Having called off the rest of its season, the company last week sent a letter to subscribers saying, “In keeping with our promise to keep you informed of our plans for the future, we have the disappointing task of announcing that we are unable to provide refunds for your remaining tickets. You may, to the full extent allowed by the law, claim your unused tickets… as a charitable contribution to Connecticut Opera.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Children Of Britain Are Abandoning Auntie
“Children’s BBC is in crisis, according to a report from the corporation itself this week. A review of the BBC’s kids’ offerings found audience numbers are now at all-time lows – especially for the jewel in its crown Blue Peter, viewers for which are more than 50 per cent down on the average during 2007.”
Site-Specific Theatre – On The Radio (?)
“Shakespeare a la Carte originally ran at Pizza Express in Brighton last May, offering audiences the chance to order extracts from Shakespeare plays and watch them performed by actors masquerading as waiters. BBC Radio 4’s version of the show will be recorded live before customers at a restaurant in Brighton next month.”
‘Sweetness With A Knife Behind It’ – The Inimitable Blossom Dearie
“[Her] voice, girly, breathless, tentative, is her own twice. No one else would dare try to sing with it the way she did. It’s tempting to say her voice is a cross between Betty Boop’s and … whose? One writer said Chet Baker’s, which is perfect. She was cute, femme cotton candy drizzled with a contradictory syrup of opium and Bleecker Street espresso.”
M.I.A. – Superstar Rapper Or Terrorist Sympathizer?
The pop celeb, née Maya Arulpragasam and an ethnic Tamil raised in Sri Lanka, is accused by some observers of using her music and videos to glorify the Tamil Tigers, which for 25 years has waged a grisly war against the Sri Lankan government. About the conflict, she has said publicly, “There’s a genocide going on.”
Dayton Ballet Announces ‘Indefinite Furlough’
Due to worse-than-expected ticket sales, the company “is fighting for economic survival… administrative pay has been cut 10 percent, dancer contracts have been reduced by three weeks and, following the season’s final scheduled performance on March 22, ‘the entire staff will go on indefinite furlough.'”
Dancer and Dance Photographer Carolyn D’Amboise, 81
“She started her career in Broadway musicals in the 1940s as Carolyn George. She joined the San Francisco Ballet in the late 1940s, then the New York City Ballet in 1952. She met Jacques d’Amboise in the New York ballet company, and the two married on New Year’s Day 1956… After retiring from dance, Carolyn d’Amboise worked as a photographer, specializing in dance and traveling the world.”
Batsheva Faces Protests In Twin Cities
“Groups supporting Palestinian interests have asked the Northrop Dance Series to cancel a Feb. 18 appearance of the Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance Company.” The groups’ leader says, “It has nothing to do with the content, but we’re asking people to boycott because of the funding they receive and because of the policies of the state of Israel.”
The Catholic Church Brings Back Indulgences
“[M]any Catholics under 50 have never sought one, and never heard of indulgences except in high school European history (Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 while igniting the Protestant Reformation).” One priest observes, “Confessions have been down for years and the church is very worried about it… Indulgences are a way of reminding people of the importance of penance. The good news is we’re not selling them anymore.”
When The Avant-Garde Fights Over Real Estate
“Last month the Film-Makers’ Cooperative received an eviction notice that would force it out of its office and archive in a building in TriBeCa, space that is controlled by the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, another bulwark of [New York City’s] avant-garde artistic establishment.”