Author: sbergman

Montreal Opera Mopping Up The Red Ink

“The Opéra de Montréal yesterday gave itself a pat on the back, reporting that its prodigious 2006 accumulated deficit of $2 million had been trimmed to just under $700,000. This reduction was the result of staff layoffs, a season of four rather than five productions and the continued support of corporate and government funding sources. The public also responded, with an attendance rate in Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of 92 per cent and a $760,000 increase in box-office revenue.”

Thompson Won’t Find Much Support In Hollywood

With his extensive Hollywood background, could presidential candidate Fred Thompson become the first Republican to gain widespread financial support from LA’s notoriously liberal entertainment industry? Um, don’t bet on it. “The place that made the former Tennessee senator rich as an actor cannot be counted on to pour cash into his presidential run, especially if he’s going around bashing gay marriage and Roe vs. Wade. The minute he comes out strong against embryonic stem cell research — a fervent Hollywood cause — he’ll be banished from every cocktail party north of Sunset Boulevard.”

Black Comedian Rapped Over Use Of N-Word

Comedian Eddie Griffin was pulled from the stage at a Black Enterprise magazine event in Miami mid-routine this week, after organizers became incensed by his repeated use of the word “nigger.” Black activists have been campaigning against the word in recent months, following a series of high-profile incidents in which white comedians and DJs came under fire for making racially insensitive remarks.

Protecting The Sibelius Brand

The name of Jean Sibelius is as powerfully marketable as names get in Finland, the composer’s home country. But “the heirs of Sibelius are facing a dilemma: the composer’s copyright protection expires in 2027, 70 years after his death,” after which his name and music could be used by anyone wanting to make a quick buck off the association. So the heirs have trademarked the Sibelius name, but that very act compels them to issue products under the name themselves, or lose the trademark.

Justice Dept Inveighs Against Net Neutrality

The debate over “net neutrality” – the idea that internet service providers should have to provide equal access to all web sites, and not charge a fee for certain sites to be more accessible than others – is a hot topic all over the world these days. This week, the US Justice Department weighed in, saying to the Federal Communications Commission that any rule attempting to enforce net neutrality would “hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks.”

Women’s Museum Chief Resigns Unexpectedly

“Judy L. Larson, director of [Washington, D.C.’s] National Museum of Women in the Arts, has resigned her post, according to the museum. Larson, one of the museum’s longest-serving directors, took the helm of the museum in September 2002… Under Larson, the museum completed a $25 million endowment campaign and celebrated its 20th anniversary.” No reason was given for her departure.

SFMOMA’s Chief Offers Calm, Competence

“Probably only art world insiders felt relief when Neal Benezra took over as director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art five years ago last month. Since his arrival, he has quietly capitalized on the international respect SFMOMA enjoys as a collaborator on traveling exhibitions, while smoothing out museum operations from within.” Now, after half a decade of stabilizing a precarious institution, Benezra says that the museum is on the verge of realizing bigger plans.

Ambassador Jazz

The US State Department has long made use of American artists, writers, and musicians as “cultural ambassadors,” sending them around the world to (hopefully) improve the image of the larger country just by doing what they do. In recent months, the program has been focusing on exporting jazz, that quintessentially American musical form.

Questionable Taste, Sure, But Oh, That Voice!

Anthony Tommasini says that Luciano Pavarotti will be remembered not only for helping to turn opera into a stadium concert event, but for a voice so unmistakable, so effortless that no one could ever mistake it. “For intelligence, discipline, breadth of repertory, musicianship, interpretive depth and virile vocalism, Mr. Pavarotti was outclassed by his Three Tenors sidekick and chief rival, Plácido Domingo. But for sheer Italianate tenorial beauty, Mr. Pavarotti was hard to top.”