Month: November 2000

MUSICIANS PROTEST BERLIN

Forty of the world’s most prominent musicians published an open letter in several Berlin newspapers protesting the Berlin government’s proposal to merge the operations of the Staatsoper in east Berlin, which dates back more than 250 years, with those of the modern Deutsche Oper. “The signatories included the tenor Placido Domingo and the conductors Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink. ‘As artists who know the Staatsoper, we appeal to you not to destroy the traditions that have been developed’.” – The Guardian

A NY PHIL AUDITION

Pittsburghers love Pittsburgh Symphony music director Mariss Jansons so much they’ve been on a letter-writing campaign to try to convince him to stay, after his name popped up as a candidate to be the New York Philharmonic’s next music director. This week Jansons conducted the New York Phil, and everyone was there to check him out. – New York Times

OPERA HOUSE SAYS NO TO POPULIST

London’s Royal Opera House has turned down impressario Raymond Gubbay’s application to run the company after Michael Kaiser resigned in July. Gubbay, a flamboyant and highly successful producer of opera, has been one of the ROH’s most persistent critics. “The application included plans to limit the number of seats given to ‘friends’, which account for 80% of tickets before they reach the box office, and to reduce prices and increase the number of shows.” – The Guardian

WAS RED HIS FAVORITE COLOR?

“Picasso as a Cold Warrior for the Evil Empire? Although the artist’s membership in the Communist Party in the late 1940s and early ’50s is well known, it has been largely ignored by scholars as a casual flirtation, with slight, if any, bearing on his art.” A new book wonders if it really was so casual. – ARTnews

TECHIES, MEET FUZZIES

High-tech artwork is gaining more mainstream acceptance in the art world, yet artists themselves are still struggling with ways to navigate between the worlds of art and technology, both of which are crucial to their creative output. The collaboration between the two will be a focus of this week’s “.art frontiers” conference in Silicon Valley. – Wired 11/01/00

LESS MESS

Securing grants for future projects is about to become a lot easier for England’s artists after a recent promise by the Arts Council of England to simplify the funding-distribution process and reduce the layers of red tape artists have traditionally had to cut through. – BBC 11/01/00

REDISTRIBUTING THE WEALTH?

A debate is going on in Australia about how to best spend money on higher education. “While Australia’s best universities are well below Ivy League status, the lower end of the spectrum is well above America’s worst.” If making the best schools truly great isn’t easily possible, should effort be made at general improvement? (In which case the best are diminished while the worst improve). – Sydney Morning Herald 11/01/00

COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST

Germany has only recently begun to come to terms with what to do with art stolen during the Nazi era. But finding solutions is problematic. “What was legal in this criminal era? Was there a semi-normality and a decent, civil art market in the early years of the Nazi regime? This might be determined on the basis of the prices obtained on the art market. Or should all sales of art owned by Jews after 1933 be regarded as ‘a result of persecution’?” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung