely a day seems to go by without news of another first night at the theatre, or the opening of another blockbuster exhibition, or the announcement of a great new season of concerts.”