It’s looking very much as if the Metropolitan Opera’s interim chairwoman, Christine Hunter, is in line to become the permanent replacement for Beverly Sills when the Met’s board meets later this spring. Hunter was previously a well-known trustee at the Washington National Opera, and served as that company’s president for the better part of two decades.
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The Worst Musical… Ever?
The production company known as Dodger Stage Holdings has become notorious for a string of high-profile Broadway flops, leading critic Michael Riedel to suggest that the company has “done more damage to Western civilization than the Visigoths.” And it appears that Dodger’s unbroken streak of futility is continuing this season with Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys-inspired musical meant to draw in nostalgic baby boomers and pop-loving tourists. Instead, the show has been vilified in the press, and is so hated by Broadway insiders that other producers are openly rooting for it to fold. The best review the show has received so far is one that declared it to be “not quite the history-making train wreck trumpeted in advance.”
A Distinctly American Rage
Robert deNiro’s performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull stands as the defining cinematic portrait of pure human rage, and the film may be the perfect representation of the strength and weakness of the American character ideal. “The violence that defines [LaMotta] — and that part of the American character he represents — emerges as simultaneously the source of his great success and the agent of his pathetic undoing… Violence is his path to freedom (sound familiar?) and the means by which he liberates himself from the violent dictates of others, from the despotic gangsters who run his neighbourhood and control his sport. Yet, the same violence is a manifestation of his self-hatred and his sexual insecurity and his paranoid jealousy.”
Dallas’s Arts District To Expand
A proposed expansion of Dallas’s Arts District got a big boost this week when a developer who had been balking at the zoning changes required for the expansion changed course and signed on as a supporter of the plan. “Despite vocal opposition from at least three property owners, City Plan Commission members on Thursday unanimously voted to lengthen the district.” The Arts District has become one of downtown Dallas’s most desirably urban areas, and the expansion is designed in part to force the owners of some of the dilapidated gas stations and vacant lots on the area’s outskirts to conform to the new high standard set by the district.
Axelrod Accomplice Pleads Guilty
” The key witness in the tax fraud case against philanthropist Herbert Axelrod pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge yesterday as part of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors. Gary Hersch, a former employee of Axelrod, admitted in federal court in Trenton that he conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by hiding $775,000 in a Swiss bank account… Axelrod gained notoriety after he sold a collection of rare stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in 2003 for a fraction of what he said they were worth. That sale came under the scrutiny of federal authorities because of allegations that Axelrod had inflated the instruments’ value as part of a tax scheme.”
Dutoit Reups In Philly
Charles Dutoit has signed a contract extension which will keep him in front of the Philadelphia Orchestra as summer music director through 2008. The orchestra spends most of its summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, where Dutoit has led them since 1990.
You Mean Classical Music Can Be Marketed? Who Knew?
Say what you will about Charlotte Church or Vanessa Mae and the crossover dreck they peddle, there can be no question that such artists are popular, largely because the full marketing strength of major record companies are four square behind them. The days when classical music was important enough to sell itself are long over, and after years of bemoaning that fact while doing nothing about it, “classical music is using the tools of the pop industry to raise its profile. The old criteria for judging music and interpreter, based on informed opinion and a gradual evolution of talent, have lost ground. What counts now is sales volume.”
An Old-School Conductor Gets His Due
Since leaving the Cleveland Orchestra two years ago, Christoph von Dohnanyi has been “enjoying the kind of respectful attention the classical music world likes to bestow on elder statesmen of the baton… There aren’t many maestros of his pedigree around anymore… Dohnanyi knows it and doesn’t hesitate to speak of himself as a living link to the Austro-German performance tradition.” His demanding style and uncompromising work ethic have led him to clash with many top American orchestras, which are not fond of direct criticism, but as his career enters its final years, Dohnanyi increasingly seems deserving of a reputation as one of the great conductors of the last century.
No New Opera For Melbourne
“Hopes that a large-scale opera company will be established in Melbourne as the result of an inquiry ordered by Premier Steve Bracks appear to have been dashed… Government sources say there will be no return to the days of the Victoria State Opera, which disappeared after facing financial collapse in 1996. It is believed the costs involved would be too great.”
Virginia State Budget Surplus Boosts Arts Hopes
Virginia arts organizations have been frustrated in recent years trying to get the state legislature to allocate money for the arts. “Thanks to a surplus now hovering around $1.2 billion and an economy that is humming along, lawmakers are once again sounding more agreeable to arts funding. However, some restrictions still apply.”