On Saturday Germany and Russia met in St. Petersburg to swap art they had stolen from one another during World War II. “In exchange for the intricately inlaid chest and glistening mosaic from Peter the Great’s famed Amber Room, Russia has agreed to return 101 artworks looted from Germany by Soviet troops after World War II. A Russian law largely bans repatriating booty art, seen by Russians as compensation for an estimated several hundred thousand items destroyed or lost during the Nazi occupation.” – Chicago Tribune
Author: Douglas McLennan
NO MADAME TUSSAUD’S, BUT…
London’s Royal Academy show of Monet last year raked in the visitors, making it the eighth most-visited attraction in the UK. Visitor numbers at the RA leapt from 912,714 in 1998 to 1.39m last year, boosting the academy from 19th to eighth place. But before anyone gets too excited, consider that Madame Tussaud’s at No. 2 on the list logged more than twice as many visitors. – BBC
ANTONIO BUERO VALLEJO DIES AT 83
Spanish playwright, widely revered in Spain, was known for his opposition to the country’s former fascist dictatorship. – CBC
CONTROL YOUR BRATS!
New York Magazine theater critic John Simon loses it at a performance of “Music Man” and screams at the parent of noisy kids to shut them up. “Simon said he ‘smelled trouble’ as soon as he saw several young children – between the ages of 4 and 8 – sitting in front of him.” – New York Post
STAGE WARS
Working on a play about the Third Reich, the actors begin arguing about whether what they’re doing is a good idea or not. Even though the play is based on a well-presented book, putting Nazis onstage transforms it. “Like a British courtroom, a play tends to the adversarial, demanding that the jury identify with one side.” – The Observer (UK)
TRUTH IN LABELING
Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” – music theater or modern opera? Composer Ned Rorem sits down with Sondheim to debate the issue. – New York Times
JECKIE JOUSTING
Composer Frank Wildhorn is the first American musical-theater composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway. He’s been called the American Andrew Lloyd Webber, but while his loyal fans are fanatical in their love of his work, the critics haven’t been kind. “Six million people have seen my stuff. I make no apologies for what I write. I just want to appeal to my generation. Look, if you’re 45 or 50 years old, that means in the early ’70s you were listening to the Stones or John Denver or Jim Croce. If nothing else, I represent the era I grew up in. I still write for pop artists all the time. I feel it’s important to speak to audiences in a vocabulary that’s comfortable to their ear.” – Orange County Register
RETURNING HOME
Helgi Tomasson returns to New York City Ballet as a choreographer. At 57, he “remains trim though his hair has gone from black to white and thinned somewhat. He has now been running San Francisco Ballet for the same number of years he danced with City Ballet. ‘It was not a terribly smooth transition,’ he says, in his understated way, of his arrival there; his restrained approach and attention to the refinements of classical technique represented a big change from the flashy showmanship of the previous director, Michael Smuin.” – New York Times
DANCE ON
Trisha Brown’s dance company celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. At the age of 63, Brown’s still pushing. “I’m hell bent right now. The learning curve is stretched so tight it’s twanging. I’m discovering, questioning, looking for solutions. I want to get out as much work as possible. It’s not surprising,” she says. “After all, I’ve been a wife, a mother, a dancer, a choreographer, a citizen in a radically changing world. I’m in my seventh decade. Over time one gets rewritten by experience – by loss, by death, by accidents. All these things have made me think a lot about emotion, about the shape of emotion.” – New York Times
ORCHESTRA WOES
The St. Louis Symphony – which has become one of America’s best regional orchestras over the past 20 years – is in trouble. “The orchestra came up almost $1 million short in the fiscal year that ended in August 1999. This year, it stands to run a deficit of between $3.5 and $4 million on a total budget of $28.9 million. Those recent losses will likely add to the $6 million in long-term debt the Symphony already carries. And even if it manages to achieve an anticipated $1.5 million in cutbacks for the 2000-2001 season, managers will still be looking at $2 million less than they need.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch