Pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim says he’s cutting back his schedule. But “the Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director’s idea of cutting back in his 61st year (he turned 60 last November) might still seem exhausting to a mere mortal. He’s just completing his annual Festtage (Festival Days) in Berlin, which included two performances each at his own opera house of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” and Verdi’s “La Traviata,” an opera he had never conducted before, as well as three performances by the CSO at the world-renowned Philharmonie, the home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, of six heavy-duty works by Mahler and Bruckner.”
Tag: 04.22.03
Florida Philharmonic Down To Its Last Dollars
The Florida Philharmonic, said to be carrying a $3 million debt, is declaring an emergency and asking community leaders to help. “Based on what is known today, the FPO is projected to run out of operating cash in early May.”
The Land That Bought Jazz
It’s the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. “But if the political and geographical implications of the land deal have been copiously documented, the cultural implications of the Louisiana Purchase have yet to be fully decoded. For although jazz is universally deemed a distinctly American musical idiom, in fact it was the confluence of European, African and Caribbean cultures in parts of the Louisiana Territory – especially New Orleans – that gave rise to the radical new sounds. The intermingling of cultures that produced a new American music would not have happened, however, without an explicitly political act – the American purchase of the Louisiana Territory.”
The Ambivalent Flag Waver?
“In the past two years – as flying the flag on homes, public buildings, opera houses and (momentarily) central Baghdad has become an American enthusiasm – Johns has emerged as the last hope, or maybe the fig leaf, of the ambivalent flag-waver. When a video of the concert for New York after the World Trade Centre attacks was released in this country, Johns’s Flag was on the cover. When New York museums wanted to match the patriotic mood, they displayed not just any flag, but Johns’s flag: Three Flags (1958), a version owned by the Whitney. Ambivalence is his thing. There are few works of art quite so uncertain, so confounding – not just in its values and meaning, but even in its status as an object or a sign – as Jasper Johns’s Flag, made in its most famous version in 1954-55.”
AntiWar Books Selling Well In US
Perhaps surprisingly, given Americans’ high support in the polls for war, books skeptical of America’s current state of politics, are doing well on the bestseller lists. “The books are comfortably outselling titles which might seem at first to better reflect the zeitgeist, such as Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism and similar.”
The “Bring Back Painting” Prize Proves Popular
The new Lexmark European art prize has had more than 2000 entries in its first year. “The contest – equal in prize money to the Turner – has been set up to overthrow the influence of conceptual and installation art and ‘bring back painting’.”
Daredevil Musical?
Daredevil Evel Knievel has given his okay for a rock musical about his life. “I think it’s a wonderful compliment, said Knievel, who gained fame in the 1970s by jumping his motorcycle over cars and canyons. His daredevil career left him with 37 fractures, including broken bones in both legs, before he retired in 1980.”
Forceful Voice
“Simone had only one Top 20 hit in her long career — her very first single, “I Loves You, Porgy,” released in 1959 — but her following was large and loyal and her impact deep and lasting. Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack and Laura Nyro were among the singers who were influenced by her. In recent years her songs resurfaced and won new fans on television commercials and in dance-club remixes.”
The Future Of Books (Or Something Like Them)
What will books look like in the future? “In this revolutionary future, an author will still create ‘a book’, and a reader still read ‘a book’; but the links in the chain between author and reader will not necessarily include a publisher, a printer, a distributor and a bookseller. Instead, the process will go something like this: You will step up to one of these machines and you will browse the index. You might be looking for a classic that has been out of print of years, perhaps, or the latest bestseller, or you might be looking for a book on quiltmaking. You will browse the index, and you will make your choice. You will choose the typeface, the size of the type, the binding, the cover. You will choose whether you want to listen to it or to read it. Then you will pay your money and you will punch your buttons.”
Majoring In Harry
“At the annual joint conference of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in the past week, J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard is the most talked-about topic among the 1500 university professors presenting papers on a wide range of subjects from Nathaniel Hawthorne to the sitcom Friends. In a series of essays and discussions, young Master Potter is being dissected from all angles, from the class consciousness in Rowling’s novels to the reaction of the religious right to the books. The phenomenal commercial success of the Harry Potter books has generated a lot of activity in the academic community.”