Moral Panic Sounds About Right

How do you suck the fun right out of Hallowe’en, a holiday seemingly designed to encourage frivolity? It’s easy, really: just sic a bunch of academic types on it. “They find Halloween to be ‘a site of some considerable discursive ‘struggle’ between, amongst other things,national identity and globalization, childhood independence and moral panic, carnival and asceticism.'”

Bigger Is Sometimes Better

Roberta Smith says that the overwhelming success of London’s Tate Modern ought to give New Yorkers, who ponied up close to a billion dollars to build the new Museum of Modern Art, pause. “That MoMA could have spent so much money on a design that seems so unaccommodating — and already feels too small — for its growing audience is a travesty… The lessons of Tate Modern challenge a lot of conventional wisdom, at least that expressed in many American museums these days. Most important, Tate Modern’s huge building proves that being big is not the same as being corporate: it is possible to have a large institution feel personal to its visitors.”

Never, Never, Never Tick Off The Soprano

Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater is reimagining Tchaikovsky’s grand opera, “Evgeny Onegin,” and the project has drawn the ire of at least one important presence. “The great soprano Galina Vishnevskaya was so infuriated by a new production of “Onegin” at the Bolshoi in September that she canceled her 80th-birthday gala, which was to be held there last Wednesday.”

Fellowship Of The Book

There may be more unlikely publishing moguls than Viggo Mortenson, but you’d have to look hard for them. The Lord of the Rings star launched his Perceval Press shortly after the film trilogy made him an international superstar, and since then, the business has carved out a small but important niche in the industry. “The point of the enterprise is to cast light on work that might not otherwise be published, and to present artists’ work as it was intended to be seen.”

That’s Asking An Awful Lot From A Lobby…

New York’s Lincoln Center complex has tapped husband-and-wife team Billie Tsien and Tod Williams to design the new indoor atrium that officials hope will lead to higher ticket sales and the emergence of the center as a public gathering space. “Their early ideas for the atrium include a stone platform that could serve both as a bench and as a stage for free performances by Juilliard students. They want to incorporate some of Lincoln Center’s signature materials, like bronze detailing and travertine.”

The Underappreciated Sibelius

The BBC Scottish Symphony is mounting a complete cycle of Sibelius’s seven symphonies this season, the second time in a decade that they have undertaken such a project. So why all the Sibelius? Michael Tumelty says that “however much we might feel the music of Sibelius to be in our blood, there is still a great deal of missionary work to be done.”

The Orchestra Problem

It seems like nearly every year, some small to mid-sized North American orchestra or other finds itself in danger of folding. Usually, some emergency funding is found, and the orchestra is “saved,” at least temporarily. But why do orchestras continually find themselves in such dire straits? It has to do with a deadly combination of high fixed costs and executive burnout.

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation…

Cultivating new generations of donors is an important part of any cultural organization’s mission, and if the cultivation comes with free drinks, so much the better. “As Baby Boomer contributors grow into white-haired audiences, more arts and philanthropic organizations… are establishing young professionals groups to cultivate new patrons and volunteers. They offer the opportunity to mingle with others and party with people 25 to 40 who share the same interests.”

Questioning Motives

Buenos Aires’s landmark music hall, the Teatro Colón, is in disrepair and set to undergo a $25 million, 18-month renovation that will close the venue to the public for more than a year. “But the tight-knit community of musicians, craftsmen and others who ply their trades at the Colón have voiced profound concerns about the artistic integrity and the timetable of the government blueprint.”

Mentors Wanted, Melanin Welcome

It’s one of the dirty little non-secrets of the orchestral world that African-Americans are nearly nonexistent among the musicians on stage. It’s always been assumed that the reason for the inequity is economically based: instruments and lessons are expensive, and poor urban black families don’t have the resources to purchase either. But the lone black member of the Seattle Symphony thinks something else is lacking: mentors.