A new law before the British Parliament institutes new fees for outdoor performances. “Events attracting audiences of 5,000 people or more will be required to make a one-off payment of between £1,000 and £64,000 on top of their public entertainment licence, which will cost between £100 and £635. While organisers of large commercial programmes will be able to incorporate the extra costs into the price of their tickets, industry figures have warned that large-scale community and not for profit events will no longer be able to function when the additional charge is incorporated into their budgets.”
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Cirque’s $200 Million Gamble
“Kà is the latest and most grandiose project from Cirque du Soleil. Indeed, it is probably the most grandiose piece of live theatre ever undertaken. The figures only hint at the ambition of the endeavour. Each show features 158 stage technicians and 75 performers. It cost $200 million to create and needs $1 million a week to keep running.” And what do you get for all that money?
City Ballet – Time To Move On?
Robert Gottlieb deems New York City Ballet’s current season better than usual. But. “We’ve recently been told by Anna Kisselgoff, in one of her farewell columns in The New York Times, that “professional Balanchine mourners” should move on. But to what? To her beloved Boris Eifman? (Yes, she’s still defending the indefensible.) Believe me, Anna, we want to move on—to any large talent that presents itself. That’s why everybody hangs over Christopher Wheeldon, praying that he’ll be the one to lead us into new green pastures. What we won’t do is abandon the standards that George Balanchine established, both for his own ballets and for the dancers in what we still can’t help thinking of as “our” company. Far from wishing Peter Martins ill, people like me cherish everything positive that he does. But that doesn’t mean we have to tamely accept second-rate performances.”
New Education Secretary Criticizes PBS
Margaret Spellings, America’s new Secretary of Education, has denounced PBS for “spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles. The not-yet-aired episode of “Postcards From Buster” shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont — a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring. A PBS spokesman said late Tuesday that the nonprofit network had decided not to distribute the episode, called “Sugartime!” to its 349 stations.”
Why PBS Caved On Buster
Even though PBS president Pat Mitchell viewed the episode of Postcards From Buster and called it appropriate, the network pulled it from the schedule after education secretary Margaret Spellings criticized it for portraying lesbian characters.
Van Gogh Film Pulled From Festival
“Murdered director Theo van Gogh’s controversial film Submission has been pulled from the Rotterdam Film Festival because of security fears. It was one of three of his works to be shown as part of a freedom of expression event in tribute to the late film-maker’s life.”
New “Super” Museum For North Of England
An ambitious new £25.7 million ‘super’ museum in northern UK which would be home to more than 500,000 artefacts is gathering support and funding. “On Wednesday the Heritage Lottery Fund announced it was donating more than £9.2m to the Great North Museum scheme. It is due to be completed in 2009.”
The Bernstein Factor
Leonard Bernstein’s absence looms over classical music and its current dilemma: superstar conductors and dwindling receipts, “crossover” CDs and spiraling sales, and the ongoing burnout between academic composers and listeners. When Bernstein began his Young People’s Concerts in early 1958, classical culture was different in ways he changed irrevocably: the concert tradition was “high culture” filtered through Europeans like Toscanini, targeted at an educated elite, and orchestras were the province of elderly white men. How quaint that all feels today…
Is Jay The “Greatest Composing Talent In 200 Years”?
“Jay Greenberg is a child prodigy studying at the Juilliard School in New York City. Some of his professors claim he is the greatest composing talent in more than 200 years. He is composing his fifth symphony. He has about 150 fully orchestrated pieces on his hard drive and a further 300 completed works on manuscript paper.”
A Change of Direction At Paris Review
Why did the board of the Paris Review fire Brigid Hughes as George Plimpton’s successor? “Ms. Hughes’ firing was seen by some as a betrayal of Plimpton’s memory: He was fiercely loyal, and Ms. Hughes had apprenticed closely with him. But others saw it as an attempt by an anxiety-ridden board—which Plimpton himself had established—to honor his legacy by searching for new directions for the magazine.”