How To Be A Critic So what makes art good? How about music? Or movies, or books? Most anyone who reads a newspaper spends a fair amount of time being told what's good and what isn't by supposed experts in the field, but how do the critics draw their conclusions? What's the frame of reference? The Denver Post's critics get together to offer readers a look into their world, and the results are as diverse as the writers themselves. TV critic Joanne Ostrow sees occasional quality as a welcome relief from the broadcast wasteland. Art critic Kyle MacMillan says that all great art, even the topical kind, can withstand the test of time. And rock critic G. Brown thinks that, in an industry dominated by fakes and puffery, real quality is found by looking for the musicians who make you believe what they're singing. Denver Post 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:46 am
Amateur Poets Must Be Stopped! Barney McLelland is sick to death of bad poetry being churned out by untrained hands in the misguided name of self-expression. "Numerous surveys, declining SAT scores, and classroom anecdotes have established that many... young Americans can barely read, cannot spell or do arithmetic, and know next to nothing of their own history; but they do not let mere ignorance get in the way of self-expression." People are free to write whatever they like, of course, but just as we would not buy a handmade wood cabinet from an amateur, McLelland says we should stop encouraging every moron with a word processor to set his personal neuroses to verse. Butterflies & Wheels 05/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:19 am
Hadid's Latest Is A Coup For Cincinnati Cincinnati's new arts center is not the type of outsized, over-the-top structure generally associated with today's high-profile architecture. In fact, Zaha Hadid's design is in many ways the antithesis of the Blockbuster Building, which may be part of the reason that critics have been falling all over themselves to praise it. Benjamin Forgey is impressed with the building, if not with the hype, and says that the museum will reflect well on its hometown. "For the city itself, which contributed money along with the state and private donors, the architecture is a coup. The building will become an "early Hadid," a period piece folks will fight to save from the wrecking ball in a half-century or so." Washington Post 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:41 am
Waterhouse Masterpiece Found In Colorado "A voluptuous Victorian masterpiece by John William Waterhouse [depicting a sultry Cleopatra reclining on a tiger skin,] which had disappeared for more than a hundred years, has turned up in a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The discovery was announced yesterday by Christie's, just days after the news that another lost Waterhouse had been tracked down by Sotheby's to an Icelandic trawler owner." The Guardian (UK) 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:10 am
Public Art And Civic Pride It seems as if the Sculpture Garden may be to this era what the large-scale mural was to an earlier time: a relatively cheap, attractive way to feature art in a public place, and a method of urban beautification which doesn't require the razing of neighborhoods or the construction of hundred-million-dollar buildings. Denver has had a sculpture garden since 1997, but it has sat empty for most of the period since it was built. Kyle MacMillan says that Denver needs to start branding itself, art-wise: "So far, at least, no single acquisition has become a signature work that is widely identified with the city, one that art aficionados would come to Denver specifically to see." Denver Post 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:55 am
Grabbing For A Younger Demographic "Times are definitely changing in some of Canada's symphony and opera halls. On a Saturday night these days, it's hard not to notice the huge number of concertgoers in their teens and 20s. Many of them have never heard live classical music before. Some have never heard classical music, period. But lured in by cheap tickets for those under 30, they are quickly becoming converts. This is a vital renewal process for cultural institutions that have traditionally been seen as stodgy and elitist. And winning over potential new subscribers is also an economic necessity at a time when dwindling arts funding has left several Canadian orchestras on the brink of financial collapse." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:04 am
Musicians Who Need A Push It is notoriously difficult to fire an orchestra musician in the U.S. A strict tenure system and decades of tradition make it a tremendous challenge to remove a musician who is no longer pulling his/her weight, and more often than not, a music director is reduced to pleading with substandard musicians to simply retire, rather than force the organization to begin the long, drawn-out process of dismissing them. Ordinarily, the public never hears about such internal confrontations, but in Chicago, where the music director has often been heard to condemn the tenure system, an unusual number of recently announced 'retirements' have brought the issue to the fore. Chicago Tribune 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:31 am
Strathmore Gets A Boost A $100 million concert hall going up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. is 40 percent complete, but money has been an issue even during construction. But this week, $4.85 million in new pledges came in from wealthy supporters of the new hall, getting organizers close to their funding goal. The Music Center at Strathmore, when complete, will host a variety of musical ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Washington Post 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:20 am
Touring Expensive But Not Expendable Major orchestral tours, such as the one just completed by the San Francisco Symphony, are massively complicated and expensive affairs, involving the transport of over a hundred individuals, instruments, and other equipment. Halls must be booked, tickets must be sold or their cost made up, and hotel rooms must meet the exacting standards of the musicians' contract. Says critic Joshua Kosman, "You might think a project like that would be expendable, especially in these lean financial times. You'd be wrong." San Francisco Chronicle 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:15 am
San Antonio Cuts Staff, Prepares For Chapter 11 "Unable to meet Friday's payroll for musicians and staff, the San Antonio Symphony has laid off nonessential office workers and may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors next week." The move comes less than a month after the SAS cut short its season to save money and allow its board a chance to attempt to keep the organization afloat. Prior to the shutdown, symphony musicians had agreed to be paid late, or not at all, for several weeks in an effort to rally the community around the embattled ensemble. San Antonio Express-News 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:12 am
Warland Singers To Disband "The Dale Warland Singers, a bedrock of Twin Cities culture for three decades and regarded among America's most influential choirs, will no longer perform after the group's namesake steps down as director following the 2003-04 season. Dale Warland, 71, told his singers Thursday night he is leaving the group, which he formed in 1972, to concentrate on teaching and guest-conducting opportunities around the country and spend more time with family. The singers, who had long braced themselves for Warland's inevitable departure, were stunned to learn the choir is disbanding." Saint Paul Pioneer Press 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:09 am
Next Stop For Louisville May Be Bankruptcy The musicians of the Louisville Orchestra have rejected a management proposal which included wage cuts and a shorter season, and the orchestra says it may file for bankruptcy as early as next week. "The orchestra has approximately $1.3 million in bank debt, with $800,000 of that past due and the balance due early next week," according to its board chairman, who also points out that the ensemble's staff and conductors have taken a 10% pay cut, which is larger than that being asked of the musicians. The musicians claim that they have made many concessions over the last decade in an effort to help the organization financially. Louisville Courier-Journal 05/30/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 7:45 am
- A Potential Windfall, But With A Catch "The Fund for the Arts has committed $900,000 in special support to the financially strapped Louisville Orchestra over the next two years, but only if the orchestra produces a balanced budget for that period. The orchestra continues to say it can't balance the budget without substantial concessions from its musicians." Louisville Courier-Journal 05/29/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 7:44 am
The President And The Arts Advocate How did an outspoken advocate of publicly funded art wind up as part of an administration which is, at best, indifferent to art, and at worst, opposed to anything remotely controversial? No one seems quite sure of the answer, but Dana Gioia is clearly not intimidated by the president who appointed him to the top job at the National Endowment for the Arts. Frank Rich thinks that the key to Gioia's success may be his refusal to get involved in "the ugly culture wars that the likes of Lynne Cheney and William Bennett embraced during the Gingrich revolution. Many of those battles were in one way or another about N.E.A. grants to artistic projects with sexual content, especially homosexual content. Mr. Gioia will have none of it." The New York Times 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:29 am
Gideon Toeplitz: The Exit Interview Gideon Toeplitz departed as managing director of the struggling Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend, and he is not terribly optimistic about the future of the PSO or the industry in general. "I'm concerned that the industry is looking for executives who are primarily fund-raisers and marketers. I'm concerned about that because the passion for music and the knowledge of music is, at best, secondary, or may not be there at all." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:05 am
History-Making Ballerina Dies "Janet Collins, prima ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera House in the early 1950's and one of a very few black women to become prominent in American classical ballet, died on Wednesday in Fort Worth. She was 86." Critic John Martin once wrote of her, "She is not self-absorbed, but is dancing completely and wholesouledly for an audience. On the other hand, there is no air of showing off about it, no coyness or coquetry, but only an apparent desire to establish and maintain a communicative contact." The New York Times 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:02 am
Fogel's (Too) Grand Retirement Party Henry Fogel has been the president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for nearly two decades, so one might expect the orchestra to put together a good-sized celebration on the occasion of his departure. But John van Rhein thinks that the tribute was a bit much, especially given the CSO's current fiscal state: "Fogel, lest we forget, is the orchestra's president, not its music director. I don't recall Georg Solti being crowned with half as many laurel wreaths when he stepped down in 1991. At last report, Fogel was leaving his successor a $4-$5 million deficit, accumulated under his watch. Good thing the champagne was in plastic glasses." Chicago Tribune 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 7:55 am
Salam Pax Gets A Print Gig The blogger known as Salam Pax, who writes a wildly popular weblog from his home in a suburb of Baghdad, has been given a biweekly column by The Guardian, a London-based daily newspaper. "Salam Pax became a cyber celebrity after his pointed and often humorous accounts of everyday life in Baghdad began circulating on the Internet. His diary mocked both Saddam Hussein's repressive regime -- he called the Iraqi leaders 'freaks' -- and the U.S. claims of 'liberating' Iraq." Wired 05/30/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 7:32 am
Saving Money Through Theatrical Synergy "Increasingly, nonprofit presenting organizations... are joining forces with for-profit entertainment companies to invest in Broadway shows and their subsequent tours. In some cases presenters put money into new tours of shows that closed on Broadway long ago. By so doing presenters are guaranteed that there will, in fact, be shows to present. And the producers of Broadway shows are guaranteed a major chunk of their budget." Kansas City Star 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:20 am
McLuhan Estate Vows To Stop 'Libelous' Play "You can't libel a dead man - or so the phrase goes. And it's one that's given comfort to scores of biographers through the years. On the other hand, it doesn't stop heirs and estates from trying to preserve the reputations of their dearly departed, suing or threatening to sue at any perceived slight. Toronto playwright Jason Sherman learned that firsthand recently when the estate of Marshall McLuhan blew up a sandstorm that, temporarily at least, has stalled plans to mount his play about the late media guru at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/31/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:06 am
Mental Illness Is Not A Plot Device "The movie industry is hardly alone in its tenuous grasp of mental illness... But the movies are writ wide and large, and they're heavily reliant on drama and excitement that everyone can see for the price of a ticket. Short cuts and misrepresentations are common, if not always malicious. And they have an enormous influence on the ways we view a variety of very painful conditions." Dallas Morning News 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:44 am
Stop Bashing Cannes The general consensus among critics is that this year's Cannes Film Festival did not measure up to previous installments. Several writers went so far as to call it the 'worst Cannes ever.' Michael Wilmington isn't buying, although he acknowledges that the field of main category entries was the weakest in quite some time: "I tend to take acerbic verdicts on Cannes, even seemingly well founded ones, with a grain of sel - because I hear them so often. Every single year - with the exception of 1997, the 50th anniversary annum - I've heard somebody at Cannes insist this was the worst fest ever. Often the nix comes from dilettantes who see no more than one or two movies a day while hunting the next party to crash or celebrity to schmooze." Chicago Tribune 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 8:38 am
