Singapore has a new $343 million performing arts complex. But more than just theatres, The Esplanade — Theaters on the Bay is an architectural statement the city hopes will define it architecturally in the manner of the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House in their respective cities. “Along with an 2,000-seat theater, the Esplanade boasts what is perhaps one of the world’s most acoustically meticulous concert halls. Besides, who could forget a building that is so, well, prickly?”
Tag: 12.03.02
Canceled, But Not For The Usual Reason
The Los Angeles Opera is canceling a major production for the second time this season, but this time, its the fault of a virus, rather than the economy. “Italian composer Luciano Berio’s new orchestration of Monteverdi’s ‘The Coronation of Poppea’ — slated for Jan. 11-19 with L.A. Opera artistic director Plácido Domingo and Frederica von Stade performing — is off the schedule because the composer is ill and the new version of the opera has not been completed.” The new Poppea was highly anticipated, and LA Opera plans to present it at some later date.
The Nutcracker Factor
Few would deny that the popularity of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music in the US is predicated largely on the approximately 18,763,594 stagings of The Nutcracker which occur around the country every December. But even leaving Drosselmayer’s brood aside, the Russian master can be counted as possibly the most listened to composer in America, even if many Americans probably couldn’t tell you who he was. So what is it about Tchaikovsky that attracts the American ear?
Quartet Quota
The St. Lawrence String Quartet may be Canada’s best-known international chamber music ensemble. Certainly no other group has done as much to promote Canadian composers as the Stanford-based foursome. But when the group’s cellist decided to step aside last year, the St. Lawrence faced the decision that every string quartet dreads most – how to replace a musician, a partner, and a friend. First decision for the remaining members: should Canadian citizenship continue to be a requirement for admission?
Italy On Sale?
So the Italian government wants to ‘lease or even sell off some of the national treasures”‘ in its care. Will the private sector do any better at managing them? The government “strongly denies that Italy’s world-famous culture is under threat,” while critics fear that is. “At issue is a law passed in June, setting up an agency to make an inventory of state-owned monuments and ‘artistic and cultural assets’, with a view to selling them, leasing them or using them as security for loans. The measure was hotly contested by the centre left opposition.”
Never In England
Could the British government try to sell its way out of financial hardship by doing an Italy, selling off assets? Couldn’t happen. “The British genius, during nearly two centuries, has been in hiving off various parts of the cultural patrimony and placing them under the control of a motley crew of quangos, boards of trustees and other bodies that have the reputation of independence without, necessarily, the joy of it.”
Architecture Through The Lens
If ever there were a figure who proves that architecture is as much about process as end result, Grant Mudford is it. The photographer specializes in taking pictures of buildings in progress, and claims that the half-finished structures he captures are as much art as the finished buildings themselves. “I see buildings that are accepted as being great works of architecture, and I’ve always experienced them through photographs before I’ve actually experienced them firsthand… But there’s a whole bunch of mediocre works of architecture that look great in photographs, a lot more interesting than they really are.”
Michelangelo The Miser
“Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and designed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, passed himself off as poor but was actually too miserly to show his huge wealth… [An art historian] has unearthed two of Michelangelo’s bank accounts and numerous deeds of purchase that show the prolific painter, sculptor and architect was worth about 50,000 gold ducats when he died in 1564, more than many princes and dukes of his time.”
The Iron Lady Of Russian Museums
Irina Antonova has been director of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for 41 years. “Such longevity would be remarkable anywhere — even in the United States Senate — but Russia is a particular case. Mrs. Antonova’s career at the Pushkin, which began one month before the end of World War II, has survived Stalinism, democracy and everything in between, including unresolved disputes over looted and lost art.”
The Iron Lady Of Russian Museums
Irina Antonova has been director of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for 41 years. “Such longevity would be remarkable anywhere — even in the United States Senate — but Russia is a particular case. Mrs. Antonova’s career at the Pushkin, which began one month before the end of World War II, has survived Stalinism, democracy and everything in between, including unresolved disputes over looted and lost art.”