Du Maurier-sponsored jazz festivals have been a longtime tradition in Canada. But with the tobacco company handcuffed by federal legislation, “many jazz festival organizers across the country feared the worst for their annual events. It’s no surprise then that TD Canada Trust was welcomed as a saviour yesterday when it stepped into the breach. As part of a four-year multi-million-dollar deal, the bank will assume title sponsorship for the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax jazz festivals. Additional support will be distributed to fests in Victoria, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Montreal.”
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Out Of America – The Jansons Phenomenon
Mariss Jansons typifies the new generation of star conductors: he’s turned his back on America, writes Norman Lebrecht. “For most of the past century great conductors were drawn to America by its wealth and energy. Now, they are having second thoughts. Simon Rattle refused all offers. Riccardo Chailly, Antonio Pappano and Daniele Gatti have planted their feet resolutely in Europe; Riccardo Muti can hardly be bothered to board a plane; Christian Thielemann works mostly in Germany. The American way of making music – heavily unionised schedules, deadeningly conservative audiences – has lost its allure. This is the last year that Munich has to wait for a maestro to return from America.”
Dia: Beacon Is A Hit
The Hudson Valley art center, which opened last summer, has already exceeded its visitor projections. “Our original expectation was 60,000 visitors for the opening year; then we upped the number to 100,000. We’ve already hit our target, and it’s been open less than six months.”
Remembering Franco Corelli
Tenor Franco Corelli, who died this week at 82, had animal magnetism as a performer, writes Tim Smith. “If you added up the considerable assets of the Three Tenors (even when Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were in their prime), you still couldn’t match Corelli’s vocal opulence, electrically charged phrasing and movie-star looks. His one-of-a-kind packaging thrilled an opera world ever-hungry for tenors.”
A Record Year At The Movie Box Office
Movie fans spent $20.4 billion on movie tickets last year – a record amount. “The average ticket in the UK cost $6.45 (£4.29) in 2002, compared with $5.81 in the US. Film fans in Russia have had to stomach a 138% rise over the past two years, rising to $1.72 in 2002. But the cheapest cinema tickets were in Romania (39 cents) and India, where each ticket cost 21 cents.”
The Debate Beyond Po-Mo
9/11 was the final nail in the coffin of post-modernism, writes Michael Barnes. “No matter which side one takes in these post 9/11 conflicts – which could make the culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s look like child’s play – the rantings of late 20th-century postmodern relativists seem as quaint and distant today as the prattlings of Victorian sentimentalists. The absence of a seductive replacement for postmodernism has left public intellectuals – can we use that word in a daily newspaper these days without smirking? – with a renewed respect and affection for the paramount movement of the 20th century: modernism.”
Selloff – Museum Chooses Art Of The Future
Connecticut’s Aldrich Muwseum is selling off its collection. “Aldrich officials say the sale is not about money because they expect to clear less than $50,000 after expenses. That is far less than the $200,000 for which the collection is insured and hardly material for an institution with a $1.5 million annual operating budget and a $7.5 million renovation and expansion under way. The usual taboos about selling art from a museum were hard to square with the mission of an institution devoted to art of the moment.”
Adorno At 100
Theorist Theodor Adorno is it in 2003, “especially in Frankfurt, where the critical theorist was born 100 years ago. There’s no end to the jubilee celebrations, exhibitions, symposiums, conventions and book openings. But while there is more Adorno than ever before, a lot of it comprises simply anecdotes and recollections.”
Below The Mirror, We’re All Art
Tate Modern’s new large installation has visitors gawking. “Nothing prepares you for the almost psychotropic transformation of human social behaviour that is currently taking place where the turbines of Bankside power station once roared. Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project only opened a couple of weeks ago, but it is already a legend. Visitors seem to think they are at some storied 60s festival – barriers are melting, frosty politeness traded at the door for cockeyed mysticism and love, love, love. Under a vast blazing sun, in clouds of dry ice, revellers lie, looking up at what must surely be the biggest mirrored ceiling in the world, and conclude that, hey, maybe we really are all made of stars. The scale is so excessive, it is hard to experience Eliasson’s artwork as art – it is more like nature itself, and we, down below, make the art.”
Cole Porter – Divided In Two
Cole Porter’s birthplace in Indiana was sold at auction this week. But the house rests on two plots of land, and two different buyers bought them. “A local resident, Brian Boyce, won one lot with an $800 (£470) bid, but a Michigan man, Keith Wegner, outbid him on the second parcel, buying it for $9,000. Mr Boyce said he might restore the historic house and convert it for a bed and breakfast business.”