Author: sbergman

ENO’s Latest Sacrificial Lamb Music Director

The English National Opera has seemed to be in a perpetual state of crisis over the past few years. So when Edward Gardner signed on to be the company’s new music director, the question most observers had was why he would have wanted the job. “Is this inexperienced young man – whose biggest job to date has been as music director of Glyndebourne’s touring arm, hardly the white-hot centre of searing controversy – up to the traumas of being a public figure as well as the musical heart of this well-loved but somewhat disaster-prone company?”

Celebrating Ornette (And It’s About Time!)

Legendary jazz innovator Ornette Coleman won the Pulitzer Prize for music this week, leading many in the music world to wonder what could have taken so long. “Unlike any past Pulitzer selection, [Coleman’s winning album,] “Sound Grammar,” is dominated by improvisation, the essence of jazz.It’s a bold choice — a hip choice, even. If the Pulitzer image shapers wanted to crack a mold, they’ve done it. Loudly.”

Getty Announces New Acquisitions

“A medieval gilt-copper and enamel relief of Christ, thought to have come from a Spanish cathedral, and a 19th century portrait of a lady in her pink velvet dressing gown by French artist James Jacques Joseph Tissot have joined the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The new acquisitions — purchased privately for undisclosed sums in an ongoing effort to build the relatively young institution’s art holdings — will go on view in May.”

Another Bookstore On The Brink

A neighborhood bookstore on Chicago’s far north side is on the verge of giving up the ghost after nearly 20 years in business. “As walk-in sales have declined, the store has expanded its services by providing textbooks required for local college courses and by supplying books for sale at academic and other conferences on such topics as adoption, infertility and women’s studies. They’ve also buttressed their bottom line with bulk sales to libraries, schools and corporations.” But in the end, it may not be enough.

Burns Backs Down

Documentarian Ken Burns has responded to pressure from Hispanic activists, saying that he will recut his soon-to-be-screened World War II documentary to include information on Latino and Native American soldiers, rather than presenting the additional footage apart from the main film, as he originally planned.

Art Where The Sandwiches Used To Be

It was more than a half century ago when New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art turned its Greek and Roman art wing into a restaurant. Now, after a staggering 15-year, $220 million renovation, the wing is once again ready to house the museum’s 5,300-piece Greek and Roman collection. The original architecture itself pays tribute to its Roman roots, and that made new architect Kevin Roche’s job a particular challenge.

Schmoozing The Fair

“You might be forgiven for thinking that the London Book Fair is about books and authors — and of course in a sense it is. It is just that few books and even fewer authors are seen here. Rather, with the public excluded from the fair’s site, the hangarlike spaces of Earls Court One in west London, thousands of book editors, agents and scouts are able to indulge in their favorite pastime: schmoozing.”

Gorging On Film

Film festivals are, at their best, an embarrassment of riches, a ridiculous feast that must be consumed carefully and sparingly if one is to preserve one’s sanity and love of film. Unless you’re film critic Dylan Hicks, in which case you should attend 30 screenings in nine days and then write about the experience.