“It’s a wonder the Greeks accomplished as much as they did, as many of their homes seem to have doubled as pubs and brothels. This finding, from new analyses of archaeological remains, could explain why previous hunts for evidence of ancient Greek taverns have been fruitless.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Opera With All The Chaos, Live On Camera
The satellite TV network Sky Arts will simulcast opening night of the new Jonathan Miller Bohème at English National Opera on two channels: one showing the staged performance and the second capturing the goings-on backstage. ENO artistic director John Berry says, “It’s about all of that furious paddling under the water that you don’t normally see.”
Cutbacks at Chicago’s Field Museum As Endowment Falls By A Third
The natural history museum’s endowment lost $95 million in the past six months, “leading to salary cuts, layoffs and buyout offers to scientists and other employees.” In addition, the Field has cancelled this fall’s exhibition of Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old hominid fossil.
From East L.A. To The Ballet Barre
“The City of Angels Ballet offers free classical ballet training, along with pink satin shoes and fabulous costumes, to hundreds of children from some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods.”
Canadian Opera Company Selects New Music Director
34-year-old Johannes Debus thrilled audiences and musicians alike when he conducted Prokofiev’s War and Peace this fall. Now the company has snapped him up to replace Richard Bradshaw, who died suddenly in 2007. (COC has also announced its upcoming season, which features a new Stravinsky triple-bill staged by Robert Lepage.)
Economy And Stock Market Wallop Indianapolis Arts Orgs
“In the past two months, the Indianapolis Museum of Art has seen its endowment drop by $57 million, causing the museum to implement a raft of cost-cutting measures and project delays.” Both the Indianapolis Symphony and Indianapolis Opera have taken similar measures in the face of falling endowment income and ticket sales.
DG Signs Pianist Yuja Wang
The 20-year-old Chinese-New Yorker has been making a splash in the past few years, including more than one high-profile last-minute substitution. Her First DG release “will feature sonatas by Chopin, Liszt and Scriabin, and two Etudes by Ligeti.”
Jonathan Miller Is Still Quitting Opera
“And here he is, 74 years old on an icy winter’s night, after a 10-hour rehearsal day in Bromley with a bunch of singers hanging on his every word, trying to convince me that nobody loves him, nobody cares.”
Finalists For MIDEM Cannes Classical Awards Revealed
An international jury has selected three CDs or DVDs in each of 15 categories; winners will be announced at the industry’s MIDEM fair in Cannes on Jan. 20. Four awardees have already been announced: Sony Masterworks as Label of the Year, a Lifetime Achievement Award to tenor Carlo Bergonzi, and two Artists of the Year, violinist Julia Fischer and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
Newspapers Have Really, Really Tried To Get On Top Of The Web
Jack Shafer: “It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption… [but t]he industry has understood from the advent of AM radio in the 1920s that technology would eventually be its undoing and has always behaved accordingly.”