New York City Opera has been “aggressively lobbying to be named the flagship institution in the new cultural presence at ground zero. To its evident surprise, it has encountered resistance. As of this writing, no decision has been announced, but the downtown powers seem to want a greater diversity of artistic expression. City Opera represented that last flush of idealism in which the common man was to be bettered by high culture. What caused the erosion of that old sense of obligation, and why does our ‘people’s opera’ no longer seem popular — or even welcome — at ground zero? The answer, not to be judgmental about it, is the rise of popular culture.”
Tag: 11.09.03
Critical Juice – Why Taste Should Be Personal
John Rockwell goes to a concert and hates the performance. This despite the praise of a fellow music critic, who finds the musician’s playing intensely interesting. Is one critic right and the other wrong? No, writes Rockwell. There ought not to be an “objective” standard for art. Sure there are “norms” but critical taste is intensely personal and ought to be celebrated.
Towering Disagreement
Architects David Childs and Daniel Libeskind are disagreeing over the tower for the site of the World Trade Center. “Libeskind continues to press for the design he sketched in his competition-winning master plan – an asymmetrical tower roughly 70 stories tall, with a slender spire that would echo the upraised arm of the Statue of Liberty and culminate an upward spiral of a group of slice-topped office buildings. Childs, who heads the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, wants a more monolithic form — a muscular tower that twists as it rises, topped by a latticelike crown that includes antennas. His design, however, has not been made public. Can the two architects compromise without compromising the form – and thus, the meaning – of Libeskind’s brilliant ground zero vision?
New, Newer & Merce
How is it that Merce Cunningham still seems new while he’s in his 80s? “None of it’s particularly deep, though I suppose you could call it a paradox,” he says of the irony of his age combined with his still cutting-edge endeavors. “I just think of it as trying to continue. I use chance always in the pieces. I think it opens up new possibilities. You come up with something you don’t know you have.”
Art As An Agenda (CBS’ Troubling Move)
“CBS’ startling decision this week to pull the broadcast plug on the biographical drama (as distinct from biographical documentary) “The Reagans,” following an extensive campaign by conservative activists alleging the movie was “inaccurate” and “unfair” to the former president, reflects a dazzling and immensely troubling lack of awareness of the sacred importance of this vital cultural freedom. Furthermore, such preemptive, content-driven attacks on works of art are on the rise in America.”
Tanking Ratings Threaten TV Industry
Where have millions of US TV viewers disappeared? This fall’s ratings are down 8-10 percemt. “If this is true, it’s a seismic shift. Some of these numbers scare you. And there are billions of dollars in national advertising at stake. When they sell ads, networks pledge that they can deliver a certain number of viewers in certain demographics; if they fail to meet the numbers as tallied by Nielsen, they have to run more ads – ‘make-goods’ – at no cost. If you go back and you look at TV viewing patterns over the past 10 years, it’s very unusual for viewing levels to change more than 2 or 3 percent over time.”
The End Of Free TV?
In the US, “the season’s nearly 40 new shows have again failed to yield a consensus “hit,” and according to the Nielsen Media Research firm that measures TV viewing, young men in particular seem to be abandoning the tube in stunning proportions. In the gloomiest interpretations of these omens, they signal the beginning of the end of free, over-the-air television, because shrinking audiences at some point will have to mean declining revenue from the ads that have given viewers a free or relatively cheap ride. Put more simply, that would be: Goodbye broadcasting, hello pay-per-view!”
Does Tuition Aid Cause Higher Tuitions?
“Does federal financial aid simply give colleges an excuse to raise tuition higher and faster than they otherwise would?” Some are asking the question as the US federal deficit balloons. “Whether from necessity or principle, some Republicans now argue that holding the line on aid might be just the ticket to keep college costs down.” Most higher-education economists reject the idea as “simplistic and ideologically convenient.”
The Music Of Life (That’s Why We Sing)
Why is music found in every culture? It has something to do with our relationship to the physical world, says new research. “Human musical preferences are fundamentally shaped not by elegant algorithms or ratios but by the messy sounds of real life, and of speech in particular — which in turn is shaped by our evolutionary heritage. Says Schwartz, “The explanation of music, like the explanation of any product of the mind, must be rooted in biology, not in numbers per se.”
Sondheim – Listening To Audiences
A new Stephen Sondheim musical (his first in nine years) is preparing for Broadway, and producers are studying the audiences. “The conventional wisdom is that you are better off listening to the audience as a group than to any one individual member of it. As far as critics’ responses, because each review reflects the opinion of just one person, the show’s collaborators tend to discount them. In the case of Bounce, most notices have sounded disappointed. It’s not that critics dislike the musical; it’s more that they think it’s a minor work. Some, though, have added that even below-average Sondheim is better than almost everything else.”