A new art school in Philadelphia has scored a major grant from the Delaware River Port Authority, and some officials are asking how a small-scale start-up operation could be awarded a quarter of a million dollars in bridge toll proceeds (nearly twice the school’s entire annual operating budget) while other, more established arts groups go begging. The answer appears to be that school officials have friends in very high political places – friends who lobbied hard for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to approve the grant quickly and quietly.
Blog
Philly’s Christmas Glut
The end-of-the-year holiday season is make-or-break time for many performing arts groups, and in large cities like Philadelphia, where dozens of groups are competing for audience, getting a big enough slice of the ticket revenue pie becomes crucial, and difficult. “In the last three years, the Philadelphia Orchestra has added eight holiday concerts, supplementing its traditional two performances of Handel’s Messiah and its yearly New Year’s Eve concert. The Philly Pops, which in 2000 gave its first holiday-themed concert, now offers six. The Kimmel Center itself also has added holiday shows such as the Vienna Boys Choir. Smaller arts groups also are relying ever more heavily on holiday receipts.”
Yes Men And Their No-No’s
Recently, the Yes Men hoodwinked media by issuing a dummy statement on the tenth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. “Somewhere between satire and surrealism, activism and absurdism, the Yes Men seem likely to wreak embarrassment and confusion for some time to come, and not even the censure that followed the ‘Bhopal incident’ seems to have dimmed their determination.”
London’s Royal Academy In Trouble
“The Royal Academy of Arts, the body that has represented Britain’s leading artists for more than 200 years, is facing a grave financial crisis. Its splendid corridors are riven with talk of plots and bad management, and unless it scores another blockbusting hit with the ‘Turks’ exhibition, to be staged next year, it may have to sell more of its assets. A new president will be elected on Tuesday, in Vatican-style seclusion, inside the academy’s stately home, Burlington House in London’s Piccadilly. But when the 80 academicians on the general assembly have made their decision, their newly anointed leader will become the figurehead of an organisation saddled with potentially crippling money problems.”
Juggling Rings
A production of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle is always the talk of whatever city is lucky enough to host it. But in London, the unthinkable is about to occur: two simultaneous Rings, being performed in two different opera houses by two different companies. It could be a rare chance to compare and contrast differing visions of arguably the greatest operatic accomplishment of all time. Or it could just be repetitive.
The Wagner Conundrum
Richard Wagner was, by all accounts, a horrible human being, a vicious anti-Semite, and an extremist ideologue. That legacy hasn’t exactly tarnished his musical reputation, but it does give many musicians pause when asked to perform his works. “So, why bother with Wagner at all? Why grant him four long evenings, as in the case of The Ring? … One question is: can we live without it?”
Computer Model Predicts Book Sales
A new computer model is proving accurate in predicting how books will sell. “Information about a book travels through the network of potential buyers in two possible fashions: exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous shocks come from sources outside the system they affect, like billboards or newspaper articles; endogenous shocks are made up of very small exogenous shocks that happen in a coordinated fashion, like word-of-mouth recommendations. The model predicts how sales will decline after they peak according to how the peak occurred.”
Suing Wal-Mart For Obscene Lyrics
The parents of a 13-year-old are suing Wal-Mart for selling music with “obscene” lyrics. “The lawsuit seeks to force Wal-Mart to censor the music or remove it from its stores in Maryland. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 for every customer who bought the CD at Maryland Wal-Marts, and also naming record label Wind-Up Records and distributor BMG Entertainment in the legal action.”
Breslin & Pavarotti: The End of The Affair
Herbert Breslin’s tell-all biography of Luciano Pavarotti has been the talk of the opera world this year for its catty and bitter tone and mind-boggling revelations concerning the superstar tenor. But the book also represents the final public split between Pavarotti and the author, who spent decades managing the singer’s affairs, completely in the thrall of his stunning voice and outsized personality. “As Pavarotti got bigger in every way, Breslin’s adoration shrank. By the time of the Three Tenors, a pop phenomenon engineered not by Breslin but by the impresario Tibor Rudas, Breslin was miserable.”
The Broadway Play Is Dead, Long Live The Br… oh, never mind.
So the Broadway play is becoming an endangered species. Is this evolution of the Great White Way into a musical-dominated tourist trap really worth getting all worked up about? “What’s striking is the recent inability of the Broadway drama to stir the passions of anyone except the most dedicated theatergoers. TV, films, books and music all create waves of discussion about the way we live or run our government… When a play does tap into a hot issue these days, it tends not to happen on Broadway.”