A fight is brewing between La Scala director Riccardo Muti and the company’s general manager. “Mr Muti did not attend the official launch of the 2003-4 season, and on tour in Japan this week he was quoted as saying that La Scala was ‘at risk of decline’. The danger is that, unless Mr Muti gets what he wants, the great conductor will go elsewhere. Though still unspoken, it has been enough to sow alarm among the loggionisti, La Scala’s devotees, who sometimes queue all night for the cheap seats in the loggione, the equivalent of ‘the gods’.” Some see the flap as a power play with Italy’s volatile prime minister.
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Florida County Wants Artist To “Fix” Rust On Sculpture
Florida artist Bradley Arthur was hired to make sculpture out of melted guns. He did. But shortly after the sculpture was installed, it began to rust. “The county now contends Arthur has delivered a defective product. He must have done something wrong in making the sculpture. Officials with the county’s public art program want him to ‘fix’ it.
Arthur, 50, of Land O’Lakes, says there’s nothing broken. Of course the pieces are rusting, he said, because they’re made largely of gunmetal. He fully expected his artwork to rust in parts, and took that into account in his design.”
Lisbon’s Theatre Problem
“On the surface, Lisbon seems to support a healthy plethora of venues – from the huge neoclassical Teatro Nacional on the commercial Rossio square to funky, hilltop cafe theatres such as Teatro Taborda – and companies, from established names such as Teatro Cornucopia, co-founded by Melo, to bands of kids performing experimental works in the grounds of mental hospitals. However, theatre here is afflicted by one overwhelming, trenchant problem: a lack of audiences. At the country’s National Theatre – a sumptuous auditorium seating 500, where I witnessed Titus Andronicus playing to a crowd of 120 – a paltry 25% house is regarded as a resounding, sell-out smash hit. Shows in the city are regularly cancelled when theatregoers fail to materialise.”
Havana Biennial Imperiled
“Troubles are mounting for the eighth Havana Biennial as Dutch sponsors pull the plug on funding, while visual artists in Miami and Costa Rica turn down invitations to participate in the international showcase opening Nov. 1. The Cuban government’s crackdowns earlier this year on dissidents and artists’ charges of censorship fueled the decisions.”
British Museum Rejects Rosetta Stone Request
The British Museum has rejected a request by Egypt to return the Rosetta Stone or loan it. “The trustees do not consent to the loan of what might be called ‘iconic’ objects which we consider to be central to the collection’—such as the Rosetta Stone. It added: ‘We have excellent relationships with all our professional colleagues in Egypt. Whilst we are always willing to discuss new ways of cooperating with them on joint projects, we are clear, as are they, that the Rosetta Stone will stay in London.’ This statement appears to rule out a loan.”
The Bugler’s Digital Assist
It looks like a bugle. Sounds like a bugle. But “it is a bugle discreetly fitted with a battery-operated conical insert that plays the 24 notes of taps at the flick of a switch. It is all digital, with no human talent or breath required. All you do is hold it up, turn it on and try to look like a bugler.”
Honor At The Press Of A Switch
“The $500 electronic bugle is a necessity, the Pentagon insists. There are about 500 active-duty buglers, but more than 1,500 veterans die every day. Even the countless buglers at VFW and American Legion halls across the country can’t make up the difference.”
Guggenheim In Taiwan?
The Guggenheim board is considering a plan to build a branch of the museum in Taiwan. “The planned museum is to become part of a new NT$12.4 billion ($360.4 million) district in Taichung to include an opera house designed by Jean Nouvel, architect of the proposed Guggenheim Rio, and a new City Hall to be designed by Frank Gehry, architect of the Guggenheim Bilbao. The familiar roster is no coincidence, as Mr Krens served as advisor to the city in selecting the architects.”
Sound Of The Universe
What do the heavens sound like? Music, report scientists – specifically a B flat — “a B flat 57 octaves lower than middle C. The ‘notes’ appear as pressure waves roiling and spreading as a result of outbursts from a supermassive black hole through a hot thin gas that fills the Perseus cluster of galaxies, 250 million light-years distant. They are 30,000 light-years across and have a period of oscillation of 10 million years. By comparison, the deepest, lowest notes that humans can hear have a period of about one-twentieth of a second.”
Why We Got Rhythm
“Music is still a mystery, a tangle of culture and built-in skills that researchers are trying to tease apart. No one really knows why music is found in all cultures, why most known systems of music are based on the octave, why some people have absolute pitch and whether the brain handles music with special neural circuits or with ones developed for other purposes. Recent research, however, has produced a number of theories about the brain and music.”