The new Scottish minister of culture says she supports helping the beleaguered Scottish Opera. But as to what exactly that help might be, she’s vague. Still, she has attended the company’s first two operas of the season and claims to love opera…
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Is Berlin Deadening The Human Spirit?
Berlin imposes strict rules on any architect wishing to erect a new building, rules drawn up and enforced by the city’s powerful director of urban development. The strict code has had some benefits, but overall, Lisa Rochon says that it is killing German architecture. “Urban-design regulations and zoning bylaws… dictate the maximum height of the building (22 metres), a setback for upper storeys, a careful ratio between window openings and masonry walls and a preference for buff-coloured limestone. The preferred elevation looks taut and minimal. The result is an architectural flatness that, when combined with the city’s grey winter light, can deaden the human spirit.”
The OutSourced Editor
“Alas, the era when the old-school Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins turned F. Scott Fitzgerald’s sheaf of scribbles into This Side of Paradise appears to be well and truly over, with many publishing houses appearing to be not much more than glorified Kinko’s that acquire, bind, print and ship out.” Editors who acquire books at big publishing houses rarely actually edit anymore; the job is outsourced to freelancers…
You Pay The Piper, You Call The Tune
The regional government of Wales has announced that it will be bypassing the UK’s Arts Council and taking over the fiscal management of all the major Welsh arts groups immediately. The change marks a dramatic shift in the way the arts are funded and managed in the UK, as politicians and bureaucrats will now have absolute authority over the affected groups, without the usual democratic council of experts acting as middleman. Strangely, no one in the Welsh arts community seems to be protesting too loudly.
Royal Academy Appoints New President
Nicholas Grimshaw has named president of the troubled Royal Academy in London. The RA has been rocked by a series of high-profile resignations…
Lebrecht: I Was Banned By The Met
Norman Lebrecht was asked recently to appear on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast as a commentator. Then he was disinvited. “The Met’s curse is unlikely to blight my life, as it did the careers of many artists. My only surprise was that it hadn’t happened before. In a quarter of a century of reporting musical affairs and commenting on them polemically, I have never been censored. I have been threatened with legal writs and, once, with a fist in my face, but no arts organisation until now has ever felt it necessary to shut me up.”
Major Moves At SPAC
The chairman of New York State’s embattled Saratoga Performing Arts Center has resigned in the wake of a scathing audit which accused the center of absentee management and severe negligence in its oversight of one of the Northeast’s prominent summer arts venues. The SPAC board also canceled its planned $400,000 buyout of its president, Herb Chesbrough, which was specifically targeted for withering criticism by the auditors.
Virtual Orchestra Demo Canceled In NY
A demonstration of the “virtual orchestra” by the Brooklyn Opera was canceled at CAMI Hall in New York Tuesday after CAMI withdrew use of the hall. The New York musicians’ union, which is bitterly opposed to the use of the machine to replace live musicians, had planned protests outside CAMI Hall.
Chicago Lyric Sheds Artistic Director
Chicago Lyric Opera has decided not to renew artistic director Matthew Epstein’s contract. General director William Mason: “Matthew and I have enjoyed an excellent relationship for many years, but our visions for the company diverged. I thank him for his many valuable contributions to Lyric and wish him the best with his future endeavors.”
Hollywood Sues Computer Server Owners
Hollywood movie studios are suing owners of computer servers that facilitate movie downloading. “The defendants this time run servers that use BitTorrent, now the program of choice for online sharers of large files owing to its immunity to industry attempts to confound file-swappers with bogus decoy files. ‘Today’s actions are aimed at individuals who deliberately set up and operate computer servers and Web sites that, by design, allow people to infringe copyrighted motion pictures’.”