Archives for 2009

It seems the production company AEG Live is e mailing potential ticket buyers as Michael Jackson--"MJ", to a few hundred thousand of his closest friends, actually--to promote the upcoming movie This is It, which features Jackson's last rehearsals. Obviously this is beyond absurd because the man passed away. That said, it did make me think about faux personalized e mails. For the past two years, for example, I've been getting e mails "from" Barack Obama, and I have to say I like seeing his name in my Inbox. I wonder, then, if a presenter was … [Read more...]

Both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic will offer open dress rehearsals for their opening nights this year. Here are the details from their websites:Free Tosca Open House Announced!September 2, 2009Don't miss the season-opening new production of Tosca--four days before Opening Night. On Thursday, September 17, the Met will launch its fourth season of free Open Houses, with the final dress rehearsal of Luc Bondy's new staging of Puccini's opera, starring Karita Mattila and conducted by Music Director James … [Read more...]

I was nosing around the New York Philharmonic website just now, trying to figure out how many tickets they had left to sell for opening night next week, when I was distracted as usual by something totally ridiculous. September 16, 2009: What a truly magical night for The Big Apple! Not only is a New Yorker finally leading the Philharmonic again, but the orchestra will perform at two major New York cultural institutions--Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall--at the same time. This will mark the unveiling of the New York Philharmonic's … [Read more...]

Eric is singing Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville at the Washington National Opera this September, which means, among other things, that I'll be throwing a DVF dress in a duffle and boarding a BoltBus on Friday to the...does D.C. have a funny city nickname? "Our nation's capital"? For the second year in a row, the Washington National Opera is presenting a free live simulcast at The Washington Nationals' stadium, Nationals Park. According to the Washington Post, last year's simulcast attracted about 15,000 people (!). Good on their corporate … [Read more...]

I was dragged to Bed [why is there no comma here?] Bath & Beyond by a friend this weekend,  and while he was sticking his face in front of on-sale fans, I wandered around and tried not to buy anything. A veritable Queen of Spending on things I don't need (my KitchenAid Citrus Juicer Stand Mixer Attachment, Equally Productive with Citrus Fruits of All Sizes is still in its box), Bed Bath & Beyond is a death trap for me. "You're right: my shoe rack does not have embedded moth balls. I should get another one." "I have some knifes and … [Read more...]

My friend Joe sent this over yesterday:As the proud owner of Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series, I can assure those of you whose DVD collections may not be as bumpin' that the way this preview is filmed is spot-on stylistically. I didn't think it was laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it does kind of make me want to read the book. I've never actually seen a good trailer for an opera, have you? I've seen ads with performance clips that are nicely edited, but nothing produced and designed like this. … [Read more...]

I was walking to the 1 train after a meeting today and saw this:Then this:And I thought, I wonder where more New Yorkers are going to spend their hard-earned American dollars. … [Read more...]

My sister just sent me MTV Video Music Awards "VMA Side Story" trailer. If the West Side Story currently on Broadway was 1/100th as accessible as this, we'd really have ourselves a revival. Wait through the little ad and then watch:MTV ShowsI don't know how they got the rights to the song, the logo, or the poster font, but I want to have this thing's babies and will definitely watch the VMAs to see if there's more. First time for everything. September 13th at 9pm. Poison performs at the Tonys and MTV is running a West Side Story promotion? Am I … [Read more...]

From Gawker:According to "art community consultant" Patrick Courrielche, who supports those Obama Joker posters, the NEA organized a recent conference call to assemble an army of artists who will maybe possibly (hopefully?) use their work to inspire service in key social arenas, such as health care and energy....The call's participants were "encouraged" to use their myriad mediums to concoct "creative ways to talk about the issues facing the country." Now, it's not unusual for the government to use art in times of economic need. Long ago, the … [Read more...]

Classical music concerts and recording projects are planned years in advance, so cultural relevance is like Russian roulette in our industry. "Fingers crossed something happens to make that Bartok relevant in St. Louis in 2013."("Or not, we don't really care.")  One might argue that certain pieces (certain plays, musicals, books and visual art) will always be relevant despite what is going on in any given time period; precisely the reason they are shown, read, and performed for generations beyond that for which they were created. A driving … [Read more...]

I was en route to Molyvos last night and, even though I was extremely late and exceedingly hot, I stopped to look at the striking, massive images lining Carnegie Hall's 7th avenue wall. Just one other thing in the four years I've lived in New York (two of which were spent working next to Carnegie Hall) has stopped me outside that building, and that was when I was inexplicably, over-the-top attracted to one of Thomas Adès' press photos. Oh, here it is:(I sleep with a copy under my pillow every night.) Carnegie has been running a "How do you get … [Read more...]

At 5:12pm Mozart was on the homepage of Google News. He's in the - let's say "diverse" - company of Brett Favre and Michael Jackson's doctor. I guess "strep throat" gets you mainstream media coverage, though "accidentally poisoned himself with mercury used to treat an alleged bout of syphilis" is certainly more appealing to me.  … [Read more...]

After trying to dodge the thing Frogger-style, I finally read the (third? 700th?) George Steel profile in the Times. All I will say is that in the piece, he's compared to The President of the United States of America, "another newcomer to a tough job in a time of crisis." I wonder when publicists will start comparing artists to Obama in their press releases. I'm sure it's already happened. I was forwarded an e mail about a new classical music gossip site called The Cereal List. Despite the fact that my readers did not seem to get behind Pitch … [Read more...]