Does Religious Education Undermine Western Society? Education is always a touchy subject, and with the world embroiled in any number of religion-based conflicts, religious schools are suddenly a controversial topic in Britain. Some are even suggesting that faith-based education should be abolished altogether. "Unless all faith schools are abolished, Britain will never be truly egalitarian, nor will our multi-ethnic society be secure enough to be worth celebrating." The Guardian (UK) 07/28/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 10:00 am
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You Complete Me Workers in France are putting the finishing touches on a massive church designed (but never completed) by architect Le Corbusier. "Completed by [Corbusier] protégé José Oubrerie, who has tinkered with many elements of the original sketches, the Church of St. Pierre has stirred debate among Parisian academics about the ethics of finishing a work left behind by a legendary architect." The New York Times 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 10:15 am
Tate's New Ziggurat Gets Rave Reviews The expansion plan for London's Tate Museum unveiled this week is "a powerful, memorable project, that would have seemed inconceivable when the new Tate was first mooted. Without being showy for the sake of making a spectacle, it takes the form of a glass mountain rearing up behind Giles Gilbert Scott's brick cliff and clearly visible from the river and St Paul's." The Observer (UK) 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:55 am
What's In A Logo? Logos may seem insignificant, but they have a major impact on the way people think about a company or an institution, or whether they think about it at all. So when Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art decided it needed a new logo, it was a major project. Boston Globe 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:35 am
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Does Louisville Need A New Concert Hall? The Louisville Symphony seems to be in a near-permanent state of fiscal crisis these days, and clashes between musicians desperate to hold onto what they have and managers intent on cutting costs pop up nearly every year. But Andrew Adler wonders if the success that other orchestras have enjoyed could be replicated in Louisville if the ensemble could somehow scrape together the money to build a shiny new concert hall where it is the primary tenant. Louisville Courier-Journal 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:19 am
Is Edinburgh's Fest Still Relevant? The Edinburgh Festival is a beloved institution in Scotland, and visitors from throughout the world descend on the city every summer to experience it. But Robert Dawson Scott wonders whether the festival is really necessary anymore: "Obviously it is nice for central Scotland to have a glimpse of the international art world once a year. But does anyone else, apart from the attention-seeking adolescents who underpin the Edinburgh Fringe, really need to go there any more?" The Independent (UK) 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:14 am
Who Says Mozart Is Old School? New York's Mostly Mozart Festival is departing from tradition to introduce a massive piece of digital installation art outside its Lincoln Center home. The artwork "uses artificial intelligence in a visual and aural play of the composer's last symphony — the 'Jupiter'... In the interplay between sound and image, Mozart's music is taken apart, with computers searching for the right sequence of notes that was recorded by real musicians — before reconstructing the final, perfect end to the masterwork." Los Angeles Times (AP) 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:02 am
Bayreuth Under Glass Germany's Bayreuth Festival may be the world's most insular musical gathering, and the global move towards casual dress and informal style is still a hard sell amongst the Bavarian Wagner faithful. But it's the adherence to tradition that makes Bayreuth such a unique experience, says Anthony Tommasini. The New York Times 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:45 am
Looking For A Role Model Ever since Toronto's new opera house was completed earlier this summer, critic William Littler has been scanning the globe for cities that make the best use of their performing arts facilities, and could serve as a model for Toronto. In Munich, he may have found the ideal comparative. "Munich itself is considerably smaller than Toronto, and yet its principal opera house (there are three others) routinely maintains an average attendance of upwards of 90 per cent... Will the Four Seasons Centre have as powerful a catalytic effect in Toronto? If it does, there is room to hope that the Canadian Opera Company can expand beyond its usual seven productions." Toronto Star 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:29 am
Bargain Pricing In The Berkshires Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony's summer home in the Berkshires, is jumping on the trend of lowering ticket prices to generate better sales. For twelve days in August, concertgoers will get into the famed Koussevitsky Music Shed for as little as $20. And if that doesn't seem like all that impressive a bargain, keep in mind that Tanglewood tickets ordinarily go for as much as $83. Berkshire Eagle (MA) 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:24 am
The Acting Does Tend To Be A Bit Wooden, Though Sure, Mozart opera is fine, but you know what would really improve it? Puppets. Seriously. "Most opera singers pick up their skills in physical acting on the fly, but a marionette in the hands of a skilled puppeteer is a dramatic creature par excellence. They have nothing to do but move, and... puppets move with a sense of character and drama that you would be hard pressed to find among any human cast." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:15 am
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Should CBC Stop Trying To Compete? The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation provoked a storm of protest this summer when it attempted to boost ratings by bumping its flagship national newscast two nights a week in favor of an American reality program. The reality show flopped, CBC's ratings remain in the tank, and now a chorus of critics, politicians, and members of the public are calling for the broadcaster to reinvent itself as a true public service entity. "This CBC would stop trying to draw mass audiences to single events such as big-budget dramas, American movies or Saturday-night hockey games, but instead would offer a lineup of specialized Canadian programming that reached millions over the course of a week." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/26/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:50 am
Plenty of New Faces In Maine The city of Portland, Maine has been experiencing an unusual leadership vacuum in the cultural realm, with executives of seemingly every arts institution in town departing almost simultaneously. But the gaps are starting to fill, and Portland's arts scene seems no worse for the wear. Maine Sunday Telegram 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:10 am
This Summer Sucks (Culturally Speaking) "So far, this has turned out to be the long soggy summer, not only in the backyard and the basement, but also around the watercooler, at the pool, beside the surf. The only things buzzing are the bugs... It's the pictures, television, books and music that got very, very small. There's little to rave about or worth running to consume... You know something is awry when Al Gore is the summer's breakout movie star." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:07 am
Disney Hall Suit Settled "A complex lawsuit over who should bear unexpectedly high construction costs for Walt Disney Concert Hall has been settled, with builders to receive $13.3 million from the hall's parent corporation and an additional $4.5 million under architect Frank Gehry's professional liability insurance policy." Los Angeles Times 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:01 am
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Schoenberg's Famous Disciple Dies At 82 "Dika Newlin, a composer and musicologist who was deeply influenced by the avant-garde master Arnold Schoenberg and brought his style into the punk rock era, has died. She was 82... A composer of several operas and chamber works, Newlin began exploring popular music in the mid-1980s. Inspired by her college students, she sang and played keyboards in a band called Apocowlypso. More recently she performed as a flame-haired punk rocker and performance artist, singing works such as 'Murder Kitty,' composed solely of meows." Chicago Tribune (AP) 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:43 am
Where Does He Find The Time To Make All The Nukes? North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il's official bio is quite the document, laying out the Dear Leader's supposed accomplishments in the fields of international relations, publishing, and pretty much everything else under the sun. And then there's this sentence: "It is also said that he wrote six operas, all of which are better then any in the history of music." Well, of course they are. Regardless of whether he has actually written any operas, Kim has authored a book on opera (along with 1500 others, according to the bio,) which contains such keen artistic insights as "In the first place, an opera singer must sing well." Huffington Post 07/28/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:39 am
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A Matter Of Equity Everyone remotely connected to the theatre world has heard of Actors' Equity, the major union for theatrical performers. But unlike many other industries, theatres generally have a choice regarding how many union actors they hire, and whether they want to have the union in house at all. Furthermore, actors have to think long and hard about whether it's even worth it for them to join Equity: the cost is prohibitive, and if they live in a town without many Equity houses, they're unlikely to benefit much from membership. Denver Post 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:44 am
Midwest Shakespeare Fest Falling Short The Bloomington-based Illinois Shakespeare Festival has some serious challenges to face, not the least of which is this summer's volatile weather, which has left several of the outdoor fest's productions all wet. "The initial promise of this space as a festival environment -- offering the chance to see several shows in a weekend, filling the gardens with picnickers and attracting audiences from Chicago -- has yet to be fulfilled. In a town with few bucolic attractions, this theater seems underused." Chicago Tribune 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 9:40 am
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Using TV Talk To Sell Books (Not Just An Oprah Trick) Ever since Oprah Winfrey got interested in books, the American publishing industry has known that getting a title on Oprah's list is as good as buying a spot on the bestseller list. But Oprah isn't the only one who can sell books: meet Richard and Judy, the UK's favorite afternoon talk hosts, whose own televised book club is making major waves in Britain's publishing world. The New York Times 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:58 am
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Playtone Makes Its Move Tom Hanks, as everyone knows, is one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars. But what much of the public doesn't know is that Hanks has spent the last several years quietly putting together "one of Hollywood’s most prolific filmmaking entities... On Friday the company’s animated feature 'The Ant Bully' was released on 3,050 regular and Imax screens by Warner Brothers. Lined up behind it are nearly three dozen projects." The New York Times 07/30/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 10:12 am
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Dance3 "In 1999 the choreographer Yoshiko Chuma happened upon a new obsession: cubes. As a shape, the cube is not particularly sexy, but the use of such movable seven-foot frames has invigorated Ms. Chuma’s imagination ever since... In Ms. Chuma’s cube works, musicians and dancers, who constantly reconfigure the frames to show how drastically yet subtly movement can transform itself with the slightest shift of an angle, interact with one another within and around the cubes." The New York Times 07/29/06
Posted: 07/30/2006 8:53 am
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