An annual trip to see The Nutcracker reminds an author of her own dreams of dancing on the big stage at Lincoln Center someday, and the way those dreams were inevitably dashed. “My feet were flat, my head was too big, I had no neck and my legs were disproportionately short. Those Russian ladies really know their stuff. They can spot a duck who will always be a duck.”
Author: sbergman
The Best & Worst Of NY Classical in ’08
On the list of best classical events in America’s first city this year: the NY Philharmonic’s trip to North Korea, and Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday celebration. The worst list is headed, of course, by the Gerard Mortier debacle at City Opera…
Brendel Takes His Final Bow
Legendary pianist Alfred Brendel’s final stage appearance was greeted with 20 minutes of ovations by an overflow crowd at Vienna’s Musikverein. “Brendel, who has lived in London since 1971, is also a published author of books on music and humorous verse and says he will continue to write after his retirement from the concert stage. He also plans to give lectures, readings and seminars.”
Broad Blasts LACMA/MOCA Merger Proposal
Eli Broad, who has offered to bail out Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is blasting an alternative plan put forward by LACMA to merge the two museums. “The question, he said, is which bailout carries a stronger guarantee of secure funding for MOCA’s endowment and exhibitions: his $30-million offer or LACMA’s merger proposal, to which no price tag has been publicly attached.”
When Architects And Their Projects Go Bad
“Clients in search of iconic statements often hire star architects from out of town to come up with big ideas, while asking local or regional firms to collaborate and carry out details… What happens when such relationships don’t gel? The Cleveland Institute of Art has been finding out with [its] proposed $55 million expansion.”
Finally, Some Competition For Ticketmaster
“January 2009 could be the start of a new era for concert-ticket buyers who are fed up with exorbitant prices, extraneous service charges and a lack of competition in the marketplace. That’s when Live Nation will start taking on Ticketmaster in the United States – with plans to do the same in Canada by 2010 – and there are already promises being made about how the new competition will empower the consumer.”
Doubt Leads SAG Award Nominees
“The Roman Catholic drama Doubt leads contenders for the Screen Actors Guild Awards with five nominations, including honours for Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis.”
The Cultural Stasis Of Italian Bureaucracy
“A half-dozen structural revamps of [Italy’s] culture ministry during the last decade haven’t really done much except to shuffle around the burden of a creaky and defensive bureaucracy. The country is paralyzed by contradictions. Italians say they identify deeply with their cultural patrimony, but they actually don’t visit their museums much. They talk about collective Italian artistic heritage but remain, at heart, profoundly divided by ancient regional differences… differences that fracture cultural policies.”
Broadway’s Most Dysfunctional Show?
“After months of backstage turbulence, capped by the loss of its leading actor and the ascent of an understudy into the title role, the Broadway revival of Pal Joey opens on Thursday night… Several people involved with [the production] said in interviews that this Pal Joey seemed destined to enter theater lore as one of the more artistically troubled experiences of Broadway in recent years.”
MOCA Board Divided
MOCA’s board of trustees will spend Thursday trying to decide between two options for its future: a merger with LACMA, or a bailout from billionaire Eli Broad. “The lack of a clear direction and uncertainty over who will end up running the museum have stymied additional outsiders from making a firm commitment to help the museum… [and] a change in leadership looks more and more probable.”