Tag: 07.01.03

NJ Abolishes Poet Laureate Position

The New Jersey State Legislature has passed a bill abolishing the position of state poet laureate. The move is the culmination over unhappiness over poet laureate Amiri Baraka, who wrote a poem last year suggesting Israel had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “The Assembly approved a bill Tuesday that passed the Senate in January. Gov. James E. McGreevey, who cut off the $10,000 annual stipend that goes to the poet laureate after Baraka refused to resign, intends to sign the bill, according to a spokesman.”

First Impressions At Disney Hall

The Los Angeles Philharmonic won’t officially open its new Frank Gehry-designed digs until the fall, but a special open rehearsal/performance by the Phil this week allowed musicians and critics their first shot at assessing the acoustics of the much-anticipated space. The hall will have to be “tuned,” of course, a process which will last months if not years, but Mark Swed was encouraged by the “plentiful bass, crystalline clarity and forceful immediacy” of the orchestra’s new home.

Perrault Wins Mariinsky Theater Sweepstakes

“Dominique Perrault, best known for designing the French National Library in Paris, and his team beat 10 other entries to design the new building for the Mariinsky Theater in the most important architectural event in Russia in 70 years.” But not everyone is happy with Perrault’s dome-based design, which involves a lot of black marble and gold glass, and looks a bit like a half-inflated hot air balloon. Most of the concerns are of the practical variety: how do we clean it, will all the snow collapse it, and how much will it cost to build?

Spoleto USA Packs ‘Em In

“Spoleto USA says the just-ended 2003 festival was the highest-grossing ever, with ticket sales surpassing those of the previous record year, 2001. The Charleston, South Carolina-based festival, which ran from 23 May to 8 June, says in a press release that it sold $2.5 million worth of tickets and half of its performances sold out.”

How Does A City Become An Orchestra Magnet?

Why do some cities attract regular visits from touring orchestras, while others almost never see anyone but the hometown band? The answer is largely about money and resources, and it explains why many medium and large cities across America missed out on, say the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recent tour, while small college towns like Lincoln, Nebraska, packed a hall to enjoy the Fabulous Philadelphians. The fact is that, if your city has a decent-sized concert hall that’s going unused a lot of the time, and some spare funds to pay the orchestra’s costs, you have a better chance of landing a touring orchestra than a big city with a thriving music scene where the performance spaces are already booked.

Temirkanov Walks Out On French Opera Production

Yuri Temirkanov, the well-regarded music director of the Baltimore Symphony and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic, has walked out on a production of Tchaikovsky’s opera, Queen of Spades, which he was to have conducted at the Opera National de Lyon in France. Temirkanov isn’t talking about his departure, but his translator says that he was infuriated by what he considered to be distracting and unnecessary staging, and changes to the original Pushkin storyline. Temirkanov issued a statement after his departure, saying that the Lyon production “does not correspond in any way to my own cultural heritage, nor my love and my understanding of the work of Tchaikovsky and Pushkin.”

France: Closed For Culture?

A strike by arts workers threatens France’s cultural summer. “Theatres, films and television have been hit by moves to bring the show business industry to a halt in a dispute over the reduction of unemployment pay for ‘resting’ performing artists and technicians. This weekend, the Montpellier dance festival and the Tours jazz festival were among cancelled events while the opening of the summer’s biggest opera gathering, at Aix-en-Provence, was postponed. Paris’s top theatres called off plays and ballets at the last minute while trade unions prepared for ‘a fight to the finish’ over a decision to make it harder for freelance performers and temporary backstage staff to claim benefits.”

Muggles And The Missing Wages

A Scottish school whose students were hired as extras for the next Harry Potter movie have been forced to turn over their wages to the school. “Warner Brothers hired 14 children from Lochaber high school, in Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, to appear in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, due for release next year. They earned STG35 ($A86) a day for a four day shoot, but under school rules their earnings had to go straight into a fund used to pay for school activities.”

On Being Canada

What makes Canada different from the United States? Quite a few things, actually, and the differences are growing. “Just when you had all but forgotten that carbon-based life exists above the 49th parallel, those sly Canadians have redefined their entire nation as Berkeley North. It’s like we woke up and suddenly we’re a European country.”