Regardless of what the Canadian film board might tell you, Toronto does not look like New York. Nor does it look like Chicago, L.A., Seattle, Boston, or any of the other cities that Canadian cities have been standing in for in Hollywood films over the last decade. A new documentary makes the case for on-location shooting, and claims that moviegoers can easily tell the difference between accurate depictions of a city and generic stand-ins.
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Who Watches Dance, And Why?
A major study of dance audiences has been completed in Chicago, with researchers attempting to quantify the impact of dance on the average citizen, and to further determine exactly who is likely to attend a dance performance and why. Among the study’s findings: women are a whopping 71% of dance attendees; intellectual stimulation finishes behind aesthetic beauty on the list of reasons that attendees enjoy dance; and very few audience members can tell the difference between modern, classical, and jazz dance without labels to help them.
Culture’s Impact On Politics: Zilch, Apparently
John Kerry had a lot of star power behind him in his losing bid to become President of the United States, with major stars in the world of music, film, and literature lining up to support the Democrat. But though “the 2004 election turned mainly on cultural issues, as distinct from matters of economics or public policy… the vast majority of those who think of themselves as cultural professionals found themselves firmly on the losing side. In an election that many arts people saw as being of cataclysmic importance, that clear disconnect spawned a lot of soul-searching in studios, offices, screening-rooms and theaters over the latter half of the week.”
West End Bars Critics From Opening Night
“West End theatre producers are to make radical attempts to fireproof new shows against the critics as they survey the smouldering wreckage of productions closed following bad reviews.” Specifically, the idea is to change the tradition whereby every critic in the city shows up for opening night, and reviews that one performance. “Producers believe the opening night combination of nervous relatives and anxious financial backers can destabilise performances. The experimental move, which has been cautiously welcomed by several critics as well as by theatre owners, is a response to the growing power of the London critics.”
Miami Means Books
The Miami Book Fair opens. “This year, 365 authors from 30 countries are participating in the eight-day fair that began on Sunday and runs until next Sunday on the downtown campus of Miami-Dade College and on the streets surrounding it. There will be readings in five languages – English, Spanish, Portuguese, Creole and French – and about half a million people are expected to attend. More than 30 writers were turned away because the full schedule could not accommodate them, organizers said.”
Talk About Your Last-Minute Replacements
Baritone Ian Vayne thought he was headed to his local opera house to spend a relaxing evening watching a new production of Bizet’s Carmen. Instead, Vayne wound up on stage in the role of Escamillo after the scheduled singer was felled by a heart attack. He knew the part, but had only fifteen minutes to learn the staging and choreography for the show. He received a standing ovation for his trouble, as well as the undying gratitude of the company.
The Met’s New Man Worries The Fan Base
For all the fearful talk about what Peter Gelb will do when he takes the reins of the Metropolitan Opera in 2006, Gelb seems to have a remarkably upbeat philosophy about high culture: as he puts it, “art can be both commercially successful and artistically successful.” Of course, it’s the “commercial” aspect that worries some observers, and Gelb’s tenure at Sony Classical is an example of what many purists believe is blatant commercialism at the expense of true artistic success.
Joe Volpe: The Exit Interview
Okay, he’s not leaving for another two years. But with his successor already named, Metropolitan Opera chief Joseph Volpe is now officially a lame duck, a position to which he is anything but accustomed. Regarding fears that Peter Gelb is planning to dumb down the company with the crossover material that made him famous at Sony Classical, Volpe takes a skeptical tone: “Peter is very smart. And I believe Peter will do what’s in good taste and proper for the Met. I don’t think he would attempt to popularize a standard work, because, first of all, it won’t work. In the record business you can do certain things that you cannot do in an opera house.”
Bucking The Trend: MoMA’s Fundraising Triumph
As New York’s Museum of Modern Art settles into its spectacular new Manhattan home, it’s worth noting that the process MoMA underwent to reach this point was a triumph of modern non-profit fundraising. In the middle of a recession, in a period during which New York suffered a horrific terrorist attack, and at a time in which many non-profits all but threw in the towel as far as fundraising, MoMA managed to raise $858 million to design and construct its new building.
Munch Museum: Bolting Art To The Walls
Oslo’s Munch Museum might be closed until next summer as the museum deals with recommendations for new security measures. “National and international art icons must be shielded using glass bolted onto the wall. The remaining pictures must be fastened onto the wall or made so heavy that they are difficult to run away with. The report also suggested metal detectors, a surveillance control room, a labyrinth to delay possible robbers and an automatic gate to lock them in.”