Stephen Klein, a former executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra who has spent most of the last decade running the Pittsburgh Public Theater, has been named the new managing director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. The New Jersey troupe is considerably less well-known than the Pittsburgh company Klein left last summer, but Klein has always seemed to like a challenge, and has never shied away from taking a job perceived to be less prestigious than his last one.
Blog
Private Funding Partnership Working in UK
A program designed to bring private investment to the arts in northwest England seems to be having a real impact. “Companies in the region have pumped £500,202 into arts projects under the Arts & Business New Partners scheme, up from £107,840 in the 2002/3 financial year. And Arts & Business North West, the not-for-profit organisation which runs the project and offers to match business contributions, itself invested £277,061, compared to just £80,670 a year ago.”
Why Barenboim Left Chicago
Daniel Barenboim’s impending departure from the Chicago Symphony had been long-expected, and the perception is that his relationship with the CSO management had soured. The conductor, who has never been shy about expressing himself, admits as much in a recent interview, and in between questions about the affair he had while married to Jacqueline duPre, he insists that he isn’t the least bit tired of conducting, merely of what always comes with the job in America. “I can’t stand going out to one more dinner with some Mrs So-and-So who might leave a million dollars to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when she dies.”
Offenbach Score Unearthed
“A handwritten copy of the original score for Jacques Offenbach’s last opera has been discovered a century after it was thought lost in a fire. The manuscript for the Tales of Hoffman – which premiered in 1881, a year after Offenbach’s death – was found when the Paris opera library was re-organised.”
Roman Glass Sets Auction Record
An exceptionally crafted Roman bowl cut from a single block of glass has set a record at auction in London this week, fetching £2,646,650. The sum is the most ever paid for a piece of ancient glass. “The Constable-Maxwell cage-cup dates from the third century and is decorated with a delicate lattice design. It has survived intact for 17 centuries. It is the third time the item has set the record for the highest price paid for a piece of ancient glass.”
RSC Returns to London
“The Royal Shakespeare Company is to return to central London in November for a six-month season at the Albery theatre in Soho… The company transferred none of its plays to London last year because it could not get enough financial backing from producers – the first time it had not had a London season since the 1960s.” The RSC will offer special discounts to theatergoers under 25 at the London shows, in a bid to reinvigorate and expand its core audience.
File-Sharing Turns To Film
Even as the music industry continues to kvetch over illegal file-trading, it seems that mere songs are no longer the only files on the block to be swapped. In fact, the popularity of online trading of complete films and “other files larger than 100MB” is close to overtaking that of music on peer-to-peer networks. It’s all illegal, of course, but while the music industry has been touting the success of its anti-piracy campaign, it seems that what has actually occurred has been a shift in focus, from music to film, and a shift in technique, from large well-known file-trading enablers like Kazaa to smaller, more surreptitious programs.
A New Art Critic’s Education
Seattle’s The Stranger magazine gets a new art critic and he’s a bit put off by his reception in local galleries. “There is a mentality and an attitude about art–perhaps stemming from a protectiveness toward it, since it can be so easily dismissed–whose core conceit is exclusion: You don’t have the tools to understand this; you shouldn’t be here. Elitism has driven me away from the art world several times over the years–in Chicago, in New York, and, yes, in Seattle. (Curiously, in London of all places, I never encountered such starchiness.) And this has been true for many of my friends–smart, credentialed people. It’s the real crisis–more than funding, more than education–that plagues contemporary American art.”
DC Gives $40 Million To Corcoran Gallery
The District of Columbia city council has voted to give $40 million to the Corcoran Gallery to help finance its new Frank Gehry wing.
The Ashton Side Of Balanchine (Or…)
“The Lincoln Center Festival’s Ashton Celebration has reintroduced the British choreographer to the American audience for dance, an audience for whom Balanchine has long reigned supreme. This renewed interest in Ashton may spark a fruitful exploration of what the 20th century’s two foremost geniuses of classical dance choreography have in common—and what makes each distinctive.”