“The North Korean government has agreed to a live national broadcast of the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang next week, the orchestra said on Monday — an unheard-of event in that isolated country… However, it was not clear how many North Koreans had television and would actually be able to see the broadcast.”
Author: sbergman
Barenboim’s Beethoven Binge
Daniel Barenboim recently spent three days in London, performing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas for rapt audiences. It was a unique event, unrecorded and unbroadcast at Barenboim’s request, and even jaded London critics (whose slings and arrows Barenboim knows well) are calling it a performance “beyond perfection.”
Controversial Play Gets Thumbs Down From Schools
A new play that “deals realistically with ghetto life in Toronto and the gun culture that young people are drawn into” is seeing multiple cancellations from school groups in the city after two area school boards issued cautions about its content. Producers are attempting to calm the controversy and lure the schools back to the theatre.
Writers’ Strike: Where’s The Outrage?
“In the post-strike world of television, fans seem to be hiding their disappointment about lost episodes, truncated seasons and mothballed shows… Not to crank up a jeremiad here, but shouldn’t viewers be a little more annoyed?”
Will Macbeth Jump To Broadway?
A highly stylized production of Macbeth currently running at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Patrick Stewart in the title role could be on the verge of making the cross-borough leap to Broadway and shaking up the Tony race. The only thing holding up the move is logistics – there may or may not be a venue available for the Scottish play.
Who Won The Strike? Maybe Conan
Watching TV’s late-night comedians ply their trade without writers was certainly instructive, if nothing else. Jon Stewart and Jay Leno proved that even talented performers need a writing team, but Conan O’Brien took an entirely different approach. “He alone of the late-night hosts respected the call for ‘pencils down.’ He not only surrendered to the strike, he embraced the moment, used it to engage in MacGyver television.”
Playwrights Protest CSC Cuts
“Two prominent Canadian playwrights – Florence Gibson and Brad Fraser – are protesting against the Canadian Stage Company’s recent decision to suspend its play-development program… The letters come against a backdrop of deepening crisis for the 20-year-old company, the largest regional theatre in the country.”
Giving The Bangers Their Due
Percussion concertos aren’t exactly standard concert hall fare, but in the next month alone, four major premieres in the US will bring percussionists to the fore. “These pieces are the latest sign that the percussion concerto, inherently a modern invention, has moved beyond its novelty phase. Orchestra administrators see percussion works as a draw for new audiences, with their athletic spectacle and ability to exploit non-Western sounds.”
Massachusetts To Get More Free Shakespeare
“A year after a much-criticized decision to cut in half its free Shakespeare production on Boston Common, the Citi Performing Arts Center announced today it will restore some of the lost shows, and travel to Springfield for three performances.”
EU Seeks “Lifetime Copyright” For Music
“The European Union said Thursday that it would seek to extend copyright protection for singers and musicians to 95 years — rather than the current 50 — in a move intended to let performers receive royalty payments later in life.”