Wednesday, December 28
How Closely Have You Been Paying Attention? We here at ArtsJournal like to think of ourselves as people who pay close attention to news of the cultural world. So we're somewhat embarassed to score only 15 out of 20 in this year's Guardian cultural literacy quiz... The Guardian (UK) 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 10:08 pm
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Portrait Of An Illegal Antiquities Trade Much of the classical ancient art sold in recent decades is believed to have passed through the hands of three men - Giacomo Medici, Robert E. Hecht Jr. and Robin Symes. They "acquired items that had been illegally removed from Italian tombs and used fake ownership histories, rigged auctions and relied on frontmen to sell the objects with a veneer of legitimacy. Italians say they have traced more than a hundred looted artifacts handled by the dealers to the Getty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a dozen other major museums and private collections in the U.S., Europe and Asia." Los Angeles Times 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 8:06 am
Genova Museum Decorates "Genoa has just opened a museum that is endowed with a remarkable private collection of more than 20,000 pieces dating from between 1880 and 1945. It includes paintings, sculptures, furniture, glass, ceramics, wrought iron, textiles, architectural projects (built and unbuilt), graphic design, political and publicity posters and leaflets, books, periodicals and newspapers." The New York Times 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:18 am
Major Italian Stolen Antiquities Bust Italian police have busted a 74-year-old who plundered thousands of ancient artifacts. "Officers who raided the man's home found 9,000 antiquities stolen over a period of years as well a sophisticated restoration lab, metal detectors and other devices used by amateur archaeologists. Thousands of Etruscan and Roman terracotta vases, polychrome mosaic tiles, pieces of travertine and multi-coloured marble that once adorned Roman villas were recovered." The Guardian (UK) 12/28/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 10:20 pm
Kapoor Named To Tate Board Sculptor Anish Kapoor has been chosen to replace Chris Ofili as one of three working artists on the Tate board of directors. "He fills a vacancy created when Ofili - whose Upper Room was controversially purchased by the Tate in March - came to the scheduled end of his reign there last month. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is in charge of re-appointments, is believed to have chosen Kapoor from a shortlist of two given to him earlier in the year." The Independent (UK) 12/27/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:04 pm
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A Good Year For Jazz "Any year in which John Coltrane supplants Jamie Cullum as a topic of conversation is a very good year indeed. For once, the jazz art at its highest and the jazz business at its most lucrative have been completely in step, a reaffirmation of the music's core values at a time when they're far too often compromised for public consumption." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:03 am
Levine Remakes Boston Symphony "The BSO is playing better, and more consistently, than it has in years. Levine is not presenting much more contemporary repertoire than Seiji Ozawa did, but he apparently enjoys a more challenging kind of music, and he is programming it in a more systematic way." Boston Globe 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:37 pm
Last Minute At The Dallas Symphony The Dallas Symphony has a new way of selling tickets. Patrons pay a monthly "retainer". The plan "allows patrons to pay a monthly fee in exchange for the best available seat at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center – generally seats that went unsold or were returned by subscribers." Dallas Morning News 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:33 pm
Tokyo, City Of Orchestras "There is more of it here than in any other city in the world. Not only is more going on here than in London or Berlin, but one of the great attractions of over-the-top Tokyo is that it makes everything feel different. Tokyo is chock-full of concert halls and, better yet, concert halls full of listeners. Where other musical capitals consider themselves lucky to have two or three important large venues for concerts and opera, Tokyo and its outskirts boast 10, plus many more medium- and smaller-sized halls. The city is also home to about a dozen symphony orchestras." Los Angeles Times 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:17 pm
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New UK Laws Impose Hardship On Performers New performer licensing laws in the UK have made things difficult for small acts. "When the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, launched the licensing laws on November 24, the media focused almost exclusively on the new 24-hour opening rules and the fears of a wave of binge drinking. Hardly anyone reported that at the same time the regulations required every small-scale entertainer, from folk musicians to street artists to charity carollers, to obtain a public entertainment licence before putting on a paid-for performance." The Guardian (UK) 12/27/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 10:27 pm
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Critic Joseph McClellan, 76 McClellan was a music critic for the Washington Post over three decades. "Joe was a gentle, inquisitive and compassionate man, and those qualities were reflected in his criticism. 'I've never attended a concert without reminding myself that at least one person in the room knows more about that music than I do.' Sharply negative reviews were rare, and Joe was aware that he was sometimes viewed as a cheerleader. (He dismissed that charge with a laugh: 'I don't know how to twirl a baton and would look dreadful in a skirt.') Instead, he likened his role to that of a gardener." Washington Post 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:41 am
The Editor Versus Belarus Iryna Vidanava edits Student Thought, "perhaps the most edgy and professional publication left in Belarus," where the government has been ruthlessly shutting down all independent media. "Last month, the government seized all but a handful of copies of the magazine. And now Vidanava is under investigation for financial crimes and infractions against the country's draconian press laws. If charged, the 27-year-old editor could face a huge fine and up to six years in prison. But it's hard to know exactly what's happening with her case in Belarus. One investigator is on vacation; another has given no word on where things stand." Washington Post 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:38 am
Enzo Stuarti, 86 Stuarti "appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, including "Around the World in 80 Days," "South Pacific" and "Kiss Me Kate." He performed under the names Larry Lawrence and Larry Stuart before taking the name Enzo Stuarti, his son said. Stuarti was a frequent guest on television talk shows, including the Ed Sullivan Show, the Mike Douglas show and the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Newsday (AP) 12/27/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:19 pm
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Broadway's Record Year "Ticket sales were $825m in 2005, up from $749m the previous year, reported the League of American Theatres and Producers. Although ticket prices did rise in 2005, an extra 650,000 visited Broadway theatres this year. Of the total audience increase of 650,000 over 2004, according to the League's data, it's important to realise that ticket sales for plays alone were up by 530,000." BBC 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 5:40 am
Rethinking Sondheim "Stephen Sondheim has always been ready for his close-up. There's a reason his songs are picked up so quickly by cabaret performers who keep their hearts parked in their throats. But because he writes for Broadway, the original incarnations of his shows have tended to be big in ways that brought out the glitter in his intricate lyrics and scores but often kept audiences at an amused, admiring remove. Now a new generation of Sondheim interpreters are revealing just how directly this composer speaks to them." The New York Times 12/28/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 10:04 pm
The West End's Banner Year Charles Spencer says West End theatre has had a great year: "During 25 years of covering London theatre, I can't remember a stronger season for drama in the West End. The producers have really raised their game this year, offering big stars in numerous quality productions of first-rate plays." The Telegraph (UK) 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:55 pm
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Judge Blocks Book On Folk Singer A British judge has blocked publication of a book by Niema Ash about folk singer Loreena McKennitt. "The ruling requires Ash to delete seven of 34 sections complained about by McKennitt as violations of privacy or confidentiality, before Ash can again publish the book." The judge said that "most of the material to which McKennitt objected was either trivial, anodyne, not intrusive or not inherently confidential, but nonetheless awarded the singer 75 per cent of the trial costs and £5,000 for 'hurt feelings and distress.' The court costs alone are expected to amount to more than $1-million." The Globe & mail (Canada) 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 5:56 am
Korean Publishers Burned On Fake Cloner "South Korean publishers rushed to put books on celebrated scientist Hwang Woo-suk on store shelves only to find him embroiled in a scandal and their products becoming one of the biggest flops of the holiday season." Yahoo! (Reuters) 12/27/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:15 pm
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DVDs Nibble At Theatre Audience The drift from seeing movies in theatres to at home on a DVD is probably inevitable. "The theater exhibitor says, "If you give me money, I'll show you something." The DVD seller says, "If you give me money, I'll give you something." Right away, the DVD seller has an advantage." San Francisco Chronicle 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:32 am
Why Are People Staying Out Of Movie Theatres? "These days it's not necessarily a question of which film to see, but whether to go to the movies at all. Increasingly, the public is becoming more vocal about its unhappiness with some of the unpleasant circumstances it now associates with moviegoing." Backstage 12/27/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:08 pm
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Tales Of Trouble At NY City Ballet? A prominent board member resigns, complaining about the company's direction. “Over the past few years, my escalating concerns over serious issues of governance made it impossible for me to continue. I am no longer willing to support an institution that increasingly bears so little resemblance to the one that George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein bequeathed to their successors, and to which I have been committed for over twenty years since my Chairmanship of the 50th Anniversary campaign in 1984.”
New York Observer 12/28/05
Posted: 12/28/2005 6:51 am
A Good Year For UK Dance "Eyes were raised to far horizons, and suddenly you could begin to see it stretching 20 years. Sadler's Wells moved into production, dance buildings are completing for Rambert and Siobhan Davies, and the spectacular new Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff is a dance gateway for the neglected west." The Telegraph (UK) 12/25/05
Posted: 12/27/2005 9:48 pm
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