Less than a week after the beleaguered Colorado Springs Symphony dissolved itself in bankruptcy court, the musicians of the old CSSO joined with their old music director and a new board leadership of their choosing to form the new Colorado Springs Philharmonic. The executive director of the Phil will be Susan Greene, who had been dismissed from the same position at the CSSO a year ago, sparking angry questions from the musicians.
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Gandolfini Back On Board
Sopranos obsessives, you may resume breathing now. HBO reached a contract settlement with disgruntled star James Gandolfini this week, and the hit (no pun intended) series will not have to delay production. Gandolfini and HBO had filed lawsuits against each other after the network missed a deadline in the actor’s contract process. Conventional wisdom held that Gandolfini was angling for a raise. He got one.
Baltimore Symphony Facing Money Woes
“Like a persistent virus, the economic downturn continues to infect musical organizations across the country. No immediate cure is in sight… The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s projected deficit for the current fiscal year has gone from $515,000, estimated last November, to $806,000 as of this month. Underlining the troubling financial picture is the fact that BSO management has unexpectedly opened up negotiations with the musicians, even though their contract, approved three years ago, doesn’t expire until 2005. Neither side will provide details of these discussions, but it’s clear that the orchestra is looking into every option, including possible financial concessions from the players, to stop the flow of red ink.”
Cleveland Losing Three Principal Players
Major orchestras don’t lose their principal musicians very often. After all, these are the plum jobs of the music industry, high-salaried and high-profile. But this year, the Cleveland Orchestra will lose no fewer than three of its principal players, and the scramble for their jobs is on. Two of the three principals are retiring, and the other, who had moved up from second chair, is returning to his old position after not being tenured at the principal position.
Can The English National Opera Be Saved?
Members of the troubled English National Opera – threatened by layoffs – have some hope that their fortunes will improve. “Their cause is further boosted by the company’s comic inability to communicate information in a timely, orderly and credible fashion. Statements are sent out and swiftly recalled; press briefings verge on the farcical. The verifiable fact that ENO is living beyond sustainable means is lost in transmission.” But will striking save company jobs? No, writes Norman Lebrecht, “the grim truth about strikes in the arts: they never work.”
Iraq: A Looming Archaeological Crisis
“Virtually all of Iraq is an archaeological site. Some 10,000 sites have been identified in Iraq, and many more, perhaps half a million, await discovery. They range from the size of a small city to the size of your backyard. Each has its own stories, each is unique, each is irreplaceable, each is crucial. The sum of those stories is a fundamental part of who we are today. Our archaeological heritage is a nonrenewable resource, and when part of it is destroyed, that part of us is lost forever. The political turmoil of the last decade in Iraq has turned its archaeological emergencies into catastrophes.”
A Rocky Road To Chicago
Now that “Chicago” is a favorite for an Academy Award, those involved in the project are putting up a happy front. But the years it took to wrestle “Chicago” to the screen was a battle – stars and songs and collaborators and scripts coming and going…
CBS Extends Tony Broadcast
CBS has decided to expand its broadcast of this year’s Tony Awards to three hours. “For the last five years, the Tonys were shown for two hours on CBS, with an initial hour on PBS, which usually featured the design awards as well as awards for director of best play and best musical.” This year PBS was unable to handle the broadcast and some feared that the first hour wouldn’t be televised.
Art Or Finance – Is This Any Way To Run An Arts Organization?
Arts management is a vicious circle, writes Rupert Christiansen. Here’s the way it goes: “Some ambitious romantic, out of touch with audience taste and budgetary actuality, leads the accounts to the brink of financial catastrophe and plug-pulling threats from the subsidising bodies. The board panics and appoints someone with experience of the ‘real world’ of business or industry. He or she imports a management consultancy. A lot of paper-pushing, a lot of bellowing, a lot of sacking ensues. Morale among the creators and curators is decimated, and the quality of the art plummets.” It doesn’t have to be this way…
The West End – For Better And Worse
London’s West End theatres offer the kind of dramatic range and diversity that Broadway can only dream of. The West End generates more than $2 billion of economic impact each year. About 12 million people attend West End productions every year, and there was a 3.2% rise in attendance last year – a remarkable statistic considering the current depressed states of the economy and tourism.” Still, there are some problems, not the least of which is the shabby condition of West End theatres.