A Seattle composer is writing “a 31-part, concert-length baroque oratorio titled, rather theatrically, Mackris v. O’Reilly. The libretto opens with a reading of the original complaint filed by Mackris and runs through seven chorales, four recitatives, and numerous arias before the denouement, which features a dramatic reading of the settlement.”
Tag: 11.15.06
And They’re Not Even Counting The Emissions Coming From Tom Cruise
You can’t swing a boom mike in Hollywood without hitting a celebrity hellbent on getting the U.S. government to do something about global warming and the destruction of the environment. But as it turns out, Hollywood isn’t exactly the greenest industry around: a new study from UCLA found that “the industry created more pollution than individually produced by aerospace manufacturing, apparel, hotels and semiconductor manufacturing… Only petroleum manufacturing belched more emissions.”
SPCO Extends Contracts Of Two Conductors
Solidifying its commitment to working with a diverse array of “artistic partners” rather than engaging a traditional music director, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has extended its relationship with two of its more successful partners. Conductors Douglas Boyd and Roberto Abbado will continue leading the SPCO regularly through 2010 and 2011, respectively.
The Trouble With Canadian TV
The cost of producing original hour-long dramatic series is often crippling for Canadian television networks struggling to compete against big-budget Hollywood shows easily accessed by any Canadian with cable TV. One solution could be to move to a BBC-style model of limited-run series, or to create more miniseries instead of shows meant to run indefinitely. But the problem is deeper than mere formatting…
Who Owns A Lighting Cue?
A dispute has sprung up between the creative team behind the Broadway production of the award-winning musical, Urinetown, and presenters of separate productions of the show in Chicago and Ohio, over the use of staging, set design, and lighting elements that the Broadway team says belong to them. “[The] arguments concern a controversial area of intellectual property: creative input into a production beyond the script and music. While choreography is specifically protected by law, the situation for stage direction is not as clear.”
Met Bows To Grosz Estate, Won’t Borrow MoMA Painting
“In response to an ownership dispute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art says it has decided not to borrow a painting by George Grosz from the Museum of Modern Art for an exhibition of German Expressionist portraits that opened yesterday… MoMA, which has been discussing the issue with the estate for three years, counters that it has thoroughly investigated the claim and has concluded that it has no legal basis.”
If Only Everyone Would Give Everything Away For Free…
Technological innovations such as MySpace and podcasting have allowed many as-yet-undiscovered musicians to promote their careers and present their product for public consumption without the assistance of the ever-more-aloof recording industry. But for established musical acts, the online music world is still an uncertain place. Everyone wants to embrace new media, but no one has quite figured out how to do it without abandoning all control over the product and its distribution.
Auction Prices Continue Their Ascent
Fifteen sales records were broken at a Sotheby’s auction in New York this week as the art market continues to explode. Francis Bacon’s Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe sold for $15 million, the most ever paid for a Bacon work, while sculptor Anish Kapoor’s “untitled carved alabaster sculpture from 1999 generated $2.3m, about five times the sum it had been predicted to earn.”
Putting A Number On It
“There is no mystery about the causes of the new boom. The rich have done very well over the last decade, and some of them, including hedge fund managers like Steven A. Cohen, are spending large sums of their money on art. New billionaires in China, India and, above all, Russia, have also entered the market. The mysterious part of the current mania lies in figuring out what exactly makes a piece of art worth $30 million instead of, say, $1 million.”
More Trouble For The MacLaren
“Supporters of [Barrie, Ontario’s] MacLaren Art Centre, which got enmeshed in a controversial, multimillion-dollar deal involving dozens of sculptures attributed to French master Auguste Rodin, are casting a wary eye on the election Monday of a mayor who claims the gallery has received enough taxpayer help and needs to be more ‘self-sustaining.'”