Okay, he’s not leaving for another two years. But with his successor already named, Metropolitan Opera chief Joseph Volpe is now officially a lame duck, a position to which he is anything but accustomed. Regarding fears that Peter Gelb is planning to dumb down the company with the crossover material that made him famous at Sony Classical, Volpe takes a skeptical tone: “Peter is very smart. And I believe Peter will do what’s in good taste and proper for the Met. I don’t think he would attempt to popularize a standard work, because, first of all, it won’t work. In the record business you can do certain things that you cannot do in an opera house.”
Category: people
Recollections: Steve Martin Buys Some Art
Steve Martin recollects a vist to a friend’s house and seeing a drawing by the friend on the wall. Years after first seeing it, with the friend ill, Martin decides to offer to buy the drawing bothy because he remembers liking it and because he thinks the friend might be able to use the money…
James Binger, CEO, Theatre Mogul
The former CEO of Honeywell, “for the last decades of his life, Binger was known as a man of the theater. He owned five Broadway theaters under the corporate name Jujamcyn — a moniker derived from the names of his children: Judith, James and Cynthia. He was an early supporter and a lifetime board member of the Guthrie Theater. And he was an investor in local theater endeavors, including downtown Minneapolis’ popular and long-running “Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding.”
The Derrida Divide
When French Deconstructionist Jacques Derrida died las month, the eulogizing was predictable. ” If the response came from outside the academy, it tended to be bemused or critical. If a response came from the purlieus of the professoriate, however, it was likely to be sorrowful, eulogistic, even starry-eyed. There was nothing surprising about this.”
Man Arrested In Van Gogh Murder
The man suspected of killing Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh is a suspected radical Islamist with alleged terrorist links, the Dutch authorities say. The man, aged 26, has dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
Edmunds Takes On Melbourne Fest
American Kristy Edmunds has taken charge of the next two Melbourne International Arts Festivals. “It’s the first time since 1986 that a foreigner has been given the job, one of the most powerful arts positions in Australia and the region. What Edmunds chooses to include, or exclude, can affect festivals across the country, in New Zealand and Singapore, and, in the long term, artists’ careers. And there’s the more important issue of how it thrills, moves or disappoints the festival goers.”
Dutch Filmmaker Killed
“Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, who made a controversial film about Islamic culture, has been stabbed and shot dead in Amsterdam. Van Gogh, 47, had received death threats after his film Submission, on violence against women in Islamic societies, was shown on Dutch TV. Eyewitnesses quoted by Radio Netherlands said Van Gogh was attacked while cycling by a man dressed in a traditional Moroccan jallaba.”
Hans Christian Anderson, Dancer?
Hans Christian Anderson knew he was going to be a star when he was a teenager. But of what? At one point he decided his future was as a ballet dancer, and presented himself for an audition. “What Andersen thought he could achieve is unclear. Not only did he have no formal dance training but his gawky limbs lacked any kind of instinctive grace or co-ordination. The audition was a disaster.”
The Greatest Career In Opera History
Now that Luciano Pavarotti often shares a stage with the likes of Celine Dion, it’s easy to forget that he and Herbert Breslin truly did create perhaps the greatest career in opera history. When Breslin first met the Modena baker’s son in the late sixties, Pavarotti was singing in minor European theaters, a young (and even then overweight) tenor with a beautiful voice, a broad smile, and an innate charisma. What he lacked was an agent to marshal those gifts into a marketable package. Breslin was an interloper in the classical-music world, a product of corporate America.”
The Critic Who Hated David Mamet
It’s a difficult thing to admit, but critic John Moore has come to the conclusion that he actively hates playwright David Mamet, the brilliant wordsmith responsible for some of the more provocative plays and film scripts of the last century. And Moore doesn’t deny Mamet’s skill or talent. He doesn’t even resort to the most frequent criticism of Mamet, that he is a barely-disguised misogynist. “I hate Mamet because he is so infuriatingly brilliant, and yet he has spent the majority of his career honing a peculiar, cruel adeptness for showing men and women at their most amoral and violent. His world is a vulgar wasteland devoid of ethics and compassion.”