“While Mayor Willie Brown and a force of volunteers armed with solvents gathered at Yerba Buena Gardens on Saturday for a city-organized effort to stamp out graffiti, San Francisco-based video-game maker Sega of America played host to an art show featuring some of the nation’s best taggers just a few blocks away.” – San Jose Mercury News
Author: Douglas McLennan
NEW MELBOURNE MUSEUM OF ART OPENS
“The overriding message from the speakers was that this was a museum devoted to reconciliation, at a time when issues surrounding reconciliation occupy a great deal of our national consciousness.” – The Age (Melbourne)
POLITICS OF IMPERMANENCE
Museums generally take great pains to protect and care for the artwork that comes to them. But what is their responsibility toward conceptual art in which the artist often intends its decay or obliteration to be part of the work? – Chicago Tribune
THOSE LEFT BEHIND
Now that Cleveland San Jose Ballet has folded its tent in Cleveland and reinvented itself in San Jose, what’s next for dance in Cleveland? – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
NEXT TIME FOR THE POWER OF MUSIC
Pinchas Zukerman recently tried to take his National Arts Center Orchestra to Israel and Palestine. But the fighting canceled much of the tour. “Music seemed impotent in the face of such events, but Pinchas Zukerman is convinced that in other circumstances it can play a vital role in bringing about the sorts of reconciliation the region desperate needs.” – The Independent (UK)
VIRGIL THE GREAT
How many organists do you hear about, let alone someone who has been dead 20 years? Virgil Fox was the Great Popularizer of the organ. “Unlike the ‘purists’ who detested the lush liberties he sometimes took with Bach, Fox was not above forsaking pipes and using an electronic organ to get the music across. He dragged Black Beauty, a booming, blaring Rodgers electronic instrument, along with a light show and smoke and mirrors, to rock-concert halls, hoping to get young 70’s listeners to trip out on the music of Bach.” – New York Times
HOUSE OF MUSIC
Vienna opens a museum dedicated to music. “Much to the surprise of locals, this newest addition to Vienna’s cultural scene has artfully blended the city’s classical past with musical experimentation of the future. A five-story, interactive musical adventure where you can do everything from conducting the Vienna Philharmonic to participating in an avant-garde ‘Brain Opera,’ the House of Music combines the classics with the future of music in a techno-modern setting.” – Chicago Tribune
CAUTIOUS OVER BENEFACTOR
Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company recently announced that an anonymous benefactor would give the company $20 million toward building a new home. But the champagne is still corked. The company has been down this road before, only to have the money yanked away at the last minute… – Toronto Star
WAGNERIAN TRAGEDY
Ugly, off-pitch, misguided and uninspired. That’s the new “Tristan” at Covent Garden. What should have been one of the crowning glories of the present Royal Opera House regime is instead its lowpoint. The boos are lusty. – The Sunday Times (UK)
MOZRT AS HE RELLY WAS
New translation of Mozart’s letters restores the coarse grammar and broken spellings. “Some modern analysts have suggested that his verbal incontinence may have been a symptom of Tourette’s syndrome, but Mozart lived in an earthy, unbuttoned age and he shared what Spaethling politely calls his “bathroom” humor not only with his naughty cousin, but also with his parents and sister. In their letters they are always encouraging each other to ‘s— in your bed with all your might’.” – Chicago Sun-Times