The Calgary Phil hasn’t performed in close to four months. So are there any musicians left to play once the orchestra reopens? Well, yes, but it hasn’t been easy. Some of the Philharmonic’s players have left town, in search of other employment, but many have stuck around, making ends meet by teaching and playing gigs, and hoping that the orchestra that brought them together wasn’t gone forever.
Tag: 01.28.03
Computer-Generated Potter Elf Based On Russian President?
Was the computer-generated elf Doby in the latest Harry Potter movie based on Russian president Vladimir Putin? “A Russian law firm is reportedly drawing up legal action against the special effects people who dreamt up Dobby, arguing that the ugly but caring elf has been modelled on Mr Putin. The Kremlin and Warner Bros, producer of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, have declined to comment but the controversy has stirred emotions in Russia.”
Why San Francisco Opera Is Hurting
What’s the cause of the financial problems at San Francisco Opera and the resulting change in the way the company does business? Janos Gereben has done a little digging, and offers a list of contributing factors.
Final, Clinching Proof That Wagner Was Unreasonable
So you think it’s hard to listen to a 6-hour Wagner opera? Try playing violin in the orchestra pit, your arms and head twisted into a pretzel for the duration of a performance three times the length of the average concert. The health risks are so severe, in fact, that one German opera orchestra has gone out and raised the money necessary to provide its musicians with physiotherapy and muscle training. Some musicians are reported to have increased their muscle strength by 280%.
Colorado Springs Musicians Form Own Orchestra
The musicians of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, locked in a months-long battle with their management over the decision to file for bankruptcy and demand heavy monetary concessions from the players, have formed the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, which they say will be kept in standby mode, ready to spring from the ashes should the CSSO fold. In the short term, both sides are waiting to see what will occur this weekend, when Ray Charles is scheduled to perform on a CSSO pops series. Charles is an avowed union member, and the musicians have placed the CSSO on the music union’s “Unfair List.” CSSO management is counting on Charles for significant ticket revenue.
Scaling Down To Keep Children’s Theatre On Track
Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company announced it was expanding last year. But financial help approved by the state legislature was vetoed by Governor Jesse Ventura. And the theatre has only raised $11.5 million of the $24 million needed. On top of it all, costs for the project as designed last year went up. So the company has scaled back the building by 25 percent to keep it on track.
Sundance – What’s It All About?
Does the Sundance Festival mean anything at the box office? “It’s like lemmings off a cliff. Year after year, we love tracking which films everyone is circling, but are any of these films really going to succeed? I hope so. But that’s the exception, not the rule. Of the 16 films acquired and released out of last year’s exceptionally busy Sundance bazaar, only five broke $1 million at the box office.”
San Francisco Opera Slashes Operations
Beginning in 2005, the company will cut its season from 88 performances of 11 or 12 productions to about 65 performances a year spread over nine productions. “The goal is to shrink the annual operating budget from around $60 million to $45 million. The Opera had a deficit of $7.6 million for the 2001-02 season and is predicting a $9.2 million shortfall this year. “This city is just not able financially to support a jumbo jet.”
Collins: Why Poetry Isn’t More Popular
Why don’t more people read poetry? American Poet Laureate Billy Collins says he knows: “There’s a waiting audience out there that was frightened away by Modernist poetry in school. You feel alienated from your own language, which is unpleasant. There’s a syllogism at work here. The syllogism goes like this: I can read and understand English; this poem was written in English; I can’t understand this poem.”
Salons – We’re Having A Party
“Since the mid-nineties, various Toronto artists have attempted, in fits and starts, to revive the salon tradition by repositioning it as a multi-media drop-in, not a formal symposium. Artists in the city quickly realized that showing works in private homes can be a lot less trouble than begging (and paying) dealers for space or negotiating the byzantine, committee-driven world of publicly funded galleries.”