Times are tough for Republicans, no doubt about it, but somehow, the current public dissatisfaction with the Bush Administration has yet to translate into anything approaching widespread support for the opposition Democrats. Why are the Dems so totally incapable of seizing the moment? One linguist suggests that while the GOP may be on the outs politically, they’re still the reigning champions when it comes to effective use of language. “The right has been incredibly successful in capturing the English political vocabulary. In a way, it’s a tribute to their ability to spin compelling narratives.”
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Free eBook Downloads Are A Hit
The publishing industry appears to be the latest corner of the arts world to discover that consumers will flock to almost anything given away for free. “That seems to be the lesson of the first few days of the World eBook Fair, a one-month experiment in free downloadable books produced by Illinois-based Project Gutenberg. The fair began Tuesday, and already more than 1.5 million books have been downloaded.”
Less Levine, But No Less Committed
“James Levine does look thinner, healthier, and the best part of all, there’s no change in his magical right baton-waving hand. And so he proved it last night at Tanglewood, conducting a little eerily for this listener the same program that he was leading when he took a header and crashed into rotator cuff surgery on March 1. That would be the Schoenberg first chamber symphony, and the glorious Beethoven ninth. He’s certainly lost a bunch of pounds, but James Levine has lost none of his humane gravitas.”
It’s Not Really About The Arms, Anyway
There was never really any risk that James Levine’s rotator cuff injury would affect his conducting skill, of course, but it may be a sign of how important Levine’s presence has been to the revival of the BSO that his return to the podium has inspired such breathless anticipation. “Conducting is a mysterious occupation, one in which the exchange of information seems to occur almost by osmosis. Everyone should be heartened by what happened at Tanglewood on Friday night. No one should worry about Mr. Levine’s arm-waving capacities, nor should they ever have. It is not like losing one’s fastball.”
Hitting All The High Notes
It was a good year for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, a small but important company that each summer draws opera aficionados from across the country to the Midwest for a month-long festival. A $400,000 challenge grant, “for which the company had to raise $7.5 million and attract 1,000 new donors by June 30, was not only met but surpassed in both dollars and donors… The company made a major push to bring in young people to its performances,” and continued its efforts to assist talented young singers in making the transition to the professional world.
Littler: Great Orchestras Don’t Take The Summer Off
The Toronto Symphony has come a long way since nearly succumbing to bankruptcy a few years back. But William Littler says that the TSO still lacks one of the crucial amenities of a major North American orchestra: “Unlike most orchestras of its class, Toronto’s still lacks the summer season that would keep its profile before the public and its players more extensively employed.”
Backing Away From The Abyss
Cooler heads may be prevailing at the Seattle Symphony, where news recently leaked out of an internal survey conducted by the musicians to express their dissatisfaction with the leadership of longtime music director Gerard Schwarz. The musicians now insist (contrary to some earlier reports) that the survey results were never intended to become public, and that they intend to settle their differences with the symphony’s board and management in-house. For his part, Schwarz is taking the high road, barely acknowledging the controversy and declaring that his relationship with the orchestra is “all about the music.”
The Family Business – Writing (Now If Only They Could Agree On What Happened)
The seven brothers and sisters of the Minot family are all writers. “Taken together, their books constitute a kind of New England ‘Rashomon,’ divergent and sometimes conflicting accounts of their collective past. And while no one would want to read their novels as coded autobiography or reduce them to dispatches from the family front, the Minots themselves keep revisiting the subject of their childhood as if it were possible to rewrite life.”
Piano Competition Winners – Did They Really Give The Best Performances?
Edward Reichel has a problem with the results of the just-completed Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. “The six who were chosen to compete in the finals unquestionably should have been there. They deserved it. But those who took the top three prizes did not give the best performances.”
A Photograph Of Mozart’s Wife Surfaces
“The previously unknown print was discovered in archives in the southern German town of Altötting, local authorities said yesterday, and has been authenticated as including Mrs Mozart. The long-lost photograph was taken in October 1840, when Constanze Weber was 78, at Max Keller’s home. The Altötting state archive said it was believed this was the only time in her life that she had been photographed.”