UK orchestras’ insurance bill would cripple orchestras if not shut them down. “In the case of the Philharmonia Orchestra, for instance, it could mean an extra £500,000 tax a year, plus arrears backdated to 2000. In the case of the London Symphony Orchestra, the back-payments would amount to £8m.”
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More Questions About Tate’s Ofili Purchase
Questions are mounting about the Tate’s purchase for £600,000 of Chris Ofili’s The Upper Room. The artist’s dealer had urged the purchase because Ofili was getting married and needed cash. Some critics are also charging conflict-of-interest on the part of some of the board members who approved the purchase.
NY Public Library Unloads Art
The New York Public Library has been selling off some of its art treasures to bolster its budget. What’s wrong with that, asks Lee Rosenbaum? “The library’s art disposals were marred by undue haste and inadequate oversight by its trustees and the New York State Attorney General’s office. By selling the public’s patrimony to buttress the budget, rather than contributing or raising the money themselves as should have been their first priority, the library’s board and administration took the easy way out.”
Fiber For Cello
Luis Leguia couldn’t find a cello he liked. “So he invented one himself using an unlikely material — carbon fiber. And now he designs, manufactures, and sells carbon fiber cellos, violins, and violas through Luis and Clark Carbon Fiber Instruments, a company that he started five years ago and runs out of his home. Carbon fiber, strong but flexible, is strands of carbon tightly woven and set in resin. He has sold 100 cellos, 12 violins, and 20 violas.”
Doubt About A Bach Toccata
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for organ is one of the composer’s best-known works. It’s spooky, the theme for countless scary movies. “Turns out Halloween’s soundtrack also has been cloaking its true form: The Toccata and Fugue probably was not written by Bach and almost certainly wasn’t written for the organ. In music circles, that assertion is as scary as it gets. It’s not every day such a famous work gets shaken to its foundations. However, scholarly consensus is building that the baroque master did not write his most well-known organ work.”
The End Of The Great Critics?
“Great critics are rare birds; rare birds need a welcoming aviary and the zookeepers are not on the lookout for such special and specialist breeds of plumage any more. Over time, the priorities have shifted towards ‘personality’ writers with no background in their subject. The long, slow haul of a career as a critic, with its period of apprenticeship, dedication and accumulation of wisdom and experience – as exemplified by Andrew Porter – is suddenly becoming a thing of the past.”
After the Russian Ballets
A film on Ballet Russes “refers to several linked ballet companies, and the catalyst for the film was a 2000 reunion of veterans of the various troupes. What makes this film delightful is the people involved, the women made-up, coiffed, bejeweled, with their evident joy at seeing one another again, sometimes after nearly 40 years, and their unstoppable reminiscences. What makes this film important is what it tells us about the evolution of ballet as an art form.”
Can Chickens Save Disney Animation?
“In 1999 the Disney animation workforce numbered about 2,200. In the aftermath of massive layoffs and the shuttering of the company’s Florida animation studio, the total is about 700. Those who remain have accepted a reality that would have been unthinkable back when Walt Disney was drawing Mickey Mouse: Disney is out of the hand-drawn animation business. Instead the company has placed all of its eggs into the computer-animation basket. Who’s supposed to hatch them? Chicken Little.”
Les Miz Turns 20
It was 20 years ago last week that Les Miserables opened in London. Produced worldwide since then, “Les Miz,” as it is popularly known (or “The Glums”), “has so far been performed in 38 countries in 21 languages,” and “a licensed schools edition has seen 3,000 amateur productions.” It has “penetrated deep into the cultural life of a generation – and there are no signs of an abatement. Why has this happened?”
Iran Reverses, Bans Foreign Films
“Iran’s hardline Islamic regime has banned all foreign films deemed to promote ‘secular, feminist, liberal or nihilist ideas.’ The decision reverses prior moves by ex-president Mohammad Khatami to open up Iran to Western culture and will likely add more fuel to Iran’s massive black market and illicit satellite viewership.”