“[T]he setbacks endured by our museums and performing arts companies have generally been less severe than those suffered by their counterparts in the United States, where an atonal symphony of shrinking endowment funds, belt-tightening philanthropy and declining attendance have created a climate of retrenchment. Closer to home, the good news is that the major players have all survived. The bad news is that many of them have been wounded and weakened in ways that could make it hard for them to operate at peak level for years to come.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Those Austen Sequels, Parodies Aren’t Really So Benign
Jane Austen’s “power as a writer is inseparable from her own tantalizing delicacy. She knows exactly what to leave to the imagination. And we, with our culture of explicit candor, have a lot of trouble leaving it there. She makes us want more – and if she won’t give it to us, then we’ll just manufacture it for ourselves. … And, in the process, we’re smashing the very thing that fascinates us most about Jane Austen: her reticence.”
David Drew, Musicologist Who Rescued Weill, Dies At 78
“David Drew, a music critic and musicologist who almost single-handedly rescued the work of Kurt Weill from neglect and promoted him to his present position as an important 20th-century composer, died on July 25 in London. … Mr. Drew, a lifelong champion of under-recognized 20th-century composers, took on the cause of Weill, regarded as little more than as an appendage to Bertolt Brecht, shortly after the composer’s death in 1950.”
U. Of California Profs Raise Questions About Google Books
“A group of prominent faculty representatives from the University of California, one of Google’s earliest and closest allies in its plan to digitize books from major libraries, is the latest to raise concerns about important aspects of a high-profile class-action settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers.” Among other things, the professors argue “that the settlement is not equally fair to all members of the author sub-class and does not fully address the needs of academic authors.”
Lord Of The Flies Author Once Attempted To Rape Teen
William Golding was an 18-year-old Oxford student at the time of “[t]he attack, on a 15-year-old named Dora,” which “is among the revelations about the Nobel prize-winning novelist in a new biography. It also turns out that when he was a school-teacher, Golding would pitch the boys in his care against each other in a real-life forerunner of his famous work.”
Prince Tried To Get Nouvel Replaced On St. Paul’s Project
“The Prince of Wales lobbied for one of the world’s leading architects to be dropped from a £500m office and shopping complex beside St Paul’s Cathedral so one of his preferred designers could take over, the Guardian has learned. The developer who commissioned the Paris-based Jean Nouvel to design One New Change has revealed that the prince called for an alternative architect to be considered for the sensitive site yards from Christopher Wren’s masterpiece.”
Govt. Endorses V&A Museum’s Proposed Scottish Outpost
“Plans to bring a branch of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum to Dundee have moved a step closer after the Scottish Government announced its support. Ministers promised to give money towards building an outpost of the V&A,” whose Dundee “branch would house major exhibitions from the main London centre and showcase Scottish work.”
Tweeting Next To Normal Turned Out To Be A Good Thing
“Brian Yorkey, who wrote the book and lyrics and — with the composer Tom Kitt — won a Tony Award for the score, said that when first approached about adapting his play for thumb-typers, it sounded like ‘a bit of a chore.’ Mr. Yorkey grew to view it as a creative challenge, though, since the adaptation entails characters sending Twitter messages during moments they deliver no lines.”
Washington National Opera’s Barber Goes To The Ballpark
“The Washington National Opera announced Monday that for the second straight year, the company’s opening-night performance — this year, ‘The Barber of Seville’ on Sept. 12 — will be simulcast live at Nationals Park, free of charge. Last year’s simulcast of ‘La Traviata,’ the first such broadcast at the stadium, was planned within a matter of weeks and drew about 15,000 people.”
Ernst Katz, Founder Of Calif.’s Jr. Philharmonic, Dies At 95
“Ernst Katz, who nurtured thousands of young musicians during 72 years as the founding conductor of the Jr. Philharmonic Orchestra of California,” which he launched during the Depression, died Tuesday. “The 10,000 youths who have performed in the orchestra since its founding were charged no fees to participate. If they needed instruments, Katz lent them. If they couldn’t afford the tuxedos required for performances, Katz paid for them.”