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Weekend, November 13-14




Ideas

Unity Is Overrated Ever since the U.S. presidential election, commentators and politicians everywhere have been calling for a return to national unity. Hogwash, says Julia Keller. Conformity and unity of thought have never helped the world advance, either culturally, politically, or artistically. "Only through avoiding consensus, only through steadfastly refusing to be unified, have artists progressed and evolved," and the same holds true for politicians, activists, and American society as a whole. Chicago Tribune 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:32 am

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Visual Arts

India To Bulldoze Lutyens' Legacy The architecture of Edwin Lutyens may be the only good thing that came of British colonialism in India, but "almost every Lutyens bungalow in private hands has gone, destroyed in the welter of demolitions that took place between 1980 and 2000. Now it has been announced that the same fate awaits the remaining 60% of the Lutyens buildings still owned by the government... The idea is to replace them with 'ultra-modern day fuel-efficient apartment blocks', which, if the mock-ups published in the Times of India are anything to go by, will resemble bland 1960s student housing projects of grey windowless concrete." The Guardian (UK) 11/12/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:48 am

Maybe A Moat And Some Crocodiles Might Help, Too Oslo's Munch Museum is seeking permission from the City Council to make all the blueprints of its buildings inaccessible to the public, as part of a new round of security upgrades in the wake of the much-publicized theft of two masterpieces from its collection. There are legal questions involved in classifying what are usually public documents, but the council believes that it can keep at least some of the blueprints secret. Aftenposten (Oslo) 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:23 am

Of Course, Retro Tends To Look Nicer Than Glass And Steel There is a major downtown building boom going on in Minneapolis, with riverfront lofts, high-rise condos, and mixed-use developments adding to an already thriving urban core. But architects are beginning to wonder what it will take to get Minneapolitans to embrace new design ideas - every time an architect proposes a modernist design for one of the new residences, neighborhood groups scream objections and demand a building that will "fit in" better. The result is a brand spanking new collection of faux-classic buildings that are giving a relatively young city a decidedly retro look. Minneapolis Star Tribune 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:15 am

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Music

Has The World Given Up On Scottish Opera? The UK's music world seems to have accepted that Scottish Opera will be going dark for at least a year next fall, under a bizarre bailout plan proposed by the Scottish Executive. Andrew Clark insists that the supposed rescue plan should not simply be accepted by the public, especially since the Executive's real aim may be to dismantle the company completely. "The axe has already fallen on the chorus. What about the orchestra and ancillary staff? Are they going to hang around for a year to see if there is a company worth reviving when the trickle of subsidy resumes in mid-2006?" Financial Times (UK) 11/12/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:38 am

Ozawa To Open Music Academy "Conductor Seiji Ozawa, artistic director of the Vienna State Opera, will open a music academy overlooking Lake Geneva. The daily Tribune de Geneve said Friday the academy will offer students the opportunity to perform chamber music with world-class professors. Ozawa, who spent 29 years with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, hopes to attract the best young talent in Europe to the school in the village of Blonay, above Montreux... Tuition will be free, [and] Ozawa hopes to admit 20 to the inaugural class next summer." Modesto Bee (AP) 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:05 am

Backing Away From Black The Houston Symphony is trying out a new dress code for its female musicians, allowing the players to back away from the traditional all-black garb which was conceived as a way to be sure that no one player stood out from the pack. After complaints from musicians about the code, and some backstage discussions about potential changes, "management OK'd the idea and helped write guidelines so that no one showed up in 'an Elizabeth Hurley outfit.'" Houston Chronicle 11/12/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:54 am

Philly Orchestra Asks Mayor For Help, Again A week ago, Philadelphia Mayor John Street triumphantly announced that he had brokered the "framework" of a new agreement between the musicians and management of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and expected that the two sides would fill in the details quickly and easily. Instead, the negotiations have stalled yet again, with "many key aspects of the deal in dispute," and Mayor Street is being asked to resume his role as mediator. Philadelphia Inquirer 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:48 am

The Adelaide Ring Will Not Be Broadcast Australia's first Ring Cycle, premiering this month in Adelaide, has been turned down for broadcast by the country's largest TV and radio network. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation says that the fees which would be commanded by the performers involved simply make a broadcast unthinkable. The production costs for the cycle are already at AUS$15.3 million, and a CD project is planned for a 2005 release. The Australian 11/15/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:31 am

  • The Music May Be The Easy Part What does it take to put on a Ring Cycle? Well, you'll need five years to plan the logistics, enough orchestra musicians to cover 16 hours of music, 35 scenery trucks, a tech crew of 80 professionals, a conductor healthy enough to get through the damn thing without collapsing, and oh yes, "a 10x16-metre curtain of water that doesn't splash the orchestra, make too much noise or drown the audience." The Age (Melbourne) 11/13/04
    Posted: 11/14/2004 8:30 am

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Arts Issues

The Death Of The Great Philanthropists It is one of the topics that gets whispered about in arts circles, but rarely confronted head-on: a generation of great philanthropists is beginning to die out, with no replacements in sight. "These folks were more than just rich people who gave their money away out of a sense of noblesse oblige... They weren't especially interested in having their names on buildings. In their best days, you'd see them — frequently — in the buildings of the organizations they supported and in other arts venues they simply found interesting." These days, corporations are replacing individuals in major giving, and that doesn't bode well for art, music, theatre, or the people who make it. St. Paul Pioneer Press 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 10:05 am

Urban Planning With An Artistic Edge Newcastle and Gateshead were two of the UK's most blighted cities. But a new wave of culture-based rejuvenation is sweeping the area, with impressive results. "Today the derelict wharves and warehouses have been transformed into restaurants, art galleries and loft apartments... The district, known as the Quayside, thrums with activity day and night. The Quayside's most impressive projects are the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, the Sage Music Center and a pedestrian bridge over the Tyne that tilts upward to let ships pass." Chicago Tribune 11/14/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:40 am

Is Europe Heading Towards The American Funding Model? European museums are rapidly being forced to confront a new economic reality in which the centuries-old tradition of government funding appears to be withering on the vine. "Such is the crisis in government financing for British museums that their acquisitions budgets can no longer match market prices. In the case of the Tate, its buying power is about 5 percent of what it was two decades ago... Is this the moment when corporate sponsorship of major arts institutions finally becomes respectable in Europe? The answers seem obvious. How else can museums remain vigorous?" The New York Times 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:39 am

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People

Axelrod (Finally) Has His Day In Court "Herbert Axelrod, the Monmouth County philanthropist turned globetrotting fugitive, pleaded not guilty to a federal tax charge in Trenton yesterday, ending a seven-month odyssey that brought him from Cuba to Switzerland to a jail cell in Germany. In his first U.S. court appearance since fleeing the country in April, the 77-year-old millionaire appeared upbeat and relaxed. He smiled and waved to friends in the courtroom gallery, at one point offering a reassuring wink." Newark Star-Ledger 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 9:17 am

  • Previously: Axelrod Fighting Extradition Fugitive philanthropist Herbert Axelrod, accused of tax fraud and under investigation for overcharging the New Jersey Symphony on the 2003 purchase of a collection of valuable instruments, is appealing his extradition from Germany, and will likely not be returned to U.S. custody for weeks or even months. Axelrod had been scheduled to appear in federal court this Friday - that court date has been canceled. Newsday (AP) 10/12/04

Kennedy Center Actor Has On-Stage Heart Attack "Gregory Mitchell, the 52-year-old actor who suffered a heart attack onstage at the Kennedy Center on Thursday, remained hospitalized in serious condition yesterday. Mitchell was appearing as an angel in a play starring the legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. The two were performing a scene in which Mitchell's character was trying to rescue Baryshnikov's character, a retired sailor who has thrown himself into the sea. Mitchell appeared to be breathing heavily and then fell backward." A doctor attending the play immediately came backstage to treat the actor, and Mitchell was quickly rushed to the hospital. The play has resumed performances with a replacement angel. Washington Post 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:12 am

The Composer as Chameleon Krzysztof Penderecki was once a leader of the musical avant-garde, a deliberate iconoclast who preached the gospel of the new and swore by complexity for its own sake. But unlike so many of his contemporaries in the 20th-century music world, Penderecki eventually responded to public distaste for the avant-garde by embracing tonality, even if only as a balm to soothe the ravaged ears of the modern listener. The composer's willingness and ability to adapt to changing styles has made him one of the most in-demand artists of his era, and he continues to write new material constantly, even as his career enters its sixth decade. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:51 am

Dutoit On The Rebound More than two years after his highly public divorce from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit remains at the top of guest conducting wish lists in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Minneapolis, and countless other cities. The change in his primary role, from being at the helm of one or two orchestras to that of a hired gun, has allowed Dutoit to refocus his energies on maintaining what he calls the "Russian-French" tradition of conducting. That tradition is one of the modern music world's last connections to the old days of Koussevitsky and Monteux, and Dutoit clearly sees himself as one of the last guardians of the classic orchestral form. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:42 am

Dana Gioia's Midterm Report The reelection of President Bush means, among other things, that Dana Gioia will be staying on to complete his four-year term as the head of the National Endowment for the Arts. In his two years on the job, Gioia has been seen as a uniter of diverse constituencies, restoring the NEA's reputation in Congress and in the country at large. But within the arts world, Gioia is viewed with skepticism, and not just because he was appointed by a Republican president: his programs and his vision represent "a radical shift in direction for the NEA away from funding the creation of new works of art - a direction which, Gioia points out, alienated so many people that the endowment nearly was shut down." Baltimore Sun 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 6:51 am

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Theatre

Gem Finds A Buyer August Wilson's beleagured play, Gem of the Ocean, has found a new lead investor to rescue its recently delayed Broadway run from oblivion. San Francisco producer Carole Shorenstein Hays has stepped into the funding void after receiving a call from executives at Jujamcyn Theaters. Rehearsals will start up again this week, with previews set to begin later in the month. The New York Times 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:23 am

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Publishing

Quick, Write A Book! "If, as some people believe, every single person has a novel inside himself, then a lot of people have been wasting a lot of time doing a lot of things other than writing." The organizer of the unexpectedly popular National Novel Writing Month, which encourages amateur Dostoyevskys everywhere to crank out a full-length work in just 30 days, has a new treatise to promote, focusing on - you guessed it - "a pragmatic, populist approach to fiction writing." Can great art actually result from this? Maybe not, but the point isn't perfection, it's encouraging the creative process in a society which has increasingly discarded it. Washington Post 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 8:06 am

One-Man Magazine "Esopus magazine is a thing of lavish, eccentric beauty, less flipped through than stared at, forcing readers to reconcile their expectations of what a magazine is with the strange artifact in their laps... But pull back the cover of Esopus and you will find only Tod Lippy, designer, editor, conjurer. Just Tod Lippy, with his one d and his conceit that he can make the magazine he wants and that people will give him $10 for each one and that then he can make another one. With a circulation of 5,000 and a twice-a-year schedule - it came out of nowhere in 2003 - it is not so much a magazine as a cult that meets semiannually." The New York Times 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:15 am

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Dance

Boston's New Nutcracker A whole new Nutcracker is not exactly what Boston Ballet was hoping to mount this holiday season. But when the city's Wang Center booted its longtime December tenant in favor of a touring show with better special effects, the company was forced to reinvent its holiday staple in a new space, with less room to maneuver, smaller audiences, and a smaller budget to match. The result will be a Nutcracker that Boston audiences won't recognize: "About 40 costumes have been redesigned... The company is using, for the first time, an extensive network of computer-programmed sets of moving and LED lights for a different look," and new scenery aims to make the best use of the space. Boston Globe 11/13/04
Posted: 11/14/2004 7:03 am

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