France’s world-renowned Avignon Festival is having a bad year, with critics calling it “purgatory” or worse, and patrons walking out of performances in droves. “The festival was crippled in 2003 after a strike by theatre workers, but returned with healthy audiences last year. Ticket sales for this year’s events had been strong.” One critic described this year’s festival as the worst in 37 years, and another wrote, “You think you’ve reached the last point in mediocrity, pretentiousness and confusion. But no. There is always something worse.”
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The Decline Of The Disney Empire
The Walt Disney Company used to be the cultural barometer for everyday Americans, combining a cutting-edge marketing apparatus and wide-ranging distribution with legitimately creative product. So what the heck happened? The author of a new book about the company points out that “the creative flame at the heart of the place is flickering rather dimly at this point,” but there’s more to it than that. It’s not just Disney that has changed – the world that once embraced Disney has changed as well, and may no longer be receptive to the happy-go-lucky message of the world’s most famous mouse.
So Bad, It Might Just Be Good
What in the name of all that is holy has happened to summer movies? How can there be 14 screens in one place, and not a single watchable film? It’s enough to drive a critic to drink, and the public has already cast its vote by staying away in droves. But is it just possible that this summer’s cauldron of Hollywood dreck might actually be bad enough to convince the major studios to start putting out a better product?
A Comedy Of Errors Nearly Becomes A Dublin Tragedy
“Ireland’s national theatre, founded 100 years ago by WB Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, narrowly avoided having to turn out the lights and declare insolvency this morning. The entire management board offered its resignation yesterday after a disastrous year in which it managed to lose almost €1m [$1.2 million] into a ‘black hole’ without even noticing. The Abbey has slipped €3.4m into the red and witnessed a battle of egos worthy of Oscar Wilde’s cruellest comedy. Now a report by independent financial consultants has accused the byzantine management structure of gross incompetence.”
Fixing Up The Met, One Agonizing Detail At A Time
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is winding up four years of renovation with a painstaking restoration of its intricate four-block-long facade. “Section by section, architects, engineers and craftsmen have been slowly and carefully repointing portions of the stone facade, cleaning and filling in cracks and repairing water damage.”
Barenboim The Politician
Musicians don’t come much more Israeli than Daniel Barenboim. The pianist and conductor grew up in Tel Aviv, and has retained his citizenship even as his career took him around the world. “With such bona-fide Israeli credentials, you would hardly have expected Barenboim to become one of its government’s most conspicuous critics. Yet, like Menuhin before him, Barenboim’s questing mind ensures that his own considered opinions transcend mere political correctness… In 1999 he formed, against all odds, an orchestra made up by an equal number of young Arab and Israeli musicians… to demonstrate that, through music, it is possible for people from warring factions to co-exist peacefully. After six years of hard work, it is proving an overwhelming success, and that fact alone should convince politicians of the importance of music in education.”
Another Preservation Dustup
London’s Commonwealth Institute, one of the UK’s leading buildings, has been placed on a protected list of historic structures by the country’s culture secretary, over the protests of the Institute’s trustees, who wanted to sell the building to raise money for education programs. “The pre-stressed concrete building in Holland Park, west London, was designed by the British architect Sir Robert Matthew, and was given a Grade II listing by English Heritage within 30 years of being opened by the Queen in 1962.”
La Scala To Replace Muti With A Platoon
“Italy’s venerable opera house, La Scala, will rotate through a roster of young conductors instead of replacing its former maestro, Riccardo Muti, who lead the company for 19 years. Stephane Lissner, La Scala’s new artistic director, says he’s in no hurry to replace Muti, who was ousted earlier this year along with top managers after an acrimonious strike by the theatre’s workers… Lissner said he would like to have a lineup of five or six conductors taking over the reigns for the next three years and mentioned the likes of Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Barenboim and Lorin Maazel.”
Seattle Opera Founder Dies
Glynn Ross, the founding general director of Seattle Opera, has died, aged 90, after suffering a stroke. “Ross, a former Golden Gloves fighter who grew up on a Nebraska farm, founded and ran Seattle Opera for two decades, and also developed its international calling card: regular productions of Wagner’s four-opera masterpiece, the ‘Ring’.”
But Would They Pay For It?
Classical music advocates are ecstatic over the news that the BBC’s free offer of downloadable Beethoven resulted in more downloads than any of the big pop stars currently topping the charts. But Andrew Dickson points out the flaw in that comparison: the Beethoven was free. Bono and The Beatles aren’t. The BBC is comparing a giveaway with purchased pop tracks. So the real lesson may be that people like free stuff.