Gerard Mortier takes over the Paris Opera from Hugues Gall. “While Mr. Gall held the job for almost a decade before reaching the official retirement age of 65, Mr. Mortier, 60, has only five seasons to make his mark. His first, the 2004-5 season, with 9 new productions and 10 revivals, already suggests a more daring approach, notably in the selection of directors who, he hopes, will seek out “the modernity” in established works.”
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Surviving Books In A Time Of TV
“So what is the future for fiction if a hardcore of the population are joining the illiterati? While the written word can be credited with liberating the sight and consciousness of the emerging working-class in the 19th and 20th centuries, the explosion in new media has challenged that role.”
Art Of The Fake
“There isn’t a major gallery in the world that doesn’t house – and in most cases proudly display – works that “aren’t what they seem”. There is a joke among art dealers and forgery specialists that of the 324 canvases (or whatever the precise figure) painted by Corot, 562 are hanging in museums and private houses in America. The former Met director Thomas Hoving reckoned 40 per cent of the works offered to the museum were either phonies or so hypocritically restored they were no better than forgeries.”
Scottish Opera Carved In Half (And Worse)
“The long-term future of Scottish Opera was cast into doubt last night after the company and the Executive unveiled plans which will mean the firing of nearly half its staff and productions being halted for nine months. The executive promised up to £7 million in funding for a radical “restructuring” plan that it said would enable the company to live within its £7.5 million annual budget.”
Scottish Opera – Cutting Off The Limb To Save The Body
So cutting Scottish Opera’s operations is meant to save it. But “rather than a rescue plan, this could be the death of opera of an international standard in Scotland.”
Rating The Tony Show
“What started off as an embarrassment turned into a classy Tony Awards, which rewarded devoted theater fans while remaining lively and unstuffy.”
In Search Of Book Buzz
How do you generate buzz for your book among the crowd of 100,000 books that are produced each year? “At the meeting that ended Sunday in Chicago, the talk turned often to what it takes to snag media attention and, therefore, new readers in a market shaped by politics and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. In short, political books have been gold for more than a year, and more are on the way.”
The Great Arts Confab
Five thousand performing arts professionals are converging on Pittsburgh this week in the first-ever joint meeting of America’s performing arts organizations. “The idea behind the project was to give performing-arts people across the country a chance to share their thoughts on important industry problems and pool their strength. There were real, fieldwide issues that were not subject to solution by any single art form. I had the feeling that we would always be minor-league players while we operated in our silos.”
Romano At BookExpo: A Report
A visit to the annual BookExpo in Chicago is an opportunity to see what the buzz in the outside world is (and is going to be) says Carlin Romano. This year’s event (attended by 10,000 book people) was a reflection of politics and issues beyond the convention center.
Supreme Court Says Family Can Sue Austria Over Klimt Paintings
“The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 88-year-old niece and heir of an Austrian Jewish art collector can pursue her lawsuit against the Austrian government and its national art gallery for the return of six paintings by Gustav Klimt that belonged to her family before the Nazi takeover.”