Peter Marks: “The good news is, you can now access plays and musicals of every style online, from every part of the country and many other places around the globe, a lot of itfree. The bad news is, you can access plays and musicals of every style online.” – Washington Post
Category: AUDIENCE
What Explains Why Millions Are Tuning In Online To Watch Orchestras?
What explains why the Philadelphia Orchestra’s BeethovenNOW concert, with two full symphonies webcast from an empty Verizon Hall on March 12, is up to 771,000 YouTube views? Or why the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s abbreviated Beethoven 9th video — with each instrumentalist playing separately from home, titled From Us to You, is closing in on 2 million views since its March 20 posting? – Philadelphia Inquirer
TicketMaster Does It Again: Infuriates Fans With Its Refund Policy
Online, fans are fuming about being unable to get refunds for concerts that have been postponed, often with no rescheduled dates in sight. As they see it, ticketing outlets are being greedy at a time of crisis, holding billions of dollars in consumers’ cash that people now need for essentials. Their anger is being stoked by the sense that some vendors switched their refund policies mid-crisis to avoid repaying consumers. – The New York Times
‘Quarantine Soirées’ And ‘Confinement Concertos’ — How Classical Music Performance Is Developing In The Days Of Social Distancing
“So far, nothing has approached the embarrassment factor of the quarantine meditations from Madonna’s bathtub. But is this classical music’s brave new world? A temporary novelty? A dead end? And will there be some viable mechanism for getting the artists paid?” David Patrick Stearns looks at how some of the new content turning up online for homebound fans is (or isn’t) panning out. – WQXR (New York City)
Disney Plus Has Signed 50 Million Subscribers In Five Months
“Disney has taken an especially hard hit from the pandemic, with its theme parks shuttered, movies postponed and ESPN cable channel without live sports to televise. But the company on Wednesday offered an upbeat update on its newest business — one that may as well have been built for home quarantining.” – The New York Times
As Schools Move Online, Less Than Half Of Their Students Log In
The absence rate appears particularly high in schools with many low-income students, whose access to home computers and internet connections can be spotty. Some teachers report that less than half their students are regularly participating. – The New York Times
The Planned Online Six-Hour Epic Pauline Oliveros Opera
The founder of Opera Povera posted the idea to perform an Oliveros opera, and the opera world responded quickly and in numbers. The plan for the participant opera and fundraiser for musicians: “More than 250 artists from around the world will gather for an epic online performance of the late composer’s The Lunar Opera: Deep Listening for _Tunes, an open-form opera in which the enlisted performers create their own characters, movements and sound based on sonic cues known only to themselves.” – Los Angeles Times
SXSW Will Put Its Film Festival Online Streaming For Ten Days
SXSW announced Thursday that it’s partnering with Amazon Prime Video to stream as much of its movie line-up as possible for a 10-day period in the U.S. It will be free to viewers with or without an Amazon Prime membership. – CBS Austin
Now Even Arthouse Movie Theaters Are Embracing Streaming Video
“Alamo Drafthouse, Film Forum and the Angelika are a few of the … theaters testing out the provisional path into [online streaming]. … Patrons can purchase a digital ticket, most of which cost around $12, giving them access to a link that is available for a few days.” – Variety
Can Looking At Art Online Beat The In-Person Experience?
“It’s definitely less trouble. You can stroll around the masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, while seated at home in front of your laptop. Naturally, it’s far less crowded that way than it would be in reality. In other respects, though, the process is almost the same. You can select a Vermeer or a Frans Hals, and move in to examine it close up, read the information, move back — and, if you want, listen to a rather noisy narrated analysis of Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’.” – The Spectator