“Prado officials said the decision was part of a plan to make more money from entry fees, with a goal of eventually generating 60 percent of its operating budget through such fees and other income to help offset reductions in government support as European economies sputter.”
Tag: 10.27.11
New Pompeii Ruins Collapse
“A collapse at Pompeii has sparked renewed outrage that the world’s largest archeological site is being neglected, prompting the government to send archeologists to assess the damage.”
Unknown Velazquez Spotted By Auction House
“It was due to go for sale as a portrait by the minor 19th-century British artist Matthew Shepperson, but – as the auction house Bonhams revealed on Thursday – it is nothing less than a previously unknown work by one of the greatest of all painters, Diego Velzáquez.”
Bolshoi Ballet’s Latest Headache: Ticket-Scalpers
“[O]rdinary people lining up for tickets … saw most of the tickets snapped up by scalpers who had hired the homeless and the down-and-out to wait in line from the early morning hours to get the tickets.” Bolshoi general director Anatloy Iksanov says there’s no legal way to fight the problem.
English National Ballet Residency At Tate’s Picasso Show
“The English National Ballet is to take up residency at Tate Britain next February, to mark the opening of a new Picasso exhibition. Inspired by the artist’s costume and set design work with the Ballets Russes in 1919, the collaboration will see dancers take classes in the gallery. They will also rehearse and perform three new works inspired by the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition.”
The Arab Spring And Arab Film
It hasn’t taken long for the political changes sweeping through the Arab world this year to be reflected in the region’s cinema. Documentaries about the uprisings have already started to appear, and even films that don’t treat the events directly are profoundly affected by them.
Charles Hamm, 86, Musicologist Who Took Popular Music Seriously
“After beginning his career as a specialist in Renaissance music, Mr. Hamm became frustrated with the condescension of his fellow musicologists toward the popular music of their own time. He began to write and lecture on the subject … [and] helped establish the field of American popular music history with two books that have become standard texts.”
London’s West End Headed For Another £500M Year
“London’s Theatreland looks set to break the £500 million mark for the third year in a row, with revenues during the summer up 5.6% on the same period in 2010.”
The Whole “Who Was Shakespeare” Thing Is Tiresome And Stupid
“Conspiracists ignore a crushing weight of documentary and in-text evidence that the Stratford master authored the plays.”
Ron Rosenbaum Goes Postal On The Shakespeare Birthers
“I should be happy that Anonymous turned out to be such a laughably incoherent botch of a film. One that should make the purveyors of the pernicious Shakespeare ‘authorship’ conspiracy theory hide their heads in shame. But, alas, they won’t. They have no shame. … What’s next, a birther epic about a black president who wasn’t really born in Hawaii?”