Riccardo Muti was back at La Scala this past weekend, but don’t get excited. The deposed Milan maestro returned as a guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. “As fans threw long-stemmed white roses onto the stage amid thunderous applause and a chorus of bravos, Mr. Muti – looking solemn but moved – acknowledged the cheers with a nod, placed a single rose on the podium and exited, stage right.”
Blog
Plenty Of Hard Feelings After D.C. Tour Cancellation
When Washington Ballet cancelled its planned tour of Italian summer festivals over a pay dispute with its dancers, it left a slew of Italian promoters and festival organizers in the lurch, having promoted the company as their centerpiece. Most of the festivals will not be able to secure comparable replacement companies, since most ballets are booked well in advance. The dispute between the company and its dancers centered around the amount of meal money to be paid during the tour.
Houston’s Grand Operatic Secret (Pay Attention, San Francisco)
Opera may be hot again, but precious few American cities can boast of having a truly world-class opera company. One of the lucky few is Houston, where the Grand Opera marked its 50th birthday last weekend, and Joshua Kosman says that you don’t have to look very hard to see how the company has achieved its success. “To speak of the Houston Grand Opera is to speak of David Gockley, the visionary general director who has led the company since 1972 and made it what it is today.” Gockley will shortly be leaving Houston to take up the reins of the San Francisco Opera, and Kosman says that the Bay Area can realistically hope for a newly reinvigorated company under his leadership.
Eakins Biography Gets Down ‘n Dirty
An exhaustive new biograophy of 19th-century Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins contains enough bombshells to keep the art world arguing for some time. Author Henry Adams has crafted a portrait of “a severely troubled individual with a catalog of psychoses, including a castration complex, sexual inadequacy and trauma, and a propensity to drink more milk than perhaps is healthy.” And as if that weren’t enough, Adams is also taking some pointed shots at the Eakins scholars who came before him, accusing them of ignoring the seedier side of the artist’s life.
Broadway Catering To The Under-12 Crowd
“Young audiences are big business for Broadway. Last year the group accounted for 1.3 million tickets sold, 11.2% of all tickets. And 30% of those 1.3 million were sold to kids younger than 12, according to surveys… Young people are such a presence at Broadway shows that the League of American Theatres and Producers has launched a kid-targeted Web site, generationbroadway.com, for children age 8 to 12.”
Minneapolis’s Hensley Wins Primus Prize
“Michelle Hensley, artistic director of Minneapolis-based Ten Thousand Things Theater Company, has won the 2005 Francesca Primus Prize, a national award recognizing outstanding accomplishments by female artists in theater… She is the first non-playwright to win the award… Hensley founded Ten Thousand Things in Los Angeles in 1990, and moved to the Twin Cities in 1993. The company’s repertoire includes everything from Shakespeare to Brecht to its current production of the musical Ragtime. Using actors with credits on the Twin Cities’ major stages, Ten Thousand Things’ productions are a perennial part of local critics’ annual best-of lists. Though the company does paid public performances of its work, its core patrons are those in prisons, urban community centers, senior high rises and other audiences not generally exposed to theater.”
Colorado Ballet: How Did It Come To This?
Colorado Ballet seems to be in freefall, cancelling a major world premiere for lack of funds to pay choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, and attempting to dig out from under the weight of some major upper management resignations. And yet, only recently, the company was thought to be at the top of its artistic and financial game, and was looking forward to moving into Denver’s new opera house. So what happened? No one outside the company is entirely sure, but botched negotiations with Wheeldon seem to have been the catalyst for nearly all the subsequent problems, and its likely that more resignations are yet to come.
Art Chicago Bests Its Two Rivals
“The Art Fair Wars have come and gone, and though there was something for everyone to enjoy this past weekend, the consensus in the art community is that the winner is: Art Chicago in the Park, hands down… perhaps the near-death of Art Chicago was exactly what it needed to come back to itself. Painting and drawing dominated the show, and about two dozen international galleries showed up. There were especially strong showings from Spain and Korea; one of the better booths was Spanish Galeria de Arte la Ribera, with big paintings of moody interiors by Rosa Martinez-Artero. Less space seemed to make for a friendlier neighborhood feeling.”
Rock Band Blasts Pared-Down Warner Music Ahead Of IPO
“Days before an expected public stock offering from the Warner Music Group, the rap-rock band Linkin Park demanded yesterday to be released from its recording contract with the company, saying internal cost cuts may have left the music giant ‘unable to compete in today’s global music marketplace’… The spat comes as a team of private investors, who purchased Warner Music from Time Warner last year for $2.6 billion, is preparing for an initial offering of shares that is expected to raise $750 million and is expected to take place in mid-May. Since taking charge last year, the investment team has restructured the company and cut about $250 million in costs through layoffs, cuts to the artist roster and consolidation of its international operations.”
Milwaukee Ticket Sales Jump
It’s been a while since the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra got any good news about its ticket sales, but this week, the orchestra announced that single ticket sales have jumped 20% in the current season, and credited the MSO’s newly customer-driven marketing focus for the gain. The orchestra has also been playing a new series of “scaled-down performances of that weekend’s concert programming combined with a video presentation designed to introduce the music and composers to a new audience,” which have attracted large numbers of new ticket-buyers.