Tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets Friday to protest deep budget cuts proposed by the Berlusconi government. “Theaters in several cities staged simultaneous evening performances of ‘requiem’ funeral masses by Mozart, Verdi and Brahms ‘for the announced death of all cultural activities,’ due to reduced arts funding.”
Tag: 11.26.05
Kosky: Fear And Loathing In Australia
Why are Australian arts in such bad shape? Director Barrie Kosky thinks he knows: “[There is a] terrible arts funding dilemma in Australia but that’s just the skin. Look at the muscle and the bone and the blood system, see what it’s actually about. It’s about fear. There has to be something inherently distrustful of art in the Australian psyche for there to be such problems. I don’t think it’s ultimately about money. To me, it’s fear of sadness, fear of going within yourself, fear of the heart of darkness.”
The New Classical?
“From Philadelphia to Sioux Falls, orchestras are embracing a growing breed of contemporary composer that emphasizes the classical tradition of writing to entertain, rather than to explore academic, less accessible theories. While the point is partly to please crowds, these new works are taken seriously. The popularity of this new classical music — variously called “contemporary classical,” “alt-classical” or “music of our time” — represents the latest stage in a reaction to the 1950s and ’60s, when the dominant composers were academics who invented tonal structures that broke with European musical traditions.”
SF: Portrait Of An Arts Scene
San Francisco is bursting with arts activity. And most of the region’s myriad arts groups are doing well, both artistically and financially. Still, 63 percent of artists in the Bay Area earn less than $7,000 a year from their art…
Historian Jailed For Holidays For Lying About Holocaust
“David Irving, the discredited British historian of the Nazis, will spend Christmas and New Year in a Viennese jail after yesterday being refused bail and being remanded for four weeks pending trial for allegedly lying about the Holocaust.”
The Invisible Canadians
From Dublin to Dresden, Barcelona to Berlin, performances by Canadian singers can be almost daily occurrences in Europe — and anyone determined to hear them all would soon rack up a lot of air miles. The not-so-good news, however, is that Canada’s contribution to this most European of art forms tends to go pretty much unnoticed: Like Canadian movie stars in Hollywood, our finest opera singers are often assumed to be from somewhere else.