Fifty years after Prokofiev’s death, his operas are taking on different meanings from when they were first created. “Perhaps the art of Soviet Russia will come to resemble the art of revolutionary France. For a while, for decades after the Terror, there were paintings of David’s that caused such horror that they could scarcely be shown – for David was notorious as a supporter of terror. But then that part of their meaning drained away. For 50 years Prokofiev wrote operas. In the 50 years since his death, these works have begun to make their way. It’s the slowness of the process that’s impressive -the slowness and, to be sure, the sureness too.”
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Today’s Teens – Totally Manipulated?
Are today’s teenagers totally at the mercy of the corporate messages that everywhere lie in wait for them? “By sheer virtue of their population numbers, buying power and savvy, teens are not merely in vogue. Entire carpeted auditoriums of middle-age movie, TV, retail and Internet executives devote themselves to tracking the spending habits of these juniors, decoding their preferences, catering to their every mass hiccup.” A new book suggests that today’s teens are a “sad, hollow, cheated generation, thoroughly saturated by artful product placement, co-opted by viral marketing, oppressed by the trickle-down effect of the (now rather pockmarked) “contemporary luxury economy.”
National Gallery Gains A Boticelli
London’s National Gallery has a new Boticelli. Well, not new exactly. The museum has reattributed a picture that had previously been attributed to one of the master’s followers. “The picture, ‘St Francis with Musical Angels’, is extremely unusual for a mid-15th century Florentine painting in its patterned, stamped gold background. The painting was purchased (as a Filippino Lippi) by the the National Gallery’s greatest director, Sir Charles Eastlake in 1858 from the Costabili collection.”
Popularity – A Matter Of Volume?
When a singer like Norah Jones has a big success – more than 4 million albums served – theories about why abound. “Overlooked in all this conjecture is the essential trait of Jones’ music, the thing that makes it appeal to all those constituencies: It’s quiet. Intimate. Drawn to human scale. Come Away is the first multi-platinum success in years to suggest that a singer doesn’t have to shout, physically or metaphorically, to be heard. Now that is radical.”
Head Of The Class – Covent Garden’s Pappano
Covent Garden waited four years waiting Antonio Pappano, its new music director. “The man is a live wire, and after a few months he has electrified the entire building. The Royal Opera needed just an invigorating shock. ‘Years ago, some one gave me Solti’s memoirs, and when I got to the part where he described coming to Covent Garden as music director I had the weirdest feeling: I knew in my bones that I would get this job’.”
Philanthropy Survey Suggests Troubling Trends
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s third annual survey of “America’s most-generous donors” shows a huge drop in giving – the total for the largest 60 givers declined from $12.7 billion to $4.6 billion. “A troubling sign of the slowdown: a growing tendency among donors to make long-term pledges rather than outright cash gifts. Some donors also are delaying payments on previous pledges, and fund raisers see an increasing reluctance among wealthy people to make new giving commitments of any sort.”
South African Playwright Has AIDS
Gibson Kente, 69, one South Africa’s most prominent playwrights, said last week that he has AIDS, “becoming one of only a handful of celebrities to go public about AIDS in the country worst hit by the disease.” Kente helped pioneer theater in South Africa’s black townships during the years of apartheid rule. Why go public? “I have HIV, why not make some use of it?”
Libeskind To Win Out At Ground Zero
Sources indicate that Daniel Libeskind will shortly be named the winner of the competition to design a replacement for the World Trade Center towers in New York, but some elements of his design will be scrapped in the building process. Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both favor the Libeskind design, and his “plans have also gained favour with the New York port authority, which owns the World Trade Centre site, and the Lower Manhattan development corporation (LMDC), which is overseeing the rebuilding.” The announcement could come as early as this week.
The Danger Of ‘The Next Big…’
Everyone wants to know when the next Nureyev is coming. Or the next Baryshnikov. Or the next Balanchine. Or the next Graham. But why, asks Jack Anderson, are we so bound and determined to replace these legends? They were irreplacable, and the fact that they are gone shouldn’t mean that today’s dance stars should be expected to live up to what they accomplished. By constantly focusing on what the dance world has lost, we risk not recognizing the true innovators of today.
So How Is Anyone Supposed To Know You Exist?
“For today’s artists there’s no shame in being market-savvy. In the post-Warhol era, licensing agreements, movie deals and publicity campaigns are increasingly regarded as legitimate extensions of the art-making process. But one corner of the art world still embraces the ideal of art uncorrupted by commerce. In the field of outsider art, creators who show too much interest in marketing are likely to find their work devalued, if not shunned altogether.”