Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is teaming up with Elton John to record a “classical” version of John’s “Your Song.” “I got the number of Elton’s manager and asked whether he would come on this disc with me. I thought that would be it, but to my surprise he said he would love to do it – as long as it was in E flat major.”
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Anger In Kabul (And Now In Europe)
Asne Seierstad’s book “The Bookseller of Kabul” is a runaway hit. It has “sold more than half a million copies in Scandinavia alone. It has been sold to publishers in 17 countries and came out to rave reviews in Britain last month. It is due out in the US in October, and is the bestselling Norwegian non-fiction book of all time.” But the Afghan family on which the book is based is angry at its portrayal and the head of the family is “not only demanding ‘compensation’ and ‘damages’, but says that many people, himself included, ‘would be happy to see it burned’.”
Sydney Opera House Gets An Original Completion
After 30 years, the iconic Sydney Opera House is having its interior redone by its original architect. Joern Utzon, now 85, was thrown off the project before the building was complete, and some of the interior was completed by others. Now he is getting the chance to see some of his original ideas take shape…
New Hall, New (Almost) Orchestra Tenant – Carnegie Goes For Makeover
Carnegie Hall is “trying to turn left and turn right simultaneously. It wants to bring in a downtown-ish clientele while acquiring a stable base of Philharmonic subscribers. This urge to absorb everything typifies the modus operandi of Sanford Weill, the chairman of the Carnegie board, who is also the outgoing chief executive of Citigroup. Weill made his name in the financial world by engineering a series of spectacular mergers; he ingeniously erased the distinction between brokering and banking by combining Salomon, Smith Barney and Citibank under one roof. He now wishes to apply the philosophy of synergy to New York’s artistic life. The sort of logic that brought us AOL Time Warner is creating Philharmonic Carnegie Zankel.”
Child Star Tops Classical Charts
Sixteen-year-old “New Zealander Hayley Westenra has beaten the first-week sales set by artists like Pavarotti, Charlotte Church and Russell Watson with her UK release, Pure. Pure has shot straight to number eight in the UK pop chart and to the top spot in the UK classical charts.”
Seoul’s Opera Wars
“Seoul has witnessed the opera wars of 2003, a war waged mostly by over-the-top outdoor productions such as “Aida” and “Turandot,” financially and logistically ambitious campaigns designed to shock and awe audiences into submission. But an indoor opera has finally returned fire, a production boasting nudity, orgies, and violence with artistic credibility to boot.”
Aida In Workers’ Stadium
A giant open-air “Aida” lumbers in to Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium. “The main stage covers about 6,200 square metres, upon which stands a 40-metre-high pyramid and an 18-metre Sphinx. The 20-ton pyramid is equipped with 800 small tires at the bottom so that it could revolve freely. On the two sides of the main stage also stand two 18-metre-high pharaohs and 10 18-metre-high Egyptian temple pillars. And off the stage there are 40 4-metre-high Sphinxes. The ending scene will be a spectacle with thousands of butterflies flying into the sky, with 400 torches kindled.”
Documents: US Ban Of Graham Greene “Made US Look Bad”
In 1952, the US banned novelist Graham Greene from entering the United States, citing his youthful membership in the Communist party. Greene was a critic of US foreign policy. Documents reveal though that US officials thought the ban made the US look bad. “They conceded that he had been a member of the British Communist party for only four weeks when a 19-year-old student, ‘as a joke’. They admitted his writing clearly showed that he was anti-communist, according to the documents obtained by the Guardian under the US Freedom of Information Act.”
Is Turner’s Venice Really Portsmouth?
Is a Turner painting long thought to be of a scene in Venice really a picture of Portsmouth? “If Turner expert Ian Warrell is right those dark shapes in the smoky gold light are not glamourous revellers, jaded with the pleasures of the most beautiful and decadent city in the world, being ferried home at dawn across the Venetian lagoon. They’re a bevy of Portsmouth councillors, local dignitaries, layabouts, rubberneckers and riffraff, setting out in a little Armada across the harbour to meet the King of France, Louis-Philippe.”
Ned Rorem At 80
Composer Ned Rorem is turning 80 – and his “bleak pessimism about the future of music and the world at large has deepened even more. Yet the number and scale of events this season show that his fears of being forgotten are ill-founded. Indeed, Rorem’s milestone year is being marked in grand style.”