Alexei Sultanov might have given up on life, let alone music. After his strokes left him a broken man, he couldn’t even bear the sound of the music which had once been his whole world. But a determined physical therapist refused to accept her patient’s defeat, and demanded that he relearn not only the basic skills of human movement, but the intricate art that had made him famous. Sultanov resisted at first, fighting against the humiliation of struggling to bang out a single melody line on a keyboard he could no longer recognize. But then, that Christmas…
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Pittsburgh To Record Danielpour Opera?
Sony Classical has offered to record Richard Danielpour’s latest opera, Margaret Garner, which drew positive reviews when it premiered in Michigan and Philadelphia last season with Denyce Graves in the title role. Operatic recordings are becoming increasingly rare, especially in the U.S., due largely to the cost of retaining an orchestra for the project. In this case, Sony has made a proposal to the Pittsburgh Symphony for the project, and press reports say that the musicians of the PSO are considering the offer. That the musicians would need to approve such a project at all suggests that Sony’s offer may require them to accept a pay rate below the national standard enforced by the union, but several orchestras have begun to skirt such requirements in recent years.
What Have We Learned?
It’s been an eventful year for the arts in Southern California, from the turmoil at the Getty to LACMA’s difficult search for a new leader to fiscal uncertainty at L.A. Opera and the Center Theater Group. In fact, L.A. culture in 2005 could serve as a fairly handy set of life rules for arts administrators.
Wave Goodbye To Mass Culture
The days of the mass media culture are over, says Reed Johnson. “There will be no survivors, except on select reruns of Lost. In lieu of flowers, friends may send checks to the ‘Bring Back Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw Emergency Fund.’ There — that wasn’t so painful, was it? After all, it’s been common knowledge, or at least conventional wisdom, that traditional mainstream mass culture has been clinging to life for decades, like one of Anne Rice’s mottled vampires. But 2005 is when a chronic condition may have turned terminal.”
Are NY’s Top Directors Overcommitted?
Directors are notorious control freaks, and many are known to be workaholics as well. But such descriptors don’t begin to cover the lives of New York’s top theatre directors, who frequently juggle four or more productions at once. They say they wouldn’t have it any other way, but “there is a question as to whether directors may also be stretched thin. [Critics have] complained about the ‘homogeneity’ at three of the city’s top nonprofit theatrical organizations who ‘tend to hire from the same shallow pool of established directors’.”
Whatever Happened To Ishtar?
There is certainly no shortage of bad movies these days, but to A.O. Scott, there don’t seem to be many current films that approach the colossal level of sheer badness attained by the Hollywood of yesteryear. Why should we care? Well, the elements that go into a great flop are frequently the same pieces that can come together to form a masterpiece: “extravagant ambition, irrational risk, pure chutzpah, a synergistic blend of vanity, vision and self-delusion. The tiniest miscalculation on the part of the artist – or of the audience – can mean the difference between adulation and derision. So in the realm of creative achievement, the worst is not just the opposite of the best, but also its neighbor.”
Pigs Fly, Hell Freezes Over, Recording Company Admits Error
“A music publisher has issued an unusual mea culpa in the digital copyright wars, apologizing over legal threats that led a software programmer to pull an application he’d written that automatically scours the web for song lyrics. Facing an upswell of protest, Warner Chappell Music on Friday formally apologized to Walter Ritter over a letter it sent to the software programmer earlier this month targeting a helper application for Apple’s iTunes called pearLyrics.”
Non-Profits Rack Up Revenue in Minny
The arts economy may still be uncertain nationally, but in Minnesota, non-profit groups including major arts organizations are thriving, according to year-end numbers. “A slew of completed, or nearly completed, building projects from organizations in nearly every category underscores the sector’s health and vitality… Overall revenue rose 11.8 percent to $29.4 billion in 2004 from $26.3 billion in 2003.”
Dallas PAC Fundraising Ahead of Schedule
Major bucks are flowing in Dallas, where the foundation set up to raise $275 million over nine years for the construction of a new performing arts center has passed the $200 million mark well ahead of schedule. The foundation also announced that less than 5% of the funds raised have been used to support the fundraising operation, an unusually small percentage. The foundation’s next goal is to raise $30 million in the next year by offering naming opportunities within the center.
D.C. Ballet Kills Off Nutcracker
“Facing a stubborn impasse with its dancers over labor issues, the Washington Ballet has canceled all remaining performances of The Nutcracker, which was to have run through Dec. 24 at the Warner Theatre.” The company and its dancers disagreed over whether the dispute, which had already led several performances to be canceled, was a strike or a lockout. The head of the dancers’ union was shocked by the cancellation of the entire, and accused the company of having no interest in reaching an agreement.