De Waart To Perth?

Will Edo De Waart be the next music director of the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra? “De Waart, a former music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and Netherlands Opera, would be quite a catch for a band in such a far-flung town as Perth. (The city is roughly 2,000 miles from Sydney and 2,400 miles from Singapore.) But de Waart’s career has been concentrated in that part of the world lately: in 2004 he finished up a very successful 10-year stint as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony and went directly to the Hong Kong Philharmonic, where he is now artistic director.”

Liverpool Rethinks Culture Year

Robyn Archer’s resignation as director of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture programs has made organizers rethink. “We have to beware of the kneejerk reaction that [Archer’s ideas] were too intelligent for this city. We need a variety that includes all sorts of weird and wonderful cultural adventures. There also has to be a lot that local people can engage with but it mustn’t be a parochial, inward-looking event celebrating scouse culture. Why would the rest of Europe take notice of us if we are too insular?”

Behold Rembrandt, The Musical

“The $1.25m (£679,000) show places the story of his life and times in 17th-century Holland against a backdrop of digital images of his masterpieces, projected on to 30ft (9 metre) screens. The resolution is so high that from the back of a 900-seat theatre the audience can see the veins in the hands of an old woman.”