“The new Mariinsky Theatre, officially called Mariinsky II, is located directly across the canal from the original Mariinsky Theatre. It will become one of the largest opera production and presentation facilities in the world, and will be home of the Mariinsky Opera, Orchestra and Ballet.” Take a photo tour, led (metaphorically) by architect Jack Diamond.
Category: music
iTunes Is Broken. Here’s How To Fix It
“The iTunes Store turns 10 on Sunday, and during this decade, Apple has sold billions and billions of songs and apps out of its electronic storefront. But all those videos, apps, and songs have crippled the once-great MP3 player.”
Lang Lang: Stop Slamming Classical Chestnuts
“At the suggestion that commercial success and artistic integrity are mutually exclusive, the nicely glowing coals burst into flames.”
Composing With Choreographers (And Thinking About The Dancers)
“Soon the faculty choreographer was gesticulating wildly just offstage attempting to speed up the tempo. I had no idea what the dancers were doing behind me and was clueless to the concept that a deviation in tempo would have massive ramifications for their performance.”
Why Not Bring City Opera Back Home (To City Center)?
“It felt like a homecoming to see the company on the City Center stage. The renovated City Center is now much more inviting and comfortable. And whatever they did to that theater improved the acoustics.”
Making Sweet Music From The Stench Of A Landfill
“Gómez travels three times a week to Cateura to dig out material. He shapes the metal oven trays with an electric saw to form the body of a violin and engineers cellos from oil barrels. The necks of his string instruments are sculpted from old strips of wood, called palé.”
Making A Living As A Musician – In People’s Houses
House concerts are becoming an integral feature of many artists’ tours, filling in “dead” dates or just securing a guaranteed pay day without worrying about overheads and venue “cuts” of the takings.
The Wandering, Dwindling Chinese Opera Troupes Of Bangkok
“Sleep like dogs, eat like pigs, dress like angels. This, in their own words, is the life of an itinerant Chinese opera singer. They are the Gypsies of Bangkok, hauling their stages, their costumes, their musical instruments, their hammocks and their cooking gear through the back streets of the city from one Chinese temple to the next … for a shrinking following of increasingly elderly ethnic Chinese Thais.”
Why Dance Music Artists Don’t Get Royalties
“The problems with distributing royalties for dance music does not stop with radio plays – an even bigger problem is distribution of payments for clubs and festivals.”
Study: Music Helps Cut Bullying
“Occurrences of direct and indirect bullying were both significantly reduced during the three days when calming background music was played at the school.”