Christopher Hawthorne: “[T]he idea that billboard growth is an assault on our collective urban-design principles is at best a red herring. This is a place where billboards and other kinds of signage have long aspired to the size and prominence of architecture – [and] not just the famed Hollywood sign… At the same time, many of our buildings have long dreamed of becoming signs, or at least performing a credible imitation of them.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Brewer, Villazón Cancel High-Profile Met Gigs
Soprano Christine Brewer, citing a knee injury that keeps her from moving on stage, has pulled out of next month’s run of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Metropolitan Opera. Her appearances as Brünnhilde, Brewer’s first in a complete, fully staged Ring, were among the most anticipated events of the season. Meanwhile, vocally troubled tenor Rolando Villazón has withdrawn from at least the first two performance of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, beginning next week.
The Tenor That Opera Keeps Rediscovering
The old saying that there are no second chances in the theater is belied by tenor Stuart Neill, who’s getting his fourth wind. After early successes, including recordings with Colin Davis and Michael Tilson Thomas, he had a five-year exile from opera, retooling his voice and singing Christmas carols in suburban Philadelphia. Now, having saved La Scala’s opening night (and its worldwide simulcast), Neill is finally getting re-engaged. He tells David Patrick Stearns what it took to get there.
Architects Selected For Montreal Symphony’s New Hall
Toronto-based Diamond and Schmitt Architects, the firm that designed the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto and the expansion of Detroit’s Orchestra Hall into the Max M. Fisher Music Center, will design the new home of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on the vacant northeast corner of the Plâce des Arts. Collaborating will be the Montreal engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin. The C$267 million building should be complete in 2011.
San Fran’s Top Dance Award Goes To Circus Aerialist
Two women shared the individual performance honors at San Francisco’s Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (the “Izzies”) this week. One was San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Maria Kochetkova; the other was Circo Zero aerialist Emily Leap. Keith Hennessy, Circo’s director, said this was probably the first time the award had gone “to a trapeze artist who did a three-man-high with two men standing on her.”
A Possible Explanation For The Financial Crisis (And Lots Of Other Foolishness)
“Our brains raise few objections when presented with seemingly expert guidance, new research suggests. ‘Most average people have this tendency to turn off their own capacity for making judgments when an expert comes into the picture,’ says Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta.”
Minnesota Orchestra Cuts Back Sommerfest
“In a belt-tightening move, the Minnesota Orchestra has scaled back this year’s Sommerfest from four weekends to three. […] Also gone this year is the 24-hour Day of Music that has marked the Sommerfest opening for the past eight years, sponsored first by Marshall Field and, in the past three years, by Macy’s.”
Old Village People Video About Phone Sex Becomes Online Hit
“Sex Over The Phone,” the Village People’s 1985 anthem to pay-per-minute phone sex lines (remember those?), “has become, through filesharing sites, somewhat of a sensation.” Why? Because, as Anna Pickard demonstrates, “it’s eight shades of awesome.”
Unlocking Déjà Vu
Researchers are finally beginning to figure out how to explain the puzzling phenomenon, thanks to a group of patients who “have dementia and experience continuous déjà vu, and also by the discovery that there is a group of people with epilepsy who have déjà vu-like auras before a seizure.”
Pacific Baroque Gets The Face It Wanted
In January, the Vancouver-based period-instrument group launched a fundraising campaign around the idea of engaging harpsichordist Alexander Weimann as artistic director. (“If we can get the money.”) Well, it worked: the orchestra has officially engaged Weimann, beginning next season.