Blog

Nissinen Era Firmly In Place In Boston

When Boston Ballet hired Mikko Nissinen to turn the company around, no one quite knew how such a feat could be accomplished. The company had been in chaos for several seasons, and could not seem to shake its image as something of an also-ran in Boston’s estimable arts scene. So how is Nissinen doing, one year into his reign? “It’s clear that Nissinen’s push for change, however subtle, has had an impact. The company that performs next season will be vastly different from the one that opened last September. There will be fewer performances and a smaller administrative staff. More dramatically, four of nine principal dancers, or featured stars, will be gone.”

Why Digital Rights Management Is Anti-American

The idea that copyright protection must evolve to encompass the new digital media seems like a reasonable one on the surface. After all, no one ever really denied that Napster users were stealing music, right? But David Weinberger says that, as usual, politicians and corporate America have taken a legitimate issue and wildly overreacted, proposing a scheme with no consumer leeway and no ability to make changes later. “There are times when rules need to be imposed within [the] marketplace, whether they’re international laws against bootleg CDs or the right of someone to sue for libel. But the fact that sometimes we resort to rules shouldn’t lead us to think that they are the norm.”

Blogging For Freedom

The blogging phenomenon continues to expand worldwide, and new reports out of the Middle East indicate that Iran, a theocracy with no free press, has become a blogging hotbed. One leader of the movement predicts that “until there is a free press in Iran again, weblogs will flourish. In the last few years about 90 (pro-democracy) newspapers in Iran have been shut down. So people have turned to the Internet to get news.”

Finally, A Download Price War!

“Facing competition from Apple Computer’s iTunes service, Listen.com will lower the price to download songs from its Rhapsody music service by 20 cents to 79 cents, marking the latest move by paid music services to attract and retain new ears. For the price, listeners can download and burn from among more than 200,000 songs. Unlike users of Apple’s iTunes, who only pay 99 cents per song, Listen.com customers also pay a $10 a month subscription fee.” The news is significant, because it indicates that the public is interested enough in legal download services to make the price war necessary.

Philly Orch Exec: Kreizberg Chat Was Routine

Last week, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Peter Dobrin reported that the members of the Philadelphia Orchestra had taken aside conductor Yakov Kreizberg, who had been called in at the last minute to replace Wolfgang Sawallisch on a major international tour, and asked him to cut down on the podium histrionics and stick with Sawallisch’s tempos. The orchestra’s top artistic executive agrees that the meeting took place, but insists that Dobrin overplayed the drama. “In our view, conversations between the concertmaster and conductor are a normal part of healthy music collaboration.”

Guthrie’s Expansion Money Hits A Snag

Despite multiple earlier reports that the Minnesota state legislature had a deal in place to partially fund construction of a new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis through a bonding bill, the measure became badly stalled yesterday when House Republicans balked at the inclusion of the theater funding. In response, the Democrat-controlled state Senate is refusing to honor agreements to pass a Republican budget-balancing bill until the House passes the bonding bill. If legislative history is any indication, the Guthrie will probably get its money in the end, but no one dares say so just yet, with cranky legislators stretched to the breaking point in what has been a particularly contentious session.

Guthrie Gets Money Together For New Home

It looks like Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre has put together money to build its new home after the Minnesota legislature struck a deal to include money for the Guthrie in a bonding bill. The Guthrie has “gathered $64.5 million toward its internal fundraising goal of $75 million. The final price tag of the new three-stage Guthrie on the River is $125 million. The theater’s board plans to borrow $15 million, so the $25 million from the state leaves a $10 million gap. Last session, the Legislature approved $24 million for the Guthrie. That appropriation fell to then-Gov. Jesse Ventura’s veto pen.”

A City Celebrates As It Works To Recover A Glorious Past

It’s the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Russia’s cultural jewel and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The city is trying to shake off the indignities of its Soviet past, when it was forced to change its name and its culture was pressed into service of the Lenin crowd. “The race to restore its imperial luster and secure its crown as the cultural capital of Russia has been helped significantly by being, in a sense, Putingrad — the hometown of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Anniversary events today included a wreath laying at the Bronze Horseman and the opening of a grand entrance to the Hermitage from the Palace Square.”

A Folk Dance Tradition Invented From Scratch

“Unlike other styles of folk dancing, where traditional dances are handed down from generation to generation, Israeli folk dancing was an exercise in cultural engineering. Early in Israel’s history, people on the kibbutzim would gather around an accordion player and dance the dances of their homelands: the Romanian hora, the Arabic debka, and dances from Russia and Yemen. In the late 1940s, however, there was a deliberate effort to create original dances. The early dances were based on these traditional styles, but opened the way for creativity and innovation. ‘The whole idea of creating folk dances, instead of having them just emerge naturally from the community, is quite amazing’.”