For a century or more, the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg has been considered a second-tier institution, far below the level of its neighbor the Mariinsky or the Bolshoi in Moscow. Now oligarch Vladimir Kekhman, who made his fortune importing fruit, is pouring millions into the company, funding renovations and high-profile hires such as choreographer Nacho Duato and the Bolshoi Ballet’s star couple.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Is It Too Late To Resuscitate The Muppets?
Disney Studios thinks that the new Muppets feature film, “[which] cost under $50 million to make, has blockbuster potential. But it’s anyone’s guess whether puppets can resonate in the Pixar era. … The Muppets also does not tiptoe around the elephant in the room, which is the dilapidated state of the entire franchise.”
Strip Poker As Art Installation
An alternative art space in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood has “a new exhibition called ‘I’ll Raise You One…’ in which a group of people sit in the gallery’s storefront window space and play strip poker for all to see.”
Sketches Found For Sibelius’s Lost Eighth Symphony
“This was not supposed to be possible. Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony was completed in 1924. He worked on an Eighth, for quite some time in fact, without anything material appearing (in spite of considerable public expectation, on both sides of the Atlantic), and then in the 1940s, something happened that should have put a full stop to the matter” – a bonfire.
Choreographer-Director-Filmmaker Donya Feuer, 77
Following roughly a decade in the New York experimental dance scene during the 1950s and ’60s, Feuer “moved to Sweden in 1963 and became a close collaborator of Ingmar Bergman as well as a theater director and filmmaker in her own right.”
Seattle’s Intiman Theater Has Recovery Plan: Four-Play Summer Festival
“Intiman Theatre is embarking on a $1 million fundraising campaign to revive its suspended operations with a 2012 summer season of four productions.”
Post-Earthquake Project To Rescue Haitian Artworks May Be In Jeopardy
Nearly two years after the temblor that devastated southern Haiti, the art conservation center created by the Smithsonian to protect works recovered from the rubble has been handed over to the government in Port-au-Prince. Will there be enough money to keep the project going?
Miami City Ballet Boss Speaks On Villella’s ‘Retirement’
James Eroncig, the new MCB board president, “said concerns over [founder and artistic director Edward] Villella’s age and the lack of a successor made it difficult to raise funds for an endowment. ‘People want to know, if Edward should fail or something were to happen to him, what’s going to happen?’ he said.”
Bolshoi And La Scala Need To Renovate Their Art As Well As Their Theatres: La Scala Head
“The recent modernization programs have equipped [both historic theatres] with enough up-to-date technology to enter the 21st century with dignity, but must now extend to the performances which grace their historic stages, La Scala General Manager and Artistic Director Stéphane Lissner said” while visiting Moscow.
Ottawa’s Opera Company Cancels Rest Of Season
“Opera Lyra Ottawa, struggling with a mounting accumulated deficit in recent years that was made worse by disappointing ticket sales for its first production of the season, is calling off its two remaining productions of the current season, a move the company says will allow it to return in a healthier position next season and present two productions.”