Sure, he can conduct Tristan at the Met and name his own date for playing Carnegie Hall. (He chose today, Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday.) But even he gets taken for a ride by a NY cabbie, finds that some backstage ticket staff don’t recognize his name, and is made to hobble around the block on a gout-ridden leg because a security guard has to follow the rules.
Tag: 12.07.08
Hey, Chicago, London Has Something Crucial To Teach You
“In London, arts institutions have figured out that they need to be gathering places as much–if not more–than producers of cultural events. It is a win-win transformation. The provision of a relaxed, open, public space fills a social mission, but it also fills the coffers. … All of this makes one wonder why Chicago is so pathetic in this crucial regard.”
Leonard Slatkin, Detroit Symphony – Much Riding On One Another
“The Slatkin era, which begins with concerts Thursday through Sunday, opens a critical new DSO chapter. The orchestra’s place in the pecking order of American symphonies has slipped since the glory days under former music director Neeme Jarvi in the ’90s. Slatkin’s arrival represents a fresh start for a leading American conductor.”
America In Translation
“This is panic mode for a publisher. New books are the lifeblood of the business. Without them, the operation would wither and die.” But with fewer new titles, where is the new product coming from? How about translations of foreign authors?
Face To Face – Losing The Literary Lunch
“Lunch is to publishing as liquidity is to banking. The book world is in full-blown transition. Blogs are rampant; Google is digitising every text going; e-readers are transforming the experience of reading. Books (and book reviewing) have been pushed to the margin. It doesn’t help that in a global recession publishing is also feeling the pinch.” So is the Lit-Lunch kaput?
A Bad Week For UK CD Biz
“With CD sales estimated as down 27 per cent this quarter compared with 2007, last week’s events have pulled into sharp focus the problems of those in the ‘physical’ – as opposed to digital – music retailing industry.”
Opera Losing Its Dance With Language
“Breaking the link between listener and language has caused a radical reshaping of our relationship to the art form. Without grounding in the language of opera, we tend to approach it more as a narrative experience than a poetic one. Contemporary operagoers expect from the lyric stage the same sort of immediate experience they have at the theater and cinema.”
The Downside Of Book Clubs
“Yes, it’s a nice, high-minded idea to join a book group, a way to make friends and read books that might otherwise sit untouched. But what happens when you wind up hating all the literary selections — or the other members?”
How Twyla Tharp Choreographs Her Life
“You can only marvel at how Tharp, ever the choreographer, has arranged it so you’re playing the audience to her star turn. Tumbling around barefoot on the floor in her jeans, singing out eight-count measures as she narrates her moves, she’s a consummate showoff. Now, at 67, as much as in her dancing years.”
Italian Movie Wins Top European Award
“Gomorra,” a movie by Italian director Matteo Garrone about Naples’ criminal underworld, has won the best film prize at the 21st annual European Film Awards.