In today’s instant-gratification world, it is difficult to accept that some things still take time. But in Philadelphia, the team behind the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2-year-old Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is still tweaking and adjusting the hall’s acoustics, striving to create one of the world’s great concert venues. “Almost two years after opening night, hundreds of millions of dollars since the orchestra started dreaming of acoustical perfection, Verizon Hall isn’t quite what it should be, Kimmel and orchestra leaders agree… And so the original acousticians for the hall, Artec Consultants, are being brought back for another round of work.”
Tag: 11.05.03
Getting A Grip On Coetzee
J. M. Coetzee, this year’s Nobel laureate for literature has “successfully turned a temperament into a style. His novels cannot be pinned down to a history, be it apartheid South Africa or Bush’s increasingly authoritarian America. Yet it’s hard to believe that the Nobel committee, in coming to its judgment, wasn’t moved by the way Coetzee’s most astute writing speaks to this moment.”
A New, More Accurate Arts Formula
For years, arts supporters have used a mathematical formula to estimate the economic impact of theaters, orchestras, and art galleries on a given area. Trouble is, the formula’s accuracy is arguable at best, and many have stopped taking it seriously. Now, a pair of Canadian researchers is proposing a new way of measuring arts impact, without confusing it with cultural tourism. “What the study suggests is the possibility of actually identifying a predictable pattern of development around arts facilities — the researchers can already say specialty retailers follow restaurants, which follow the arts — that would take the guesswork out of government plans to use the arts as a tool of urban regeneration.”
Reagan Miniseries Exiled To Pay Cable
“Capping an extraordinary furor over a movie virtually no one has seen, CBS scrapped plans Tuesday to televise “The Reagans” and decided to shunt it off to the Showtime cable network instead. Based on snippets of the script that had leaked out in recent weeks, conservatives accused CBS of distorting the legacy of the former president.”
No More Free Money For Fake Brit Films
“Film-makers who abuse the system of tax breaks for British films are facing a crackdown by the UK Government. Films that are British or co-produced by Britain get tax relief in the UK. But the government suspects some co-productions of falsely claiming to spend more in the UK to qualify, while others do not give value for money.”
Sculptor’s Payday
Henry Moore’s 15-foot bronze sculpture, Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped, sold at auction for $6.2 million this week, the highest price ever paid for a work by a British sculptor. “The previous best for a work by Moore, regarded as one of the UK’s top sculptors, was $4.1m , in 1999. Collectors also paid record prices for works by French painter Fernand Leger Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Tuesday’s auction of impressionist and modern art [at Christie’s in New York] sold pieces worth a total of $117m.”
Will Warhol Market Crash?
So one in six Warhols is said to be fake. Now “New York is bracing itself for a Warhol washout at next week’s sales after a two-year price boom that has seen as much as £4 million change hands for a wallsized Warhol canvas.”
Record For Modigliani
Steve Wynn put down some serious cash for for a Modigliani image of a nude. “It brought $26.8 million, above Christie’s $25 million high estimate. After the sale, art experts were quick to point out that Mr. Wynn had paid nearly $10 million more for the painting when he bought it privately in the mid-1990’s.”
A Lift For “Producers” – Lane And Broderick Return
After months of lagging ticket sales, the Broadway production of The Producers is bringing back the show’s original stars – Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. “The show’s producers want to make the most of the stars’ return. The show’s regular tickets cost $30 to $100, and the producers are also expected to sell nearly a hundred $480 tickets in the best rows of the orchestra for each performance through Broadway Inner Circle. With the new $480 tickets, the show is likely to post the highest box office take on Broadway, as much as $1.3 million a week.”
Architectural Battle In The Shadow Of St. Paul’s
London’s Paternoster Square, in the shadow of St. Paul’s, has opened after decades-long battles as to what whould be built there. “To those sickened by the damage inflicted on Britain’s cities and towns by modernist planners and architects, Paternoster Square was a battle cry. If the setting of St Paul’s was not sacred, then where in Britain was? To modernist architects and their supporters, it was no less emotive. If the classicists could capture such a major site in the heart of the City of London, who knew where the counter-revolution might end? It was, of course around the figure of the Prince of Wales, then at the height of his campaign to roll back the boundaries of modernism, that the battle raged and swirled. Like Verdun, the end result was stalemate.”