After weeks of trying to get an important Canadian actor into the United States for an upcoming production, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre finally gave up and recast locally. “Since the creation the Department of Homeland Security, it has been increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for foreign artists to get into this country. While we tend to hear more often about artists from ‘hostile’ nations, such as Cuba, having the door slammed in their faces, the policy is obviously affecting Canadian artists as well.”
Month: December 2003
Barenboim Threatens To Quit Berlin Opera Company
Berlin Staatsoper director Daniel Barenboim has threatened to quit the company if a planned city reorganization of Berlin’s three opera companies goes through. Barenboim told the German daily Die Zeit that “the federation would jeopardise his artistic integrity as it had the final say in determining the Staatsoper’s programme. ‘Without changing the titles, the three directors have been reduced to vice-directors, because suddenly there is someone above them who dictates what they can and cannot do. If I can’t perform something that is musically important to me, I will not continue this job.”
Saddam’s Novel Approach To Defence
“Saddam Hussein spent the final weeks before the war writing a novel predicting that he would lead an underground resistance movement to victory over the Americans, rather than planning the defence of his regime. As the war began and Saddam went into hiding 40,000 copies of Be Gone Demons! were rolling off the presses.”
Barenboim Apologizes (Sort Of) And Gets Prize
Daniel Barenboim will be awarded Israel’s Wolf Prize after all. “The education minister, Limor Livnat, had demanded that Mr. Barenboim apologize publicly for defying an unwritten Israeli ban on Wagner. Holocaust survivors still associate Wagner with the Nazis. In an interview on Tuesday with Israel Radio, Mr. Barenboim said he had no regrets about playing the work, but added, ‘If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don’t want to harm anyone’.”
Assistant To A Star
Being an assistant to a star is tough work. So now there’s a new association of assistants to ease the bumps. “Last week, the UK Association of Celebrity Assistants (UKACA) was unveiled at a low-key launch party in Belgravia. The guests were Moneypennys to megastars and, as you might expect, they were excruciatingly well-behaved and sober. Cards were exchanged, telephone numbers swapped and everyone left by 8.45. As the PAs of celebrities, these people are used to melting into the background, which is exactly what they did.”
The Power Of Images To Tell Stories
After a weekend of staring at images of the humiliated Saddam Hussein, Philip Kennicott ponders the power of images to change how we feel about something. “Images that emerge from photo ops unravel because people tug on the loose threads of their constructedness. His capture, without a fight, no doubt has extraordinary power for the Iraqis who hate him. But the great leader brought low is a more complex image than has yet to be acknowledged.”
Jazz Critic Giddins Leaves Voice
Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins is leaving the Voice after 30 years. “I don’t like writing short, and it’s time. In jazz, time is all. I’m as besotted with jazz as ever, and expect to write about it till last call, albeit in other formats. Indeed, much in the way being hanged is said to focus the mind, this finale has made me conscious of the columns I never wrote.” Maybe in a blog on ArtJournal?
Hentoff: Why Aren’t American Librarians Protesting Abuse Of Cuban Librarians?
“While American librarians — whom John Ashcroft calls “hysterics”—deserve credit for being on the front line against this secret fishing for subversives, none have been threatened with prison time by Ashcroft. But 10 librarians in Cuba have been put away for 20 years and more for not going along with Castro’s endless Banned Books weeks.” So why aren’t American librarians protesting that?
Canadian Recording Industry To Sue Uploaders
The Canadian recording industry says it is going to begin suing uploaders of music. “Any litigation would be a course of action we are really being forced into. It’s a process that’s a last resort, to try and address the huge problems, because the industry’s lost 30 per cent of its retail base since 1999. The losses [in Canada] are in excess of $425-million.”
Canada’s Cultural Leaders Ask: Hélène Who?
Since Canada’s new prime minister named Hélène Chalifour Scherrer to head the country’s culture ministry, cultural groups have been asking Hélène who? She is unknown in the cultural world. “Her very specific interest in amateur sport and the cries of rapture with which the Canadian Olympic Committee greeted her appointment to the portfolio, which does includesport, suggests she may lack the broad vision needed to tackle the large range of regulatory and funding issues that lie at the core of the Canadian Heritage mandate. Comments made to the CBC by her spokesman immediately after her swearing-in about running a “tighter ship” at a ministry that wasn’t going to be a “bank” any more didn’t help.”