Prague is staging major celebrations of the 250th Mozart anniversary this year. Is the city competing with Austria as Mozart-Central? “With more than 150 events costing more than 100-million koruna (around $4-million U.S.), Prague aims to highlight its special significance as the place where the composer met his greatest success.”
Blog
How Rauschenberg Became Picasso
“Like Picasso, Rauschenberg has been an art machine; just keep the wheels rolling and sooner or later inspiration will strike. And it will probably take others to tell you when it’s really happened. How unlike the Duchampian constipation-mode of creation. Another rule for art: You gotta have product; lots and lots of things to sell. And then it dawns on you that the curatorial lack of discrimination mirrors Rauschenberg’s own system. This is not good.”
The Puzzling Case Of The Conductor Who Abandoned His Orchestra
Why did Pinchas Zukerman abandon his National Arts Center Orchestra in the middle of the season? Officially the orchestra says the conductor is taking sick leave. But “his freelance schedule between now and the end of the season includes dozens of concerts on three continents, including a European tour with the National Orchestra of Belgium. That doesn’t look like the agenda of a man dragging his feet with fatigue. Nor does it seem much in keeping with Zukerman’s formal obligation, in the contract he signed with the NACO in 1998, ‘to ensure that his role and responsibility to NACO are a top priority of his career’.”
Frey: 18 Pages In Dispute? I’m Shocked!
Author James Frey defended his memoir Wednesday night on Larry King. Frey, 36, told King that only 18 pages of his 432-page memoir were in dispute, an “appropriate ratio for a memoir.” He said there was a “great debate on what a memoir should serve: the story or some kind of journalistic truth. I’ve been shocked by the furor that’s erupted. I don’t know any memoir in the history of publishing that’s been so carefully vetted so long after publication.”
Mozart’s Diary Online
“A digital version of Mozart’s musical diary is being put online by the British Library to help celebrate 250 years since the composer’s birth. The digitised diary lets people click on and hear music from the opening bars of many of the works it mentions.”
San Diego Chamber Orchestra Gets A New Leader
In the midst of auditions for a new music director, the San Diago Chamber Orchestra suddenly canceled the rest of them and hired conductor Jung-Ho Pak, the San Diego Symphony’s former artistic director.
Remembering Birgit Nilsson
It used to be said of Nilsson that she had “dimples of iron.” She insisted upon being paid the highest fee an opera house could offer. Rudolf Bing, who was general manager of the Met from 1950 through 1972, was asked if Nilsson was difficult. “Not at all,” he replied. “You put enough money in, and a glorious voice comes out.”
Nilsson – A Wonder Of The World
“The size, power and precision of Ms. Nilsson’s voice was long considered to be one of the seven wonders of the operatic world, starting in her 1946 Stockholm Royal Opera debut in Der Freischütz and her 1951 Glyndebourne Festival debut in Idomeneo.”
A Teacher/Student Ant Relationship
“Animal behaviourists in the UK believe they have found the first evidence of two-way teacher-pupil communication between ants, suggesting that teaching behaviour may have evolved according to the value of information rather than brain size.”
Dancers Flock To Oslo For Audition
There’s not exactly an opening yet in Norway’s National Ballet. But 90 dancers from around the world turned up to audition just on word that there might be extra money in the budget next year to hire for a couple of “temporary” positions. “Permanent dance contracts in Norway are viewed as attractive, because they provide a secure position until ‘retirement’ age at 41. That suggests more job security than elsewhere in the dance world, where many professionals move from assignment to assignment, always having to audition and prove themselves again and again.”