Rebuilding America’s Gulf Coast will be one of the great design challenges of the age, and last week, a group of 200 urban planners and architects held a six-day conference to discuss the direction the rebuilding effort should take in 11 Mississippi towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The result could be a complete rethinking of suburban design in the area, as well as a fullscale overhaul for the city of Biloxi.
Tag: 10.19.05
And Coming Soon, The Performance Art Version!
“Strunk and White’s legendary Elements of Style was first published in 1959, and in the intervening decades, this little book on language and its proper usage has been force-fed to countless high school English students, who have read it zealously, dog-eared key pages, showered it in graphite love or else completely disregarded and forgotten it, usually at their own risk… [A]ppreciation for this slim volume takes a turn toward the whimsical and even surreal this week, as the Penguin Press publishes the first illustrated edition, featuring artwork by Maira Kalman, and the young composer Nico Muhly offers a finely wrought Elements of Style song cycle, to be given its premiere tonight [at] the New York Public Library.”
South Park As Cultural Signpost
When it debuted in the late 1990s, Comedy Central’s animated hit, South Park, was mainly a “scare-the-horses” addition to the network’s lineup, relying on foul language (from the mouths of its seven-year-old stars, no less) and ever-grosser gags to attract the young male viewers so coveted by advertisers. But nine seasons on, South Park is a bona fide cultural phenomenon that has risen above its own raunch to become an up-to-the-minute social commentary on some of the most controversial issues of the day. Of course, much of the attraction is still in the show’s envelope-pushing antics, but wouldn’t we all be a bit tired of fart jokes by now if they weren’t folded into a fairly sophisticated satire?
McGill Puts Its Money Where Its Music Is
Montreal’s McGill University has debuted an impressive new building housing its school of music. The project was a long time coming – planning began in 1994 for what was originally supposed to be a library and archive – but the final result is one of the more cutting-edge facilities enjoyed by any conservatory in North America. “Designers did not shy away from the chance to align several different research fields into a single, ambitious studio plan. Film soundtracks, multimedia applications, music recording, studio technology, sound engineering and even neurosciences have a home in the new space.” Oh, and did we mention that the architecture is spectacular.
Pittsburgh Back In The Red
The Pittsburgh Symphony boosted its measurable assets by $8 million in the 2004-05 season, but the orchestra still wound up with a $1.1 million deficit. That’s a manageable number for a major orchestra, but it could also be seen as a potential red flag for an organization whose musician costs increased significantly this fall. The PSO musicians recently received a whopping 23% raise (the result of a backloaded contract signed by a management team no longer with the orchestra), and even after they offered to rework the deal to provide some short-term relief, salaries for 2005-06 will still be considerably higher than in previous seasons. Still, PSO officials say they are in good financial shape, especially when compared with other major American orchestras.
Holland: Welser-Möst Is Doing Just Fine
The Cleveland Orchestra is on tour yet again with music director Franz Welser-Möst, and while some critics may still consider it open season on the young conductor, Bernard Holland doesn’t see what all the controversy is about. “The eyebrows that lifted when Mr. Welser-Möst was given this job must certainly have settled by now. One hears his casual elegance reflected in his players: a fastidiousness that is never prim, breathing naturally. The musicians sounded as if they believed in their conductor; he must be delighted with them. The Cleveland played on Monday with the good intentions of the best European orchestra, but with an ability to carry them out that hardly any European orchestra can match.”
Joffrey Still Rules The Ballet Roost In Chicago
Seventeen years after the death of its founder and a decade after moving operations from New York to Chicago, the renowned Joffrey Ballet lives on, and this week the company begins celebrating its 50th anniversary. “The Joffrey was the most American of [New York’s] three major classical companies in its embrace of pop culture and its youthfulness. And it was also the troupe that drew in new ballet audiences of all ages… The company is now a continual presence in [Chicago] with four two-week seasons a year. And it is moving toward establishing itself as the third leg of a classical triumvirate with the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”
What Caused The OSM Strike, Anyway?
The months-long strike at l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal is finally over, and details are beginning to emerge not only about the OSM’s new contract, but about the surprisingly small details of workplace conditions that stalled negotiations for more than a year. “After years of seeing their schedules grow ever tighter under the baton of Charles Dutoit, the musicians seemed to have decided that enough was enough. At the same time, general manager Madeleine Careau was demanding concessions to help tame an accumulated deficit that now stands at $3.4-million. To make matters worse, the OSM has been caught in recent years between the demands of its escalating international fortunes and the apparent decline of Montreal’s ability to finance large performing-arts organizations.”
Two Ensembles, One Conductor: Sounds Like Synergy
The Cleveland Orchestra and the Zurich Opera are in talks about possible future collaborations. Franz Welser-Möst serves as music director for both groups, and he owes much of his international success to Zurich Opera’s director general, who has tirelessly promoted the sometimes controversial young conductor. “Welser-Möst has been considering using the orchestra pit at Severance Hall – as did Artur Rodzinski in the 1930s and Lake Erie Opera Theater in the 1960s – to present full-scale opera productions. It isn’t unreasonable that a production originating at the Zurich Opera – Pereira mentioned Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Capriccio and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte as possibilities – could be adapted for the Severance Hall stage.”