Author: Laura Collins Hughes

Bayreuth, Salzburg Sponsor Cuts Jobs But Not Patronage

“Siemens AG, which sponsors the Bayreuth and Salzburg music festivals, said it will maintain an annual budget of about 50 million euros ($72 million) for aid, education and arts patronage, even as orders for the company’s products tumble.” The engineering company has slashed thousands of jobs and reduced hours for thousands more workers, but a spokesman said that its “social activities … are not a dispensable quantity in an economically difficult environment.”

As City Opera Ails, Artists Suffer In Contract Concessions

“[U]nion negotiators were faced with the hard choice of penalizing their members or threatening the existence of a company whose problems are both self-inflicted and exacerbated by the recession. … Like many New Yorkers who have watched the goings-on at City Opera with sorrow and anger, I want the place to survive. But how that will happen with the same unapologetic folks at the top is hard to imagine.”

When Times Got Tough, Sacramento Ballet Got Creative

“The Ballet cut three staff positions, immediately stopped advertising , and most dramatically, cancelled the remainder of its season in the huge and expensive Community Center Theatre. Then [co-artistic director Ron] Cunningham did something really radical, he added performances… dozens of smaller ones at the Mondavi Center, McClatchy high, in art galleries and mostly in the Ballet’s home studios. The revamped season was a gamble.”

British Equity Seeks Pay For ‘Exploited’ Reality Contestants

“The union claims that TV talent programmes are ‘exploiting and humiliating’ contestants desperate to break into the entertainment industry by making them work without pay. The shows, meanwhile, turn large profits. Equity wants contestants who make it to the final rounds of talent shows, including The X Factor, … paid and given legal status as workers and the accompanying employment rights.”

What’s More Joyous Than 1,000 Ukeleles At Albert Hall?

“When Beethoven wrote his heaven-storming Ninth Symphony he cannot have imagined that the Ode to Joy would one day be played by an ensemble of 1,000 ukuleles. The attempt at the Albert Hall on Tuesday night was as sublime as it was ridiculous. … So full was the sold-out hall that room could not be found for the people who would count the number of players.”

Twilight‘s Bella As Oprah For Teens: Is That A Good Thing?

“What is Bella’s favourite book? If you said Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, then give yourself a point. I, too, will give myself a point for knowing this, although I confess I cheated: I haven’t read Twilight or any of its sequels, nor have I seen the film, and I don’t have the faintest clue who Bella is. I do know what her favourite read is, though, because a cover for a new edition of Wuthering Heights tells me so.”

English Acts Make Up Half The Fringe; Foreign Shows Down

“[N]ew figures show the vast variety of thousands of performers making their way to Edinburgh every August – with acts this year from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Albania and Malta as well as the largest contingents from America and Australia. Since 2002, shows from England on the Fringe have gone from 650 to 1,206 – more than half the 2,159 total this year.” Meanwhile, “despite the weaker pound, foreign shows have dropped sharply amid the credit crunch.”

Critics: Architecture Of President’s House Memorial Flawed

“The house’s dimensions are incorrect, the arc of a bow window is distorted, and the building’s now-infamous slave quarters are incorrectly located, the critics assert. Some historians and members of a committee charged with reviewing the memorial’s design and content say they are stunned by the vehemence of the complaints. Beyond that, they argue that the memorial … is less about architectural detail and more about the difficult story of enslavement at the heart of the new nation.”