Month: July 2000

LADY DIANA IN A JEEP?

When attempts to place statuary atop Trafalgar Square’s fourth vacant plinth began last year, officials were surprised by how seriously Londoners took up the task. Suggestions ranged from a statue of Princess Di to a giant pigeon. A year of trading art on and off the pedestal has suggested a plan for the future. – The Times (UK)

INDEPENDENCE TOUR

Norman and Lear and a partner who bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence on the internet last week, plan to tour it. “I don’t want to see it sitting on a wall, I want to take it where Americans can see it. I made a film in Greenfield, Iowa, and that’s a place I know well. If that living document came to Greenfield, people would come by the busloads.” – Los Angeles Times

STROKE SENDS ARTIST’S CAREER SOARING

Artist Katherine Sherwood was always an artist. But a debilitating stroke at the age of 44 transformed her career.  “Critics see a huge change in Sherwood’s work. From the restricted, analytical style of the art professor she once was, she has been transformed into a vibrant, free-flowing painter. She has just finished a show at New York’s prestigious Whitney Museum, and her abstracts sell for $10,000. “I have sold more paintings in the past few months than in 25 years as an artist,” she says with a smile. – The Times (UK)

BRITAIN’S OPERA HOPE

The hip new opera in London last season was – of all things – a piece about soccer. Mark-Anthony Turnage, the “Silver Tassie’s” composer, “has emerged as one of the great hopes of English classical music – a natural extension of an extraoridnary line that runs through such fertile counties as Elgar, Walton, Bridge, Britten and Tippitt.” – Sequenza 21

FASTER LOUDER STRONGER

The Sydney International Piano Competition opens. But criticism is rife, and charges of scandal abound. “No one, of course, will ever hear of any of the SIPCA prizewinners. They all seem to have had rather too close connections with various members of the jury, which in any case is mostly comprised of lacklustre teachers who … wouldn’t recognise good and original artistry if it jumped up and bit them.” – The Age (Melbourne)

WHAT MAKES A GOOD CABARET SINGER?

The fourth annual Sydney Cabaret Convention has certainly demonstrated there are a multitude of performers out there who can manage cabaret as a technical feat. But there is a lot more to it than technique and tamed facility. Like all live performance, cabaret should be extraordinary. And at this convention, you got seven minutes (two songs and a bit of chat) to prove your worth. – Sydney Morning Herald

BANDING TOGETHER

Last year’s amalgamation of the National Opera, based in Wellington, and Auckland’s Opera New Zealand was only the latest attempt to create a sustainable opera company in New Zealand. Costs and staff were cut, and now a production of “Aida” is the first big test. – New Zealand Herald

TANGO TROUBLE

Composer Astor Piazzolla’s distinctive tango music has become a world-wide phenomenon. But “while his music won an enthusiastic following in Europe, the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, Piazzolla was not widely appreciated in his native Argentina until a decade before he died in 1992. Instead, his tampering with a native form as sacrosanct as the tango earned an intensity of contempt from the music’s old guard that may be difficult to fathom in this country, where disagreements over style and genre exercise only a handful of artists and critics.” – The New Republic

FLEEING NORTH

“This is a record-breaking year for Hollywood films shot in Canada, entertainment-industry figures on both sides of the border agree. In past years, U.S. producers have taken advantage of the weak dollar to shoot low-budget feature films and made-for-TV movies in Canadian cities. This year, though, the studios have brought their big projects north and a long list of marquee-topping stars such as Sean Connery, Christina Ricci and Robert de Niro.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 07/03/00