“The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) was not misleading in its claim to be the ‘oldest surviving professional symphony orchestra’, it has been ruled.” Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority “ruled the orchestra had shown ‘documentary evidence’ to prove the claim.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Remembering Lucian Freud In His Studio
David Dawson, for 20 years Freud’s assistant, friend and occasional model: “He was sort of nimble and jumping around at the entrance to his flat. Very, very piercing blue eyes and wonderful manners that immediately sort of put you at ease, or put me at ease, anyway, and [he] was very intimate and caring about how I felt.”
Great Dachshunds In Art
“Nabokov admired one. Chekhov cuddled with one. E.B. White wrote poetry to them. Gary Shteyngart tweets about one. (Also: Warhol had two. Picasso drew one.)” (And your humble correspondent was raised by dachshunds.)
Kentucky Opera Hires Non-Union Orchestra; Conductor Quits
The company normally uses the Louisville Orchestra in the pit, but that financially troubled organization is still in a longstanding contract dispute with its musicians. So, for its season-closing production of The Merry Widow this weekend, Kentucky Opera assembled a non-union pit band from local community orchestras – whereupon company music director Joseph Mechavich backed out.
Conductor Who Walked Out On Kentucky Opera Walks Right Into San Diego
When Kentucky Opera music director Jospeh Mechavich withdrew from the company’s Merry Widow following the hiring of non-union orchestra musicians, he was suddenly available for this weekend. As it happens, the conductor for Saturday’s West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at San Diego Opera fell ill; Mechavich had conducted that very score last month in Calgary, so he stepped right up.
Academics Begin Boycott Of Journal Publisher Elsevier
Nearly 6,000 researchers so far “have agreed to boycott publishers Elsevier, vowing not to peer-review or submit papers for any of its scientific journals. … The researchers supporting the boycott, more than 1000 of whom are mathematicians, object to the journals’ pricing and the company’s support for several proposed US laws ‘ including the controversial SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills.”
Why Can’t Asian-American Actors Get Cast In New York?
“Over the past five theater seasons Asian-American actors were cast in 2 percent of the roles in Broadway and major Off Broadway productions … Asian-Americans were found to be the only minority group whose share of New York acting roles declined slightly, and they were also the least likely to be chosen for characters that would traditionally be played by white actors.”
Getty Museum Names Timothy Potts Director
“A Sydney native who early on ran the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia, Potts, 53, is currently the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge in England. He is best known in the U.S. for running the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, from 1998 to 2007.”
New Company Ballet Next Brings Audience Closer (Much Closer) To Dance
Ballet Next, founded last year by former ABT principal Michele Wiles and former NYCB principal Charles Askegard is launching a new series of “exhibitions” in a small performing space that “will combine well-known choreography, new works, and discussions among dancers, musicians, choreographers and audience members.”
England Expected To Have £200M Extra Funding For Arts
“Arts Council England is expected to have around £160 million of extra funding at its disposal over the next five years, thanks to increased National Lottery ticket sales, culture minister Ed Vaizey has claimed. … An additional £40 million is also projected to go to the British Film Institute.”