A year-and-a-half ago, Seiji Ozawa finished up 29 years leading the Boston Symphony, and headed for Vienna to direct the State Opera. “Ozawa seems energized by all the change. Some critics and musicians felt that he had overstayed his welcome in Boston, that 29 years was too long a marriage for any conductor and orchestra. He acknowledges that it was a long time, adding that his style is to work slowly and methodically. But now he finds himself living in an even more musical city, associated with two of Europe’s great musical institutions. And already Vienna has adopted him as its own.”
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Acting In The Golden Age (Right Now)
“It has long been an article of faith among movie lovers of all tastes that the present — any present — is but a pale shadow of the past.” But critic A.O. Scott writes that there is mounting “evidence that we are living in an extraordinary period, one we will eventually look back upon as a golden age of screen acting.”
A Met Legend Departs
Last week, Joseph Volpe announced that he was stepping down as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His departure will end a remarkable 42-year association with the Met. “Improbably, that association took a Flatbush-born high school graduate with no advanced education, no musical training and scant feeling for opera from an entry-level job as an apprentice carpenter to the general manager’s office in 1990. It is sometimes said of a hands-on chief executive who has worked his way to the top that he knows every nail in the place. This is really true of Mr. Volpe, who hammered quite a few nails into the place himself.”
Music Under Glass – In The Museums
“Over the past decade, popular music has decisively joined visual art and science as a subject for museum treatment. Just in time for the midlife crisis of rock ‘n’ roll, advocates of popular music and chambers of commerce found common cause: suddenly, music was not a diversion or an embarrassment but an asset. And these museums promise visitors an irresistible package deal: a pilgrimage, a party and some painless education.”
Rich: The Hypocrisy Of The SuperBowl Stunt
The reactions of CBS, Michael Powell and the FCC, protesting parents’ groups, MTV and just about everyone else complaining about Janet Jackson in the Superbowl halftime show are so hypocritical they’re laughable, writes Frank Rich. “You can argue that Ms. Jackson is the only honest figure in this Super Bowl of hypocrisy. She was out to accomplish a naked agenda — the resuscitation of her fading career on the eve of her new album’s release — and so she did.”
Amazon Outs Its Reviewers
Last week, thanks to a technical glitch,Amazon.com’s Canadian site revealed the actual names of customers who wrote reviews on the site. “The weeklong glitch, which Amazon fixed after outed reviewers complained, provided a rare glimpse at how writers and readers are wielding the online reviews as a tool to promote or pan a book — when they think no one is watching.”
Conductor Berates Audience, Musicians From The Stage
Conductor Daniel Gatti and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had just finished a performance in Naples, Florida and the audience was applauding, when Gatti quieted the crowd: “Gatti, 42, began by apologizing for the quality of the performance, explaining that the orchestra had been on tour for two weeks. Then, in heated, broken English, he berated everybody there – the presenters, the orchestra and the audience – for a full two to three minutes.”
Love – After The Artists, Scientists Weigh In
Is there a bigger theme in the history of art than love? Poets, playwrights, composers and artists have explored love from all sides. “Romance has seemed as inexplicable as the beauty of a rainbow. But these days scientists are challenging that notion, and they have rather a lot to say about how and why people love each other. Is this useful? The scientists think so.”
We’re Being Buried In Books!
Each year more and more books are being published. “The most recent figures show that, in 2002, total output of new titles and editions in the United States grew by nearly 6 percent, to 150,000. General adult fiction exceeded 17,000 – the strongest category. Juvenile titles topped 10,000, the highest total ever recorded. And there were more than 10,300 new publishers, mostly small or self-publishers.”
Note To The Music Biz: Locking Up Content Is Dumb
At a time when most music and movie industry producers are introducing some kind of copy protection in their products, some observers predict that locking up content won’t last. Instead, at some point producers will “realize that they’ll make more money out of a flat fee model than by trying to force the world – particularly developing countries – to buy expensive content under lock and key.”