Back in 1971, after ten years of lobbying and planning, Edinburgh announced it would build a world class opera house. But newly released documents show why the hall was never built. It was sabotaged by civil servants who dubbed blueprints an “expensive fiasco” waiting to happen. “It had taken ten years for Edinburgh’s opera house plans to be accepted – and just a few months for government civil servants to sow the seeds of doubt which eventually led to the whole idea being scrapped.”
Blog
What The Parthenon Marbles Would Look Like In Greece
The campaign to put pressure on the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece is intensifying. The Greek goervnemtn is building a new museum to display the marbles should Britain return them. Now a high-tech exhibition in the British House of Parliament shows what the marbles would look like in the new museum. “The display includes a computer-simulated walk through the museum showing the reunited marbles displayed in glass cases.”
Changing The Complexion Of Symphony Orchestras
Symphony orchestras are overwhelmingly white. But a Detroit organization is trying encourage minority musicians with an annual competition “Since the Sphinx Organization was founded in 1996, its annual competition–the only nationwide classical music competition open exclusively to minority string players from junior high through college ages–has rewarded participants with cash prizes, scholarships, master classes, and instrument loans.”
Tolkien Manuscript Found
An unpublished manuscript by JRR Tolkien has been found in a box at Oxford. “The 2000 handwritten pages include Tolkien’s translation and appraisal of ‘Beowulf’, the epic 8th century Anglo-Saxon poem of bravery, friendship and monster-slaying that is thought to have inspired ‘The Lord of the Rings’.”
The Online Museum – Five That Get It Right
The wrold’s great museums are the world’s great museums. But the online museum is a recent development. Here are Joseph Phelan’s picks as the most interesting online art museum presentations…
Hmong – Forging A New Literary Tradition
Hmong society has no literary tradition. “The first Hmong writing system was developed by Catholic missionaries in the 1950s. Until then, all storytelling was spoken.” So a new book collecting young Hmong writers’ work is something extraordinary.
Customizing Your Record Collection
Vox Music Group has announced that it will burn individual CD copies of any part of its vast out-of-print catalog through a web site, eliminating the traditional process of a small repeat pressing, which often has been quite unprofitable. The announcement is exciting in part because it may signal a new wave of such ‘individual’ pressings by other companies, but also because Vox’s old recordings are some of the most extensive and sought after in the business.
Need A Job? Try Pittsburgh.
When an orchestra is searching for a new music director or executive director, it can be difficult to maintain a cohesive sound and/or business strategy, since such searches take months to years, and generally involve a general reimagining of the whole organization. So imagine the current stress level at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where they are searching for a new managing director, a new board president, a new music director, a new resident conductor and a new vice president of development. Oh, and don’t forget about that pesky deficit, either.
Redefining ‘Hero’ in Beijing
Every nation has had its tyrants, and China had a doozy 2,200 years ago in the emperor Qin Shihuang, whom historians have compared to Stalin in his ruthlessness and diregard for his people. But a new film by acclaimed director Zhang Yimou is making waves in modern China for its sympathetic portrayal of the emperor. The film, Hero, “despite its complicated subject, has delighted Beijing’s mandarins, who are submitting it as China’s nominee for best foreign film at the Academy Awards. And it has infuriated some Chinese critics, who have panned Mr. Zhang’s plot for promoting a philosophy of servitude.”
How To Start A Piano Tuner Riot
“Don A. Gilmore, an amateur piano player and professional engineer from Kansas City, Mo, has developed an electronic system that he says could allow pianists to tune their own instruments at the touch of a button.” The system relies on heated strings, electricity, and an elaborate computer program which ‘remembers’ an initial tuning and can replicate it under almost any circumstances. The self-tuning models won’t be cheap, but then, neither are piano tuners.