“It’s easy to forget that it’s only 18 months since Nicholas Hytner took over the [UK’s] National Theatre. The territory he’s opened up has been extensive and the dividends tremendous, in financial as well as artistic terms: record ticket sales; a steady stream of first-time attenders (encouraged by the cheap seats policy); audience numbers which rose by 150,000 to 750,000… Now Hytner is taking one step further. For the first time, the National has set out to develop a relationship with one of the young independent companies which has been revolutionising the idea of what the theatre can be.”
Blog
The Death of the Impresario?
With the death of Joseph Papp in 1991, there was much hand-wringing over where the next great impresario would come from. But given the current climate of arts support in the U.S., individuals who can be artistic leader, political mastermind, and money magnet all at the same time are seeming like an outdated pipe dream to many theatres. “For whomever’s sake, art is expensive and (according to most artists) radically undersupported. This has only worsened in recent years. ‘The bedrock of municipal and civic responsibility’ on which Papp (sometimes just hopefully) based his enterprise has largely eroded… Given the difficult climate, search committees at some cultural institutions have begun to feel they may be better off with skilled managers instead of star impresarios.”
The Little Label That Did
Nonesuch Records has always been an anomaly in the world of the American recording industry. More than merely a collection of artists, this label actually inspires loyalty in its customers, many of whom will go out of their way to purchase a Nonesuch album, sure that their money will not be wasted. Indeed, the “tiny, vigorously eclectic label… has become a kind of American cultural institution. It has an influence far out of proportion to its size, and some think it could be a guidepost for a record industry in desperate need of direction.”
Gramophone Artist Of The Year To Kozena
Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena has been voted artist of the year in the UK’s Gramophone Awards. Kozena, who has made headlines recently for becoming pregnant by Sir Simon Rattle, has risen quickly to become one of Europe’s most prominent classical voices in the last few years. The award is voted by the readers of Gramophone magazine.
The New, Non-Linear MoMA
As New York’s Museum of Modern Art looks towards the November opening of its new $858 million Manhattan home, it faces a defining moment in its history, and a moment in which it hopes to abandon the linear way in which its collection has always been strictly organized. “Defined for so long as the arbiter and guardian of progressive art, MOMA reopens… at a time when even its own curators no longer believe that art progresses like science. Narratives overlap and intertwine; instead of one big story, there are many competing stories… But complexity too often leads to incoherence. Can MOMA, the most influential voice in the modern-art establishment, still tell the story of 20th-century art in a convincing way?”
Too Many Movies?
There are a lot of movies being made these days. Perhaps too many. “Each year, as more of them arrive in American theaters – and as an even greater number are left behind to wander the festival circuit in perpetuity – the conditions they face become more starkly Darwinian.” Brilliant films are in ever greater danger of being lost in the crowd, and lowest-common-denominator dreck will always win out if there is Hollywood money behind it. “There may be more variety, more creativity and more money in movies than ever before, but is there a tipping point at which more becomes too much?”
A New View Of China
“Though the study of Chinese art still focuses [mainly] on court life, it has broadened to include the lives of ordinary citizens. These revisions largely come from archaeology of the last hundred years, and particularly of the last three decades… Archaeology has upset and confounded the traditional linear narrative with discoveries that no one could have anticipated. What we call China is revealed as a complex world more culturally diverse, more multiethnic than previously imagined. Archaeological discoveries are redefining what it means to be Chinese.”
Choosing Quality Over Clout
The Chicago International Film Festival turns 40 this year, and in its middle age, it has settled nicely into its role in the film world. The Chicago Fest is not a big event on Hollywood’s calendar, but the organizers have long since come to grips with that fact and, rather than begging for world premieres and striving for recognition from the big studios, “the Chicago event began concentrating more on showing quality films no matter whether they’d screened elsewhere.”
Bolshoi Reborn? Getting There, Anyway.
Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet hasn’t been looking like itself for the last decade or so. “The footwork lacked precision. The jetes drooped like steamed celery. Dancers’ feet bobbled more landings than the Olympic gymnasts this summer. Dancers depicting young lovers looked bored and in need of couple’s counseling.” But now, with a bold new artistic director in place, things are looking up, and a $350 million renovation is pending at the Bolshoi’s home theatre in Moscow. Still, change is a process, and there’s no question that the Bolshoi is still a fair distance from reattaining its former glory.
Bernstein: The Man & The Music
Leonard Bernstein’s legacy looms large over the American musical landscape. Not only a revered composer and conductor, Bernstein is also justly famous for having been one of the few individuals able to connect children to serious music in an age when pop culture had begun to dominate the cultural sphere. A new radio documentary series examining Bernstein’s role in American culture begins this week, and “after some throat-clearing about the nature of Bernstein’s genius, the show becomes suddenly addictive. The radio format does what no biography can: superimpose the voices against a torrential background of music, most of it as jaunty, optimistic, vigorous and full of bravado as Bernstein was himself.”