Ideas: Let Freedom Ring (Sort Of) (Maybe) The cause of freedom gets thrown about rhetorically quite a bit these days as Anmericans debate the whys and wherefores of war and the balancing of freedoms and safety. These arguments are finding parallels in the arena of culture in the form of debate about intellectual property and copyright. As a "free" society, how much freedom do we want to allow to the products of creativity? The New York Times 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 2:10 pm
Spanish Police Raid Private Winery Museum Full Of Stolen Antiquities Spanish police have raided a winery in southern Spain and seized more than 5,000 stolen archaeological artefacts which were on display in a clandestine museum in the cellars of the building. "The raid followed a three-month investigation dubbed “Operación Toro.”
The objects, which filled several rooms, were carefully arranged in glass cabinets and bookcases, and organised into chronological order with labels and other documentation." The Art Newspaper 05/06/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 8:51 pm
sponsor
Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative: Discover the power of mentoring. Launched in 2002, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative programme pairs gifted young artists with renowned artists in their fields, for a year of one-on-one mentoring. The mentors for the Second Cycle are Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Mario Vargas Llosa, Mira Nair, Jessye Norman and Saburo Teshigawara. The Second Year of Mentoring begins in May 2004. http://www.rolexmentorprotege.com/
sponsor
Low-Cost London Opera Experiment To Close London's new Savoy Opera, born only a month ago, and dedicated to presenting opera with affordable tickets, has decided to close. "We just haven't sold enough seats, and it's impossible under those circumstances for us to continue. But the experiment is not by any means over. We intend to review the situation. We are looking at why we were not selling enough and whether there is any way forward." The Guardian (UK) 05/09/04
Posted: 05/09/2004 12:44 am
- Why The Savoy Failed Why did Raymond Gubbay's new Savoy Opera fail to make it? "The product was simply not good enough. For opera regulars the performing standards were very ordinary; coach parties would have found the stagings skimpy and unambitious, while general theatregoers, used to the zip and glitz of musicals with production budgets many times larger than the Savoy's, would have regarded the shows as village hall efforts. There was no razzmatazz, nothing striking enough to make an instant convert out of an opera sceptic, nothing you cannot see regularly at a decent music college production. Musically and dramatically, standards have simply not been high enough." The Guardian (UK) 05/09/04
Posted: 05/09/2004 12:43 am
Why Indie Music Has Hit The TV Big-Time "Since Moby's Play parlayed the blanket licensing of its track listing to innumerable TV ads into several million in record sales five years ago, it has become almost de rigueur for artists slightly outside the mainstream to let their songs sell Volkswagens and iPods. The stigma against "selling out" has faded considerably as artists from the Dandy Warhols to the Flaming Lips to Bob Dylan have conceded that a paycheque and the extra traffic at the record shop that comes with having your song drilled into people's heads 14 times a night are preferable to not selling at all." Toronto Star 05/09/04
Posted: 05/09/2004 12:38 am
Making The Moves On Steinway "Accusations of hard-knuckled dealing continue to circulate among titans of the keyboard as Bösendorfer and other manufacturers mount renewed challenges to Steinway's overwhelming dominance of the high-end piano market. Bösendorfer — a 175-year-old Austrian firm whose instruments were played by Liszt, Brahms, Dvorak and Bernstein — has now opened its first New York showroom and begun pushing to get its pianos more widely heard, and seen, on American concert stages. Bechstein — a venerable German maker whose 150th anniversary just coincided with Steinway's — introduced a newly designed concert grand in January. A relative newcomer, Fazioli, is attracting a following among performers, some of whom are running afoul of Steinway in the process." The New York Times 05/09/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 9:14 pm
The Video Classical Concert Companion The New York Philharmonic is testing a a new handheld device that concert-goers could hold at performances and get real-time narration of the music. "The device will provide a play-by-play analysis of the music as the concertgoer listens. No pictures (so far), only words: the text changes every 15 to 20 seconds. Think sports patter, only highbrow, musical and blessedly mute." The New York Times 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 2:05 pm
The Minnesota Way - Building A great Orchestra Critics are taking notice of the Minnesota Orchestra as it completes an impressive first season with new music director Osmo Vanska. So what's the secret to the orchestra's regeneration? "I found the morale (of the players) especially good here. The harder I made them work, the broader the smiles. They are an orchestra that knows they can do better than they have been asked and they want to show what they can do." Toronto Star 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 1:49 pm
iTunes Expected To Raise Download Price Say goodbye to those 99-cent downloaded songs. "The five major record labels have been in negotiations recently with Apple over pricing and other issues associated with the year-old download service, which was launched to great fanfare last April. All five of the deals - with Universal, Sony, BMG, EMI and Warner Music - have already been signed, sources say, and the new pricing is already being rolled out for albums." Prices are expected to go up to $1.25 per track. New York Post 05/07/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 1:32 pm
SF Mayor Surprises Arts Groups With 25% Funding Cut "San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom riled some of the city's big arts organizations Thursday night when he unexpectedly announced plans to cut city funding to the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, Ballet and Museum of Modern Art by 25 percent to help deal with San Francisco's $325 million budget deficit." San Francisco Chronicle 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 8:10 pm
St. Paul Mayor: Let's Spend $25 Million On Arts The mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota has released a report that says that the city should commit to a $25 million annual investment in the arts. Why? The report says "the city's arts, culture and entertainment sector — a broad category that includes everything from concerts at Xcel Energy Center and exhibitions at the Minnesota Children's Museum to scrappy, itinerant theaters staging edgy work in makeshift Lowertown performing spaces — draws more than 5.6 million people to St. Paul each year. Those visitors, about 90 percent of whom come from outside the city, add more than $600 million to St. Paul's economy." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 1:58 pm
Chicago Fired Public Art Director "Michael Lash, Chicago's director of public art and the person who oversaw ventures ranging from the Cows on Parade exhibition to acquisition of millions of dollars of original works for city buildings, has been fired. The dismissal came after Lash allegedly threw a cell phone, striking a co-worker in the city's Cultural Affairs Department, where he worked. Lash also has been criticized for allegedly being a poor fit for a job that requires strong administrative skills." Chicago Tribune 05/06/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 8:32 pm
Where Is Black Music In West End Theatre? "Black artists are at the cutting edge of the music industry in Britain, but the West End has yet to play host to a show which celebrates their music. Some have blamed racism, others say that the black community are not theatregoers." The Observer (UK) 05/09/04
Posted: 05/09/2004 12:51 am
Shaw, Stratford Festivals Hoping To Rebound It's been a tough couple of seasons for Ontario's Shaw and Stratford festivals. Attendance down sharply, revenues off, deficits mounting... But already in 2004, there are signs that the theatres may be bouncing back from their slumps... The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 9:26 pm
NYT Foundation Theatre Initiative "The New York Times Company Foundation has announced a new grant-making instrument focused on not-for-profit theatres: The New York Times Company Foundation Fund for Mid-Size Theatres. As its first gesture, the foundations announced its first set of grants totaling $70,000 to 30 theatre companies.." Backstage 05/06/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 8:45 pm
When Cell Phone Text Beats Newspapers Et Al "International editors and publishers warned Friday that nontraditional communications -- such as cell phone text messages -- are rapidly outflanking radio, television, and print media because of their immediacy and proximity to the public." Wired 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 8:55 pm
Hollywood: My Adult Summer? Summer, for Hollywood, is usually the season of the big commercial blockbusters, the action movies that get the younger audiences out. But this summer promises to be different. "If it's not the 'revenge of the grown-ups,' it's certainly 'the revenge of talent.' Hollywood is starting to acknowledge the salability of quality." Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times 05/09/04
Posted: 05/09/2004 1:02 am
Hotel Movies - Lap Of Luxury Hotels are setting the standard in luxurious mivie-watching experience. "The Covent Garden Hotel in London has a screening room with 53 stone-coloured leather seats crafted by the Italian company that upholsters Ferraris. You don't have to stay the night (rooms start at £210) to use it. For £40 per person, groups of 10 or more can have either Champagne and canapés or a three-course dinner before or after a private screening. Having a cinema for your exclusive use must be one of the most luxurious ways of watching a film." The Telegraph (UK) 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 9:03 pm
How Cambodian Dance Almost Died Cambodia has a royal dance tradition that goes back centuries. But "in 1970, a coup sent Cambodian royalty into exile, and while the dance was still practiced in the palace, it became a part of the University of Fine Arts. When the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in April 1975, the university was closed and all of Phnom Penh's residents were forced to leave. From 1975 to 1979, former palace dancers went into hiding for fear that they would be executed for their association with royal traditions. The only dance and music allowed during that time were Maoist-style songs that celebrated the revolution." UCLA International Institute 05/07/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 1:55 pm
Protesters Disrupt Bolshoi Performance Protesters stormed the stage of the Bolshoi Ballet protesting president Vladimir Putin's inauguration. "Seventeen protestors were arrested after invading the stage in the capital's most famous artistic landmark hours after Putin's investiture, for a second four-year term, in the nearby Kremlin. Five were jailed for up to a week, and more were due in court later on Saturday. The group struck during the interval of an evening opera performance, handcuffing themselves to chairs while throwing leaflets and chanting "down with Putin with monarch". Reuters 05/08/04
Posted: 05/08/2004 1:35 pm
