It seems like recording companies and the entertainment industry are winning their battles with the new digital cowboys. But it’s not so: “What’s happening to the entertainment industry is the same thing that happened to the brokerage business when on-line stock trading appeared: An industry built on one business model feels fear when something new appears that threatens that way of doing business. The New Economy word for this kind of thing is ‘disintermediation’, and it’s breaking out all over thanks to the Internet.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Author: Douglas McLennan
BARNES COLLECTION ON VERGE OF CLOSING
Pennsylvania’s Barnes Collection, which has one of the best Impressionist collections in the US, has blown through its $10 million endowment and has about six months left before it is completely out of money and has to close. “The Barnes cashed in the last of its endowment a year ago after running up a $5.3 million cash deficit in the last three years, tax filings show.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
IS BRITISH THEATRE RACIST?
Minority theatre is vanishing in Britain. “So much so that many writers, actors, technicians and directors are driving mini cabs, or have gone into teaching or some other occupation. Some of the best have left the country. It is worth noting there is not a single non-white artistic director in any theatre in the UK. What we have is an industry that is institutionally racist to its very core, yet congratulates itself on being super-liberal.” – The Observer (UK)
THE CAT’S NOT IN THE HAT
The much anticipated “Seussical” the musical in tryouts in Boston right now is having a rocky time. Maybe it’s an obscurity of purpose? The show “was clearly created with the hope of tapping into the changing demographics of Broadway, a shift mainly brought about by three factors: the culture’s obsession with youth, a nostalgia craze among baby boomers with children and an appetite for pricier family entertainment fueled by the robust economy.” – New York Times
OKLAHOMO
- So what is it about musicals that makes them ‘gay’? After all, heterosexuals have been known to watch them. Even male heterosexuals. There simply aren’t enough queens in the world to account for the viewing figures of The Sound of Music. – The Independent (UK)
COMIC OPERA
London’s Royal Opera House re-opened last winter with a string of technical disasters. But the whole project was ill-fated before the ROH even closed for renovation. “Eighteen months before closure, the ROH had nowhere to go. The right decision would have been to delay closure, and therefore the redevelopment, until clear plans had been crystallised.” First of a Three-Part Series – The Telegraph (UK)
NO STANDING, NO PARKING
La Scala’s standing room tickets are much coveted. But as the opera house heads into a renovation, the company does away with its low-priced standing room. “That shuts the standees out of the coming season’s celebrations of the 100-year anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi.” – Ottawa Citizen (AP)
AFTERMATH OF CLEVELAND BALLET FAILURE
The collapse and disbanding of the Cleveland San Jose Ballet was a shock for dancers/staff. Meanwhile, the San Jose board will try to extend a season there. – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
I SOLD IT ON EBAY
Individual artists have discovered eBay as a way to bypass the gallery system. And they’re selling their work. “It appears that the practical lessons of Warhol have been absorbed: self promotion is as American as one of Jackson Pollock’s apple pies. What ebay artists have learned is to be pragmatic. They can get real and promote themselves or wait forever for a dealer to do it and create a classier veneer.” – ARTNewsroom.com
OLD SUCCESSES
Paris’s “Biennale International des Antiquaires” is the Super Bowl of antiques fairs, and this year business is great as the fair convenes. “As antiques dealers, we are experiencing a fantastic era. We are witnessing Paris’s comeback on the big chessboard, which the international art market represents.” – New York Times