“At a time when most songwriters would kill to wangle a no-budget workshop in a downtown black box, Michael John LaChiusa is regularly produced by the foremost institutional theaters in the country, and now even by opera houses. But part of the controversy stems from his insistence on bringing a seriously modern sensibility to a form mostly consigned to the ash heap of nostalgia. Whether you judge his musicals to be successful or not — and critics are divided — they are never glib or self-cannibalizing.”
Month: March 2006
Hollywood’s Big Problem
“Big Hollywood increasingly finds it difficult to make the kinds of high-profile movies that the industry likes to honor with its most important awards. You don’t have to have followed all the reports of a box-office slump last year to know that Hollywood is in trouble. To judge by how executives at major studios often talk about their business, in their discussions about closing windows, new platforms and emergent technologies, the movies themselves barely count. What counts is when you can watch a film on your cellphone, not if there is something worth losing your eyesight over.”
Playwrighting Chicago
Chicago’s always had a great theatre scene. “Many Chicago playwrights are perfectly happy to stay put — as long as their work gets out on the road.”
Color Purple – A New Musical Juggernaut?
“The Color Purple” got mixed reviews in New York. “But thanks in part to Winfrey’s involvement with the show — and its iconic title — it has proved a broad popular hit. According to producer Scott Sanders, the New York production currently has $22 million banked in advance sales.” And now a production is opening in Chicago for an extended stay.
Harvard – Not What It Used To Be?
“For the past three decades, Harvard’s reputation for preeminence has not always reflected reality in Cambridge. Who now thinks Harvard is better in engineering than MIT or Caltech? Who thinks Harvard’s Law School, hobbled by rancorous dissent, is better than Yale’s, Virginia’s, or Stanford’s? Its Philosophy Department, once the home of William James, C.I. Lewis, and W.V.O. Quine, is now typically ranked below departments at Michigan and Pittsburgh. Harvard’s relative decline is not entirely its own fault.”
Jimmy’s Conducting Chair
James Levine has a chair he has toi use when conducting. “I found one that seemed the right size and height and that was comfortable. The stage guys took it and reinforced it and put a new seat cover on it. I wound up using it for 10 years of ‘Parsifal’ and five seasons of the ‘Ring’ Cycle.”
British Museum Lends To China
The British Museum is loaning 272 of its most precious artefacts to the Capital Museum of Beijing in one of the highest level cultural exchanges between the two countries. “Ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and the world’s oldest tool will be among the items on display in the first major overseas exhibition staged at the new museum – a gleaming structure of glass, steel and stone that opened in December.”
Stolen Matisse Offered For Sale Online
One of the paintings stolen in Brazil has shown up for sale on the internet. “Henri Matisse’s Luxembourg Gardens, which was taken from the Chacara do Ceu museum in Rio de Janeiro, was advertised on a Russian website. Brazilian police say they believe the stolen pictures are still in Rio.”
New HD DVDs About To Hit Market
The new generation of high definition DVD formats is about to come to market. “As consumers, we have merely been spectators to the three-year fight over the next generation of DVDs. But very soon we will be right in the middle of the fray as high definition discs and decks finally arrive in shops.”
The Decomposing Opera
A Philadelphia production of “Margaret Garner” seems to get worse with every performance. “Is it possible for an opera to deliver experiences so radically different without any significant revision of the score, change in cast, or alteration of production? That happens with Broadway musicals. But opera is supposed to be sturdier – and transcend things like the struggling orchestra heard on Feb. 24. Or can an opera be so eager to succeed with a mainstream audience that it lacks the anchor needed to overcome a performance that, for any number of reasons, loses its way?”