Downtown L.A. Too Ritzy For Neon Museum L.A.'s Museum of Neon Art just over a month away from homelessness, with no prospects for a new home in sight. "At the end of January, a month after the downtown museum celebrates its 25th birthday, the lease runs out on MONA's home of 10 years... The museum is caught in a bind common among bohemians in booming urban settings: With rents rising, lofts proliferating and redevelopment efforts underway downtown, the 400-member museum, which lives on a $200,000 yearly budget, can't afford most buildings."
Los Angeles Times 12/08/06 Posted: 12/08/2006 6:24 am
Will The ICA Change Boston's Stodgy Architectural History? Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, with its striking cantilever overlooking Boston Harbor, may be the most architecturally significant building to be built in the Hub in a generation. "Four decades ago the completion of a City Hall in Brutalist concrete sent the city’s cultural guardians into a panic. Since then, with a few exceptions like the John Hancock Tower, the city’s architectural aspirations could generally be summed up in one word: brick." But the ICA, which stands in a largely undeveloped area at the moment, will eventually be more than a stand-alone monument to creativity: "Viewed through a maze of new buildings, the structure could wield the force of a wonderful surprise."
The New York Times 12/08/06 Posted: 12/08/2006 5:52 am
Definitive Hicks Painting Up For Auction "Edward Hicks’s celebrated 'Peaceable Kingdom' paintings — parables of the animal kingdom inspired by the words of the prophet Isaiah — come up for sale every now and again. Each seems to have its own special story. On Jan. 19 Christie’s in New York is selling the last of 60 images in the series." The seller, who is descended from Hicks himself, expects to realize $3 to $4 million.
The New York Times 12/08/06 Posted: 12/08/2006 4:59 am
Seeing Masterpieces Everywhere "Art is making more money than ever before. This year, a new world record was set for the most expensive painting of all time - and broken a few months later. There is a frenzy in the market that encompasses everything from contemporary art to looted Greek and Roman antiquities. Unexpected discoveries fuel the fantasy that you or I can participate in this greedy sport, that valuable masterpieces lie in attics or cupboards, waiting to be recognised... There are only two questions about art we all recognise. But is it art? And if it is, what's it worth?"
The Guardian (UK) 12/07/06 Posted: 12/07/2006 6:51 pm
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Austrian Librettist's Heirs Sue For Strauss Royalties "A German court on Thursday began considering a lawsuit seeking royalties from the heirs of German composer Richard Strauss for nine works, including opera favourites Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra. In the suit, five heirs of Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal claim they have a right to about a quarter of the royalties from the operas, for which Strauss wrote the music and his partner von Hofmannsthal the libretto, or words. The payments would amount to nearly $1-million a year." The Globe & Mail (AP) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:21 am
Boston Pops Trims Itself "Struggling to fill seats for some Holiday Pops concerts, the Boston Pops have cut the size of the orchestra in half for five of the performances, including the Pops' pricey New Year's Eve show. The move to a 40-person ensemble has angered Boston Symphony Orchestra players, who sent a petition to BSO management raising concerns about whether ticket buyers for the concerts... will feel misled when they show up at Symphony Hall." Boston Globe 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 5:40 am
Wasn't Classical Recording Supposed To Have Died By Now? Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for the music lover in your life? The music critics of the New York Times are here to help, with their annual roundup of the best classical CDs of 2006. On the list this year: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's last album, the London Symphony's Beethoven cycle, plenty of Mozart (have you heard? It's his 250th birthday!), and a new Concertgebouw recording of Stravinsky. The New York Times 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 5:36 am
Tanglewood Hit By Windstorm The Boston Symphony's summer home at Tanglewood suffered an estimated $250,000 of damage last week when hurricane-force winds ripped through the area. "There were 300 trees down on the grounds, but the cleanup will be complete by the time Tanglewood opens in late June." WCVB-TV (Boston) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 5:29 am
UK To Take On Piracy, But Leave Copyright Law Alone The British government will boost its budget for combating music piracy by £5 million next year, and is prepared to launch an all-out crackdown on illegal file-trading. "A wide-ranging intellectual property review [also] recommended the existing 50-year copyright term for sound recordings be retained, much to the chagrin of a vocal lobby of major record labels and artists who wanted it increased." The Guardian (UK) 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 7:02 pm
Grammy's Classical Noms The Grammy nominations are out, and the London Symphony's live-to-tape Beethoven symphony cycle will be going up against a much-lauded new recording of Mahler's 7th Symphony by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for best classical album. Other notable nominees include Osvaldo Golijov's Fountain of Tears in the opera category, pianist Martha Argerich for a live recording from the Lugano Festival, and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson for her solo album entitled "Rilke Songs." Grammy.com 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:35 pm
Two Operas Canceled In L.A. Two small L.A. opera companies have been forced to cancel productions this week. El Dorado Opera and Lyric Opera of Los Angeles are both facing financial difficulties, and not having the resources of larger companies, they've begun scrapping shows in the middle of the holiday concert season. Los Angeles Times 12/08/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:12 pm
Ringing True What is it about Wagner's Ring cycle that has such a hold on so many people? "It's absurd, lasts for ever, and has no sympathetic characters... [Furthermore, if it] does not appeal to women as much as men, it is perhaps because Wagner's idea of love doesn't extend much beyond sexual passion." Still, there's no denying the raw power of the music, as a first time Ringer found out in Cardiff this week. The Guardian (UK) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:00 pm
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Heads Will Roll "The opera house that dropped a production featuring the severed head of Muhammad over security fears suffered an embarrassing setback shortly before the disputed show resumes: It lost the offending prop. The head of the Islamic prophet as well as those of Jesus, Buddha and Neptune that were used in the three-year-old production of Mozart's Idomeneo have gone missing." New York Post (AP) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:28 am
Using The Arts To Heal International Divides Michael Kaiser has been ambitious since the day he took the reins at Washington's Kennedy Center. "For the past three years, Kaiser, who volunteers as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, has helped arts organizations in other countries improve their planning, marketing and fundraising, and he has brought artists from Iraq, China and elsewhere to the U.S... He and the Kennedy Center have focused their training efforts in countries that are 'in transition and in trouble' -- including Pakistan and Iraq -- because that's where art can have the greatest impact." Bloomberg 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:27 pm
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Frank Lloyd's Wrongs A new play currently running in Chicago dramatizes the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and to an architecture critic, seeing the production provides a stark reminder that some of our greatest artists can also be reprehensible human beings. It's a tough dichotomy to reconcile: "Does Wright's art justify his life? Or do we have to set aside his skyscraper-size flaws and ignore the irony that this maker of idyllic homes seemed hell-bent on destroying the domestic tranquility that once existed in his own house?" Chicago Tribune 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:09 am
The Evolution Of The Third Tenor Jose Carreras just turned 60, and his career is as alive as ever. But it's not exactly the same career he once had. "Questions about his retirement were rattling around as long ago as 1992. Then, he said 2000. But here we are, six years on, and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down... But there is a sense that the prodigious tenor will be remembered fondly for past operatic glories, not present triumphs." The Times (UK) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 7:15 pm
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Nothing Tired About Those Numbers Sleepy musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone has recouped its full $8 million investment only 30 weeks into its run. "[The show] opened on Broadway May 1 at the Marquis Theatre and has been doing hefty business ever since, with recent weekly grosses topping the $1-million mark." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:17 am
Martin Leaving Huntington Boston's Huntington Theatre Company is losing its artistic director. 68-year-old Nicholas Martin, who joined the company in 2000, will hang it up in 2008, and assume the title of artist emeritus for two additional seasons. "During his tenure in Boston, the Huntington built two theaters in the South End and launched a play development wing. And Martin's ties to New York and to Williamstown brought in a stream of both big name and promising young actors as well as national attention." Boston Globe 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:04 am
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Sobol Winners To Be Published By S&S "A division of Simon & Schuster has agreed to publish the top three winners of the Sobol Award, offering advances of up to $100,000 for a controversial new literary contest for agentless writers that also includes a $100,000 first prize... Announced in September, the Sobol Award offers $100,000 for the best unreleased, agentless novel, with prizes of $25,000 and $10,000 for the runners-up and $1,000 each to seven others." The Plain Dealer (AP) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:34 am
Amazon Teams With HP For On-Demand Upgrade Amazon.com is betting that on-demand publishing will be a big part of its future, installing high-quality digital presses made by Hewlett Packard at several of its distribution centers nationwide so as to make on-demand orders more easily deliverable. "The Indigo digital presses used by Amazon offer quality similar to traditional offset presses, and can print maximum orders of about 5,000." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:30 am
Do Novelists Need To Cite Sources? "Should a novel end with a bibliography? And if it does, is it pomposity or an effort to come clean about one’s sources? ...Even a thorough bibliography will not protect a novelist against baseless charges of plagiarism founded on a narrow understanding of how the creative imagination works. [But] the only real risk [in having] a bibliography for a novel is that it will come to be a kind of obligatory disclosure." The New York Times 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 5:32 am
A Classic Turf War Random House UK is squaring off with traditional British publishing power Penguin in what promises to be a high-stakes battle for control of the classic literature market. "This war is partly provoked by chain booksellers, who have reduced stock ranges and made it harder for new writers to gain the shelf space guaranteed to classic authors. Such writers are also mercifully free of advance payments, royalties or prima donna tendencies." The Guardian (UK) 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:55 pm
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If He Runs It Like He Runs The 'Skins, It'll Be Back To Classical Soon In what will likely signal an ignominious end for classical radio in Washington, D.C., Daniel Snyder, the notoriously inept (but charismatic) owner of the Washington Redskins football team is buying classical station WGMS, with plans to convert it to sports talk. Washington's two public radio stations air no classical music (WETA phased it out in favor of news/talk nearly two years ago; WAMU never had it), and WGMS has been the subject of complaints from listeners concerning its weak signal. Washington Post 12/08/06
Posted: 12/08/2006 6:39 am
Aboriginal Film Cleans Up At AFI Awards "Australia's first ever indigenous language feature film has been awarded the country's top movie honour. Billed as an Aboriginal comedy, Ten Canoes tonight won the best film category at the 48th annual Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in Melbourne." The Age (Melbourne) 12/08/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:46 pm
British Musicians Want Copyright Protection Extended "Paul McCartney, U2 and Eric Clapton joined thousands of other musicians Thursday in an appeal to the government to extend the British copyright protection on their recordings... in response to a report recommending that the government maintain its current laws granting copyrights on sound recordings and performers' rights for 50 years. That falls well short of the 95-year copyright protection that exists in the United States, and the recording industry fears that British artists could see their work exploited in their lifetimes." Houston Chronicle (AP) 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:33 pm
Should We Trade Commercials For Product Placement? Ever since the TiVo began to gain traction in the television marketplace, consumer advocates have worried that the ability for viewers to skip over commercials would lead to more product placement within shows. Dan Brown says that would be just fine with him. "The deal I have in mind would be a classic quid pro quo. Each side would get something. The first step would be a ban on commercials. That’s right. There would be no more commercials on TV. In return, TV producers would be allowed to do as much product placement as possible." London Free Press (Ontario) 12/07/06
Posted: 12/07/2006 6:18 pm
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