“Two princes who recently left politics have expressed their desire for the Royal Ballet of Cambodia to be removed from under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and returned to the Royal Palace… [one of the princes] said he believes the Royal Ballet has suffered both in quality and popularity during nearly four decades of control by the ministry, adding that moving it to the Palace could reverse its decline.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Florida Grand Opera Cuts Back To Four Productions Next Season
In yet another consequence of the shrinking economy, “Florida Grand Opera will eliminate one production from its 2009-2010 season, presenting just four operas for the first time in decades.”
Sprinklers Flood Munich’s Cuvilliés Theater
“Earlier this week, a mistaken activation of the sprinkler system in Munich’s historic Cuvilliés Theater dumped an estimated 2100 gallons of water into the backstage area.” The 1753 jewel box is used by the Bavarian State Theater and Bavarian State Opera.
Just How Great Was Korngold, Really?
Ivan Hewett: “Half a century after his death, the jury is still out on Erich Korngold. Was he just a talented but unself-critical dreamer, following the late-romantic style of Richard Strauss and Mahler but without their genius? Or was he a really distinctive voice who had the misfortune to be born at the wrong time?”
Monet’s Muse, Even In Death
As the painter sat at the deathbed of his wife and model, Camille Doncieux, he later wrote, “I was surprised… by the colors that death brought to her immobile face… [and] “found myself desiring to reproduce the last image of she who would leave us forever.” The result was his last major figure painting.
Baltimore Chamber Orchestra Calls Off Rest Of Season
“In an effort to avoid debt and to shore up its finances, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra has canceled its last two concerts of the season and asked its musicians to donate their services for a Jan. 25 concert. The canceled concerts, of the orchestra’s 26th season, were scheduled in February and May.”
Is Artistic Talent Really Just A Way To Get Babes?
In his book The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton “argues that our desire for beauty is firmly grounded in evolution, a side effect of the struggle to survive and reproduce. In this sense, a cubist painting by Picasso is no more mysterious than the allure of a Playboy centerfold: Both are works of culture that attempt to sate a biological drive.”
Vienna Radio Symphony Chooses 28-Year-Old Chief Conductor
Cornelius Meister, a young German who is currently Generalmusikdirector in Heidelberg, succeeds Bertrand de Billy, who declined to renew his contract in the wake of a funding dispute with the Austrian state broadcast corporation, which operates the orchestra.
Actor Steven Gilborn, 72
“A ubiquitous stage, film and television actor best known for his role as Ellen DeGeneres’s sweet, befuddled father on the TV sitcom Ellen in the 1990s,” Gilborn also played Shakespearean leads at Washington’s Folger Theater and “appeared in scores of other television shows, including The Wonder Years, Law & Order, The West Wing and NYPD Blue.”
Why On The Transmigration of Souls Succeeds As 9/11 Memorial
“Acclaimed composers such as Joseph Schwantner, Richard Danielpour and Michael Gordon have written substantive opuses on 9/11, but none that have had the popularity of [John] Adams’ composition… Mr. Adams himself first thought that ‘you couldn’t do this unless it was in the worst possible taste.’ But he composed a tactful, quiet piece – detached rather than the in-your-face nature of some other responses.”