So the Vienna Philharmonic has hired its first woman player. Britain has little to be smug about on this issue. “A random sample of five British symphony orchestras suggests that gender ratios vary wildly: the Hallé and the BBC Symphony may not do badly (the Hallé has 45 men and 38 women; the BBCSO 55 men, 37 women), but orchestras such as the London Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony trail, splitting at 52-23 and 45-26 respectively. And the London Symphony Orchestra, widely regarded as being the country’s most successful, has 77 male members to 22 female. When you start looking at how many women occupy principal positions within the sections, the disparity looks even greater.”
Tag: 01.18.03
English National Opera Cuts Chorus
The English National Opera is in deep trouble. In its latest move, the company proposes to cut a third of its chorus. “The drastic cut comes a week before the company, which is at least £1.2m in the red, puts a radical restructuring before the Arts Council in the hope of a “once and for all” bail-out. With a showdown with the orchestra looming, and vote of no confidence yesterday in the management by the singers, their union refused to rule out the threat of strikes.”
Does Pop Music Cause People To Kill?
So rap music is responsible for gun violence in the UK? If that’s true, what about all sorts of other music and pop influences? “What is concerning is that, in focusing on hip-hop and gun crime, our great and good are overlooking myriad other horrors caused by pop music. Gun culture is only the tip of a vast iceberg of malaises for which pop is responsible – an iceberg upon which the ship of state might very well founder beyond salvage.”
Institution On The Edge
The Royal Ontario Museum is undergoing a massive reinvention. But “move inside and dig around for a couple of weeks and you discover an institution at a dramatic point of transformation, teetering on the brink of either spectacular triumph or spectacular failure. Curators decry their inability to fend off embarrassing professional gaffes, and tensions are running high as they contemplate the implications of the museum’s dramatic building program.”
True Lies – The Novelist’s Responsibility
Do novelists have a responsibility to make their fiction true? That is – is it permissible to change historical dates of events to fit the stories you tell, even if they’re the historical dates or events aren’t “accurate”?
Opera Babes – Music Vs Image
Sony is counting on big sales by the Opera Babes to revive its classical division. “The act carries an us-against-the-world whiff of female empowerment. Some might think the message is undercut by the chests and cheekbones poking out from the CD booklet, and the slinky skirts and animal-print outfits they model in the many photos.” Perhaps the marketing is overwhelming the music?