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Weekend, February 11-12
Opening Torino With Art & Absurdity The visually captivating and decidedly over-the-top opening ceremonies of the twentieth Winter Olympiad proved once and for all that "other nations can be as cheesy as the United States. That people the world over seem to share a common urge to stage bizarre interpretive dance... The Olympics are ordained to be completely self-important -- no smirking allowed! -- which perhaps is why the opening festivities always seem so campy. Still, as a general spectacle, last night's show wasn't bad." Boston Globe 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:48 AM
We've Got The Thieves, But Where's The Loot? It's been a year and a half since gun-toting thieves charged into Oslo's Munch Museum and left with two masterpieces by the museum's namesake. "Six men stand accused of the crime; their trial is set to begin tomorrow. But the laborious, complicated investigation has stumbled in a fundamental and profoundly frustrating way. The police may have the thieves, but they don't have the paintings." The New York Times 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:38 AM
Looted Paintings Returned To Germany "The United States returned three paintings stolen at the end of World War II to the mayor of the western German town that owned them. U.S. Ambassador William Timken handed over the 19th-century works by Heinrich Buerkel to the mayor of Pirmasens at a ceremony Friday in Berlin. Officials say the three paintings, now valued at $125,000, were among works believed stolen on March 22, 1945, as U.S. forces pushed into Germany. They were recovered after they turned up in an auction in the United States last year." Forbes 02/10/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:16 AM
Give 'Em An Inch, And They'll Take All Their Art Back "With a proposed settlement from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in hand, Italian authorities are escalating their demands for the return of allegedly looted antiquities from other American museums... Italian investigators say they have identified hundreds more allegedly looted objects at U.S. museums. An additional 10,000 objects mentioned in the records have not yet been located." Italy is very serious about recovering as many of the objects as possible, and is willing to go to court if negotiations with the museums involved do not result in a satisfactory resolution. Los Angeles Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:02 AM
Radio Silence It's been five years since the Chicago Symphony lost its regular series of radio broadcasts, and a replacement series is nowhere on the horizon. Wynne Delacoma says that the continued lack of any radio presence is directly attributable to stubbornness on the part of the CSO's musicians and management, who have been loathe to challenge old compensation systems, even as other orchestras embrace new ideas. "Audiences in Chicago and around the world need to hear what the symphony is doing now, not simply what it did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago... It is a crime that [the CSO] is falling so far behind in the world of electronic media." Chicago Sun-Times 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:12 AM
Leaderless, But Never Directionless The Chicago Symphony's music director search is now two years old, and no progress has been visible in the quest to find a proper successor for Daniel Barenboim, who leaves the position in June. But no one in the organization seems to be in any sort of hurry, and if there seems to be a dearth of well-qualified candidates, the CSO isn't bothered by it. Some are even suggesting that a music director isn't terribly important to the fortunes of a truly great orchestra. "The CSO's 2006-07 season, with trips to Carnegie Hall under Boulez and a residency in Florida next February, hardly signals an orchestra on hold." Chicago Sun-Times 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:06 AM
Opera As Societal Mirror? Conventional wisdom says that the opera crowd is too mired in tradition to embrace new work, but several Canadian companies are enlisting big-name stars and media partners in an effort to ramp up public interest in a new wave of premieres. One of the city's artistic directors says that opera "has become a populist voice and an opportunity for creative artists to show society to itself." Toronto Star 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:30 AM
Two Become One Cleveland's two opera companies are on the verge of combining operations while maintaining their separate missions. "Like many American opera companies, Cleveland Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland have struggled in recent seasons with deficits and declining attendance. The two organizations view a merger, no matter how challenging, as a means of controlling finances and presenting a reasonable number of performances of varied repertoire." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:27 AM
The Met's New Direction There may be no more conservative institution in American classical music than New York's Metropolitan Opera. For decades, the Met has catered to an audience that loves old chestnuts, respects tradition above all else, and generally abhors the experimental. So when the company's incoming general manager starts talking about wholesale change and using terms like "radical reinvention," a lot of people get very nervous. But Peter Gelb is apparently quite serious in his desire to remake the Met for the 21st century. The New York Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:19 AM
New Orleans May Lose Historic Theatre Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to New Orleans' four major theatres, and while the rebuilding effort has made progress in some areas, the 85-year-old Orpheum Theatre may be a total loss. "Floodwater filled the theater's 20-foot basement, wiping out all the electrical and mechanical equipment stored there, and rose to more than a foot in the performance hall. The Orpheum's original oak floors swelled and buckled and likely cannot be salvaged. The stage, which sat under water for weeks, will also have to be replaced." Making matters worse, the Orpheum had no flood insurance. Picayune Item (AP) 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:26 AM
Portland Arts: A Perpetual Crisis? Portland is frequently cited as a city on the rise, with a vibrant urban core and a young and growing population. But for the city's arts groups, the mythical "big time" frequently seems a distant dream. "After four precarious seasons at the 'majors' -- the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, Portland Center Stage and Oregon Ballet Theatre -- donations rose for the fiscal year ending in June. Ticket sales, however, fell behind. Talk about a mixed message. Donors seem to be saying, we'll give you more money, but we won't go to more concerts... It's possible that these old-fashioned institutions that rely on audiences driving downtown to sit in formal halls can't adapt to a digital age. Maybe they're doomed to live in perpetual crisis." The Oregonian (Portland) 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:21 AM
Are Images Of Muhammed Really Forbidden? At the heart of Muslim outrage over the Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed has been the generally unchallenged contention that any visual depiction of the prophet is banned under Islamic law. But the ban may not be as clear-cut as many seem to think. "Although rare in the 1,400 years of Islamic art, visual representations of Muhammad were acceptable in certain periods. Today, his likenesses grace collections around the world," and religious scholars say that "there is nothing in the Quran that forbids imagery." San Francisco Chronicle 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:21 AM
Cartoon Scandal Editor Leaves Paper "Flemming Rose, the Danish editor whose decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad helped provoke weeks of fury in the Muslim world, said in an interview on Friday that he was leaving his newspaper on indefinite vacation." Rose stands by his decision to publish the cartoons, but says that the stress of being blamed for international riots and anti-European protests led him to step away. The New York Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:18 AM
Rallying Around The New Chief The museum community is wasting no time in offering support to the Getty Trust's new interim CEO. "In her 23 years at the Getty, [Deborah] Marrow has emerged as its longest-tenured department head and the administrator with perhaps the broadest hands-on experience of its multifaceted operations." Perhaps more importantly, those who know her say that her level-headed style and established connections in the art world will serve the Getty well as it attempts to rebound from a terrible year. Los Angeles Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:11 AM
Getty Needs To Get Back To Basics The scandals enveloping the Getty Trust came to a shrieking climax with the resignation of President and CEO Barry Munitz last week, and Christopher Knight says that it is time for the flailing institution to take a deep breath and remember that its mission is supposed to have something to do with art. Los Angeles Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:06 AM
Are Getty Severance Packages Illegal? The troubling issues of executive compensation and severance pay have joined the myriad other controversies plaguing Los Angeles's Getty Museum. "Questions are being raised about whether excessive severance packages were paid to two senior executives who resigned recently... The severance packages could prove troubling to the Getty because such payments might violate federal tax laws governing spending by nonprofit foundations, which specify that they must use their resources for the public good." The New York Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:24 AM
Pushing Back In the years since the 9/11 attacks, Arab-American playwrights have been imbued with a sense of purpose and mission - "to counter stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims" even as America moves inexorably to wipe out extremist Islamist factions in the Mideast. The result has been a new visibility for Arab dramatists in many American cities, and an extended debate on the role of politics and culture in drama. The New York Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:31 AM
Scots Switching From Romance To Crime Crime novels are gaining in popularity in Scottish libraries as romance novels wane. "Total loans for the year were 341 million, or more than five books for every man, woman and child. This year sees crime fiction stealing a march on romance. Maybe this is an indication that national tastes are becoming increasingly macabre."
Posted February 12, 2006 06:31 PM
Drawing Out The Consummate Outsider "J. P. Donleavy, the American author who skyrocketed to international fame half a century ago with The Ginger Man, his debut novel, remains a cult figure in Ireland, the country that has provided the setting for much of his work." He lives like a hermit on a palatial estate in the town of Mullingar, and rarely ventures out into the world. But a new film deal and the news that Donleavy, now 80 years old, may be about to sell his papers to a university, has the reclusive author back in the spotlight. The New York Times 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:37 AM
Does Hollywood Blackball Gay Actors? One of the great mysteries of modern Hollywood is why so many gay actors continue to maintain sham marriages and insist that they are heterosexual in what may be the most devoutly liberal enclave in the U.S. Now, one openly gay actor is publicly accusing the film industry of being unwilling to cast gays in leading roles. Ian McKellen, who is best known for his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, says that "It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian." BBC 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:51 AM
Hollywood's Newfound Torture Obsession There has been a sharp rise in the number of scenes of torture coming out of Hollywood in recent years. You could attribute the increase to an American audience which has become decidedly difficult to shock, but is the increase in extreme violence on-screen dulling Americans' aversion to torture in the real world? Boston Globe (LA Times) 02/11/06
Posted February 12, 2006 09:57 AM
Radio Pay-For-Play Scandal May Be Biggest Ever Sources at the Federal Communications Commissions are saying that the current investigation into "payola" - the illegal practice of paying radio stations or DJs in exchange for airplay - may be the largest such operation in American history. "Several of the largest radio conglomerates in America — the corporate owners of FM radio stations across the nation — are within the scope of the FCC probe, which was triggered by the two year long pay-for-play investigation by [New York Attorney General Eliot] Spitzer." Hundreds of individual stations across the country and the record companies representing some of the world's biggest pop stars are also being probed. ABC News 02/09/06
Posted February 12, 2006 08:52 AM
Aggressive Skin Dance has always been focused on the body, of course, but the latest trend in modern dance is taking things to a whole new level, with an increasing number of dancers appearing completely naked onstage. "The upsurge isn't rooted in sexual liberation, as it was when nude bodies appeared onstage in the 1960's, or in political defiance, as when they re-emerged in the 80's. Instead... nudity is a way to force the audience into some form of discomfort." The New York Times 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 11:42 AM
Success Breeds New Challenges Oakland Ballet may be gone, but California's Bay Area remains one of the most vibrant dance scenes in the U.S. That's a good thing, of course, but with literally hundreds of companies of all sizes and shapes competing for attention (and audience,) staying solvent can be a day-to-day proposition. Some companies look for a cultural niche to fill, while others seek a unique geographic location that will allow them to put down neighborhood roots. Donor fatigue is a real concern, as is duplication - too much of the same thing in a single area. San Mateo County Times (CA) 02/12/06
Posted February 12, 2006 10:56 AM
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