Kenneth Baker weighs in on art repatriation issues: “The furor over Nazi looting has touched off a transnational frenzy of new and renewed demands for repatriation of artworks stolen, liquidated or otherwise lost during wartime or colonial occupation. These range from Greece’s perennial demands for Britain’s return of the Parthenon ‘Elgin marbles’ to Korean demands for the return of artifacts stolen by Japan during the Second World War and earlier. Reflecting on the weight of such claims, it is worth remembering that Hitler’s cultural officers frequently looted art treasures on the pretext of repatriating them in the aftermath of the wars of centuries past.”
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Scoring The Best Orchestras
Which is the best orchestra in the world? Donald Rosenberg tries to define criteria. “The temptation to line up orchestras and score them as if they were sports teams is tempting. But it doesn’t work. Art can’t be assessed on the basis of points. Every orchestra is different. Some are perceptibly better than others. Evaluating an orchestra largely has to do with style, traditions and concepts of sound. Anything else is cheerleading. Still, it is instructive and fun to listen closely to orchestras to discern the qualities that make them unusual and special.”
Orchestra Interrupted
The Houston Symphony strike is a wrongheaded debacle that has damaged a fine orchestra and threatens to put it out of business, writes Sam Bergman. Already, musicians are slipping out of town headed to other jobs – four members have won jobs elsewhere so far – and the dismantling has already begun. No question times are tough for arts organizations everywhere, but does Houston really want to abandon one of its major cultural assets?
Looks: 10…Music?
How can opera compete in a world of multimedia? “In an attempt to connect with a broad and unspecialized public, opera companies have sought the ministrations of directors who are inventive, fearless – and often indifferent to the music they purport to serve. These theatrical interpreters are granted liberties that musical interpreters would never take: Operas are constantly being shuttled from one era to another, causing havoc with time-bound librettos, yet the score remains more or less sacrosanct.”
Rushdie – A Glam Life Post-Fatwa
As the play adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” comes to the United States after disappointing reviews in London, Rushdie describes life after the fatwa. “In these post-fatwa days, he said, he has an ordinary life. He doesn’t need to say that it’s ordinary, only compared with his years in hiding.”
Anti-War Songs Absent On Commercial Radio
“Songwriters denouncing war with Iraq are trying to speed up an artistic and political reaction that took years, not months, to gather momentum in the 1960’s. The new antiwar songs are virtually absent from commercial radio stations, where most programmers wouldn’t dream of dividing or alienating their listenership. Instead, songs are arriving from various fringes — on the collegiate indie-rock circuit, in hip-hop’s activist wing and among the heirs to folky 1960’s protesters.”
Authentic England – As Told By An American
So UK voters in an online poll vote American Bill Bryson as the author who has best defined contemporary England. “What makes Bryson a curious choice is that, if there is one thing the English enjoy more than a bit of self-mockery, it’s laughing at foreigners, especially Americans, whom we’ve traditionally considered as lacking our refined wit, culture and learning. But one of the claims made repeatedly for Bryson, as if it’s the greatest compliment he could hope to receive, is that, having lived in England for 20 years, he – and his humour – have become sufficiently anglicised to give him honorary status and a licence to laugh at us. But is it true that, as Bryson suggests, England spent the twentieth century ‘looking on itself as a chronic failure’?”
Don’t Mess With Rodin
Should museums be allowed to alter works of art in their care to create other works of art? James Fenton protests. “Tate ‘conservators’ have conspired with the exploding-shed-monger and brass-instrument-crusher, Cornelia Parker, to wrap Rodin’s marble group, ‘The Kiss’, in a mile of string. They should not have done this. It should be a principle of conservation that nothing unnecessary is done to an original work of art in a public collection, and I don’t care what the ‘conservators’ say about the care they took in executing this banal intervention. They wouldn’t have dared do this to Brancusi. They shouldn’t have done this to Rodin.”
Taking Solace In A Tango?
“Argentina is struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, and a nine-day tango festival here, which ends on Sunday night, is a government-sponsored attempt to offer some solace to the population. But the event also raises questions not only about the place of tango in contemporary Argentine society but also about its vitality and future.”
Broadway Shuts Down Musicals As Musicians Strike
After Broadway musicians went on strike Friday, actors and stagehands refused to cross picket lines, and producers decided to close down all musicals. “Broadway producers announced that all musicals — except for ‘Cabaret,’ which operates under a different contract — would be shut for the weekend. Dramatic plays without music and Off Broadway productions operated as normal.”