What’s wrong with classical music, asks Greg Sandow. “The classical music world, on the whole, has no discernable relation to the present day. The music is mainly talked about in scholarly terms, as structures of abstract musical elements, or else as history. Or if emotion ever enters the discussion, there’s a tone of piety, or sometimes vague inspiration, a feeling of transcendent exhilaration that, upon examination, has nothing to do with any specific piece that might be played. It comes from classical music as a whole.”
Blog
Solving The Medici Assassination
“One of the most notorious crimes of the Renaissance, the attempted assassination of Florence’s grandest son, Lorenzo dei Medici, has been solved more than 500 years later.”
Plan To Double Size Of Uffizi
Florence plans to double the size of the Uffizi Gallery, and Italy’s culture minister boasts the new gallery will rival the size of the Louvre. “By the time work is completed, visitors to the extensively remodelled Uffizi will be able to see 800 new works, including many now confined to the gallery’s storerooms for lack of space.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Gift And Its Obligations
A $50 million gift to the Philadelphia Orchestra came with some strings. “The Annenberg grant is the biggest in the ensemble’s history and is believed by orchestra leaders to be the second-largest gift ever made to an American orchestra. Taken as a whole, the 12-page agreement, which is signed by Annenberg and orchestra leaders, outlines a broad set of institutional ambitions for the world-famous ensemble – some new, others tried but hobbled in the past by a lack of money. Still, all of the programs outlined in the 12-page agreement cannot be paid for with the interest and other income eventually generated by the $50 million nest egg.”
Study – Critic Raves = Big Box Office
“A USA TODAY study of movies released in 2003 found that the grades handed out by critics had a significant relationship to the money the movies grossed. In general, the better the reviews, the higher the box office. Even a half-star meant millions of dollars more for a movie’s total take.”
Remaking The National Film Board
It wasn’t too long ago that many of Canada’s independent filmmakers were calling for the death of the National Film Board. But in 2001, the NFB got a new leader, and “most independent producers like the changes instituted in the past two years, and some even now dare to cautiously believe that the NFB — not long ago considered a colossal waste of taxpayer money — might have a shot of becoming what it once was: an effectual promoter, supporter and producer of top-quality Canadian stories.”
A Canadian Choral Fest’s Glaring Omission
A Canadian choral festival arranged to present the country’s professional choruses together, made a major omission – it forgot to invite the country’s “only professional choir dedicated to Afrocentric music. The concerts are taking place this weekend in Toronto, during the final days of Black History Month.”
Acropolis Museum Stalled
It looks like the Acropolis Museum in Greece is much behind schedule. “Athens had initially planned to have the 94-million-euro museum in place for the Olympics, hoping to shame the British Museum into complying with Greece’s demand for the return of the Parthenon, or Elgin, Marbles. However, some 20 months after the foundations were supposed to have been laid under the Acropolis, nothing has materialized.”
A Different Barnes Solution
Many critics don’t want to see the Barnes Collection close its current location and move to Philadelphia. But what if the Barnes could do both? “What if the promised money from the foundations indeed went toward a new Barnes facility in Philadelphia but the original estate remained open and intact? Imagine, instead of a replica installation of the whole collection in an incongruously modern edifice downtown, a new urban Barnes Center that would connect visitors first to the idea of the Barnes and then to the strange jewel of a museum itself.”
Michael Crawford and Sir Andrew – Together Again
Singer Michael Crawford and theatre composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber are reuniting for a new musical in London. “The connection made almost 20 years ago with Phantom of the Opera will be renewed in May in Lloyd Webber’s semi-operatic musical The Woman in White when it replaces the 19-year run of Les Misérables at the Palace theatre in London.”