The Houston Symphony is trimming expenses, cutting concerts, and delaying auditions for two key positions in an effort to exceed budget goals for the current season. With ticket sales soft, the orchestra decided to cancel planned performances of Beethoven opera set for next March, and is also postponing a recording of a Beethoven symphony. Three other recordings will go ahead as scheduled.
Blog
Does The CBS Fine Mean Anything?
The FCC’s decision to fine CBS a record $550,000 is getting plenty of press. In fact, it’s such a hot topic that if you didn’t know better, you’d assume that the fine actually heralded some sort of substantive change. But surveys show that a vast majority of Americans couldn’t care less that Janet Jackson’s breast got a second of airtime, and are far more concerned about the overall quality level of TV than they are about tightening the decency screws. Still, in the months following the Super Bowl flap, 5-second delays abound and some Hollywood producers are complaining that their shows are being sanitized.
Looked Like A Good Idea On Paper
A new London gallery tries to spruce up its opening with the addition of technology, offering journalists from all over the world the chance to view the art (and the party) from mobile webcams and interview the artists live through instant messaging software. “But glitches and crashes turned the conversation into a rather stilted affair,” and as it turns out, viewing art through a webcam is like “viewing art through the bottom of a pint glass.”
The Doomsday Obsession
How to explain the human obsession with the end of the world? It seems as if there have been doomsayers wandering the streets ever since humans walked upright, and these days, with the world in a constant tizzy, there is no shortage of prophets, filmmakers, and assorted crackpots ready to help you prepare for the End Days. “As impressive as the scope of world-enders’ thinking these days is its overwhelming detail. Everything from events in the Middle East to the technology of cloning has been worked into one end-times commentary or another.” The details serves to obscure the lack of evidence, even as it makes the scenario more real.
The Fox News Of Film Fests
The American Film Renaissance, which bills itself as the world’s first and only conservative-leaning film festival, wrapped up recently in Dallas, and Britain’s left-leaning newspaper of record couldn’t resist sending a correspondent. What he found was a group of extremely earnest Americans longing for a few movies that represent their worldview. That worldview apparently includes a fictional Don Rumsfeld predicting the 9/11 attacks in advance, Ann Coulter as a plain-speaking truth-teller, and former government officials explaining “how abortion is robbing America’s retired people of their welfare safety net.”
Humanizing Hitler
A new film focusing on the life of Adolf Hitler is roiling the European continent, and causing the German people to question whether it is ever acceptable to humanize such a monstrous figure. But humanizing the Führer is exactly what this movie is about, “a Hitler of failed dreams amid a collapsing empire, a man who at turns is delusional, hardhearted, vicious, but also tender, caring, despairing… Downfall cuts an accurate but narrow-gauge path through the historic moment, transiting between the claustrophobic choke of Hitler’s underground bunker and the raging slaughter in the streets of Berlin, avoiding the suffering of all but the Germans.”
Looking For The Definition of Irony?
“A portrait of Dr. David Hosack, a prominent surgeon who attended Alexander Hamilton on his deathbed after that legendary duel, has vanished from the New-York Historical Society’s $5 million-plus exhibition ‘Alexander Hamilton, the Man Who Made Modern America.’ No, it wasn’t stolen.” It seems that the NYHS installed an extremely low handrail to prevent patrons from getting too close to the painting. On day one of the exhibition, someone tripped over the rail and put his hand through the painting, which has now been removed for restoration.
Laughing To Keep From Crying
The U.S. is as politically polarized as it has been in decades, politicians can’t seem to stop smearing each other, and oh yes, there’s always that terrorism threat to consider in case you were thinking of feeling upbeat today. All that gloom and doom may explain why the political satire is suddenly hot again in the literary world, and several new offerings from well-known authors are testing the limits of dark comedy concerning world events.
Montreal Musicians Authorize Strike
The musicians of the Montreal Symphony have authorized their negotiating committee to call a strike at any time if a new contract is not agreed to soon. The MSO players have been working without a deal for more than a year, and their pay scale is currently 34th among North American orchestras, despite being recognized as one of the world’s elite orchestras. In response to the strike authorization, the MSO management issued a statement blasting the musicians for their rigidity and refusal to accept fiscal realities.
Muti Quits Touring Production
Conductor Riccardo Muti has withdrawn from a touring La Scala production of La Forza del Destino set for London’s Royal Opera House, in a dispute over, of all things, scenery. The argument centers on several small chunks of wall used in the Milan production, which the ROH had deemed too large for its stage. After several weeks of argument, Muti had had enough, and abruptly quit the project.