Atlanta Opera enters a new chapter, moving into the 4,600-seat Atlanta Civic Center. “The generically functional auditorium was built in the late ’60s to accommodate annual visits from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which, for most of the 20th century, was the highlight of affluent Atlanta’s summer social calendar. It was only after the center’s final Met performance – Verdi’s “La Traviata” in May 1986 – that Atlantans, and the city’s business community, were ready to support a local opera company.”
Tag: 10.10.03
Seattle’s “Genius” Awards
The MacArthur awards have been announced for this year. But Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger decided to give out its own “genius” awards. While winners get a much smaller prize ($5,000 rather than the MacArthur’s $500,000), there’s a lot of honor that goes along with them. Organizers say they’re “steering a middle course between the MacArthur Awards and Publishers Clearinghouse. All the hugging and kissing between critics and award winners brought a disclaimer of sorts from editor Dan Savage. “None of our critics has slept with any of the award winners. Not yet. Maybe it’s time they paid up.”
Godfather Of Grunge
After he was dead (killing himself in 1991 at the age of 40), Seattle poet Jesse Bernstein was considered by many to be the “Godfather of Grunge” “He not only liked the naked elegance of the music, he helped shape it, opening for the bands (Nirvana, Big Black, Soundgarden, U-Men, the Crows) who went on to the big time, and working the crowd into a ecstatic heat. He liked to cause a stir. When in the mood, he added to his legend. When not, he complained about it.”
Recording Industry Suing Flea Markets
The recording industry has widened its legal offensive. Now it’s suing owners of flea markets. “The lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America charges that the market has made only token efforts to deter the sale of counterfeit and pirated recordings, and says that, like many flea markets, Columbus profits by virtue of its underground reputation as a marketplace for cheap discs. ‘There are 3,000 flea markets in the country, and at many of them, vendors are offering home-burned CD’s or other illegal recordings’.”
Massachusetts Gallery Sues NY Dealer Over War Loot
The Springfield, (Massachusetts) Library and Museum Association has filed a lawsuit against New York art dealer Knoedler for $3 million, after it had to return a painting to Italy because it was discovered to be war loot. “In June 2001, the Springfield Museum returned the oil painting ‘Spring sowing’ by Jacopo da Ponte, known as Il Bassano, to Italy, after having been shown evidence that the work had disappeared during World War II from the Italian Embassy in Warsaw while on loan from the Uffizi Gallery. Knoedler had sold the painting to the museum in 1955 for $5,000.”
Assessing Baghdad Museum Damage
“A report on emergency conservation needs at Baghdad’s National Museum has concluded that the damage caused by the war was ‘substantial’, primarily to ivory, stone and ceramic objects.”
Court Told Of Plot To Swindle Robert Hughes
A private investigator in Australia has told a court about a plan he and a partner had to swindle art critic Robert Hughes out of $30,000. The pair tried to sell Hughes favorable testimony during the critic’s dangerous driving trial three years ago. The pair were arrested in 2000 after a police sting.
Cuban Ballet Cancels Sylphides Over Copyright
“The Ballet Nacional de Cuba has announced the cancellation of “Les Sylphides,” a 1907 ballet by Michel Fokine that was to be performed at City Center next week and on its national tour, in response to an accusation of copyright infringement by the Fokine Estate in London. American Ballet Theater owns the exclusive rights to the ballet in New York through September 2005.”
Anderson Responds
When the Village Voice’s Jerry Salz published a scathing critique earlier this week of Maxwell Anderson’s tenure as director of the Whitney Museum, Anderson felt the need to set the record straight: “As the Whitney’s former director, freed for a time from the well-meaning restraints of publicists, it’s a pleasure to respond on behalf of all museum directors who are congenitally obliged to hold their tongues… Too few critics are informed enough about the realities of running a museum to write about the museum – as opposed to its manifestation through exhibitions accounting for only a portion of its energies and budget.”
Pre-Selling Broadway
“Sure, all the Broadway musicals are bragging about their advances – $10 million for “The Boy From Oz,” $8.5 million for “Wicked,” 20 cents for “Taboo” and “Wonderful Town” combined – but the little straight plays are sitting on a nice pile of cash, too.”