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Friday, April 7




Visual Arts

Constable-Land Put On Hold Plans for a theme park-like attraction designed to showcase the life and work of John Constable in the British valley depicted in much of the artist's most famous work have been scrapped in the wake of vigorous opposition to the project. The developer in charge of the plans says he will revise them and try again soon. The Guardian (UK) 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:36 am

Chirac's Paris Museum Draws Fire From Press The €260 million Musée du Quai Branly - Paris's first major new museum since the Pompidou Centre opened in 1977 - opens this week after ten years of planning and construction. The museum, which celebates Asian and African culture and art, has been a favorite project of French President Jacque Chirac, "but when the museum's directors opened the site for previews this week before its June launch, historians were already questioning what they feared could be a patronising attempt to display African works in a 'mock jungle' setting that rehashed 'all France's old colonial cliches'." The Guardian (UK) 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:31 am

Art Market Continues To Boom With Record Turner Sale A Venice landscape painted by JMW Turner sold in New York this week for $35.9 million, bringing 80% more than its expected sale price and shattering the record for British paintings sold at auction. "The sale shows that the worldwide boom in the art market is lifting prices in almost all sectors of art... The Turner sale reflects the continued strength of the US market, which has led London and Paris in pushing up prices." Financial Times (UK) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:16 am

As Kids Stream In, Galleries Look To Child-Proofing "Up until a few years ago, the presence of children in art galleries and performance spaces wouldn't have been an issue — because there weren't any. They weren't prohibited per se, but they were simply seldom seen. The message was that art was for adults. But today's parents bring their children everywhere, and as more art lovers, collectors and artists themselves have kids, it has become perfectly normal to see little ones at openings." The influx of kids has gallery officials in a quandary - they're torn between delight that small fry are being exposed to culture, and abject terror that they'll break, smear, or deface something. Los Angeles Times 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:46 pm

Five Klimts Meet Their Rightful Owner "For most of the last 60 years, Maria Altmann did not know that the celebrated Klimt paintings hanging in the Austrian Gallery in Vienna actually belonged to her. And when she learned that they most likely did, she also knew that recovering them was probably an impossible quest. But in an unexpected turn of events, the endless ripples of World War II history have washed up on the shore of a California museum, where this week the 90-year-old Mrs. Altmann came face to face with the sumptuous gold and sinuous lines of Gustav Klimt's portrait of her aunt." The New York Times 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:31 pm

Rockwell Original Discovered (If Only We'd Known It Was Missing) For years, art experts have noted that the original copy of Norman Rockwell's painting, "Breaking Home Ties," appears to be lighter in color than the prints that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1954. The discrepancy has long been blamed on an overly aggressive cleaning of the work. But now, the truth has come out: cartoonist Don Trachte, who owned the painting for years, apparently made a sophisticated copy in the 1970s and hid the original in a secret compartment in his Vermont home, in an effort to avoid losing the Rockwell in a bitter divorce. It wasn't until last month that Trachte's sons discovered the genuine article, right where their father had left it. The New York Times 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:24 pm

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Music

Being Late There was a time, not so very long ago, when showing up late for a concert, an opera, or a play was no very big deal. You just made your dramatic solo entrance and allowed the room to focus on you rather than the stage for a minute (and for many latecomers, this was exactly the point.) But these days, especially in New York, the music is sacrosanct, and latecomers are seated at the discretion of the house. This is more complicated than it might seem. "Policies are surprisingly varied, and considerable thought is given to them. Some halls allow latecomers to stand in the back before proceeding to their places at a convenient break. Some let the artists pick an appropriate moment for late seating. Many halls provide audio and video during the wait, or a bar to pass the time (or ease the pain)." The New York Times 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 5:45 am

Two Finally Become One In Cleveland "Opera Cleveland, the long-anticipated merger between Cleveland Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland, officially was born Wednesday during the first meeting of the new company's board. Made up of trustees from the two troupes, the board approved a business plan and signed merger agreements that call for the combining of artistic and financial resources. Opera Cleveland will receive $1.1 million in transition funding and working capital from a consortium of regional foundations." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 5:33 am

Domingo Double-Booked? The Bavarian State Opera has announced its 2006-07 season. Ordinarily, that's not the kind of item that would make headlines in America, but a few sharp-eyed journalists have noticed that the company has booked Placido Domingo to sing the lead in Parsifal next spring, on the same dates that the Washington National Opera has engaged him to sing the lead in Die Walküre. No one has yet explained how the mistake occurred, or which company will actually have Domingo on its stage when all is said and done. PlaybillArts 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 7:11 pm

Are Music Schools Selling A Fantasy? Occasional pronouncements of doom from the press aside, young musicians appear to be more enthusiastic than ever about pursuing a career in classical music. "An estimated 2,700 music performance majors graduate from American centers of higher learning every year. The usual number of jobs available: 160 or fewer." That's great news for the top U.S. orchestras, of course, which are more or less guaranteed a steady flow of high-quality applicants. But with so few jobs available, should music schools be more up front with their students about the odds against them? Los Angeles Times 04/09/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:59 pm

The Damnably Popular Scourge Of The Jazz World What is it about "smooth jazz" that so infuriates fans and practitioners of more traditional jazz forms? Is it the easy-listening thing? The lack of challenging harmonies and groundbreaking solos? Or could it be that jazzers resent the idea that someone else has figured out a way to make jazz palatable, even popular, with a wider public that has no use for Joshua Redman or Wynton Marsalis? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:41 pm

Big Expectations For The New SF Conservatory San Francisco Conservatory is preparing to move into its fancy new digs in the heart of the city's arts district next fall, and hopes are high that the $80 million facility will finally allow the school to compete with the U.S.'s major conservatories on something closer to an equal footing. "Serving roughly the same number of students and faculty with twice the usable space of [the current building,] it will have at least double the current number of classrooms and practice rooms. The library will be three times [the current] size, and boast a listening room, reading room, and far more computer stations... There will also be an electronic music studio and a recording studio, a café, and a genuine box office for concert ticket sales." Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:13 pm

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Arts Issues

PA Gov Says Kimmel Is On Verge Of Solvency Contrary to some recent reports that had Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts struggling under a massive debt load with no relief in sight, Pennsylvania Governer Ed Rendell (who helped get the center off the ground when he was mayor of the city) claims that the Kimmel is only $12 million away from hitting a fundraising target that would allow it to retire its debt. Rendell is also suggesting that the center combine some of its operations with those of its principal tenant, the Philadelphia Orchestra, a move both organizations have reportedly been considering. Philadelphia Inquirer 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 5:25 am

Politics Threatens To Dismantle An Unusual Partnership This year, an unlikely (and tenuous) alliance arose in Minnesota between the state's large population of hunters and fisherman, and those who value the state's longstanding commitment to the arts. The reason for the partnership was to promote a sales tax hike at the state legislature, with proceeds dedicated to the arts and the conservation of the great outdoors. But as the vote count tightens (the legislature is not terribly enamored of new taxes at the moment,) many on the conservationist side are suggesting that the presence of the "arts and culture crowd" is hurting the bill's chance of passage. Minneapolis Star Tribune 04/06/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 4:41 am

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Impediments to Arts Exchange Inside Higher Education 04/05/06
Untrue Colors: Hues Are Shady Characters Washington Post 4/2/06
Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math New York Times 2/26/06
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People

Mozart's Poverty May Be Overblown "For centuries, historians have portrayed Mozart as poor, but new documents suggest the composer was not nearly as hard-up for cash as many have believed. Scholars who combed through Austrian archives for an exhibition opening Tuesday on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's later years in Vienna found evidence that he was solidly upper crust and lived the good life... Mozart's main occupation in Vienna was teaching piano to aristocrats -- a lucrative job that helped support his extravagant lifestyle. Yet Mozart earned a reputation for money-grubbing, and evidence abounds that he squandered much of his wealth." Chicago Tribune (AP) 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:12 am

Groundbreaking Ballet Teacher Dies At 92 Doris W. Jones, who found the doors shut to her when she tried to learn ballet as an aspiring black dancer but who went on to open them for succeeding generations, running ballet schools for black youngsters and training a roster of notable dancers and choreographers, died on March 21 in Washington. She was 92. The New York Times 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:35 pm

With All The Talking, It's Amazing He Has Time For Music There are times when it seems that conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim must be the busiest speechmaker in the classical music world. "This week, Barenboim puts down his baton and some of his worries to deliver the first in his series of the BBC's annual Reith Lectures. He will argue that music lies at the heart of our understanding of what it is to be human and his theme will encompass how music provides a way of making sense of the world: of politics, of history and of our future." The Telegraph (UK) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:21 pm

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Theatre

Broadway Gossip! Woo-Hoo! Spring has sprung in New York, and as usual, the gossip birds are out in force in the city's theatre scene. Latest tidbits out of the rumor mill: Tarzan may have issues, but it's a Disney show, so it's raking in the cash regardless; no one on Broadway knows what the hell a "Drowsy Chaperone" is supposed to be, or why anyone would pay money to watch it; and the supposedly dead-and-buried vampire musical "Lestat" may actually have some life left in it. New York Post 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:48 am

Another Sondheim Revival Gets A Broadway Shot A new production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, directed by John Doyle and currently playing in Cincinnati, is headed to Broadway in time for the 2006-07 season... The New York Times 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 5:48 am

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Publishing

DaVinci Charges Rejected A judge in England has rejected the plagiarism case brought against DaVinci Code author Dan Brown by two authors of an earlier non-fiction book with some similarities to Brown's fictional plot. Most observers had expected the ruling, since a decision in favor of the plaintiffs would have turned much of what is understood of copyright law on its head. BBC 04/07/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 6:07 am

Because Dan Brown Really Needed More Money Not that anyone was biting their nails waiting for this news, but The DaVinci Code is a hit as a paperback, too. Dan Brown's insanely popular and occasionally controversial novel has sold half a million copies in its first week in paperback, and the initial print run has been increased from 5 million to 6 million. The Globe & Mail (AP) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:37 pm

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Media

Please Don't Watch Our Movie It's become a usual occurrence for a Hollywood studio to refuse to screen a new movie for critics if they think it is unlikely to get good reviews, and in many cases, critics have actually been "disinvited" - told specifically not to review a given film. That was supposed to be the case with Sony's new comedy, The Benchwarmers - only someone forgot to tell a few critics in Florida, who gave the Rob Schneider vehicle the blistering reviews it probably deserved. Sony's response was to accuse the critics of "sneaking" into the film (and into a roped-off row marked "press," as one critic points out) and lie to other newspapers about the reviews. Orlando Sentinel 04/05/06
Posted: 04/07/2006 5:13 am

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Dance

Ohio Ballet Cancels Season, Lashes Out At Newspaper The cash-strapped Ohio Ballet has canceled what remained of its 2005-06 season and is asking its subscribers not to ask for refunds for the two sets of performances that will not take place. The company's artistic director, who has lent the ballet $40,000 this season in an effort to stabilize a dire fiscal situation, is also complaining about what he calls biased coverage in Cleveland's only daily newspaper. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/06/06
Posted: 04/06/2006 6:52 pm

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