New Goya Unearthed In Spain A previously unknown painting by Francisco de Goya has been discovered by an art restorer in Managa, Spain. The painting, which is massive, shows a virgin resting on a cloud, and was previously thought to have been painted by a little-known contemporary of Goya. During a restoration, hidden figures that were Goya's trademarks emerged in the work, and a lab analysis has confirmed the work's authenticity. The Guardian (UK) 10/11/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 7:04 am
It Always Happens So Fast Boston has a thriving new alternative gallery scene in the city's South End, with new galleries opening weekly and loft-style condos suddenly infesting a previously downscale neighborhood. "But while gallery owners wonder if the burgeoning South End neighborhood will mean business, residents wonder whether the neighborhood is going upscale too rapidly." Boston Herald 10/11/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:55 am
Iraq Torture Photos Being Used As Art "Five months after they made their first shocking appearance, the Abu Ghraib photographs have become a museum exhibition. Once ubiquitous on television and in newspapers, they now qualify as quasi-aesthetic artifacts, pictures you may choose to seek out - for edification, as a distraction, even... Placing these atrocious pictures in a sleek white room and inviting us to cogitate on their visual properties raises some interesting ethical questions. Why Abu Ghraib but not images of beheadings, which are also on the Web, floating in the digital ether, fragments from the same new photographic universe?" The New York Times 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:11 am
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Quietly, Competently, The Phil Gets A Deal Done In a year when orchestra negotiations in many American cities have turned quite publicly ugly, the New York Philharmonic's new deal was inked with a minimum of acrimony. The contract is also a departure from the recent trend of major cutbacks and artistic compromises that have plagued some ensembles, and though the NY Phil musicians will lose their place as the highest-paid ensemble in the country, they will take no wage or benefit cuts, and are hopeful that their deal will set a precedent for other groups. The New York Times 10/11/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:48 am
The Conundrum Of The Modern Composer Talk with a composer these days, and you likely won't have to dig very deep to find some serious bitterness over the direction of the classical music industry. Orchestras are deathly afraid of driving away audiences with difficult contemporary works, record labels are only interested in pop-crossover junk, and the spectre of serialism still makes most listeners wary of anything new. Still, with obscurity comes freedom, and "a lot of the dross around composing and what it means has been cut away and people are certainly expressing their hearts more." South Florida Sun-Sentinel 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:29 am
When Did Traditionalism Become Controversial? As conductors go, Raymond Leppard is a realist, and he is eager to spread the gospel of performance within an appropriate scale to smaller orchestras across America. For instance, why would an orchestra with 65 musicians ever attempt to mount performances of Mahler symphonies and Strauss tone poems intended for orchestras of 100, when there is an endless supply of music (Mozart, Haydn, etc.) specifically intended for the smaller-sized ensemble? And while new music is all well and good in theory, Leppard stresses that "when you're so busy chasing notes in a 20th-century score, you can't pay attention to your neighbors." Louisville Courier-Journal 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:15 am
Canada's Musical Salon The old European idea of the intellectual salon has combined with the modern concept of marketing to the multitasking generation to create a wildly successful concert series in Toronto. The Off Centre Music Series, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, offers prelude concerts, guest lecturers, social interaction, top-notch pastries, and of course, the main event, presented less as a formal concert than as a gathering of friends around a common love of music. Toronto Star 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:09 am
Letting The Music Speak For Itself The Delaware Symphony is not an ensemble most people would think of as cutting edge, but a new marketing technique is being pioneered in Wilmington which larger orchestras probably should have thought of years ago. "Instead of the traditional orchestra pamphlet simply listing programs and prices, which is often geared toward listeners who already know what they want, the Delaware Symphony's "Guidebook" takes potential ticket buyers gently by the ear and leads them through the season's repertoire." The season brochure is accompanied by a 30-minute CD which features musical samples, and the orchestra's music director talking about the music. Philadelphia Inquirer 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:56 am
Will Early Starts And Silent Films Put Butts In The Seats? The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is hoping to fit itself into the busy lives of modern professionals with a new series of concerts aimed at multitasking, sleep-deprived workaholics. The concerts will begin quite early in the evening, and will run no more than 90 minutes, with no intermission. Gone will be the traditional orchestral formalwear, and a host will guide the audience through the program. Another new series will focus on film music, with the CSO providing live accompaniment to a Charlie Chaplin film projected above the stage. It's all about attracting that elusive new audience that has become the Holy Grail for every American orchestra. Chicago Sun-Times 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:27 am
A Brief History Of Supertitles They're ubiquitous now, but operatic supertitles are actually only 20 years old, and it's easy to forget how such a simple invention changed the face of the entire form. Toronto's Canadian Opera Company was the first to try the idea back in 1983, and the practice spread quickly despite the objections of purists, making even the completely uninitiated able to follow the often convoluted plots unfolding on stage. But a technology that most operagoers take for granted now is far more complicated and accident-prone than most of us realize, and it was only fairly recently that supertitles entered the computer age. Baltimore Sun 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:18 am
Return Of The Protest Song This election year has focused the entertainment industry like nothing since the Vietnam era, and after decades of staying out of such debates, pop musicians have penned a stunning number of protest songs and partisan anthems. From classic rocker John Fogerty to blues man Keb' 'Mo to a metal band called Lamb of God, everyone in the music biz seems to be getting political, and a lot of what's out there is actually good music. The New York Times 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 4:54 am
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Selling The KC Arts Tax "People may not always agree on what art is, but Kansas City area voters will be asked Nov. 2 to pay for lots of it. Residents of five counties will consider a quarter-cent sales tax to raise $500 million to $600 million for arts projects over the next 12 to 15 years, including $50 million for a downtown performing arts center... Arts supporters say the issue is quality of life. Does Kansas City want more and better theater, art galleries, museums, concerts and other entertainment?" But opponents are saying that the arts are no more culturally relevant than a tractor pull (seriously, someone said that,) and that tax money should stay out of the mix. Kansas City Star 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:23 am
Reaching Out In A Big (And Highly Visible) Way It's a major year for the arts in Minnesota's Twin Cities, and not a bad year for construction companies, either. The Guthrie Theater is putting the finishing touches on a massive new riverfront home designed by architect Jean Nouvel, and major expansion projects are well underway at the Walker Art Center, the Children's Theatre Company, and the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. "Most of the institutions are expanding their missions or reaching for new audiences with their new facilities. And all are trying to redefine what it means to be a home for the arts." St. Paul Pioneer Press 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:00 am
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Axelrod Extradition Set "Herbert Axelrod, the fugitive philanthropist who sold suspect violins to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and fled the country to avoid tax fraud charges, will soon land back in New Jersey to stand trial. Federal authorities are completing extradition proceedings against Axelrod, 77, who has been jailed in Germany since his arrest June 16 at a Berlin airport on a U.S. warrant." Newark Star-Ledger 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:25 am
Choreographer Without A Company Eliot Feld is one of the dance world's stars, and yet, he has been without a company since the Ballet Tech Foundation shut down last year. These days, he's working with six young dancers in a collaboration that he refuses to call the beginnings of a company, and seems perfectly happy to be working outside the traditional realm of the choreographer. The New York Times 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:01 am
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Snarling At The Snipers The "reader reviews" on Amazon.com have become a genre unto themselves, with some amateur critics posting thousands of the things. But authors tend to hate the self-styled literary judges, who think nothing of savaging an author's character as well as her work, and this month, Anne Rice had had enough. The popular author has seen her two latest books trashed extensively on Amazon, and in response, has posted a 1,200-word defense of her latest effort, and given the critics a taste of their own medicine, accusing them of "[using] the site as if it were a public urinal to publish falsehood and lies." The New York Times 10/11/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 6:42 am
Back To Booker Basics "The Booker Prize, currently under fire for concentrating on fashionable and quirky writers, will this week attempt to regain its reputation for high seriousness with the launch of the 'super Booker', a worldwide search for the living greats of fiction. While the winners of the main prize, due to be announced next week, must come from Britain or the Commonwealth, the new £60,000 competition will be open to all comers." The top contenders for the first 'Super Booker', which will be given not for any individual book but for a lifetime of literary achievement, are V.S. Naipaul, Margaret Atwood, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and John Updike. The Independent (UK) 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:51 am
Assessing The Frankfurt Code At the Frankfurt Book Fair, where cigar smoke hangs heavy in the hotel lobby and no one would think of passing an evening without getting blind drunk, trends are emerging, visible to anyone willing to throw himself fully into the spirit of the thing. Trend #1: Every book released this year must have the word "code" in the title if it expects to have any kind of commercial success. Trend #2: Shrill, ultra-partisan rants masquerading as intellectual treatises are selling like hotcakes to a polarized society eager to make themselves feel better about the world by reading political pablum with which they already agree. The Observer (UK) 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:41 am
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BritFilm Finally Off The Ropes British film has long been a source of derisive humor for many in the UK, with local productions underfunded, underproduced, and overwhelmed by Hollywood's seemingly endless resources. "Yet unlikely as it may seem, there is currently an unfashionably buoyant air about contemporary British film-making - if not within the industry, then at least as far as audiences are concerned." The Observer (UK) 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:38 am
Can Satellite Radio Train Us To Pay For It? Howard Stern's jump from traditional radio to satellite service Sirius could mark the moment when subscription radio becomes as indispensable to most consumers as cable TV. Or, it could relegate Stern to the fringes of pop culture and have little effect on over-the-air broadcasters. The truth is, no one knows whether Sirius's gamble will pay off. "The challenge is to train the audience to pay for what they want to hear, uninterrupted by commercials, in the same way HBO trained us to pay for what we want to see, uninterrupted." Denver Post 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:34 am
Truth Is Almost As Strange... Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick's classic political satire of the nuclear age, has aged well, and the hilarious yet terrifying premise of the film - that a wacky collection of incompetent statesmen and insane warmongers could destroy the world in a fit of pique - may be the most potent reminder we have of the uncertainty of Cold War reality. But a closer examination of what we now know about the film and its era reveals that it is more than a brilliant work of fiction. "In its own loopy way, the movie is a remarkably fact-based and specific guide to some of the oddest, most secretive chapters of the Cold War." The New York Times 10/10/04
Posted: 10/11/2004 5:06 am
