Giant book seller Borders is hoping to convince publishers not to print prices on their books. “Bookselling is one of the few retail environments where the price is fixed by the supplier of the goods and not by the seller. When the retailer can control pricing, we have the opportunity to use price as a lever to accomplish all kinds of positive objectives that benefit the publishers, customers and the retailer.”
Blog
Let It Skate – Rolling Along With Rodolfo And Mimi
How about a “La Boheme” on roller skates? “The populist impresario Raymond Gubbay, who has a track record of bringing new audiences as well as new tricks to opera, unveiled plans for a £2m production of Puccini’s work at the Royal Albert Hall in February.”
British Museum: Absolutely, Positively No Return Of Parthenon Marbles
The British Museum has slammed the door on any hopes of Greece getting back the Parthenon Marbles. The museum says that “it was the museum’s duty to preserve the universality of the marbles, and to protect them from being appropriated as a nationalistic political symbol. But with half of the marbles still in Greece, and with a museum being built to house them at the foot of the Acropolis, campaigners for their return said that they found the British Museum’s attitude insulting”.
Saving St. Paul’s (Really?)
Restoration of Christopher Wren’s flawed but historic St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, is controversial, even after years of debate. “What a circus! This is a seriously misconceived restoration, technically insane, with reckless levels of chemicals, and a historical fraud. We’ve come to learn that the bigger the restoration, the more ambitious the project, the greater the funding, the more out of control these things get.”
Black Artists Score All Spots On US Top Ten
For the first time ever, all the artists on Billboard’s Top Ten chart are African-American. “Nine of the ten are rappers, plus one track by R&B singer Beyonce and reggae star Sean Paul.”
Dali Gang Comes To Justice
A prison worker at New York’s Riker’s Island has admitted his role in stealing a Salvatore Dali sketch earlier this year. “Last week, a former assistant deputy warden admitted his role in the March 1 robbery at the Rikers Island jail and implicated his co-workers in the role-reversing rip-off. The plot’s alleged mastermind and the two other members of the ‘Dali gang’ are all due in court this month.”
Reconsidering Prokofiev
A new biography of Prokofiev suggests that a re-evaluation of his life and work is in order. “Even as the collapse of Communism has made it easier for us to understand Prokofiev’s life, so has the collapse of the postwar musical avant-garde removed any remaining obstacle to a full appreciation of his music. One need no longer apologize for enjoying such pieces as the First Violin Concerto or Romeo and Juliet, or pretend that they are anything other than modern masterpieces, great works of art that are “popular” in the best sense of that much-maligned word. That they were written by a man who succumbed to temptation—and paid the price for it—need not make us love them less.”
Pavarotti: Just Call Me Teacher
Tenor Luciano Pavarotti says he’ll turn his attentions to teaching when he retires from singing in 2005: “I want to give something back to the younger generation. Teaching I think is the most difficult thing; teaching is more difficult than singing. Why? Because you have to transfer a thought from your brain to the brain of the other person and the throat of the other person. I want to teach people who really are good,”
The End Of Ballett Frankfurt?
Choreographer William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt is to be dissolved next year. “The dissolution of Ballett Frankfurt is of great consequence to the dance world. Over two decades, Forsythe transformed this company into one of the most consequential contemporary ballet ensembles in the world, creating dances out of a profound body of deeply ingrained physical knowledge. Choreographers need their tools – dancers – and the best tools are those who have been honed into perfect form for the work at hand.”
Online – Where The Critics Are Really Tough
Broadway internet chatrooms have become a force on the Great White Way. “What is unclear is whether the boards affect a show’s fate. Conventional wisdom says, for instance, that bad Internet buzz about the Boston tryout of the 2000 flop ‘Seussical’ killed the show’s Broadway run. Some disagree, however, saying reviews and, of course, the shows themselves still matter far more than online opinions. Do posts influence shows’ creative teams? If so, no one involved in a production would ever admit it.”