A new report “calculates that the California Arts Council’s $5.6-million budget comes to 15 cents per capita – 11% of the national average of $1.35. We’ve been in the cellar since 2003, when the budget crisis before the current budget crisis led to the agency’s gutting.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Writer Hugh Leonard, 82
He was a “prolific Irish playwright, memoirist, travel writer and dyspeptic newspaper columnist whose autobiographical play Da won four Tony Awards in 1978.” In Dublin he was a celebrity, especially for his Sunday column; one longtime friend said, “He used it to thank his friends and warn his enemies. You didn’t know which you were until you opened the paper on Sunday.”
Columbus Symphony Lets CEO Go
“Already looking for a music director to replace Junichi Hirokami – let go in November with a year on his contract – the orchestra has started searching for a new executive director. Orchestra officials said today that ‘by mutual agreement’ the contract of Tony Beadle would be allowed to expire Aug. 31.”
Sacramento Ballet: It’s Not Dead Yet
Last month, when the troupe cancelled the remainder of its 2008-09 season, “many thought the company was out of business. In fact, the dancers are performing more than they would have in the regular season – but in other venues.”
Houston Ballet Premieres Full-Length Work About Marie Antionette
Choreographer Stanton Welch, the company’s artistic director, sees the last Queen of France as a victim of multiple circumstances. “One part in particular struck me: When they took her to the Austrian border and stripped her of her clothes before handing her over to the French. What an act of complete humility [sic] for a teenager.”
Iraqi National Museum, Badly Looted After Invasion, To Reopen
“The long-awaited reopening marks a milestone in the government’s efforts to retrieve and preserve artifacts and archaeological sites from Iraq’s history after almost six years of theft, destruction and violence. […] Officials have since struggled to rebuild the museum’s collection, recouping about a third of what was looted.”
Connecticut Opera Closes For Good
The company’s chairman says, “We have ceased business and we are trying to work out the arrangements with our secured creditor about what will be done with our very few remaining assets.” There will be no bankruptcy filing: “The cost of doing so would be wasted money.”
Other Hartford Companies Woo Ct. Opera’s Stiffed Subscribers
“TheaterWorks, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Stage and Connecticut Concert Opera are offering special deals for Connecticut Opera subscribers who paid for two shows that they will not see.”
Anna Nicole Smith, The Opera
If they can do it with Jerry Springer, why not Anna Nicole? Covent Garden has commissioned a new piece from composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas (who did, yes, Jerry Springer) for a 2011 premiere. The Royal Opera’s head says, “It is not going to be tawdry; it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad.”
Why An Anna Nicole Opera Is A Grand Idea
Charlotte Higgins: “Take Janacek’s Jenufa […] The heroine is stabbed in the face, abandoned by the lover who has made her pregnant, and the resultant baby is murdered by her stepmother. […] Or Lulu – Berg’s heroine could almost be a kind of model for Anna Nicole Smith.”