Month: December 2003

BBC Arts Reporter Quits After New Writing Restrictions

The BBC is placing restrictions on its reporters from writing for newspaper. So ace arts correspondent Rosie Millard has quit to go write for the Sunday Times. “Millard, who is 38, married to a TV producer and the mother of three children, was already an established feature writer when she joined the BBC, and has always maintained a parallel print career: she also writes for the New Statesman. She is understood to have been upset at the prospect of having her writing curtailed or restricted.”

London Music, 2003: The Bland Leading The Blander?

“If most years are dispiriting for full-time opera companies because of the parlous state of their finances, against which they generally manage on stage to achieve minor miracles, this one was different; there was less talk of monetary problems (with certain exceptions) and far more of artistic disappointment, especially where the two London-based companies were concerned. It’s hard to think of more than a couple of productions at either the Royal Opera House or at the Coliseum (before ENO temporarily decamped to the Barbican to allow its home to be renovated) that lodge in the memory or could remotely merit a revival.”

Baltimore Cutting Music Lessons For Kids

Fifteen children, dressed to the nines, gathered in the rotunda of Baltimore City Hall yesterday to play their violins and cellos for the politicians who are closing their music school. The Baltimore Talent Education Center provides after-school music training for 180 children from across the city. “The school system, facing a financial crisis, has reassigned the three full-time teachers who run the weekly lessons, saying their talents will be better used in music classrooms in schools. The teachers’ redeployment is the result of an immense school system staff reduction; layoff notices were sent to more than 700 employees last month.”

Catching More Flies With Honey

Online music piracy is a problem worldwide, but the heavyhanded tactics being employed in the U.S. to make file-swapping less tempting are controversial, and not every country is following suit. In Argentina, the recording industry is using dialogue, education, and partnerships with corporations whose employees use company computers for their piracy to stem the flow of illegal music.

A Year For Issues Theatre

What kind of year was it for British theatre? Michael Billington writes that: “A year ago I bemoaned British theatre’s detachment from politics. Where were the plays that dealt with the big issues? The heartening thing about 2003 has been theatre’s reconnection with the wider world. We have had plays about Iraq, David Kelly, the railways, racial tension and Belfast. Theatregoing no longer seems a pleasantly marginal activity. The most cheering aspect of the year was the varied and rapid response to the Iraq crisis.”

Sydney Dance Star Retires

Sydney Dance Company star Simone Goldsmith, 29, retires from the company after a “glittering 10-year career. As always, the shy star, one of the country’s most critically acclaimed dancers, was keen to dodge the spotlight, but with tickets sold out last week in a rush from the public to witness her final performance, this was never on.”

Suing Over Who Gets To Sell Pooh

For 12 years a lawsuit has dragged on about who owns the rights to merchandising Winnie the Pooh. For Disney, which has been selling Pooh stuff for years, the stakes are huge. “The company earns about a billion dollars a year in Pooh-related revenues, and if the Slesingers win the case Disney estimates that it may be liable for several hundred million dollars.”