The Pittsburgh Symphony boosted its measurable assets by $8 million in the 2004-05 season, but the orchestra still wound up with a $1.1 million deficit. That’s a manageable number for a major orchestra, but it could also be seen as a potential red flag for an organization whose musician costs increased significantly this fall. The PSO musicians recently received a whopping 23% raise (the result of a backloaded contract signed by a management team no longer with the orchestra), and even after they offered to rework the deal to provide some short-term relief, salaries for 2005-06 will still be considerably higher than in previous seasons. Still, PSO officials say they are in good financial shape, especially when compared with other major American orchestras.
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Holland: Welser-Möst Is Doing Just Fine
The Cleveland Orchestra is on tour yet again with music director Franz Welser-Möst, and while some critics may still consider it open season on the young conductor, Bernard Holland doesn’t see what all the controversy is about. “The eyebrows that lifted when Mr. Welser-Möst was given this job must certainly have settled by now. One hears his casual elegance reflected in his players: a fastidiousness that is never prim, breathing naturally. The musicians sounded as if they believed in their conductor; he must be delighted with them. The Cleveland played on Monday with the good intentions of the best European orchestra, but with an ability to carry them out that hardly any European orchestra can match.”
Joffrey Still Rules The Ballet Roost In Chicago
Seventeen years after the death of its founder and a decade after moving operations from New York to Chicago, the renowned Joffrey Ballet lives on, and this week the company begins celebrating its 50th anniversary. “The Joffrey was the most American of [New York’s] three major classical companies in its embrace of pop culture and its youthfulness. And it was also the troupe that drew in new ballet audiences of all ages… The company is now a continual presence in [Chicago] with four two-week seasons a year. And it is moving toward establishing itself as the third leg of a classical triumvirate with the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”
What Caused The OSM Strike, Anyway?
The months-long strike at l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal is finally over, and details are beginning to emerge not only about the OSM’s new contract, but about the surprisingly small details of workplace conditions that stalled negotiations for more than a year. “After years of seeing their schedules grow ever tighter under the baton of Charles Dutoit, the musicians seemed to have decided that enough was enough. At the same time, general manager Madeleine Careau was demanding concessions to help tame an accumulated deficit that now stands at $3.4-million. To make matters worse, the OSM has been caught in recent years between the demands of its escalating international fortunes and the apparent decline of Montreal’s ability to finance large performing-arts organizations.”
Two Ensembles, One Conductor: Sounds Like Synergy
The Cleveland Orchestra and the Zurich Opera are in talks about possible future collaborations. Franz Welser-Möst serves as music director for both groups, and he owes much of his international success to Zurich Opera’s director general, who has tirelessly promoted the sometimes controversial young conductor. “Welser-Möst has been considering using the orchestra pit at Severance Hall – as did Artur Rodzinski in the 1930s and Lake Erie Opera Theater in the 1960s – to present full-scale opera productions. It isn’t unreasonable that a production originating at the Zurich Opera – Pereira mentioned Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Capriccio and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte as possibilities – could be adapted for the Severance Hall stage.”
Ballet’s New Casting Paradigm
Time was when ballet companies cast their roles by type. You look like this? You dance these kinds of roles. But times have changed, and American Ballet Theatre’s new season illustrates a new approach to casting, writes Tobi Tobias.
RSC: Connecting Today With The Bard
“For the Royal Shakespeare Company, revivified under the directorship of Michael Boyd, restoring the link between Shakespeare and contemporary writing is becoming something of a mission…”
Rest Of The World Teams Up To Protect Its Culture From US
“A Franco-Canadian initiative, which has won broad backing as a swipe at US ‘cultural imperialism’, could mean that countries will be able to subsidise domestic film industries and restrict foreign music and content on their radio and television stations in the name of preserving and promoting cultural diversity.”
Dumping The Composer At The Last Minute
Music is added to movies last, and changing it has always been difficult. But the composer of the much-anticipated remake of “King Kong” has been removed just weeks before the film opens. How? “New technology has meant that composers can now be asked to present their score in a demo form on synthesisers before its been properly recorded. They then ask test audiences what they think. It is like judging a film by having the cast shout out the script first. People have been taken off films on the basis of the results. It is not a particularly rational form of decision-making.”
Canada’s Major Lit Prizes Disagree
“Not one of the five novels nominated for the Governor-General’s was on the Giller short list – a fact that attests to the inherent subjectivity of juries and, perhaps, to the breadth and depth of Canada’s literary talent. All of the 42 shortlisted novelists, poets, dramatists, essayists, translators, childrens’ writers and illustrators were announced yesterday in Toronto. A total of 69 books were nominated for this year’s awards, in seven categories in both French and English.”