Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has chosen a rising star over established names to design its new building. “A year after revealing tentative plans to build its first permanent home, the 8-year- old institution announced Monday its choice of London architect David Adjaye from among six international finalists to oversee the design.”
Tag: 04.13.04
Getting Together Games And Movies
The differences between movies and video games? Well, the differences are getting less and less. “Advances in technology since the ’80s enable game developers to model extremely lifelike figures — an imperative if you are using recognizable, A-list actors. Some of the newest technology even allows figures to show signs of emotion. As movies and games move ever closer, even the improved sound capabilities of game consoles are a factor, allowing the nuances of dialogue to come across more clearly. All of this has pushed the use of movie and celebrity tie-ins to new heights.”
Imagining A Park For The 21st Century
A competition asks planners to imagine what Chicago’s lakefront park ought to be in the 21st Century. “The thesis is simple but profound: We don’t live the way people did 100 years ago. Our parks should be designed accordingly.”
30 Seconds With Dame Judi
Dame Judi Dench is one of England’s most distinguished actors. “She’s a peculiarly British heroine. An underdog. Dench is short and a little dumpy and not obviously glamorous. And yet she can transcend her given lot to become beautiful and heroic. In polls, she is regularly voted Britain’s best-dressed woman, Britain’s most admired woman (she recently beat the Queen down to number two), the woman we would most like to be.”
Virtual Orchestra Off-Broadway
A show coming to Off-Broadway is using a “virtual orchestra” and the musicians union is protesting. But the show’s composer says he isn’t replacing any musicians with the device – he likes the sound he gets from it. In previous productions, the show used three musicians, and it does now as well.
A Lincoln Center Plan That’s “Evolutionary”
After years of debate, finally a plan for a Lincoln Center makeover that works. “What we’ve got here is the inverse of the Wow Factor: a new plan for the center’s public spaces so understated as to seem almost uncanny. It looks just like Lincoln Center, only smarter, more self-aware and amazingly confident in its sense of direction. The plan is evolutionary. It tweaks, here and there, the existing architecture of Lincoln Center, but the overall effect is to enhance the original rather than to negate or override it. It’s respectful. This seems to me an invaluable civic lesson at this intemperate moment in our national life.”
A Rossini Find Worth Finding
It was 170 years between performances of Rossini’s opera Ermione. Anne Midgette is aware that such long lost finds more often than not prove why they were forgotten. But “for my money, this is the best rediscovery to cross the radar in a long time. Anyone who likes 19th-century Italian opera — from Donizetti to Verdi — should see City Opera’s “Ermione.”
All The Opera You Can Eat For £50
All of a sudden there are all these opportunities to buy cheap tickets to opera and music in London. So here’s the challenge – how much can you get in to £50? Try five shows at some of the city’s biggest performing arts venues.
Critic: Opera’s Cut-Rate Ticket Plan Won’t Expand Audience
London’s Royal Opera House’s plans to offer some of its best seats for £10 is not going to widen the audience for opera, says a leading think tank. The critique suggests that “such schemes are more likely to encourage the middle class to go to the opera more often, rather than widen access.”
Rocky 2 Tops Classic FM Poll (Again)
For the fourth year in a row Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 has topped Classic FM’s most-loved music poll. “Its emergence – in each year so far of the new century – as the British classical listening public’s favourite tune indicates Rachmaninov’s position as perhaps the most popular mainstream composer of the last 70 years. Its place was secured by the votes of the commercial station’s listeners.”