The New York Philharmonic faces big challenges – looking for a new music director as well as an extended exile from Lincoln center while its home is renovated. Might this lead to changes? “Imagine if the status quo were shaken up. For a month or so an orchestra would present varied weekly programs, like those today. This could be followed by, say, a minifestival focused on a single composer or an overall theme, with a different program for each concert. Then the musicians might subdivide into chamber orchestras and perform in high school auditoriums and smaller halls before reassembling at the homestead for another installment of weekly programs.”
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Big Night Ahead For History Boys?
So who will go home happy from tonight’s Tony Awards ceremony? It might not be that hard to figure: “The best play and best play revival categories look to be about as suspenseful as a three-minute egg: Alan Bennett’s History Boys and the revival of Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing!, said those polled, are safe money. The directors of those two plays, Nicholas Hytner and Bartlett Sher, are leading contenders in their category; Mr. Hytner will easily win. Indeed, The History Boys seems so likely to dominate the evening’s proceedings that it would hardly be surprising if the play somehow won the award for best regional theater, even though the recipient has already been announced.”
LA Opera’s “Grendel” On A Grand Scale
“Nearly two decades in the making, this opera conceived by Goldenthal and director Julie Taymor finally — after a 12-day delay due to finicky computer technology — had its premiere Thursday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And this much can be said without qualification: It is the most ambitious, spectacular and successful new opera yet from Los Angeles Opera.”
Toronto’s New Castle Of Used Books
A giant new used book store is taking shape in Toronto. “Modelled on the Strand bookstore in New York, which boasts that it has “18 miles of bookshelves” and on Half Price Books, a chain of 80 secondhand stores in the American southwest, it will be like nothing Toronto has seen before, at least on this scale.”
Painter Of The Back Nine
“An artist virtually unknown in the world of art, Linda Hartough is considered the country’s most distinguished painter of golf — and yet even that distinction characterizes her work too broadly. Ms. Hartough paints golf landscapes — the azaleas of Augusta National, the tall grass of Shinnecock Hills and St. Andrews, the contours of Carmel Bay at Pebble Beach. Golf balls, putters and Phil Mickelson or a surgeon in midswing wield no interest for her.”
And The Artists Shall Lead Them…
These days, there is no shortage of gay characters on television or stage, and the increasingly easy familiarity of theatre audiences with gay culture makes it easy to forget just how far we’ve come in a relatively short time. Are we really only 20 years removed from La Cage Aux Folles, with its stereotypical drag queens and (at the time) shocking revelations of gay life? Dominic Papatola says that, at a time when much of America seems to be swinging hard to the right on social issues, the evolution of the arts paint a much different picture of the future.
Sun-Times’ Critic Delacoma Leaves The Newspaper
After 15 years, Wynne Delacoma packs it in as music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I joined the Sun-Times just before Halloween in 1990 and inherited the critic’s post the following April Fool’s Day. Goblins and tricksters, not the most auspicious omens for major career changes. But on my watch, benevolent forces far outweighed evil influences on Chicago’s classical music scene.”
The Ongoing Minnesota Miracle
Minnesota’s Twin Cities have seemingly always enjoyed a thriving cultural scene far larger than a medium-sized metropolitan area could reasonably be expected to support. The quiet secret to the region’s artistic success has been a long history of private stewardship, spearheaded by a succession of ultra-rich benefactors who have poured a sizable chunk of their net worth into orchestras, museums, and theaters. There have always been doomsayers who warn that once the existing generation of philanthropists dies off, the Twin Cities arts scene will wither on the vine. But recent evidence suggests that a new generation of supporters is ready and able to take the reins.
Arts Need Mission As Much As Money
Louisville has a long and proud cultural tradition, but in recent years, many of the city’s arts groups have struggled financially, and Andrew Adler says that the problem isn’t merely monetary. “Simply saying we ‘need’ an orchestra isn’t sufficient. Same with the opera, the ballet, etc. Of course it takes money to keep these organizations afloat, and more than that, to make them thrive. But the aesthetic imperative continues to be obscured when financial concerns constantly occupy the foreground.”
Senator vs. Smithsonian’s Small
“A key Senate Republican has asked the Bush administration whether Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small should continue to head the national museum complex… The letter is the latest in a series of clashes between Congress and the Smithsonian. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa cited ‘Small’s involvement in the extensive financial fraud’ reported by federal regulators at Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association), where Small worked before moving to the Smithsonian in 2000. Grassley also noted that the museum’s finances and executive compensation packages are being scrutinized by the Smithsonian’s Office of the Inspector General.”