The chairman of the board of the now-bankrupt Florida Philharmonic says he’s proud of the efforts his board made to save the orchestra. He said “the high-profile plea for donors to come forward to save the Philharmonic netted only $770,000, far short of the $4.5 million necessary to see the orchestra through the 2003-04 season. That amount was barely a fraction of the original $20 million requested as a sign of the community’s willingness to support the orchestra. ‘We didn’t even get close to that figure, which made a bankruptcy filing inevitable’.”
Blog
Looters Stripping Bare Iraqi Archaeological Sites
“Mobs of treasure hunters are tearing into Iraqi archaeological sites, stealing urns, statues, vases and cuneiform tablets that often date back 3,000 years and more to Babylon and Sumer, archaeologists say.”
Tate Modern’s New Man
Vincente Todoli is the new director of the Tate Modern. He’s a “Catalan by birth and the latest in a growing line of international curators heading Britain’s museums. Aged 45, fast talking, fast moving, fast thinking, he shoots from the heart and smiles winningly. Stamina seeps from every pore. His strong accent, a year in New York as a Fulbright scholar notwithstanding, introduces an element of enigma to what he is saying (we spend several moments disentangling the sibilants of ‘thresholds’).”
The Gay Side Of Opera
“Gay and lesbian subtexts frequently hover beneath the surface of opera. The singer’s sex may not be the same as the sex of the character he or she is playing, while cross-dressing within plots can lead to erotic mayhem. That there should be a disparity in the way gay and straight composers have had to approach erotic subjects is ultimately a sad reflection on the normative proscriptions that have dogged social history and continue to do so. Yet opera also asserts a communality of experience that both contains and bypasses gender and sexual orientation.”
Bocelli Big Winner At Classical Brits
Singer Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli was the big winner at this year’s Classical Brit Awards, beating out the quartet Bond.
Fake Van Gogh Proves Wildly Popular
The self-portrait of van Gogh hanging in Oslo’s National Gallery is now considered a fake. But the news hasn’t proved to be a liability. “The painting of a troubled face on a blue-green background is the only portrait of van Gogh after he cut off his left ear. Visits have nearly tripled at the National since the van Gogh came home, and it had the same effect in Italy where it was on loan when the controversy over the painting’s origin erupted.”
Can’tLive Without His Anna Nicole
Seattle artist Jeff Hengst put two paintings outside his studio – an oversized Arnold Schwarzeneger and an oversized Anna Nicole Smith. He woke up this week to find that Nicole had been taken overnight. “Arnold’s useless to me without Nicole,” he said. He called the police immediately. Although he wasn’t expecting them to rush over and dust for prints, he was somewhat taken aback when they declined to come. They took his story over the phone and sent him a form to fill out.”
The Marketing of Homeland Security
“Nearly all politicians care about branding — just as Procter & Gamble fixates on creating positive ‘brand awareness’ about Crest, Cheer, Pampers and Pepto-Bismol. But [Secretary of Homeland Security Tom] Ridge is the rare public official who uses the term. He is attuned to small details of his department’s ‘visual brand.’ These include the creation of DHS logos, patches and signs.” The fact is, Homeland Security’s mission is as much about selling itself to the public as it is about preventing terrorist attacks. The idea is to find new and innovative ways to convince an increasingly cynical public to take the department’s pronouncements seriously.
Silicon Valley Braces For More Cuts
The severe cuts to state arts funding being pushed by California governor Gray Davis are hitting Silicon Valley particularly hard, and arts organizers in the San Jose area are bracing for yet another hit in what has already been a dismal year. Some area organizations may lose nearly all of their funding next year, and survival seems to be dependant on the generosity of private donors.
Whither Met Opera’s Broadcasts?
It is difficult to overstate the impact that the national broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera have had over the years on musicians, opera fans, and the general public. But with ChevronTexaco having pulled its sponsorship of the series, the Met is left with the unappetizing task of trying to find someone else willing to shell out $7 million or so every year for the privilege of having its name set before a few million opera lovers. The devastating blow comes as the Met is at the absolute top of its artistic game, says David Patrick Stearns, and the prospect of depriving the nation’s airwaves of the series is unthinkable.