Blog

What Makes Baz Boheme Work On Broadway?

Opera and Broadway have long tried to mix it up – but rarely with success. Somehow, despite the rising popularity of crossover, one can’t escape the conventional wisdom that opera and Broadway occupy two distinct and conflicting worlds. How, then, is one to react to the surprise success of Baz Luhrmann’s $6.5 million production of Puccini’s La Bohème on Broadway?”

Virtual Reality – Little About Broadway Music Is “Real”

Maybe the Broadway musicians strike is about live music, but “the truth is, orchestras on Broadway have been becoming virtualized for years. Electronic enhancement is used to juice up the sound of the string section and boost the punch of the brass. Missing instruments — extra woodwinds, a couple of harps, exotic percussion — are rendered through digital keyboards. The chorus onstage is often fortified by taped voices that are blasted through the sound system. But it would be great to see this tired assumption challenged. How often have Broadway audiences been given a chance to experience the truly natural sound of unamplified voices and orchestras? Broadway theaters were once much quieter places.”

Fire Back – The Art Of Jazz Protest

What’s become of jazz protest? The question is old, but in an era of international emergency, it’s relevant. So poet Amiri Baraka, playwright Sonia Sanchez, Columbia professor Robert O’Meally, and trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater are discussing dissent in jazz — and maybe exercising it — when Lincoln Center hosts “Jazz and Social Protest” on March 18. But dissent against what? And why? How successfully the panelists address jazz activism, and prescribe a course for it, might depend on how clearly they consider Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln’s legacies…”

Controversial Cleaning

Cleaning art to make it clearer alters the work in a way some find unacceptable. “If one were to suggest that a Bach Cantata should be transposed and reconstructed to make it ‘listenable’ to a wide audience, many would find the proposition unacceptable. The same might be said of remaking T. S. Elliot’s ‘Wasteland’ so that the poem would become ‘understandable’ to neophytes and school children. The situation surrounding a painting from the past is rather different in one crucial aspect, however. Re-writing Bach’s musical score for a new redaction or Elliot’s poetic structure for another less complex one does not affect the original text. The correct, uncorrupted text is still there and can always be consulted. Such is not the case with a painting which has been made more readable. The restoration operation requires that making the object more readable be conducted on the original, unique and only text itself.”

NY Mayor Enters Broadway Strike Talks

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has entered the Broadway musicians strike dispute. He’s invited producers and the musicians union to negotiate at the mayor’s residence. “I am encouraged that theater owners, producers and the musicians’ union have taken the city up on its offer, and I am determined that they reach an agreement so Broadway can come back to life.”

(Almost) Alive With The Sound Of Music

So the Broadway strike is about live music, right? But for a long time now you really couldn’t trust your ears in the theatre. “Many Broadway musical moments remain mostly live and somewhat pure, the creation of soaring talents onstage and sawing string players and the like offstage. But more and more, the sound of music on Broadway is being artificially enhanced, with volumes amplified and instruments synthesized as if the theater district were one big recording studio.”

How Do Women Look On TV?

The National Organization for Women studies the American primte time TV schedule to see how women are portrayed. “How accurately did the 2002 television season reflect real life? What conclusions might one make about gender, race, sex, violence and social issues in the United States after watching the six major networks?” The NOW Foundation attempted to answer these questions.”

Broadway – We’re All In Favor Of Live Music Here – Right?

Broadway producers say they want to keep live music alive in theatres, but that creative staff should be determining how many musicians should be hired, not unions. “Still, almost every major composer, orchestrator and musical director on Broadway has signed a petition to keep the minimums. So it appears that a good percentage of the creative staff has already spoken.” And so far, the strike has cost New York $7 million.