Choreographer Sarah Michelson’s breakout hit “Group Experience has spawned so many imitations that the dance concert as self-conscious rock gig, with the audience as part of the action, has become a recognizable subgenre.”
Tag: 10.15.06
A Utopian Undertaking On Broadway (On So Many Levels)
Tom Stoppard’s new play is a mammoth undertaking. It requires “six and a half months of constant rehearsals — full days and part days — and 115 performances, including the three marathon performance days. Even harder when it’s an ensemble piece, where the actor’s name will appear somewhere in the crowd below the title. And harder still when it’s at a not-for-profit theater, with its do-gooder pay scale.”
Trombone As Star? (Really?)
“This season there are four — count ’em, four — major trombone premieres in the United States. The others are at the New York Philharmonic, the Harrisburg Symphony and the Hartford Symphony. The premieres suggest that an instrument that has rarely been invited into the spotlight has finally hit the big time…”
Coveted: The Art Advisor With Access
The art market has become so hot that collectors are jockeying for an edge in buying. “The most important thing an art adviser can provide is access. It’s become much more difficult to buy art these days, especially in the primary market, which is highly imperfect because, unlike auction buying, it’s a closed system based largely on relationships of trust.”
Jorma Elo Is Everywhere
Choreographer Jorma Elo has a full slate of new pieces debuting in high places this season. “Unlike most successful choreographers, who start out as dancers then switch to full-time dance making once they have enough work, he continued to perform with the Nederlands Dans Theater until just two years ago. Asked why, he said simply, ‘I loved it’.”
The Virtual Star
New software tranfers the expressions of an actor’s performance into a computer-generated avatar. “The Image Metrics software lets a computer map an actor’s performance onto any character virtual or human, living or dead.” Will this mean the end of live faces on our movie screens?
The Cincinnati Symphony Audience Problem
Attendance at Cincinnati Symphony concerts has plummeted this season. “Does the orchestra have too much “product” for its customers? Does it need a massive marketing campaign? Will a planned renovation of Music Hall, to add patron amenities such as a café and an attached garage and create a smaller auditorium, improve the attendance?”
“Orchestral Terrorism” At The Seattle Symphony
Orchestra management says someone is targeting musicians who support embattled music director Gerard Schwarz. One player says the retaliation includes “someone anonymously denting my horn, scratching my car, stealing from my orchestra mailbox, desecrating my photo with pinholes to the eyes and forehead, and phoning my home and threatening my family. I have never before encountered orchestral terrorism until now.”
When A Director Goes Off The Rails
John Moore writes that he knows the relationship between critics and the community in which they write can be complicated. But a confrontation between Cleveland Plain Dealer theatre critic Tony Brown and the head of the city’s biggest theatre was “just absurd. How can the head of a regional theater company lead his institution to great standing when he is behaving like a child? Bloom has lost credibility with his staff and subscribers and brought embarrassment to his theater.”
A Museum That Makes You Doubt Star Buildings
Paris’ new Branly Museum is a disaster, writes Robert Campbell. “Everywhere in the Branly, the architecture crowds out the treasures it contains. It’s the mud-like interior you remember, not the displays. This is one of many museums now being built that have been conceived as tourist destinations. The architecture is supposed to be part of the tourist magnet.”