The Catholic Church in Italy has spoken out against The Da Vinci Code. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa and a possible successor to the Pope, plans a series of debates on issues raised by the novel. “It astonishes and worries me that so many people believe these lies. The book is everywhere. There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true.”
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LA County Museum To Expand
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has announced a $156 million expansion. “About $130 million will be spent for the first phase of the project, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, to expand, upgrade and unify the sprawling facility.”
Montreal Orchestra Tensions Rise
“The management of L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal saw red over the weekend, saying that unless the players stop wearing red union T-shirts on stage, cancellation of four concerts with music director-designate Kent Nagano later this month “may be inevitable.”
Opera And The Newbies
A group of people goes to the opera for the first time. And what do they think? A few don’t make it past the intermission at Covent Garden. But one: “You can put this in your piece: I was moved to tears and I’ve just signed up to become a member. That should tell you how much I enjoyed it. It was the best thing I ever did.”
Mozart, The Bolshoi, And The Protests
A new opera at the Bolshoi has roiled passions. “The demonstrations prompted a political debate over freedom of expression and censorship – historically hypersensitive subjects in Russia. The Kremlin distanced itself from the events, criticising the criminal investigation. Sales of Sorokin’s books soared, and the Bolshoi’s project received promotion nobody could have dreamed about.”
What Would Make People Buy More Books?
A new research report offers some suggestions. “More than half of non-buyers say they would buy books if they became cheaper, and if they became more accessible. The research clearly shows that discounting expands the market, with cost the most quoted reason why non-buyers are rejecting books: 21% say new books are too expensive. The high-priced fiction hardback comes in for particular abuse from non, light and medium buyers. Supermarkets emerge with credit: more than half of all adults say they would buy more books if supermarkets stocked larger ranges.”
French Police Arresting Conductors
French police are arresting conductors and breaking up tours of orchestras employing Eastern European musicians. “Of all the unsavory aspects of French police going around the country busting orchestras and locking up their conductors or managers, it is the notion that it’s being done to protect these innocent violin-playing lambs from Sofia that drips heaviest with irony. In common with price-fixing cartels the world ’round, France and Germany’s high-priced musicians have only one interest in this affair, and that is keeping low-priced competition off the market. That this means smallish French towns get no opera, or get it only when heavy public subsidies are made available for it, concerns them not at all.”
Words In The Service Of Art (We Think)
Filmmaker Ken Burns gives the annual Nancy Hanks speech at the Kennedy Center. It was a fine speech, writes Phil Kennicott, but rather empty. He gave “what may be studied in years to come as an almost faultless rhetorical exercise in the dying language of Art, Greatness and Inspiration. Burns, the avatar of PBS, speaks beautifully about nothing, using a set of tropes and gentle fictions that, when placed together in almost any order (like refrigerator magnet poetry), seem to take you to Parnassus.”
Poetry – The Best Of Times?
What’s it like to be a poet these days? Pretty good, says Billy Collins. “It’s a very good time to be a poet. There are lots of prizes and opportunities to read, which wasn’t the case until pretty recently.”
Culture – Looking For Ground Zero
What’s happened to plans for cultural institutions to take up residence at the site of the World Trade Center? “In the nine months since, those arts institutions have been under pressure to prove themselves all over again. And even as the development corporation in charge of rebuilding ground zero prepares to unveil a design in the next few weeks for a museum complex at the site, it is by no means certain who will occupy it.”