Since the collapse of the Florida Philharmonic, an interesting thing has happened in South Florida: a proliferation of small music groups. New ensembles are forming everywhere. “But with the upturn comes irony: There’s now a player shortage. It’s common for a musician to perform in several groups, creating a scheduling headache for the organizations. Conductors complain that they aren’t sure who’ll be playing, say, second violin from concert to concert.”
Tag: 02.13.05
Gopnik: Christo Gates “Unusually Slight”
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Central Park Gates “are charming bits of civic ornament,” writes Blake Gopnik. “They’re drawing New Yorkers out in crowds to stroll among and under them, and should continue to do so for the two weeks that they’re up. But as a work of outdoor art, in competition with the best of Bernini or even Henry Moore — and especially compared with some of the couple’s earlier projects — they’re unusually slight. It’s amazing how small the artistic return can be on a piece that fills 850 acres in the middle of one of the world’s great cities and looks set to cost $21 million before it’s done.”
Hidden City’s Remains Uncovered By Tsunami
Parts of a long-lost port city in India were uncovered by last year’s tsunami. “Archaeologists say they have discovered some stone remains from the coast close to India’s famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami. They believe that the “structures” could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn temple.”
Alvin Ailey’s Children
One of the measures of greatness is how much an artist influences those who come after him. By that measure Alvin Ailey has ensured his place in dance history: he’s “spawned at least five major companies built in the Ailey image — Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble in Denver, Lula Washington Dance Theatre in Los Angeles and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company — and many small groups, inspired by Ailey’s success.”
Is It Time To Free Uncle Remus?
Disney movies are an American mainstay, and since the advent of VCRs, collectors and fans have snapped up countless copies of Disney classics like Cinderella and Snow White. But there is one Disney film that has never made it to video: Song of the South, the lighthearted but supremely controversial story of Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit, and life in America’s Deep South in the slave days of the 19th century. There’s very little question that the movie’s tone, which seems to portray slave life as an easygoing partnership between blacks and whites, is inaccurate at best and intentionally racist at worst. But still, there’s an argument to be made that the movie deserves to be made available with all its warts.
Can A Playwright Save Musical Theatre?
“David Lindsay-Abaire is a much-admired young playwright whose credentials include two years at the Juilliard Playwrights Program and an early stint staging absurdist dramas in the East Village and SoHo. His big career break came five years ago when Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, raved over the Manhattan Theater Club production of his quirky dark comedy ‘Fuddy Meers.” Now, Lindsay-Abaire has improbably emerged as Broadway’s best hope of reviving the musical with his acerbic wit, willingness to push an audience’s buttons, and aversion to predictable form.
Hey, Remember The ’80s? Um, Yeah. They Sucked.
Right on schedule, the 1980s are huge again, the way every decade seems to be once we’re 20 years removed from it. But even as the national gurus of the zeitgeist hype the greatness of overwrought bands like The Cure; cheesy, predictable sitcoms “with a twist” (see Diff’rent Strokes); and screeching hair bands with their guitar pedals set permanently on stun, a remarkable reaction has been establishing itself in the wider population: near-complete indifference. In fact, it isn’t going too far to suggest that consumers have realized that all the marketing in the world can’t make the 1980s seems like a culturally important decade, when it was so clearly an era of materialistic greed and shallow, self-serving ear candy.
Courting The Obsessives
“The commercial theater increasingly relies on repeat visitors. Surveys conducted by the producers of ‘Les Misérables,’ ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ suggest that 40 percent of the audiences for those long-running musicals had seen the show before. For most, that probably meant returning one or two times, to take a friend or to see a new performer in a familiar role. But among repeat customers there is a repeat elite – ‘Rentheads’ at ‘Rent,’ ‘Q-Tips’ at ‘Avenue Q’- who demonstrate an extraordinary level of commitment to their favored entertainments.”
Is Philly Ready For A Permanent Arts Fund?
While some American cities have created dedicated arts funds to insure a steady flow of capital to cash-starved cultural groups, Philadelphia’s arts scene has remained largely pay-as-you-go. Now, the mayor is making it clear that he supports the idea of a $50-$100 million fund dedicated to the arts, and the business and political communities may be ready to back the plan.
America’s Steadiest Architect
A new museum in the German resort town of Baden-Baden, built to house a private art collection in a setting open to the public, is a low-profile but important architectural triumph from American architect Richard Meier. “Modest in size and appealing in scale, it is quintessential Meier, a condensation of his complex architectural vocabulary into an intensely beautiful pavilion in a park. Visiting it makes one appreciate (again) how stubbornly consistent Meier has been over the past four decades about the means and ends of architecture — and how stupendously good he can be.”