Are today’s young singers too cautious with their voices? Too timid to take risks in their singing? John Rockwell: “Common sense would tell us that singers (and their teachers and conductors and advisers) need to preach some limits. But they can’t be too timid. A climate of excessive caution has robbed opera of the animal excitement it needs to thrill a large audience.”
Blog
Did The History Channel Yell Fire In A Crowded Theater?
“A delegation of former Lyndon Johnson aides, led by Bill Moyers and Jack Valenti, demanded yesterday that the History Channel launch an independent investigation of its documentary charging that LBJ was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.” The network has agreed to review the issue internally, but isn’t specifying how far it intends to go in complying with the Johnson staffers’ demands. Initially, the network had defended its airing of the documentary as a legitimate expression of an unpopular point of view, but that defense is faltering as those close to Johnson offer evidence that directly contradicts that allegations made in the film.
Spalding Gray’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
With three weeks having passed since his disappearance, those close to monologuist Spalding Gray are despairing of finding him alive. It seems likely that Gray, who left behind a wife and three children, jumped into New York Harbor from the Staten Island Ferry. “Death has been Gray’s obsession, his fascination. It petrified him, yet he grew accustomed from an early age — from his own mother’s threats to kill herself — to death’s constant presence.” Gray had often predicted that his own death would come by suicide, once he could no longer bear to battle his myriad demons, and it appears that he may have been correct.
Where Writing Is A Dangerous Profession
“Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has given birth to some of the continent’s most remarkable writers – and then proceeded to devour them.” From Chinua Achebe to Ken Saro-Wiwa, countless writers who have risen to international acclaim have found themselves beaten down by the country’s notoriously repressive government. “By now, the ugly dance between Nigeria’s imperious military rulers and its outspoken writers has become predictably ritualized. When the latter dare to dissent, the former lock them up, or worse.”
Pod People – The iPod Revolution
“The average music fan’s attachment to the iPod might go no further than the sensual appeal of its sleek good looks and alluring promise as it rests expectantly in one’s hip pocket. But the iPod is currently the most visible, legal example of what is nothing less that a radical change in the fabric of popular culture.”
Get Used To The Outrage
Call it lewd, call it overblown, but the fact remains that “stunt TV” seems to be here to stay. Janet Jackson’s bosom-bearing moment at the Super Bowl is only the latest indication that TV networks are ready to do almost anything to get viewers to tune in for a few minutes. The idea, of course, is to convince your audience that your programming is so wild and unpredictable that, if they make the mistake of switching channels, they could miss something memorable. And for all the bluster coming out of the FCC over the Super Bowl flap, some experts believe that it was the FCC’s own rulings allowing media consolidation that led to the explosion of shock programming.
ABT Faces Another Budget Crisis
American Ballet Theatre is in another fiscal crisis. “Ballet Theater’s cash reserves dropped by more than $3 million — to $3.4 million from $6.5 million — in the last fiscal year, which ended in July, according to an audited financial statement recently released to its trustees. And a more recent financial report compiled by the company for the four months that ended on Nov. 30 showed an operating deficit of $3.8 million. People with knowledge of the company’s finances say this fiscal erosion has made it difficult for the company to pay vendors and meet payroll.”
Digging Out In San Antonio
“San Antonio Symphony officials unveiled a slimmed-down budget and debt repayment plan Wednesday that would allow for a 26-week season beginning this fall, if the symphony’s creditors — including its own musicians and season subscribers — accept the proposal.” The ensemble shut down last spring and filed for bankruptcy protection, sparking a wave of angry recriminations from SAS musicians and supporters. The 2004-05 season will be 13 weeks shorter than the 39-week schedule it used to have, and a new strategic plan calls for a wholesale change in the way the SAS markets and presents itself, as well as an overhaul of the fundraising process.
Where The Ahts Are Wicked Populah
“More than three-fourths of metropolitan Boston residents took in a performing arts event in 2002, according to the results of a new national survey to be released today at City Hall. In fact, more Greater Bostonians attend performing arts events (78 percent) than professional sports events (56 percent) each year, according to a report by the Performing Arts Research Coalition.” And in Boston, home of some of the country’s most rabid sports fans, that’s saying something.
Maybe An Artistic Crisis, Too?
Judging from the ABT’s performance this week at the Kennedy Center, finances aren’t the only thing the company ought to be worrying about, says Sarah Kaufman. “In the dispiriting fog that Tuesday’s performance left behind, it is difficult to identify the most horrific moment… In the campaign parlance that currently preoccupies Washington, ABT has so muddied its message that it risks alienating its base. Surely ABT hasn’t forgotten who its core supporters are and what they look to this troupe to deliver. Ballet is, after all, the company’s middle name.”