The Grand Theatre in Leeds is getting a £31.5 million makeover. “By mid 2006, Opera North, whose new production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice opens at the Edinburgh Festival tomorrow, will have the home it deserves in the city which sees more opera performances than any other outside London.”
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Discovering The Young Black Demographic
Magazine publishers are discovering the young black male. “The magazine industry has largely ignored the young black male reader. Publishers think they pick them up with music magazines like The Source, XXL and Vibe, so as a result there has been a void.” Some new magazines are cashing in on that neglect…
BBC Going For Quality, Say Director
New BBC chairman Mark Thompson says the BBC is to undego a “significant change of direction”, moving away from reality and lifestyle shows in a drive for excellence. “Excellence is above all what audiences expect the BBC to strive for – and because of the licence fee and because the BBC doesn’t face the same commercial pressures as our competitors, they expect us to strive for it with more conviction and consistency than anyone else.”
Edinburgh’s Record Fringe Year
The edinburgh Fringe has another record year. But is the festival getting too big? “Fringe officials said that for the second time in a row, ticket sales had exceeded £1m and were 13% up on last year. For the first time in its history every one of the 1,695 fringe shows had sold a ticket before the festival began on August 8. Some venues saw ticket sales jump by almost 40%. With 1.25m tickets sold for 25,326 performances, the 2004 fringe exceeded last year’s record takings, but many venues reported business tailing off sharply in the last week.”
Clear Channel Takes On The Arts
Media giant Clear Channel is getting into the arts in a big way. “Starting next year, Clear Channel Communications Inc. plans to send a large wooden version of the Trojan horse on a tour of U.S. museums as a frontispiece to an exhibition on ancient Greece and Troy. Clear Channel’s empire-building in the arts extends further — to touring Broadway musicals, where its omnipresence as a producer and presenter can mean trouble for competitors and cause wariness even among its partners. Cultural gatekeepers, including art critics and museum directors, have begun sounding a warning: Beware of a conglomerate bearing art.”
Phone Film Festival
It’s the first wireless phone film festival. “To be sure, it’s not very likely that the wireless device in your pocket will be showing something along the lines of Gone With the Wind anytime soon. But there’s a good chance participating artists will turn in some sophisticated work, especially those who understand how to think small.”
Inside The Mummy
The British Museum is giving visitors an opportunity to look inside an ancient mummy. “Using the latest in medical technology, visitors see under the mummy’s wrappings and flesh, catching researchers’ insights into the art that went into its creation.”
Big Entertainment: Block That Tech!
Feeling they’ve been burned by technology, the entertainment industry is moving aggressively to block new technologies that could potentially impact their business. “The U.S. movie industry generated $41.2 billion in revenue last year, but estimated it lost $3.5 billion in potential revenue due to piracy of DVDs and videos. The industry has not been able to estimate revenue lost from Internet piracy. The recording industry has blamed online file-sharing as a major reason for a decline in sales from $14.3 billion in 2000 to $11.8 billion in 2003.”
Did Mozart Have Tourette’s?
A new British documentary suggests that Mozart may have suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome. “Tourette’s is a constant battle between chaos and control, having a compulsion and trying to control it, and that translates into music. Mozart let his music run off in chaotic directions but then always brought it back under control.”
Demonstrators Protest Republican Broadway Theatre-goers
In New York, protesters clashed with police outside Broadway shows. “As convention delegates emerged from theaters last night, they were greeted by hundreds of protesters booing and chanting ‘RNC go home!’ In front of the New Amsterdam Theater, where delegates attended “The Lion King,” and at the Ford Center, where they watched ’42nd Street,’ police cleared paths for the visitors to rush to waiting buses.”