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Friday, February 4




 

Ideas

Cameron: A Culture Without Challenge? Are there lessons for the arts to be learned from last November's American elections? Ben Cameron says yes: The "through-line of the arts right now is really a byproduct of things revealed in the last election we did not understand. What we're hearing is audiences are less willing to tolerate ideas and viewpoints other than their own -- there's an intolerance I can't remember seeing in a long time in the arts. Plays making unflattering references to subjects, or dealing with topics that are uncomfortable for people -- well, they just start climbing over each other to get out of the theatre." Back Stage 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 3:58 pm

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Visual Arts

Sotheby's To Auction Off Versace Collection "The art collection of murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace could fetch up to $17m when it is auctioned in New York and London later this year. Among the pictures for sale are works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse... The auction, at Sotheby's, will feature 45 contemporary, impressionist and 19th Century paintings. One of the highlights of the sale is Roy Lichtenstein's Blue Nude which has been given an estimate of $3.4m." BBC 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 6:59 am

What Happened To Design At MoMA? Nicolai Ourousoff laments the place of design in the new Museum of Modern Art. "Whether because of a loss of imagination or the distraction of a high-profile $858 million building project, the department was already losing momentum before the museum closed for renovation five years ago. The reopening of the architecture and design galleries was an opportunity to reclaim, even trumpet, the museum's role in shaping the conversation about architecture. Instead, the department has limited itself to passively documenting current architectural trends." The New York Times 02/04/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 9:02 pm

  • MoMA And The Corporate Art The Museum of Modern Art presnts a show of art donated to the museum by corporations. Roberta Smith isn't impressed. "Not a good sign, you might say. It certainly deflates the heightened commitment to cutting-edge art that the Modern so emphatically telegraphed with its new design and distribution of display space." This is a stopgap show thrown together without a soul. "With the majority of the art dating from the late 1970's to the early 90's, the show feels redundant and familiar, as if it were all purchased inside a few square blocks of SoHo during the last art boom." The New York Times 02/04/05
    Posted: 02/03/2005 8:39 pm

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Music

Is The Met Opera's Hunt Over? It's looking very much as if the Metropolitan Opera's interim chairwoman, Christine Hunter, is in line to become the permanent replacement for Beverly Sills when the Met's board meets later this spring. Hunter was previously a well-known trustee at the Washington National Opera, and served as that company's president for the better part of two decades. Washington Post 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 6:47 am

Dutoit Reups In Philly Charles Dutoit has signed a contract extension which will keep him in front of the Philadelphia Orchestra as summer music director through 2008. The orchestra spends most of its summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, where Dutoit has led them since 1990. Philadelphia Inquirer 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 5:48 am

You Mean Classical Music Can Be Marketed? Who Knew? Say what you will about Charlotte Church or Vanessa Mae and the crossover dreck they peddle, there can be no question that such artists are popular, largely because the full marketing strength of major record companies are four square behind them. The days when classical music was important enough to sell itself are long over, and after years of bemoaning that fact while doing nothing about it, "classical music is using the tools of the pop industry to raise its profile. The old criteria for judging music and interpreter, based on informed opinion and a gradual evolution of talent, have lost ground. What counts now is sales volume." Financial Times (UK) 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 5:38 am

No New Opera For Melbourne "Hopes that a large-scale opera company will be established in Melbourne as the result of an inquiry ordered by Premier Steve Bracks appear to have been dashed... Government sources say there will be no return to the days of the Victoria State Opera, which disappeared after facing financial collapse in 1996. It is believed the costs involved would be too great." The Age (Melbourne) 02/05/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 5:26 am

Previn Wins Gould Andre Previn has won the $50,000 Glenn Gould Prize. "Awarded once every three years, the international prize is open to individuals from any country and in a range of fields, including musical creation or performance, film, radio, musical theatre and writing. Past recipients include Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, jazz icon Oscar Peterson, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violist Yehudi Menuhin and conductor Pierre Boulez." CBC 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 10:08 pm

Lloyd Webber: Music Is Healthy Julian Lloyd Webber takes exception to doom-and-gloom stories about the health of classical music. "The trouble with polemics on this scale is that they raise more questions than answers. But are things really that bad? The answer depends on your view of classical music. If you think it should remain a fossilised art that never changes its methods of dissemination or presentation, the answer is yes. If, on the other hand, you believe - as I do - that classical music is a living, vibrant art that evolves alongside society, the answer is no." The Telegraph (UK) 02/04/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 8:22 pm

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Arts Issues

Dallas's Arts District To Expand A proposed expansion of Dallas's Arts District got a big boost this week when a developer who had been balking at the zoning changes required for the expansion changed course and signed on as a supporter of the plan. "Despite vocal opposition from at least three property owners, City Plan Commission members on Thursday unanimously voted to lengthen the district." The Arts District has become one of downtown Dallas's most desirably urban areas, and the expansion is designed in part to force the owners of some of the dilapidated gas stations and vacant lots on the area's outskirts to conform to the new high standard set by the district. Dallas Morning News 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 6:04 am

Axelrod Accomplice Pleads Guilty " The key witness in the tax fraud case against philanthropist Herbert Axelrod pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge yesterday as part of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors. Gary Hersch, a former employee of Axelrod, admitted in federal court in Trenton that he conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by hiding $775,000 in a Swiss bank account... Axelrod gained notoriety after he sold a collection of rare stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in 2003 for a fraction of what he said they were worth. That sale came under the scrutiny of federal authorities because of allegations that Axelrod had inflated the instruments' value as part of a tax scheme." Newark Star-Ledger 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 5:58 am

Virginia State Budget Surplus Boosts Arts Hopes Virginia arts organizations have been frustrated in recent years trying to get the state legislature to allocate money for the arts. "Thanks to a surplus now hovering around $1.2 billion and an economy that is humming along, lawmakers are once again sounding more agreeable to arts funding. However, some restrictions still apply." Daily Press (Virginia) 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 10:57 pm

Rich: The New American Censors Welcome to the Culture Wars, Part 36. Writes Frank Rich: "Public television is now so fearful of crossing its government patrons that it is flirting with self-immolation. Having disowned lesbians in the children's show "Postcards From Buster" and stripped suspect language from "Prime Suspect" on "Masterpiece Theater," PBS is editing its Feb. 23 broadcast of "Dirty War," the HBO-BBC film about a terrorist attack, to remove a glimpse of female nudity in a scene depicting nuclear detoxification. Next thing you know they'll be snipping lascivious flesh out of a documentary about Auschwitz." The New York Times 02/06/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 3:48 pm

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People

An Old-School Conductor Gets His Due Since leaving the Cleveland Orchestra two years ago, Christoph von Dohnanyi has been "enjoying the kind of respectful attention the classical music world likes to bestow on elder statesmen of the baton... There aren't many maestros of his pedigree around anymore... Dohnanyi knows it and doesn't hesitate to speak of himself as a living link to the Austro-German performance tradition." His demanding style and uncompromising work ethic have led him to clash with many top American orchestras, which are not fond of direct criticism, but as his career enters its final years, Dohnanyi increasingly seems deserving of a reputation as one of the great conductors of the last century. Chicago Tribune 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 5:31 am

Kurtz Fights Bioterrorism Charges University at Buffalo professor Steven Kurtz is in court trying to get charges against him dismissed. "The attorney for an artist accused of illegally obtaining bacteria for his artwork is asking a judge to throw the case out, saying authorities have sought to portray his client as a bioterrorist." Newsday (AP) 02/02/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 3:02 pm

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Theatre

The Worst Musical... Ever? The production company known as Dodger Stage Holdings has become notorious for a string of high-profile Broadway flops, leading critic Michael Riedel to suggest that the company has "done more damage to Western civilization than the Visigoths." And it appears that Dodger's unbroken streak of futility is continuing this season with Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys-inspired musical meant to draw in nostalgic baby boomers and pop-loving tourists. Instead, the show has been vilified in the press, and is so hated by Broadway insiders that other producers are openly rooting for it to fold. The best review the show has received so far is one that declared it to be "not quite the history-making train wreck trumpeted in advance." New York Post 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 6:31 am

Charitable Deduction - One Show's Circuitous Road To Broadway Almost three years ago plans were announced to mount a revival of the musical Sweet Charity. Between then and now, the stars are in, the stars are out. The director leaves, then comes back, songs are dropped, then they're added. And now comes the out-of-town try-outs... Whew, you'd think redoing a show that's already been a success would be easier... St. Paul Pioneer-Press 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 10:51 pm

The National Takes On Politics (For Real Buzz) Nicholas Hytner's new season for the National Theatre in London is full of controversial issues. "What we are finding is that when we do plays about politics the place is really buzzing. We are plugged into and responding to the world we are part of, and making great entertainment, as well as provocative debate and artistic insight. Theatre is now back where we are sniffing things out as they happen." The Guardian (UK) 02/04/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 8:08 pm

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Publishing

Comic Books - No More Kids? Comic books have been a big success in the adult market in recent years. "But the new wave has had its costs, chief among them being the near vacuum that’s been left in what was once a thriving market for well-crafted kids’ comics. If you need proof, just take a stroll through your local 7-Eleven. You'd be hard pressed to find any evidence of kids’ comics or the iconic racks they used to call home." CBC 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 10:41 pm

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Media

A Distinctly American Rage Robert deNiro's performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull stands as the defining cinematic portrait of pure human rage, and the film may be the perfect representation of the strength and weakness of the American character ideal. "The violence that defines [LaMotta] -- and that part of the American character he represents -- emerges as simultaneously the source of his great success and the agent of his pathetic undoing... Violence is his path to freedom (sound familiar?) and the means by which he liberates himself from the violent dictates of others, from the despotic gangsters who run his neighbourhood and control his sport. Yet, the same violence is a manifestation of his self-hatred and his sexual insecurity and his paranoid jealousy." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/04/05
Posted: 02/04/2005 6:21 am

Farewell To Arms - Weinraub's Hollywood Farewell Causes Furor "Rarely has one article caused such a commotion on both coasts as journalist Bernie Weinraub’s goodbye to the Hollywood beat in The New York Times on Sunday. It was as if narrator Nick Carraway were given space in The Paper of Record to write honestly about the swell set, only this time he surprises us by revealing that he longed for the green light of status and money as much as Jay Gatsby did." LAWeekly 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 7:45 pm

Satellite Radio Transcends Radio "It may blow your mind to think that over four million people are now paying $10 or $13 a month just to listen to the radio. Truth is, though, that what they're getting isn't very much like radio at all. They're getting 65 music channels, free of commercials and endless teenybopper-top-10 repetition, and 40 to 50 talk channels. Because they don't have to appeal to a mainstream audience to attract advertisers, the expert-fanatic channel hosts can "narrowcast" tightly targeted musical styles (like pop, acoustic, hip-hop, country, movie soundtracks, classical) and nichey talk topics (like comedy, sports, advice, old-time radio dramas, audio books, religion and children)." The New York Times 02/03/05
Posted: 02/03/2005 3:16 pm

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