“Only in recent years has Handel’s piece — composed in 1741 and long associated with Christmas, though it was intended, one biographer wrote, ‘as a timely thought-provoker for Lent and Easter’ — been interpreted by choreographers. Schroeder points out that it has often been difficult for dance companies, including hers, to find willing collaborators among classical musicians, many of whom believe “Messiah” is strictly for voice and orchestra.”
Blog
The National Goes Sunday
London’s National Theatre is considering adding Sunday performances. “The NT says the move reflects a growing recognition within the industry that audiences expect opening times to fit around work and family life.”
Young Rebels Who Work From Inside?
There was a time when young artists got their energy from opposing the establishment, being subversive. So what’s happened? “Maybe today’s innovators have realised that there is little point in putting a lot of effort into being an embittered outsider youth rebel out to impress a few friends at some esoteric club.”
Miami Reinvents As Capital Of Culture
“After the money, the clubs, the drugs, the beaches, the models, the art deco, the swanky hotels and the TV series, Miami has got the culture. Last weekend, the city hosted Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), the largest art fair in the Americas, welcoming 195 galleries from all over the world, and following on the heels of the Miami International Book Fair, the largest in the US.”
Has The Turner Prize Become Too Safe?
“Monday night’s Turner Prize presentation was a confirmation, if any were needed, that that acceptance has now very much arrived. Watching three of the nominees talking about their work (painter Gillian Carnegie chose not to appear), you couldn’t help feeling that modern art, more than ever before, has become safe, approachable… comfy.”
New Role For London’s ICA?
The new head of London’s Institute for Contemporary Art says that “the institute’s historic role as the place in Britain where fresh developments in modern American and European art could be witnessed – it was the first British gallery to show a Jackson Pollock – was no longer relevant, given the proliferation of galleries and museums such as Tate Modern. But its programmes of performance, film, music, art and talks should ‘provoke and challenge, keep pushing the boundaries. Britain deserves a space that tries to ask the deep questions; where people can look at the complexity of the world around them’.”
Glimmerglass Makes Some Pragmatic Moves
Bowing to the bottom line, Glimmerglass Opera has asked the creators of a new work coming next summer to take “whore” out of the title. The company says it is also scrapping a production of the 17th-century work “Giasone,” by Francesco Cavalli, in favor of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.”
Needed – New Ethics On Artifacts
“The latest troubles should cause Americans to ask questions about our ethics and practices. Do the Met, the Cleveland Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston – places that bring together cultures from around the world, act as safe houses for civilization and provide public access to millions of people – also have claims to the world’s art, claims that legitimately compete with the nationalist goals of countries that cannot always provide the same care and access? Isn’t it better for an ancient pot dug out of some farm in Sicily to end up at a museum like the Met, where it can be studied, widely seen and cared for, than to become booty in some billionaire’s safe in Zurich, Shanghai or Tokyo? At the same time, does encouraging the movement of artifacts into museums stimulate looting and, in the process, impede the circulation of critical information about the provenance, or history, of these objects?”
La Scala’s Biggest Night?
Thirty-year-old conductor Daniel Harding is fronting this year’s opening night at La Scala. “Silvio Berlusconi’s tottering government is threatening to cut subsidies by 30 percent in a rage of scorched-earth legislation ahead of next year’s election. This could be La Scala’s last glamour night for a while and the designer-suit claques won’t let it pass without ructions. No pressure, but our boy – who posed beneath gleaming chandeliers in a Manchester United shirt for Gazzetto della Sport – will need to play a blinder if he is to avoid backlash from off-pitch dramas.”
The Curse Of The Writing Workshop
“Writing workshops, for their ubiquity, are currently the most significant phenomenon influencing American literature. Enrollment into them has become de rigueur for people with a calling to write, and is assumed by increasing numbers (including publishers) to be as necessary a first step toward a writing life as college would be toward a professional life. But because the self-styled “best” of these workshops comprise such a poor lot of dull, mechanical stories, it becomes necessary to ask: What goes on in these programs, and how do they influence today’s writers, for ill or for good?”