Tag: 12.04.04

Famous Just Because

Western society is overwhelmed with celebrities these days, and the obsession with fame has given rise to an odd sub-category of celebs: people who are famous more for just being famous than for any actual accomplishment. But this celebrity for its own sake isn’t really a new concept. In fact, one of history’s greatest painters may have originated the concept.

A Blessing In Disguise

When Boston Ballet saw its annual “Nutcracker” production forced out of its longtime home in the city’s Wang Theatre, many observers wondered if the company could survive in a new, smaller home. But artistically, at least, “Wang inadvertently [did] Boston Ballet and its audience a favor. As impressive as its technical wizardry and, of course, always terrific dancing were, the company’s Wang-sized “Nutcracker” had, over the years, started to look more and more remote… But for the [new, scaled-back] production, artistic director Mikko Nissinen has prepared the kind of fresh, coherent staging and (mostly) new choreography Boston Ballet’s “Nutcracker” has needed for a long time.”

More Red Ink In Minnesota, But Less Of It

The bad news for the Minnesota Orchestra is that it ran a $1.5 million deficit for the 2003-04 season. The good news is that the orchestra shaved a million dollars off the previous year’s deficit, increased ticket sales, reached agreement on a cost-saving contract with its musicians, and launched a major new organizational strategic plan designed to eliminate the red ink within three years, all without looting the endowment. The orchestra’s leadership says that this year’s deficit could have been eliminated completely through extra endowment draws and accounting tricks, but they are trying to send a signal to potential donors that they intend to operate completely above board in turning their organization around.

Art Theft: Not Just For Big Museums Anymore

Last week, a receptionist at a small New York gallery unlocked the front door for two men she thought were telephone repairmen. Minutes later, the men walked out of the gallery with a valuable painting by the 19th-century artist Théodore Chassériau hidden under a jacket. It’s not exactly a common occurrence, but the city’s gallery owners say the thieves’ modus operandi is familiar, and very hard to combat.

New York, London, Milan, and… Buenos Aires?

“[Argentina’s] Teatro Colón is grand opera all by itself… Despite a crushing international debt, economic near-chaos and an ugly political history, this city is a place of staggering energy, from the traffic that races up and down some of the widest boulevards in the world to the successive managements of this opera house since 1908, whose attention to Latin American composers and embrace of the new and exciting from the rest of the world have made it something we in New York might envy.” The house is currently putting on a production of Britten’s “Death in Venice,” and while Teatro Colón may not have the budget of extravagant companies in the U.S. and Europe, it is every inch a major company, both musically and theatrically.

Debating La Scala’s Makeover

Remarkably, La Scala is reopening this week on time and within budget. It looks good, and the good acoustics have survived. “Continuity is the leitmotif of Tuesday’s gala. The work chosen to reopen the theater is Antonio Salieri’s “Europa Riconosciuta,” the opera that inaugurated La Scala, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, on Aug. 3, 1778. Clearly, the intended message is that La Scala is both modern and eternal. But now that the dust has settled, it’s worth asking if the closure and the reconstruction were actually necessary.”

“Booknotes” Retires; Its Creator Doesn’t

C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb has always been a strong proponent of literature in an age in which television is dominant in the lives of most Americans, and he has regularly used his family of networks to promote books and authors. But this weekend, Lamb’s self-hosted and much-admired series “Booknotes” comes to an end on C-SPAN’s air. The decision to end the series was Lamb’s own, but he has no intention of leaving behind his passion for reading, or his efforts to call attention to deserving authors.

Jon Stewart Wins Book Of The Year

Earlier this year TV critics named Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” the best newscast on TV. Now Publisher’s Weekly has named his satirical book “America (the Book), a Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction,” its book of the year. “The magazine said, in its issue to be published on Monday, that, ‘in a year defined by political polemics, it seems fitting that PW’s Book of the Year be one in which the authors survey the entire political system and laugh’.”