“The subsidised company has announced a long-term partnership with commercial producers Michael Grade and Michael Linnit, which it said would see it present ‘world-class musical theatre’ in its London Coliseum home. It is understood that ENO hopes these productions may transfer to the West End.”
Archives for April 2014
London’s Five Biggest Arts Institutions Get More Lottery Money Than 33 Local Governments Combined
The National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, English National Opera and the Southbank Centre have, over the past 18 years, have been given £315 million of Lottery arts funding. In that same period, the 10% of England’s local authorities with the lowest levels of community arts engagement received £288 million.
Netflix Signs Deal With Verizon To Pay For Higher Connection Speeds
“Netflix CEO Reed Hastings may really hate the peering deal he signed with Comcast, but that didn’t stop him from entering a similar partnership with another ISP: Verizon and Netflix have also agreed on a paid peering relationship.”
Lydia Davis Can’t Write Casually, Even In Email
Says the short-story wizard and MacArthur fellow, “I can’t write incorrectly. I find it very difficult to just relax and have spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes and punctuation -– I cannot do that. But I can’t do that even if I write a shopping list.”
Metropolitan Museum Gets A Resident Theater Company
“As the museum’s first theatrical group in residence, the Civilians, a self-described center for investigative theater, will collaborate next season with Met curators and visitors to create works of theater inspired by objects in the museum’s American and Egyptian art collections.”
Spain Charges Montserrat Caballé With Tax Evasion
The superstar soprano, still not fully retired at age 81, is accused of dodging more than €500,000 in taxes on roughly €2 million in income in 2010 by using the good old tax haven ploy.
Berlin’s Hottest, Strangest Piano Recital Venue
“Forget the Berliner Philharmonie. The hip place to hear classical music here in the capital of Germany isn’t the late Hans Scharoun’s acclaimed concert hall but a former tram-repair shop with free booze and a collection tin for donations” – not to mention a bunch of restored historic instruments and the guts of other old pianos strewn about the place.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.29.14
Measuring success
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-04-29
174 LACMA Donors = $4.1 Million + 10 Varied Acquisitions
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-30
From Wagner to Sedaka: Heppner’s “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” His (and Beal’s?) Swansong (with video)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-29
Diva breaks a leg. Literally.
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-04-29
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Mile-High Orchestra Concerts: The Weed-Powered Orchestra
“The concerts, organized by pro-pot promoter Edible Events, will start May 23 with three bring-your-own marijuana events at the Space Gallery in Denver’s Santa Fe arts district and culminate with a large, outdoor performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Sept. 13. They are being billed as fundraisers for the CSO, which will curate a themed program of classical music for each show.”
How The Science Of How/What We See Could Change The Movies
Sergei Gepshtein believes the cinema of the future might even be a shared, immersive experience, one in which the events seem to unfold all around the viewer. “You could enter it like architecture, and there could be other people in the same space,” he says.
It’s Don’t-Cancel-My-Favorite-TV-Show Season
This is when the “Save My Show” campaigns get going. Online petitions and snail-mail letters sent to execs who pay other people to ignore these things. Ever see a TV show set in an office or a police precinct where there’s paper on people’s desk? A lot of that is letters from people pleading that some long-cancelled show featuring a teenage dreamboat is kept on the air.
This Year’s Tony Nominations (A Wide Open Field)
“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” led the Tony field with 10 nominations. “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” received eight, including one for its star, Neil Patrick Harris.
English National Opera Is Doing Better At The Box Office (But…)
“Box office sales yielding 69 per cent of capacity for about 120 performances must be assessed in relation to comparable figures fifteen years ago showing nearer 80 per cent for about 180 performances, but this is still a vast improvement, allowing for a small surplus (as yet unaudited).”
Getty’s James Cuno Calls For A Rethink Of Technology In Museums
“There’s got to be even more interesting things to do. Mapping techniques, network analysis and visualizations are among the tools he cites that could lead to breakthroughs in art history that are impossible, or very slow going, using traditional study methods.”
Rome’s Colosseum To Get A Big Scrubbing
“The $35 million project—the first full cleaning in the Colosseum’s history—aims to return it to its former splendor, while also strengthening the overall structure. Earthquakes, the pillaging of pieces of its outer frame, heavy car traffic and Rome’s nearby subway have damaged key parts.”
Can We Correlate Broadway Box Office With Tony Nominations?
“Will the 2014 Tony Award nominations, which will be announced Tuesday morning, reflect the hottest-selling plays and musicals on Broadway? Or did the Tony nominators, who cast their votes in secret on Monday, favor shows with more artistic merit than box office juice?”
Convicted Art Dealer: Sentence Me To Teach Art!
Hillel Nahmad’s lawyers, Benjamin Brafman and Paul L. Shechtman, are asking that their client, a first-time offender, be permitted to avoid prison and instead operate a program that would bring young people living in a Bronx homeless shelter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What Celebrity Concerts Get Wrong About Famine Relief
“Insulting stereotypes of Africans are at the heart of why celebrity famine relief gets the whole problem so badly wrong, not only in 1984 but still today.”
Broadway Producer Sues Valerie Harper Over Cancer
“Actress Valerie Harper has been hit with a $2 million lawsuit by Broadway bigshot Matthew Lombardo, who charges she didn’t tell him she had cancer until after she signed on to star in his play.”
They Think They’ve Found Cervantes’ Remains
“It is believed Miguel de Cervantes, whose best known work is Don Quixote, was buried in the convent the day after his death in 1616. However the exact location of his remains is a mystery and there is no tombstone marking the spot where his remains lie.”
The Classics In Bite-Size Pieces
“The emancipation of digital reading habits, like those of the printed book before them, allows us to choose the way we read. Just as some prefer edited collections and anthologies, some will enjoy having their fictions selected for them each month, apportioned in daily servings that arrive at appointed times that make them easier to consume.”
CultureTrack: Here’s How Arts Audiences Are Changing
“Since 2011, there has been an increase in the percentage of people who visit museums and attend performances of classical music, jazz and musical theater—but there were decreases for plays, classical dance and opera. The individual rate of attendance has dropped since 2011, with about half of respondents continuing to attend cultural activities once or twice a month, but only 15% attending three times or more—down from a previous 22%.”
How To Punish A Criminal Art Dealer? Jail Or A School Art Program?
Prosecutors want the judge to send Hillel Nahmad to federal prison for 12 to 18 months for his involvement in an international gambling ring. Nahmad’s defense attorneys say he should be sentenced to paying for and running a scheme to bring Bronx schoolchildren to the Met Museum.
Street Artist Finds Himself Making A Dance For NY City Ballet
“Yes, it’s true: City Ballet is turning itself – and more than 40 members of its company – over to a man who has never choreographed before. He watched his first ballet in June. Do you hear that sound? Choreographers everywhere are eating their hearts out.”
For First Time, Tony For Regional Theater Goes To NYC Company
“Before this year theaters in the five boroughs were ineligible for the annual award, which was created to honor theaters that did outstanding work outside of the unofficial industry capital of New York City.”