“Two years ago, the former Los Angeles Times dance critic Lewis Segal wrote an article called ‘Five Things I Hate About Ballet’… Tuesday night, watching the Kirov Ballet at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, I thought I knew just how he felt.”
Tag: 10.16.08
BBC-TV to Move Production Out of London
The BBC Trust is implementing plans to move half of its television production out of the capital by 2016, with major drama and news programs being shifted to Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham and other cities.
Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opens in New Opera House
“The new [€33 million] theatre may not be state-of-the-art in the way that recent new opera houses costing more than 10 times as much obviously are. But the new house has huge transformational potential. Even the apparently small matter of the greatly enlarged orchestra pit opens up tranches of repertoire that were previously no-go areas.”
To Orhan Pamuk, Islamism Isn’t the Greatest Threat
“Pamuk, like many of Istanbul’s most liberal and cosmopolitan artists, is not as worried as outsiders about how deep the [ruling party] AKP’s pluralism really runs. For them, the real threat still lurks among the hard-line secular chauvinists in the army and judiciary who have for decades banned and jailed authors and journalists.”
Irish Arts Hit by Funding Drop of Almost 10%
“Irish audiences have been warned to expect ‘fewer festivals, fewer exhibitions, less theatre and less music’ next year as a result of a near 10% drop in funding in the newly announced arts budget for 2009.”
Italy Opens Vast Film and Video Archive
“Italian state broadcaster RAI and the national film archive body Istituto Luce said Thursday that they will join forces to create one of the world’s largest film libraries.”
Is NY Antiquities Star Dealing In Fakes?
Carlton Hobbs “has been selling museum-quality antiques at eye-popping prices for the last three years and staking his claim to the top tier of the New York market.” But mere months after his brother, an antiquities dealer in London, was busted for manufacturing and selling fake antiques, Hobbs is facing a raft of similar allegations.
They’re Not Really Any Sillier Than The Bassoon
Violin lessons too hard? Oboe not your thing? Well, why not become a Tenori-on virtuoso, or a master of the Boing Boing? Seriously, these are actual instruments, and while they may not have a place in the orchestra, their inventors hold out hope that these tech-geek music makers will someday have a following.
Remembering A Legend of the Stage
“On Monday night, at Stratford’s Festival Theatre, some of the most distinguished names in this country will gather to pay tribute to Richard Monette, who died on Sept.9 at the age of 64… Saucy, irreverent, ready for anything and totally in love with the theatre. That’s how I want to remember Richard Monette.”
Expanding Space
“More than 250 guests gathered yesterday… for a symbolic ‘wall breaking’ to launch construction of a $74 million, 220,000-square-foot expansion of the companion to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The new wing is to open in 2011.”