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Name That Tune (They’ll Do It For You)

Ever stuck trying to name a song you heard? Now the computer will do it for you. “You call a toll-free number on your cell phone and play the music you’re trying to identify for 15 seconds. The program then contacts you via text message, whether it can make the ID or not. Sorry, but humming a tune won’t work. But the service can distinguish between different performers’ versions of the same tune to match audio “fingerprints” from its database of more than 2.5 million popular recordings. The database doesn’t include classical music or jazz.”

A Little-O Opera Revival In Montana

A long-forgotten American opera based on Blackfeet Indian legend has an unlikely revival in a struggling agricultural town in northern Montana. “We have to overcome this stereotype that people have developed over what we’re calling this show. It’s an opera, but I don’t ever say the O-word. I refer to it as the legend of Scarface told through acting and singing and lighting.”

Video As Architecture’s Building Block

Moving images are everywhere these days, and increasingly on the surfaces of our buildings. “It is not hard to envision a day when we will live in chameleon cities, when the radiant skin of all new buildings will be programmed to produce an ever-changing array of colors, messages and shows. The movie in the church courtyard involved the transformation of a plain white wall; architects these days are integrating the evanescent image directly into their designs, using video the way their predecessors used cast iron and stone.”

Why Is The West End So Celeb-Happy?

“Take, for example, the Postman Always Rings Twice. On stage we had the dense lacklustre performance of Kilmer, in the audience there was Tracey Emin trying to start a standing ovation and Terry Wogan looking on. Is this what theatre has become? Celebrity Luvve Island? Ewan McGregor in Guys and Dolls, Ross Geller in Some Girl(s) – oops, sorry it’s David Schwimmer isn’t it, and Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic. Then there’s the audience which is equally star-studded. It’s as if success can only be measured by your sleb count and the length of your ovation depends on the number of stars studding the cast not the quality of the performance.”

In Miami – Not Your Parents’ Opera

Florida Grand Opera has had its best couple of seasons ever at the box office. A great deal of the credit has to go to the company’s new marketing campaign. “So much of the advertising over the years had become . . . focused on the people who are going to be in the audience anyway. So we really launched a campaign . . . of having real-life opera singers who are young and sexy and look like people you’d like to approach at a party.”

Major Sponsor Pulls Support For Edinburgh Fringe Play

A major sponsor at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has withdrawn its support for a play and ordered its logo removed from all publicity surrounding it. “Smirnoff, which sponsors The Underbelly venue, has a reputation for cutting-edge advertising, but the content of Dirty Works, by New York-based British playwright Jamie Linley, has proved too much for the vodka firm.”

All White In The Heart Of America

Robert Trussell has a problem with a Kansas City shakespeare festival’s casting. “Once again, the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival has assembled an all-white cast for its annual production, which this year is “Much Ado About Nothing.” The festival hasn’t indulged in monochrome casting every year, of course, but minority representation has been a troubling issue since the organization was founded in 1993. I have no doubt that I will hear from a few readers who see this as, well, much ado about nothing. I’ve heard all the arguments before. They usually go something like this: The actors at the Globe Theatre were white, so what’s the problem? There were no Asian, African or Hispanic actors in Shakespeare’s day, so why are you shoving diversity down our throats?”