Author: Douglas McLennan

SPOLETO LIVES

The NAACP announced a boycott against South Carolina’s tourism industry earlier this year to try to force the state to stop flying the Confederate flag over its capitol. At first it seemed that the boycott might affect this spring’s Spoleto Festival. But, “no artists or musicians have canceled performances, said Marie Lawson, director of marketing and public relations for Spoleto Festival USA, and ticket sales are doing well.” – MSNBC

TAMING SALOME

After complaints that a poster advertising the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s new production of “Salome” was too revealing, the image has been altered. The company “stapled four (not seven) red chiffon veils over the biblical temptress’s nipples and crotch in the poster put up recently outside the Academy of Music.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

HAVE LIBRETTO, WILL TRAVEL

New operas are sprouting all over the landscape, and prestigious companies are debuting them. But landing more performances after the initial production is still a problem. “Opera companies would rather bask in the glory of a world premiere than revive a work that another house has launched.” Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “The Silver Tassie” is breaking the truism, though. It’s well on its way to becoming part of the international repertory, and already enjoyed successful runs in England and Germany. Plans are underway for stagings in Dallas and Ireland. – The Guardian

VOICES FROM THE PAST

Researchers at Syracuse University are developing a new playback system that will help them finally play and preserve some of opera history’s oldest surviving sound recordings without damaging or destroying them – including one 19th-century wax cylinder believed to be an 1895 recording of opera legend Adelina Patti. – The Age (Melbourne) (AP)

SO YOU WANT TO BE IN PICTURES?

After hiding from the world for all these years, now Salman Rushdie wants to burst into the limelight as an actor. He plays himself in an upcoming made-for-television movie, and hopes “it’s just the first of many dramatic performances he’ll be tackling.” – CBC

HOME SWEET HOME

New Zealand requires that 10 percent of the music played on the country’s radio stations be homegrown. Now a proposal to increase the percentage to 20 percent. But that would be very difficult say radio execs. “Increasing local content on classic hits-type stations would be the hardest because of a lack of Kiwi music from the 1960s and ’70s.” Maybe Australian could be considered homegrown? – New Zealand Herald 04/05/00 

THERE HE GOES AGAIN

Hans Haacke, fresh off his Whitney imbroglio, is into another, this time in Germany where his proposed project for the new Reichstag – a wooden flower trough, 23 feet wide and 70 feet long – has also sparked controversy. “The trough is to be filled with dirt brought by each of the 669 legislators from their hometowns – something that many lawmakers across party lines say draws an awkward allusion to the mythical veneration of German “blood and soil” practiced by the Nazis.”- Fox News

GOTCHA!

Two men believed to be responsible for the rash of recent art heists around Montreal have been arrested. Police have seized several statues, but say artwork worth millions of dollars may be unrecoverable. – CBC