The Spoleto USA chamber music festival is one of the nation’s best-loved summer institutions. But even a festival which continues to set records for attendance and ticket revenue is not immune from the ravages of the current American economic climate. Corporate sponsorships for Spoleto are down sharply this year, and while no one is talking about any major cuts just yet, the prospect of a return to massive debt and layoffs for the festival is certainly the proverbial elephant in the boardroom at the moment.
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Florida Phil Fans Enraged By Shutdown
Long-time subscribers of the Florida Philharmonic, which filed for bankruptcy last week after several weeks of pie-in-the-sky fundraising attempts, are reportedly furious with the way the orchestra urged and cajoled them to renew expensive subscriptions for a season which the orchestra knew might not be played. Now, the orchestra says it hasn’t decided whether to issue refunds to subscribers. “The Philharmonic has managed to alienate its bedrock supporters. It’s given the appearance of courting donors capable of seven-figure gifts while putting the squeeze on ordinary people who faithfully bought tickets.”
Better Than A Photograph, But Confusing As Hell
England’s National Gallery is unveiling a new machine which will allow visitors to make instant prints of any of thousands of paintings in the museum’s collection,in multiple sizes. The technology is not photographic, but digital, and the images produced are much more faithful to the original colors and textures of the works than a photographic print could ever be. And that’s what makes it so disconcerting, says James Fenton. “The fact of the matter is that, the more you study the history of art, the more you are likely to use photographs. Even when you… make a conscious effort to memorise a painting as it is when seen in natural light, there will be other paintings and other artists’ work that get stored in your mind through acquaintance with photographs.”
Work As Self-Fulfillment: Why Hepworth Mattered
“Barbara Hepworth was an artist of extraordinary stature whose importance is still to some extent occluded. Over 50 years, from 1925 to her death in 1975, she made more than 600 works of sculpture remarkable in range and emotional force. Her private life was complicated, at times traumatic: two marriages and four children, three of whom were triplets. And there was the long disruption of the war. What makes Hepworth wonderful was the strength of her ambition, the unswerving self-belief. She demonstrated so tangibly her understanding that ‘the dictates of work are as compelling for a woman as for a man.'”
Dangerous Times, Dangerous Talk
“The executive producer of this week’s CBS miniseries, ‘Hitler: The Rise of Evil,’ was fired for publicly likening the climate in America in advance of the invasion of Iraq to the climate in pre-war Germany that allowed the rise of the Third Reich. Ed Gernon lost his job for drawing an analogy. Imagine being axed for expressing an opinion about a period in history when it was unsafe to express an opinion. If it weren’t so nasty, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was all a publicity stunt.” But it’s no stunt, and the continuing backlash against anyone daring to badmouth the current administration has many in Hollywood drawing another analogy, to the old McCarthy blacklist.
Conlon To Head Ravinia
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has tapped James Conlon to head its summer festival at Ravinia, beginning in 2005. Conlon, an American who has made his name as one of the world’s top conductors while working mainly in Europe, will succeed Christoph Eschenbach. Competition for the much-coveted Ravinia job was stiff, with such rising stars as Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, and Leonard Slatkin in the mix. One musicologist’s description of Conlon would seem to fit well with the style of the CSO’s summer festival: “His highly serious approach to music is offset by an almost childlike delight in performing it.”
Big-Time Theatre For Small Fry
The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis recently won a Tony award for regional theatre companies, the first time that a company focusing on kids had won such an award. The CTC is obviously a deeply imbedded part of the Twin Cities’ theatrical community, and it can legitimately lay claim to conditioning thousands of young minds to enjoy serious theatre, an accomplishment which benefits every other company in the region. So why don’t more cities have such a company? Cities like, say, Chicago? The simple answer may be that no one’s ever really tried to start one.
Confessions of a File-Swapper
“I know it’s wrong. I’m trying to stop. It’s just that the temptation is too great. I love music. And every song I ever wanted is out there for the taking. I am a downloader… I know I’m supposed to just say no. And I know the record industry is cracking down. My attempts to download one popular song led me to a bunch of bogus files; I assume they were part of the record companies’ covert attempts to disrupt the downloading services. I know Big Brother is looking for me… I need help.”
The Composer As Iconoclast
Pierre Boulez has never been one to understate things, or withhold his opinions on other artists. One of the most eminent composers and conductors of the last century, Boulez gained notoriety in his youth by declaring Schoenberg ‘dead’ and booing Stravinsky’s latest neoclassic offering. He has mellowed a bit with age, but can still rail against the direction of contemporary music with a fervor that borders on the fanatical. He despises contemporary opera techniques, loves the music of Frank Zappa, and reads everything he can get his hands on. And yes, he still has little use for Stravinsky.
Libeskind Adjusts To Life In The Spotlight
Daniel Libeskind has been well-known in architectural circles since his first major building went up in Berlin more than a decade ago. But since being selected as the architect who will replace the World Trade Center, Libeskind has had to learn to live with a whole new level of celebrity. People stop him on the street, offer their unsolicited opinions on his design, and generally treat him with the same level of awe the Big Apple affords to such local heroes as Derek Jeter or Rudy Giuliani. Celebrity has its downside, of course, but for the moment, Libeskind seems to reaping all of its rewards.