Tag: 10.21.19

A “Decade Of Reckoning” For Classical Music

Anne Midgette: “The music isn’t the problem, it’s the way we’re offering it.” Big, inflexible institutions take away the “oxygen and funds” from the smaller organizations, she argues, which typically have a stronger vision and take more risks. Audiences, she adds, prove time and again there’s no lack of interest. “I think the only reason orchestras are struggling is that not everybody wants to go and sit in a concert hall and have that experience. It’s not that people don’t want to hear Beethoven.” – NPR

There Was One City In Renaissance Italy Where Women Artists Flourished

“Why was Bologna, the largest city in northern Italy, so receptive to women artists? … ‘A few factors include the city’s unusual political structure and the diversity of artistic patronage, from the lower-middle class up, the liberalizing presence of the university, and an already-existing tradition of accomplished women in other cultural sectors (that is, besides the visual arts).'” – Hyperallergic

What It Takes To Tour Politically-Charged Works To Places Where The Message May Not Be Welcome

“Touring with a message is not for the faint of heart. From considerations about how to market the work to concerns about safety, touring to cities where, in general, that message may not be so welcome requires companies to figure out how they’ll respond to opposition. Yet many artists find that venturing away from their typical audiences offers an unparalleled opportunity to raise awareness, spark conversations and, in the best cases, even change minds.” – Dance Magazine

How To Neutralize The Ugly Chinese Stereotypes In ‘Nutcracker”s ‘Tea’ Dance

Phil Chan And Georgina Pazcoguin have become the go-to advisors on this subject since then-NY City Ballet chief Peter Martins asked them to address it in the company’s Balanchine Nutcracker. “We’ve discovered three areas in the divertissement,” they write, “where creative questioning can help productions become more respectful to Chinese culture, while remaining faithful to the artistic visions of the past.” – Dance Magazine

Why We’re Attracted To Things That Creep Us Out

“There are different types of creepiness, and the array of things that creep us out ranges from dolls that are too lifelike to clowns in places where clowns should not be… The basic premise is that those who in some way fall outside of the norm put us on our guard because they are unpredictable, and it is unclear whether they pose a threat or not.” – Aeon

How Condé Nast (Who Was A Real Person) Invented The Glossy Magazine

“The equation of upscale readers and upscale brands with profit, projecting an aspirational image of the ideal consumer through both editorial and ads so that vulnerable readers would chase it, made Nast’s fortune many times over. His company established the template of the editor as a heroic, godlike figure casting down commandments from a print Mount Olympus, a status that continued after Nast’s death through the twentieth century.” Then, of course, came the internet and social media. – The New Republic

Managers Of Paris’s New Concert Hall Try To Fine Its Architect €170 Million, And Architect Counter-Sues

In 2006, when plans for the Philharmonie de Paris were announced, the venue, with a flashy, futuristic design by starchitect Jean Nouvel, was supposed to open in 2013 at a cost of €173 million. By the time it actually opened in 2015, the building’s cost was €386 million. So authorities sent the architect a bill for €170 million in penalties for late delivery and overruns. Now Ateliers Jean Nouvel has gone to court, arguing that the bill is “totally disproportionate, not only in the absolute, but also relative to the sums that were actually received.” – Yahoo! (AFP)