Canada’s Governor General Awards officials have asked the publisher of this year’s winner for more information about authorship of the book. – National Post (Canada)
Author: Douglas McLennan
A DISASTER OF OPERATIC PROPORTIONS
Britain’s TV channel 4 scored one of the worst ratings in its history Saturday night with its filmed version of Glyndebourne youth opera Zoe. “The programme was watched by a mere 300,000 viewers, one of the broadcaster’s worst prime-time audiences ever.” – The Guardian
AUSTRALIAN ORCHESTRAS WARNED
Leading new music proponents warn that Australia’s six major orchestras risk becoming marginalized and irrelevant if they don’t do better at promoting new repertoire. “I’m concerned that the former ABC orchestras are now merely an ornament in our cultural lives dedicated to perpetuating the European canon.” – Gramophone
PIANO HERO
Li Yundi is only 17, but last month he won the notoriously picky Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. “Displaying what judges called virtuosic technique and a poetic style, Li beat out 97 participants to become the first gold medalist at the competition since 1985.” Now he’s a national hero back home. – Los Angeles Times
CHECKING IN WITH LORIN
Conductor Lorin Maazel is 70 and still looking for new challenges. “Not every musician has loved his tough style, but Maazel’s impact on the musical world through weighty interpretations of the classics has been undeniable.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BALLET SHAKEUP
The British ballet world has been turned upside down this year, with directors of three major companies announcing their departures. English National Ballet’s Derek Deane is the latest to go, citing insufficient funding and a lack of board support for his more adventurous work. – The Telegraph (London)
ART IMITATES LIFE (OR NOT)
Last year a London artist won a £1,500 grant. But rather than spend the money on supplies or even food, she invested in the dot-com stock market. The stocks trade under the ticker symbols ART and LIFE. “They’re both doing really badly. But ART is doing better than LIFE, which is a good lesson for me.” – Red Herring 12/05/00
THE DEVALUED CRITIC
Where do those amazingly obscure rave blurbs for this or that movie come from? With a proliferation of easy-to-access opinions on the internet, how does one sort out who’s credible and who’s not. – *spark-online 12/00
HONED-DOWN HAMLET
Director Peter Brook has felt “haunted” by the ghost of Hamlet since he first directed the play in 1955. His newest adaptation – a controversial 50-minute version – has taken Paris by storm. “Brook has had no qualms about putting his own spin on the Elizabethan original. He has eliminated the Fortinbras narrative, cut ‘between a third and half’ of the text, and reduced his cast to eight.” – The Telegraph (UK)
ARCHITECTURE’S CHAMPION
For nearly four decades, Daniel Patrick Moynihan has been a champion of architecture in the US senate. “The secret is that, to Moynihan, aside from the gravest matters of war, peace, and social stability, other issues simply are not more important than the building and rebuilding of our cities.” Now that he’s retiring, who will take his place? – Metropolis