Author: sbergman

Subscribers Revolt Against Seattle Ticket Hikes

The Seattle Symphony is being blasted by its subscribers after instituting huge price increases for some seats in its concert hall. “Although there were only modest price increases, from this season to next, for most of the seats in Benaroya Hall — generally 10 percent and less — the third tier (fourth level) was hit, in some cases, with increases of more than 300 percent.”

New York’s Suddenly Exciting Opera Scene

With the innovative Peter Gelb at the helm of the Metropolitan Opera, and the controversial Gerard Mortier preparing to take over City Opera, New York opera fans are in for a lot of changes, and a lot of envelope-pushing. “Because the singers at the Met are booked much further in advance than those at the City Opera, Messrs. Gelb and Mortier will each present the first season he has fully designed in 2009-2010.”

The Old Bait & Switch

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell unveiled her latest budget, many arts groups in the state assumed that they would be in for an increase in funding, based on the formation of a new Cultural Treasures program created by the governor and endorsed by various cultural leaders. Instead, Rell’s budget zeroed out traditional funding for nearly all arts programs in the state, catching everyone off guard.

Long Lost Strad Comes Home

“Twenty-one years after disappearing in a robbery, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s circa 1727 Stradivarius violin is back in town, newly reconditioned and ready for a new solo debut.” The instrument, purchased by the DSO in 1978 for its concertmaster to use, was stolen in a burglary in Europe in 1985. No one saw it again until last year, when a retired DSO violinist spotted it in an auction catalog.

Nothing Like Being Dropped Into Someone Else’s Mess

The West Australian Ballet’s new artistic director and general manager have not had an easy start to their tenure. Disputes with the company’s dancers, long simmering under the company’s old management, have escalated in recent weeks, and the new management team faces a possible dancers’ strike over a pay scale that they agree is entirely inadequate.

AG Asked To Look Into Smithsonian Scandal

“A Washington watchdog group yesterday asked the attorney general to investigate whether Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small violated the law by using federal money to pay for travel and other expenses. The group also asked the Justice Department to determine whether the Smithsonian Board of Regents, which is chaired by John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the Supreme Court, broke the law by approving Small’s expenses.”

Challenging The Olympic Model

The Olympics are a global stage like no other, but too often, host cities find that the massive infrastructure required to present them hangs around for decades in the form of unpaid bills and underused facilities. So it shouldn’t be any big surprise that some cities bidding for future editions of the Games are floating scaled-back proposals that would allow for the easy dismantling and dispersal of new structures once the world leaves town.

Babel Brawl

“The chasm grows even wider between the filmmaking duo who gained worldwide success with movies about the connections among disparate locations and characters – and people are taking sides. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have accused each other of trying to steal the spotlight amid the success of their latest film, Babel.”