“Members of a theatrical production staged the largest mass defection of Cuban performers to date yesterday as 43 cast members of Havana Night Club applied for political asylum at a US federal court in Las Vegas… The performers said they had decided to stay in the US after the authorities told them they could be jailed or barred from performing in Cuba.”
Blog
No, Virginia, There Is No Oakland Ballet
The impact of a ballet company’s closure can be difficult to measure, but when the holiday season rolls around, it isn’t hard to quantify the loss. “Thousands of children who live in the East Bay from Livermore, Pleasanton, Concord, Fremont, Richmond and most of all, Oakland, have come to the Paramount Theater on Broadway for at least 30 years to get their first taste of a live ballet performance. [But] until there is an Oakland Ballet Company there can’t be an Oakland Nutcracker… Sorry, Virginia, but the world is full of disappointments.”
MoMA’s Hard-To-Please Architect Likes What He Sees
MoMA’s sparkling new Manhattan home is getting mainly rave reviews from press and public. But what does Yoshio Taniguchi, the architect who designed the $855 million building, think about how his vision has taken shape? “I think I’m quite satisfied,” he said.
Dublin Longlist Packed With Big Names
The long list of nominees for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award has been released, and some big names are on it. Former Booker prizewinners DBC Pierre, Margaret Atwood, Anita Brookner, J M Coetzee, Graham Swift and Peter Carey are nominated, as are Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown and Whitbread winner Mark Haddon. The Dublin prize comes with €100,000, making it the second largest literary award in the world.
Putting Art On Layaway
England’s Arts Council is proposing a new program of interest-free loans to encourage aspiring art collectors to invest in works which they might otherwise consider beyond their price range. “The scheme, called Own Art, works through a network of 250 participating galleries, all of which have been vetted for quality, so punters cannot spend the loan on doing up the kitchen or going on a cruise. All that buyers have to do is possess a bank account which can handle direct debit, have proof of identity and address, and be over 18. The loan – between £100 and £2,000 – is paid back in 10 monthly instalments.”
British, V&A Museums Robbed Within A Single Month
“Within less than a month thieves have stolen Chinese antiquities from two London museums. The Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum both suffered apparently professional thefts of small portable decorative objects from cabinets on public display. It is likely that both thefts took place during museum opening hours.”
Kang on the Rebound
Emil Kang, the young arts executive who abruptly resigned from the top leadership post of the Detroit Symphony last December, has surfaced at the University of North Carolina, as the school’s new executive director for arts. Kang’s duties will include managing UNC’s largest arts venues and “promoting the arts through the development of the Arts Common, UNC’s decades-long project to create a central space for the arts on North Campus.
Election Notwithstanding, Runnicles Will Stay
Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles, who had speculated that he might choose to leave the U.S. if President Bush were reelected, has apparently decided to remain stateside after all, agreeing to a 3-year extension of his contract as music director of the San Francisco Opera. The new contract will keep Runnicles in San Francisco through the 2008-09 season, which will end several months after President Bush leaves office.
Of Thee I Sing (In Praise Of Choruses)
There are thousands of choruses in America. But “I often wonder why so many of us have such a poor image of choral singing. Is it because almost anyone who can sing can be a member? Do we think only those who play instruments are “real” musicians? Did we have a poor experience in school? Did we suffer through ill-prepared programs sung by poor voices? Or is it that we only support “big-name” groups under world-famous conductors?”
Northern Lights – Will New Music Center Transform North England?
“Sage Gateshead, a £70m music centre designed by Foster and Partners, could completely reorient Britain’s artistic map when it opens on December 17. It won the biggest lottery grant in the country outside London – £47m – and is the latest and most ambitious of Gateshead’s confident wedge of new landmarks, alongside the Baltic art gallery and the blinking-eye bridge.”