Month: March 2006

Minnesota Orchestra Gets Played In Big Land Deal

The orchestra had bought land for an amphitheatre. When the plan fell through, the orchestra decided to sell the land. “Last summer, the orchestra officially transferred the land to MOA Property Co. On that same day, property records indicate, MOA sold the land to Target for several million dollars more than what it paid the orchestra. While the orchestra’s board chairman said that an opportunity to make money may have been lost, he had no regrets.”

BBC Defends Spending On Art

The BBC is defending itself against critics who are protesting the corporation spending £4m on art. “Well-known artists including Rachel Whiteread and Tracey Emin are among those who have been asked to produce artworks for the corporation under a programme of purchasing public art linked to the redevelopment of Broadcasting House in London.”

Actors Testify To Protect Their Likenesses

Actors Paul Newman, Christopher Plummer and Charles Grodin say they’re worried that “technology has made it possible to access their films, images and voices, and to use that material to produce another product they know nothing about. ‘We are suddenly cloned into something we’re not. We are robbed of our individuality, and our life’s work is tarnished’.”

Kirov – Ringing With Confidence

The Kirov Opera is touring – wait for it – Wagner’s “Ring.” “The Kirov is playing for very high stakes. Touring any opera is a complex and challenging business. The Ring, with its vast scale, huge technical demands and immense musical difficulties, represents a company going for broke. Still more remarkably, the Kirov, following its traditions, is casting entirely from its own ranks. This is an opera company with great confidence.”

The Castrato – A Very Bad Idea

“For every superstar castrato who graced Europe’s opera houses between about 1600 and 1828 (when Giovanni Battista Velluti became the last eunuch to appear on stage, in a crusader epic by Meyerbeer), there were hundreds whose ordinariness or unpleasantness of voice condemned them to a life in B-grade church choirs, or on the streets as beggars or prostitutes. And those were the ones who survived the operation…”

The Downfall Of The “Painter Of Light”

“Art critics have long dismissed his work as a kitsch crime against aesthetics. But now the world has grown even more “unsympathetic and complex” for the artist, who describes himself as a devout Christian and has trademarked his ‘Painter of Light’ soubriquet. In court documents and other testimony, he has been accused of sexual harassment, fraudulent business practices and bizarre incidents of drunkenness including a habit of “ritual territory marking” that involves urinating in public places.”

Melbourne Erases Culture For Commonwealth Games

“Melbourne is the proud capital of street painting with stencils. Its large, colonial-era walls and labyrinth of back alleys drip with graffiti that is more diverse and original than any other city in the world. Well, that was until a few weeks ago, when preparations for the Commonwealth games brought a tidal wave of grey paint, obliterating years of unique and vibrant culture overnight.”