The Baghdad suburb of Mansour is known mostly these days for the near-constant sound of bombs, set off by insurgents targeting the new Iraqi army, and for the cries of those whose loved ones are caught in the crossfire. But Mansour is also home to Iraq’s one and only Music and Ballet School, where a dedicated staff of teachers and professionals works to fill the lives of Iraqi children with a love of dance. In post-Saddam Iraq, anti-Western sentiment runs strong, and many at the school now keep their Western-derived professions secret from all but those closest to them. But asked how many Shiites and how many Sunnis make up the student body, the school’s director has one firm answer: “We don’t know. We have students.”
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Dali’s Secretary & Exploiter Dies
“The former personal secretary of Salvador Dali, who was embroiled in scandals involving the surrealist Spanish painter’s works, has died aged 86… During the time he worked as the painter’s confidant, [John Peter] Moore amassed an important collection of works that became the subject of controversy after the artist’s death in January 1989. In October 2004 a court in Figueras, Dali’s birthplace, convicted Moore and [his wife] of violating intellectual property rights by changing the title of a Dali work displayed in their art centre… In November 2004 a Barcelona court ruled that Moore suffered from senile dementia and was incapable of standing trial on charges of falsifying and selling unauthorised reproductions of Dali’s works.”
Japan’s Impact On Euro Art
Japan has a long and glorious artistic tradition, of course, but you wouldn’t necessarily expect the country to come up when discussing the sources of influence in European art. But in fact, Western art reveals plenty of “modern manifestations of the classical Japanese aesthetic.”
Art’s Most Underappreciated Continent
“If the history of Africa tells us anything, it is that producing great art is no guarantee of winning anyone’s respect. It seems incredible, when you look at the masterpieces of African art in the British Museum, that exploiters and imperialists could ever have dismissed the disparate peoples of Africa as lesser breeds, ripe for the plucking. Africa has created some of the greatest art that ever existed, and the brilliance of it has been known to Europeans for a long time… And yet the African experience suggests that even when oppressors acknowledge, quite fulsomely, the beauty of your art, this doesn’t stop them classing it as ‘primitive’ and continuing to treat you as a lower form of life.”
More Chaos At English National Opera
The English National Opera could scarcely be having a worse holiday season, what with the recent resignations of its artistic director and chairman, and the continued browbeatings the company is taking in the British press. Now, music director designate Oleg Caetani has apparently been relieved of the post he was to take up next month. “Sources say that the reason for Caetani’s pre-emptive ejection was the lack of time he could commit to the company – an issue that had caused concern among observers from his appointment in March this year after a 14-month search.”
And A Strike, Too…
“Members of the union Bectu, who work in the technical, managerial and administrative departments at the Coliseum, the English National Opera’s London home, have voted by a massive majority – 94.6 per cent of those who voted – in favour of industrial action over its pay claim [against the beleagured opera company.] While there are no operas, only ballets, on stage until late January, strikes would hit rehearsals for new productions as well as the resumption of operatic performances [in] February.”
The Best Instrument You’ve Ever Laughed At
The trombone is one of those much-maligned instruments, like the bassoon or the viola, which plays a crucial role in the orchestra and yet seems to provoke more snickers than applause. The slide looks silly, the sound is frequently used for comic relief, and a recent episode of the UK’s popular TV series, Doctor Who, featured a campy but sinister lineup of deadly trombone-wielding Santas. “One sometimes detects among trombonists a sense that the world is doing them down.”
Is Barenboim Headed To La Scala? He Seems To Think So.
Daniel Barenboim is fueling speculation that he will soon be named La Scala’s next music director, succeeding the ousted Riccardo Muti. Barenboim will be leaving the directorship of the Chicago Symphony next summer, leaving him available for the post in Milan. “In May, the governors appointed a Frenchman, Stephané Lissner, a friend of Barenboim, as general manager and artistic director. It was he who lured Barenboim, 63, back to La Scala, where he last performed 30 years ago. And, in what was seen by insiders as a possible pointer to the future, agreed to his being the first musician to use Muti’s old dressing room.”
Portrait Of An Illegal Antiquities Trade
Much of the classical ancient art sold in recent decades is believed to have passed through the hands of three men – Giacomo Medici, Robert E. Hecht Jr. and Robin Symes. They “acquired items that had been illegally removed from Italian tombs and used fake ownership histories, rigged auctions and relied on frontmen to sell the objects with a veneer of legitimacy. Italians say they have traced more than a hundred looted artifacts handled by the dealers to the Getty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a dozen other major museums and private collections in the U.S., Europe and Asia.”
Tales Of Trouble At NY City Ballet?
A prominent board member resigns, complaining about the company’s direction. “Over the past few years, my escalating concerns over serious issues of governance made it impossible for me to continue. I am no longer willing to support an institution that increasingly bears so little resemblance to the one that George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein bequeathed to their successors, and to which I have been committed for over twenty years since my Chairmanship of the 50th Anniversary campaign in 1984.”