We here at ArtsJournal like to think of ourselves as people who pay close attention to news of the cultural world. So we’re somewhat embarrassed to score only 15 out of 20 in this year’s Guardian cultural literacy quiz…
Tag: 12.25.05
The West End’s Banner Year
Charles Spencer says West End theatre has had a great year: “During 25 years of covering London theatre, I can’t remember a stronger season for drama in the West End. The producers have really raised their game this year, offering big stars in numerous quality productions of first-rate plays.”
A Good Year For UK Dance
“Eyes were raised to far horizons, and suddenly you could begin to see it stretching 20 years. Sadler’s Wells moved into production, dance buildings are completing for Rambert and Siobhan Davies, and the spectacular new Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff is a dance gateway for the neglected west.”
Levine Remakes Boston Symphony
“The BSO is playing better, and more consistently, than it has in years. Levine is not presenting much more contemporary repertoire than Seiji Ozawa did, but he apparently enjoys a more challenging kind of music, and he is programming it in a more systematic way.”
Last Minute At The Dallas Symphony
The Dallas Symphony has a new way of selling tickets. Patrons pay a monthly “retainer”. The plan “allows patrons to pay a monthly fee in exchange for the best available seat at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center – generally seats that went unsold or were returned by subscribers.”
Tokyo, City Of Orchestras
“There is more of it here than in any other city in the world. Not only is more going on here than in London or Berlin, but one of the great attractions of over-the-top Tokyo is that it makes everything feel different. Tokyo is chock-full of concert halls and, better yet, concert halls full of listeners. Where other musical capitals consider themselves lucky to have two or three important large venues for concerts and opera, Tokyo and its outskirts boast 10, plus many more medium- and smaller-sized halls. The city is also home to about a dozen symphony orchestras.”
A St. Louis Turnaround? Thank The Maestro…
There may not be a tougher gig in the American orchestral scene at the moment than music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. And yet somehow, David Robertson, the young American conductor better known in Europe than in his home country, has already begun to transform the SLSO’s fortunes in only a few months on the job. “By opening night, he had already motivated the most miserable musicians in any major American orchestra (at least to hear them publicly complain); turned on teenagers as well as dowagers; and begun reaching deep into a racially divided community.”