“Welcome to the death of music, or that genre of it we define as classical. For more than a century it has captured the hearts and minds of millions, inspired the building of great concert halls in hundreds of cities, sustained thousands of musicians and created a discography that seemed timeless and enduring in its appeal. Well, timeless and enduring until now. For, despite private patronage and lashings of public funds, concert performance and ticket sales are in free fall. Little wonder the latest attempts by Sir Brian McMaster, director of the Edinburgh Festival, to halt and reverse the decline in concert going are being anxiously watched round the world. For there is a growing fear that the decline in classical concert attendance now looks unstoppable.”
Tag: 05.17.03
Found Iraqi Art Being Horded
“Thousands of antiquities missing from the Iraq National Museum have been found but not returned because citizens won’t hand them over to either their American occupiers or remnants of the hated former government, U.S. investigators say.”
What We Read – BBC Poll Tells All
The BBC revealed the preliminary results of its poll to find out Britain’s most-loved books. “Most of the usual suspects, and a few surprises, were on the list drawn from 7,000 titles nominated. The top 20 and the overall winner will be revealed in the autumn, after a summer of live radio and television, and online Big Read events. A poll by the BBC attracted 140,000 votes, four times as many as for the Great Britons last year. The corporation established elaborate precautions against ballot rigging and block voting, so it must be true that Jeffrey Archer’s ‘Kane and Abel’ is hugged to the nation’s heart, along with Winnie the Pooh, David Copperfield, and Jane Eyre. .”
Farewell to Les Miz
Les Miserables has closed. The Cameron Mackintosh show about the lives and loves of peasants in the time of the French revolution ran on Broadway for 6,680 performances over 16 years. It spawned countless national and international tours, and remains one of the most popular musicals of all time. But post-9/11 fallout and the general misfortunes of Broadway in recession combined to compel the producers to put an end to the adventures of Jean Valjean, Inspector Javert, and the orphan Gavroche. Still, Mackintosh says he has no regrets.
The RSC-Barbican Split, One Year On
When the Royal Shakespeare Company severed its ties with London’s Barbican Arts Centre last year, both sides insisted that the split was for the best. The RSC would be able to focus more intently on its core mission without having to work around the Barbican’s schedule, and the Barbican would be free to become a center for international touring theatre. But a year later, neither of the divorcees appears to be doing all that well, and speculation has begun about the potential for an eventual reconciliation.
The Hypocrisy of ‘Political Theatre’
Politically charged plots and subversive undercurrents are par for the course in much of the modern theatre world. But isn’t there a distinct lack of authenticity to a bunch of actors putting on a play about suffering that they themselves have never known? For that matter, where do playwrights reared in the comfortable classes get off writing from the perspective of those who have never known comfort? “There is something improper about the well-heeled seeking to represent the disadvantaged; it is an unacceptable invasion of territory.”
A Beacon For The Arts In New York State
“The meaning of Dia:Beacon — a highly touted nonprofit showcase for contemporary art that opens Sunday — lies in the minds of its beholders. But everyone agrees on one thing: It’s big. Big in terms of dimensions, [and] big in terms of image and ambition.” The gallery, located along the Hudson River in upstate New York, features a jaw-dropping 240,000 square feet of exhibition space, and will feature the collection of the New York City-based Dia Foundation.
Piering Into the Future
The seafronts at Brighton and Hove are a shadow of their formal selves these days, and the once-proud piers of the UK are decrepit old wrecks with none of the tourist-drawing power they once held. But the time may be right for a seaside revival in Britain. Architects are being hired, and thoroughly modern plans are being fleshed out for the revival of the old piers. The question is, will the public embrace what is to come, and can a simple pier really generate a great deal of interest in the fast-and-furious 21st century?
Better Than A Photograph, But Confusing As Hell
England’s National Gallery is unveiling a new machine which will allow visitors to make instant prints of any of thousands of paintings in the museum’s collection,in multiple sizes. The technology is not photographic, but digital, and the images produced are much more faithful to the original colors and textures of the works than a photographic print could ever be. And that’s what makes it so disconcerting, says James Fenton. “The fact of the matter is that, the more you study the history of art, the more you are likely to use photographs. Even when you… make a conscious effort to memorise a painting as it is when seen in natural light, there will be other paintings and other artists’ work that get stored in your mind through acquaintance with photographs.”
Work As Self-Fulfillment: Why Hepworth Mattered
“Barbara Hepworth was an artist of extraordinary stature whose importance is still to some extent occluded. Over 50 years, from 1925 to her death in 1975, she made more than 600 works of sculpture remarkable in range and emotional force. Her private life was complicated, at times traumatic: two marriages and four children, three of whom were triplets. And there was the long disruption of the war. What makes Hepworth wonderful was the strength of her ambition, the unswerving self-belief. She demonstrated so tangibly her understanding that ‘the dictates of work are as compelling for a woman as for a man.'”