Author: Matthew Westphal

At A Ballet Company’s Last Dance Before The COVID Shutdown

Moira Macdonald was at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s final (in too many senses) dress rehearsal for a program the public won’t get to attend. “There was no one in the seat in front of me, no one next to me, no one across the aisle — just performance, filling up the empty spaces. You don’t usually think of McCaw Hall as a room, but it is; this was like a large version of a living-room entertainment. Were those people onstage, dancing with the fierce passion that comes when you only get one shot at something, performing only for me? It was easy to think so.” – The Seattle Times

Closed By The Virus, The Art Business Is Moving Itself Online

“In 2017, having realized how much business the gallery did through online previews before art fairs, the dealer David Zwirner decided to develop virtual viewing rooms. Now, as art fairs are canceled, museums close and auction houses consider whether to call off their spring sales in response to the coronavirus, Mr. Zwirner seems prescient.” – The New York Times

Opera Australia May Have To Sell Real-Estate Assets To Remain Solvent

With the rest of the company’s summer season in Sydney cancelled, including the popular and lucrative outdoor Opera on the Harbour, CEO Rory Jeffes said, “suddenly we were in a position where we had to show [the board] that we could refund all our tickets sold for the future and have no income from ticket sales for the foreseeable future.” – The Sydney Morning Herald

India’s Film Industry, World’s Largest, Freezes All Production

“After an emergency meeting over the weekend, the India Motion Picture Producers’ Association said Monday that it would request the suspension of all film, TV, advertising and web series shoots in the country from March 19 to 31. The body also advised all Indian film crews currently at work on projects overseas to return to the country within the next three days.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Longtime Boston Symphony Principal Flute And Pioneering Female Musician, Dead At 98

A grand-niece of Susan B. Anthony, Dwyer was only the second woman ever to win a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra. She joined the BSO in 1952 (negotiating a higher-than-usual salary) and retired in 1990, premiering a new concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in her final season. – The Boston Musical Intelligencer

England’s Arts Funding Will ‘Refocus’ To Help Artists With Loss Of Income Due To COVID

“We will refocus some grant programmes to help compensate individual artists and freelancers for lost earnings,” said a statement from Arts Council England. “This will require further planning. It may take about ten days before we can announce the details.” Institutions will continue to receive grant money, with funding requirements suspended for three months, and advance payments can help those with cash flow problems. – The Art Newspaper

Was London’s Millennium Dome Really The Enormous Fiasco Everyone Remembers? Not Entirely …

It cost more than £750 million (that was well over a billion dollars then), the grand opening at the turn of the millennium was one snafu after another, actual visitor numbers were half of projections, and the UK government eventually sold it for a pound. But families loved it at the time, and it’s now the most popular live music venue on Earth. Imogen West-Knights recounts how it all happened in this week’s Guardian Long Read. – The Guardian