Scotland has long made a contribution to jazz out of all proportion to its size. The list of famous players runs across generations and genres. But the 1990s were a particularly invigorating period for Scottish jazz. ‘This is a small scene. It doesn’t have the economic power to keep buying American tours. What’s been appreciated here in recent years, and what is becoming apparent inside and outside Scotland now, is that we’re growing our own stars’.”
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Covent Garden To Stage Its First Musical
London’s Royal Opera House, out to prove it is more populist than in the past, has scheduled its first musical for the main stage: Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Music director Antonio Pappano “said he wanted to open the windows … ‘I am not interested in this old argument about what is opera and what is musical theatre. Often it’s so intense and serious here, but it is OK for this opera house to have fun too’.”
Dante – Burn Baby Burn
“We’re living in a golden age of Dante translation. Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky touched it off when he published an excellent, widely acclaimed verse translation of the Inferno in 1995. In just the last year, five new editions of the Inferno have appeared, including a reprint of Longfellow’s landmark version. Still more surprising, there are three new translations of the much less popular Purgatorio, the second of the Comedy’s three ‘canticles.’ And the torrent doesn’t stop there.”
Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing
The recent slash in California’s arts funding isn’t worth all the hand-wringing, says Christopher Knight, simply because the state wasn’t really doing anything helpful for actual artists even before the cuts. In the 1990s, artists learned that the way to get funding from an increasingly hostile set of lawmakers is to tie absolutely everything they do to education and social services, which results in mandates that funding be spent on repetitive and pointless programs rather than on the creation of actual art. “Why the inverted priority in the real world? No mystery: Artists don’t have advocates in Sacramento. The arts bureaucracy does.”
Dream Team Orchestra
Many conductors, as they travel ’round the world, play games of Dream Team – picking the best players from top orchestras and imagining how the all-star orchestra would sound. Mostly, it’s an excercise of imagination. But Claudio Abbado, “presiding at this summer’s Lucerne Festival, has cherry-picked players from symphony and chamber orchestras, string quartets and solo rosters to form an ensemble that will be the envy of Salzburg and a thumb in the eye for the Berlin Philharmonic, from whom Abbado parted company last year. Such dreams can come true only at festival time. In permanent orchestras, maestros get along with tenured musicians of uneven temperament and with the human clay thrown up at auditions.”
Seagram Art To Hit The Block
“The famous Seagram art collection, including a 1919 curtain mural painted by Picasso, is to be auctioned in New York through the spring and summer by Christie’s auction house, it was announced yesterday… Last year, Vivendi Universal, the heavily indebted Paris-based media group that owns Seagram, decided it didn’t want to be an art owner and ordered the ‘liquidation’ of the 2,500-piece collection, setting off a storm of controversy.” The company’s collection of photos will be sold by Phillips De Pury & Luxembourg at a separate auction in late April.
Toronto Fest Looks For New Digs
“Plans are well underway to build dedicated new theatre and office space for the Toronto International Film Festival which, after Cannes and Sundance, is regarded as the most important movie celebration in the world… Individuals and organizations associated with TIFF’s plans have been extremely tight-lipped. Still, it is known that the festival began to look seriously at having a dedicated, year-round space of its own about 18 months ago, surveying major cultural players as to the value and tourist potential of such a space… Three award-winning architectural firms are in competition for the project’s design.”
Is Saddam Holding Historical Treasures Hostage?
“Millennia ago, Iraq was the cradle of civilization, hence the concern about its cultural and archaeological sites. Is the U.S. taking sufficient care to spare Iraq’s treasures? The laws of warfare make clear that while combatants may not target such sites, if they are used for military purposes they lose their protection.” Unfortunately, say US commanders, the Iraqis have are putting military targets next to important archaeological sites. Recently Iraq “placed military equipment and communications equipment next to the 2,000-year-old brick arch of Ctesiphon on the banks of the Tigris River, the world’s largest surviving arch from ancient times and the widest single-span arch in the world.”
Preemptive Cuts at Boston Lyric
Boston Lyric Opera unveiled its plans for next season recently, and shocked local observers with the announcement that it will trim its schedule of large productions by 25%. Despite the tough economy, the Lyric Opera has thrived over the past decade, and has earned much praise for its artistic leadership. But donations to the Lyric are down significantly, and management decided to trim the season now rather than face a budget crisis later. But not to worry, says the company’s general director: the Lyric plans to expand its season again once finances improve.
Pooling Resources In Massachusetts
A unique conference in Boston has brought together arts organizations, cultural advocates, and state politicians in an effort to better educate the disparate artistic community in the more pragmatic aspects of financial survival in tough economic times. Participants shared fundraising and lobbying techniques, heard from high-ranking legislators concerning what tactics work best at the statehouse, and discussed methods for broadening the diversity of audiences.