Why Aren’t youg people going to the opera? “The truth is they are intimidated by the institution, by the ticket prices, by the posh frocks and bow ties, by the champagne intervals, the old operas sung in foreign languages that may have universal themes but by their very nature don’t address contemporary issues. Young people have little reason to make it to Glyndebourne, the ENO or London’s Covent Garden. Glyndebourne, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last year, sees opera in crisis and is trying to address the fact that, in order to survive, the genre has to progress.”
Blog
What’s Missing In Our Great Cities
“For decades now, we have been witnessing the slow, ruthless dismantling of America’s urban infrastructure. The crumbling levees in New Orleans are only the most conspicuous evidence of this decline: it’s evident everywhere, from Amtrak’s aging track system to New York’s decaying public school buildings. Rather than confront the causes of that deterioration, we are encouraged to overlook it, lost in a cloud of tourist distractions like casinos, convention centers, spruced-up historic quarters and festival marketplaces. The inadequacy of that vision has now become glaringly obvious. And the problem cannot simply be repaired with reinforcement bars or dabs of cement. Instead, our decision makers will have to face up to what our cities have become, and why. The great American cities of the early 20th century were built on the vision of its engineers, not just architects…”
Marin Alsop, Conductor
She talks about the stresses after her controversial appointment to lead the Baltimore Symphony. ” ‘It was a very trying and stressful experience in many ways. To be perfectly honest, my initial reaction, when it all started, was to run: ‘Gosh, who needs this?’ She described a candid private meeting with the whole orchestra at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the orchestra’s home, before she appeared at a news conference on July 20. She wanted to look the musicians in the eye, she said, before signing the contract. She told the players she needed to get over her own hard feelings. By her account, she made it clear to them that she had already been hesitating about taking the job, given the orchestra’s large debt and poor attendance. At the same time, she praised the players as part of a gifted and deeply musical orchestra.”
Are “Accessible” Translations Up To The Job?
New translations of classics try to make work accessible to today’s readers. “The question, though – and it’s always a question now when it comes to translating the classics – is whether it is not too friendly to accommodate the difficulties of the original. This is a matter of fiery debate in the arts nowadays.”
Sprucing Up Security
A few years ago Washington DC got uglier, littered with hideous concrete barriers put in place to protect buildings from terrorist attack. But new designs incorporating security are proving that security can be attractive. “Ingeniously, the architects combined benches with that tired staple of curbside security, the heavy flower pot, to make the basic, repeating unit of their design. Measuring about 9 feet long by 4 feet wide by 3 1/2 feet high, this clean-lined unit looks very solid. Yet it is unquestionably attractive.”
Silicon Valley Leaders: We Need Culture To Stay Ahead
A survey of business leaders in California’s Silicon Valley reports that they believe their ability to “recruit creative talent is dropping compared with other global centers of technology. They cited the lack of an energetic urban core and insufficient leisure and cultural activities as among key reasons.”
Literary Mag Granta Changes Hands
“Sigrid Tausing, whose family made a fortune from Tetra-Pak drinks cartons, has bought the magazine from Rea Hederman, the owner of the New York Review of Books.”
Agriculture Destroying UK’s Ancient Sites
“Some of the oldest highways in Britain, built over 5,000 years ago to guide Bronze Age man across the treacherous wetlands of the Somerset Levels, have been completely destroyed by modern agriculture.”
Poetic Preoccupation
“It may be going too far to call this a ‘golden age’ for poetry, as this year’s Forward judges have done, but most of the poets jostling for these prizes do seem to be reaching for a readership beyond the seminar room. Sales of particular volumes may often be counted in the hundreds rather than thousands, but poetry does escape to what Milton called a ‘fit audience, though few’. Free, unlike novelists, to be as recondite as they wish, they have surprising taste for accessibility. It might surprise traditionalists to find a common interest in poetry’s formal polish and patterning, even rhyme and scansion. So what preoccupies the nation’s poets – aside from obtaining the university posts teaching creative writing that now sustain many of them?”
Is The Next Bilbao An Opera House?
“Valencia’s new 4,000-seat opera house, which opens tonight after nine years in construction, is meant to be more than just another surrealist design by architect Santiago Calatrava. It is the centrepiece of what local politicians hope will be a cultural renaissance for this resort region, better known for its beaches than for its love of Verdi.”