What is it that has got so many of Britain’s comedians writing novels? “Of course there’s cachet in having published a serious novel, but what jumps out from the current batch is how much there is to praise in many of them.” – The Telegraph (UK)
Author: Douglas McLennan
THE COMICS’ TOPSY-TURVY RUN
While the business of selling monthly, comic books flails, “its companion, the graphic novel market, especially in traditional bookstores, is booming. There are more hardcover and paperback collections of comics material than there have ever been in America before, and their sales have never been better.”- Publishers Weekly
BATTLING FOR POSITION
Daniel Barenboim began his 10-year contract as head of the Berlin Staatsoper in 1992 with great expectations of leading it back to the ranks of international fame. “But last month, city officials said he would not renew his contract because he no longer wants to continue with the administrative aspects of the job, and just wants to be the musical director instead.” Now entreaties to him to stay. – New Jersey Online (AP)
THEY ALL LAUGHED…
Raymond Gubbay, the “impresario who has spent the past 30 years putting on opera for the people – opera with red roses for Valentine lovers, opera for kiddies with teddy bears, singalonganopera for those who like to join in” has applied for the top job running the Royal Opera House. The newspapers laughed. The mere notion of a businessman, a barrow boy, running the Opera House! “It would be like asking the Grim Reaper to run an old people’s home,” said one music critic. But when I question the experts closely they are more reluctant to dismiss Gubbay. His business skills speak for themselves, he loves opera, he understands the workings of the Opera House, and actually when it comes down to it there isn’t an obvious candidate.” – The Guardian
“RIGOLETTO AS REIMAGINED BY LARRY FLYNT”
Chicago Lyric Opera’s new production transfers the action “to a dark Victorian gaming room, a males-only citadel of stuffed armchairs and stuffed shirts. The inhabitants are even randier and slimier than the Duke of Mantua, the opera’s tenoral anti-hero. Almost all the women who are allowed into this bad ol’ boys club are whores, playthings or sexual hysterics. Poor Gilda, Rigoletto’s virtuous daughter, is doomed the moment she steps into this crypto-orgy pit.” – Chicago Tribune
DOES ANYBODY CARE?
The most-recent winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition plays a recital in London. “To be fair, the Leeds International Piano Competition has a more creditable record than most. But how many of you can remember the name, let alone the sound, of the last two winners? And how long will Alessio Bax be a name to conjure with? Judging by the number of empty seats at his London concert last week, not many of us really care a great deal anyway.” – The Times (UK)
COLOR ME BECKETT
The photos of Samuel Beckett have been black and white. Now an exhibition of color pictures: “Whereas those who met Beckett invariably spoke of his piercing, pale blue eyes – ‘scarily intelligent,’ as Michael Colgan, the director of the Gate theatre in Dublin, described them – the published portraits of Beckett remained in black and white.” – Sunday Times (UK)
MERCE CUNNINGHAM has won —
— the $250,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given to choreographers. – Chicago Tribune
ARTISTS’ DIRECTIVE?
Singapore’s minister for information and the arts called on his country’s artists to “balance artistic integrity with social responsibility, as they develop the arts scene here. ‘Artists sometimes appear to forget that they have audiences… Great art can be shocking or startling, but perhaps it is more important it be compelling and intelligent. It can be bold and daring, but it should also be sensitive and searching.” – The Straits Times (Singapore)
WAR OF THE BUTTS
“Last year, Damien Hirst made a tidy sum by producing a limited edition design for Camel cigarettes. Now, the anti-smoking lobby, having seen the wonders a little artistic street-cred can do for the tobacco industry, has decided to beat the cigarette barons at their own game. An exhibition will open in London next month displaying the work of 20 contemporary artists commissioned to produce images to encourage people to give up.” – The Independent (UK) 10/22/00