Month: July 2006

Using TV Talk To Sell Books (Not Just An Oprah Trick)

Ever since Oprah Winfrey got interested in books, the American publishing industry has known that getting a title on Oprah’s list is as good as buying a spot on the bestseller list. But Oprah isn’t the only one who can sell books: meet Richard and Judy, the UK’s favorite afternoon talk hosts, whose own televised book club is making major waves in Britain’s publishing world.

Dance3

“In 1999 the choreographer Yoshiko Chuma happened upon a new obsession: cubes. As a shape, the cube is not particularly sexy, but the use of such movable seven-foot frames has invigorated Ms. Chuma’s imagination ever since… In Ms. Chuma’s cube works, musicians and dancers, who constantly reconfigure the frames to show how drastically yet subtly movement can transform itself with the slightest shift of an angle, interact with one another within and around the cubes.”

Bayreuth Under Glass

Germany’s Bayreuth Festival may be the world’s most insular musical gathering, and the global move towards casual dress and informal style is still a hard sell amongst the Bavarian Wagner faithful. But it’s the adherence to tradition that makes Bayreuth such a unique experience, says Anthony Tommasini.

Schoenberg’s Famous Disciple Dies At 82

“Dika Newlin, a composer and musicologist who was deeply influenced by the avant-garde master Arnold Schoenberg and brought his style into the punk rock era, has died. She was 82… A composer of several operas and chamber works, Newlin began exploring popular music in the mid-1980s. Inspired by her college students, she sang and played keyboards in a band called Apocowlypso. More recently she performed as a flame-haired punk rocker and performance artist, singing works such as ‘Murder Kitty,’ composed solely of meows.”

Where Does He Find The Time To Make All The Nukes?

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il’s official bio is quite the document, laying out the Dear Leader’s supposed accomplishments in the fields of international relations, publishing, and pretty much everything else under the sun. And then there’s this sentence: “It is also said that he wrote six operas, all of which are better then any in the history of music.” Well, of course they are. Regardless of whether he has actually written any operas, Kim has authored a book on opera (along with 1500 others, according to the bio,) which contains such keen artistic insights as “In the first place, an opera singer must sing well.”

Looking For A Role Model

Ever since Toronto’s new opera house was completed earlier this summer, critic William Littler has been scanning the globe for cities that make the best use of their performing arts facilities, and could serve as a model for Toronto. In Munich, he may have found the ideal comparative. “Munich itself is considerably smaller than Toronto, and yet its principal opera house (there are three others) routinely maintains an average attendance of upwards of 90 per cent… Will the Four Seasons Centre have as powerful a catalytic effect in Toronto? If it does, there is room to hope that the Canadian Opera Company can expand beyond its usual seven productions.”

Bargain Pricing In The Berkshires

Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony’s summer home in the Berkshires, is jumping on the trend of lowering ticket prices to generate better sales. For twelve days in August, concertgoers will get into the famed Koussevitsky Music Shed for as little as $20. And if that doesn’t seem like all that impressive a bargain, keep in mind that Tanglewood tickets ordinarily go for as much as $83.

The Acting Does Tend To Be A Bit Wooden, Though

Sure, Mozart opera is fine, but you know what would really improve it? Puppets. Seriously. “Most opera singers pick up their skills in physical acting on the fly, but a marionette in the hands of a skilled puppeteer is a dramatic creature par excellence. They have nothing to do but move, and… puppets move with a sense of character and drama that you would be hard pressed to find among any human cast.”