Anthony Tudor died in 1987, yet “he is still regarded with a certain trepidation. He may be one of Britain’s finest choreographers, but his work rarely appears on the UK stage. Although four of his ballets are being performed at the Edinburgh festival this year – three by Ballet West USA, and Dark Elegies by the Rambert Dance Company – it owes more to coincidence than any official celebration of this unsung talent.”
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And On The Left We Have… Culture
Who best to represent your city to visitors? How about taxi drivers? The city of Liverpool thinks so. It’s looking for drivers who “will be expected to speak about Liverpool’s theatres, galleries, concert halls and the city’s artistic heritage: ‘There’s the Playhouse, where the young Beryl Bainbridge trod the boards and Blood Brothers was first done’.”
The Lit Olympics (Why’d We Forget ’em?)
“The world has forgotten that literary ‘happenings’ were once an essential ingredient of all ancient athletic festivals; for those well-rounded Greek crowds, the 90-pound-weakling writers could be as compelling an attraction as the beefcake that paraded stark naked around the stadium. In fact, we should thank the first Olympics for several crucial breakthroughs in the Western literary tradition—including the pioneering act of self-promotion by a celebrity-hungry author.”
Radio Network Re-signs With Arbitron Ratings
Radio ratings service Arbitron says it has “signed a new deal with Infinity Broadcasting, two months after Infinity shocked the industry by declining to renew its contract and saying it was looking for alternative ratings services.”
Eleven Hours Long (And With Surtitles!)
More than 1,000 people bought tickets for “Le Soulier de Satin,” an 11-hour-long French play that has been promoted as a dramatic highlight of the Edinburgh International Festival. Actually making it through the performance, however, was another matter.
Culture Disobedience (Will Anyone Be Swayed?)
“Artists are mobilizing in historic numbers for the Republican National Convention, volunteering for duty in the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues, and Ideas, the Unconvention, and other specially organized programs that offer opportunities to sing, act, dance, joke, and otherwise comment on the current state of the disunion. Progressive culture vultures may thrill at the gargantuan menu of politicized performances, screenings, exhibits, stand-up marathons, and concerts planned around the four-day coronation of George W. But if Michael Moore’s $100 million-plus blockbuster can’t breach the country’s red-state/blue-state mental divide, what can we reasonably expect from an army of fringe acts sprinkled with mega-star cameos?”
Gérard Souzay, Baritone, 83
Gérard Souzay, who has died aged 83, sang mélodies for four decades after the second world war; for the first three of them, he was considered the leading exponent of the genre. His mellifluous and supple voice was allied to a bright intelligence in the treatment of texts that manifested itself in everything he tackled. He also had a successful career on the concert platform as a soloist in choral works, but his operatic appearances were restricted to three or four significant roles: he was no great actor. In his later years, he was a rather sad figure, living alone in the South of France, feeling forgotten and neglected.”
The Trumpet King
Hakan Hardenberger is consdered by many to be the world’s foremost trumpet player. He’s on a mission – to stimulate more composers to write for the instrument. “Hardenberger’s eagerness to encourage composers to celebrate the trumpet was born of frustration at the paucity of things written for it, but then, he says, ‘I started to see it as an advantage. Although I am not a composer, I had to be creative – to look for something new’.”
James Marcus’s Book Boom And Bust
James Marcus was the 55th employee at Amazon.com. He came to review books. “He made $9 million on his share options, interviewed the biggest names in American literature and wielded such influence that he could change the fortunes of a little-known novelist or poet with a keystroke. But after the boom came the bust. It was no less dramatic. In months, the value of his shares plunged 95 per cent. Swingeing cuts saw colleagues sacked and escorted to the car park by security guards until, in a final ironic twist, the cutting-edge technology Marcus helped develop rendered him obsolete.”
Spano’s View Of The Present
What does it take to direct a festival of contemporary music? A composer? How about conductor? Robert Spano, who is directing this summer’s Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. “Mr. Spano has been an inspired choice. He assembled an eclectic program – eight concerts in five days – that touched on everything from the most abstruse essays in rhythmic and harmonic complication to works rooted in rock and jazz, and with classics like Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 1 (1951) and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Gesang der Jünglinge” (1956) nestled against freshly minted scores.”