Choral singing is booming in Norway like never before, and not always in the concert hall. “Companies have also discovered that encouraging song in the workplace can boost morale. Employees who sing in a company choir do a better job, some say, and choirs are seen as a means of fostering creativity among staff.”
Tag: 12.19.06
Severed Heads Are The Least Of It
Anne Applebaum was in attendance this week when Deutsche Oper’s controversial production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” premiered, severed prophet heads and all, and she writes that the supposedly inflammatory scene isn’t really the issue. “If one were trying to understand German society, or Western culture, or even Mozart by watching this production, one would have been seriously confused… Why did the first scene take place at a black table, for example, around which sat corpses? Why did the satyrs wear phalluses on top of their furry costumes?”
“Composer For The Masses” Dies At 83
“Daniel Pinkham, a composer who had shared his music with peers and students at the New England Conservatory and the King’s Chapel since the late 1950s, has died of leukemia, according to colleagues… He was a prolific and generous composer concerned with making his music accessible to the masses.”
Broadway At 20-Year Box Office High
Broadway has recorded its biggest season at the box office in 20 years. “Last season, Broadway shows collectively sold 12,003,148 tickets, while the theatregoers were predominately white, rich and more often than not, female.”
Post Feminism, Artist Style
“In the 1970s, one of the most important influences on art and art criticism was the impact of feminism. A burgeoning women’s lib movement had gone on the rampage. Launching a full-scale assault on a male-dominated art world, it burnt its bras on the cultural centre-stage. But, if women’s lib were personified it would be hitting about 40 now. It would be reaching the end of its child-bearing years. And does that therefore mean that it’s losing its relevance? Is it in mid-life crisis? Or does it remain a focus?”
Attention Deficit Disorder
Many artists have conflicted feelings about notoriety. Why? “I make no bones about enjoying attention, but I resent it when it is implied that being media-friendly devalues my work.”
China’s No. 1 Movie (The Fix Is In)
How do you ensure a hit movie in China? You make sure that all the cinemas are allowed only to play your movie…
The Top Albums Of All Time? Not Even Close!
Time magazine is out with a list of the 100 greatest albums of all time. What a bunch of hooey, suggests Frank J. Oteri. The list ignores most jazz and has no classical music. It is, he writes, “further proof that mainstream journalism totally doesn’t get the big picture when it comes to the music of our time.”
Christie’s Reports A Good Year
London-based Christie’s, which is owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, had a great year in 2006. The world’s largest auction house “sold $1.26 billion of impressionist and modern-art pictures in 2006, including four Gustav Klimt paintings recovered by Nazi victims’ heirs. Postwar and contemporary auctions rose 59 percent, to $829 million. Worldwide, auctions rose ‘more than 30 percent’ from last year’s $3.2 billion, though final totals aren’t yet available.”
Mozart Opera Goes Ahead Without Protest
“The Deutsche Oper’s production of Mozart’s ‘Idomeneo’ (1781), which contains a severed head of the prophet Muhammad, passed off peaceably. A small group of Christians quietly held placards before the show. During the performance, there were two gentle ‘boos,’ countered by two polite ‘bravos.’ After so many overheated jeremiads and terrorist warnings in the press, it was a bit of a let-down.”