Tag: 11.01.04

Belfast Arts Center On Hold

Plans for a major new arts center in Belfast have been put on hold. “The proposal was to house the Lyric Theatre, the Old Museum Arts Centre and the School of Music on a site within the Cathedral Quarter. It was hoped that the move would create a thriving cultural area in the heart of the city. However, the £27m price tag and disagreements over the details of the plan have seen it fail to develop.”

Duveen – America’s Art Connection

In the early years of the 20th Century, art dealer Lord Duveen helped America’s wealthiest become important art collectors. Their collections form the basis of the country’s great museums. But “the most important legacy of their collaboration has been its toxic effect on the intellectual culture of art: it accelerated a divorce of connoisseurship from criticism. Duveen subsumed fine discrimination to the legitimatization of wealth, a function that, augmented by modern forensic technologies, it continues to perform.”

The Greatest Career In Opera History

Now that Luciano Pavarotti often shares a stage with the likes of Celine Dion, it’s easy to forget that he and Herbert Breslin truly did create perhaps the greatest career in opera history. When Breslin first met the Modena baker’s son in the late sixties, Pavarotti was singing in minor European theaters, a young (and even then overweight) tenor with a beautiful voice, a broad smile, and an innate charisma. What he lacked was an agent to marshal those gifts into a marketable package. Breslin was an interloper in the classical-music world, a product of corporate America.”

Cleveland Orchestra Continues Contract Talks

The Cleveland Orchestra and its musicians agree to continue negotiating on a new contract after the old one expired Sunday. Musicians say this is a contract about maintaining the orchestra’s elite status. “If you fall below a certain level, you are going to fall out of the top tier of orchestras. I am concerned that Cleveland will no longer be a destination orchestra, but an orchestra musicians want to get to and then go to another orchestra.”

What’s Next For The Met?

What does the appointment of Peter Gelb to run the Metropolitan Opera mean for the country’s artistic future? “What will his artistic priorities be? This question can’t be answered without knowing what James Levine intends his own role to be now that his title has been downsized from artistic director to music director. Will Mr. Levine, busy in his new job as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Mr. Gelb divvy up the artistic responsibilities? It’s not yet clear – not even, I suspect, to them.”