“Copenhagen’s is the very model of a modern major opera house. Its size is moderate (about 1,600 seats); the auditorium is tiered and horseshoe-shaped, with adaptable acoustics; and a flexible studio space is attached. Everything backstage is controlled by fingertip technology. The front of house is illuminated by three dazzling chandeliers designed by Olafur Eliasson, famous for his light installation at Tate Modern. It all symbolises openness and accessibility. As yet, the atmosphere in the place seems a bit sterile, more conference centre than fun palace.”
Blog
The Stupidity Of Women’s Writing (Whatever That Is)
“There is no such thing as Women’s Writing. Just as there is no such thing as Left-Handed Writing, Red-Headed Writing, European Writing, Northern Hemisphere Writing, or Writing from the Planet Earth. All of these categories are so large as to be meaningless. Sadly, Women’s Writing is the only one of the above repeatedly used as a stick to beat women who write. Either Women’s Writing is fluffy and inconsequential, full of romps and buttocks – or Women’s Writing is coarse and aggressive and the kind of muck you’d expect from an off-duty stripper in a strop – or Women’s Writing is obsessed with plumbing and bleeding and bonding to whale music. Effectively, Women’s Writing is whatever has most annoyed any given journalist, commentator, academic, or author in the past few books by women they’ve read.”
China Bans Sexy Mao Novel
Chinese censors have banned a racy novel and pulled it from book shelves. “The novella, Serve the People – named after Mao’s most famous slogan – has been rejected for publication and a magazine that had been serialising the contents has been pulled from the shelves. Although it was written by one of China’s most distinguished authors, Yan Lianke, propaganda ministry officials were reportedly apoplectic when they first read the tale of sexual revolution inside the People’s Liberation Army.”
Pierre Boulez At 80
“Today Boulez has become such a globally venerated figure, that it is difficult to appreciate how radical he was. To say he has mellowed would be an understatement: today he is often found conducting in those very opera houses whose demolition he earlier demanded and conducting operas such as Wagner’s Parsifal, whose lush late romanticism would surely seem to be inimical to the high modernism for which he used to be the noisiest proselytiser.”
Chicago Poet Was Mass. Murderer
A convicted murderer and prison escapee who led a secret life as a Chicago-area poet for nearly two decades today waived his right to an extradition hearing and was ordered returned to Massachusetts to resume serving a life sentence.
Music Industry Woes – More Than Just Copyright
The music industry is in court against p2p file-trading services. “But even if the entertainment business manages to coax more users into paying for legal downloads and succeeds in court against Grokster and StreamCast, its problems are unlikely to go away. True, a Supreme Court ruling in the industry’s favour would put paid to other P2P services. But it is not clear that curbing illegal downloading will translate into extra sales for the music business. A rush into legal downloading would hardly be good for sales of CDs: some cannibalisation is inevitable. And perhaps the decline in global sales is indicative of a far greater problem for the music industry—consumers simply think that many of its products are just not worth paying for.”
Christie’s Sales Up 13 Percent Worldwide
Christie’s says auction sales were up 13 percent. “Worldwide sales totaled 1.4 billion pounds ($2.5 billion), up from 1.2 billion pounds in 2003, London-based Christie’s said in a statement. Public auctions raised 1.3 billion pounds, and private transactions totaled 83 million pounds, Christie’s said.”
An African “Carmen” From The Townships
An film opera of “Carmen” had its birth in the townships of South Africa. “It is the first operatic film to be made in South Africa’s Xhosa language, it is the first African film to win the coveted Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin Film festival and it is the first mainstream film to use actors almost exclusively from the townships. They were brought together almost five years ago after extensive auditions held in the townships across South Africa.”
Yo-Yo Ma Of The Bass?
“The double bass is one of the few remaining instruments that have never produced a bankable star in classical music. There has been no Itzhak Perlman, no Yo-Yo Ma, no James Galway of the double bass,” largely because the damn things are so wildly awkward and difficult to play. “Playing a simple melody may demand that a player negotiate leaps of two or three feet, from over the head to down near the belly and back again. Moreover, even under the best of circumstances, it is hard to make the unadorned tone of the instrument sound anything but gray and burly.” Enter DaXun Zhang, winner of competitions previously untouched by bass players, and possessor of a tone so beautiful and varied that the listener might forget what instrument is being played.
Ingenuity = Big Bucks In Cleveland
A new arts-and-technology festival in Cleveland is attracting serious donors, despite an overall malaise in the local cultural scene. Ingenuity, as the fest will be called, has in recent weeks picked up $100,000 from the George Gund Foundation, as well as $60,000 from governmental sources (with another $150,000 in county funds still on the table) and a $20,000 challenge grant from Case Western Reserve University. The festival, which kicks off in September 2005, is expected to cost $1.4 million.