New York City Ballet is marking the 100th birthday of George Balanchine with a season of tributes. Tobi Tobias writes that something seems lost in the celebrations. “I believe that a good part of the problem is that no one is as deeply and unremittingly concerned as Balanchine once was with the nature of individual dancers’ specific personas and gifts. He was acutely conscious of such matters when he created his ballets and when he recast them over the years as well. He developed his dancers not merely in the classroom but through the roles he gave them. Nowadays, casting often seems thoughtless.”
Tag: 11.26.03
Scottish Theatre’s Poor Fortunes Coming For A Long Time
Scotland’s 7:84 Theatre is suddenly in a precarious place, after the government announced it was thinking about quitting the theatre’s subsidy. That subsidy accounts for 48 percent of the theatre’s budget. “While 7:84 will tell you this has come out of the blue, concern has been growing about the company for some time. Reviews of recent productions have been mixed, two board members have resigned, and the company took a long time to appoint artistic director Lorenzo Mele. The job was, in fact, advertised twice.”
Eco: Books Trump Computers Any Day
Umberto Eco is a fierce defender of the printed page: “In the course of many interviews I have been obliged to answer questions of this sort: ‘Will the new electronic media make books obsolete? Will the Web make literature obsolete? Will the new hypertextual civilisation eliminate the very idea of authorship?’ As you can see, if you have a well-balanced normal mind, these are different questions and, considering the apprehensive mode in which they are asked, one might think that the interviewer would feel reassured when your answer is, “No, keep cool, everything is OK”. Mistake. If you tell such people that books, literature, authorship will not disappear, they look desperate. Where, then, is the scoop?”
Saatchi Dumps Hirst Work… Did They Feud?
Collector Charles Saatchi – long one of Damien Hirst’s biggest collectors, has sold a dozen of the artist’s works back to Hirst’s gallery. “A spokeswoman for Mr Saatchi refused to comment on a report in The Times that he and Hirst had been in ‘a feud’. She said visitors to the Mr Saatchi’s London gallery could still see famous Hirst pieces such as the pickled shark.”
Kroc Leaves San Diego Opera $10 Million
In addition to giving National Public Radio $200 million, Joan Kroc has left the San Diego Opera $10 million in her will. “In appreciation of the bequest, the San Diego Opera will dedicate its 2005 40th anniversary season to Kroc. Thereafter, one of the five operas scheduled each season will be dedicated in memory of Kroc.”
Heppner’s Return
“The last time he sang at Roy Thomson Hall turned out to be the worst night of Ben Heppner’s astonishing career. As they stumbled out of the hall into the cold night air in January, 2002, his hometown fans murmured that he might be finished. And for several agonizing months Heppner — one of the world’s greatest dramatic opera tenors — wondered whether they might be right. But Heppner is full of confidence and enthusiasm as he prepares for his Thomson Hall return tomorrow night, his first since that traumatic occasion.”
Getting Sick: Hollywood’s Last Taboo
When Hollywood composer Michael Kamen died this month, after a years-long battle with multiple sclerosis, few of the news bulletins reporting his demise were able to give the cause. In fact, the afflictions of Hollywood stars are almost never accurately reported, and the very idea of sickness seems to be almost unacceptable in polite Hollywood society. It’s a bizarre taboo, but an undeniable one, and Kamen is only the latest example of a star-studded culture obsessed with health, and unwilling to discuss even the idea of sickness.
Note To Schubert Guardians: Get Over It!
The Scubert purists didn’t like Lang Lang’s recent Carnegie performance. But Charles Michener was thrilled: “Unlike the droves of super-trained but faceless young graduates—many of them of Asian parentage—who pour out of our conservatories, Lang Lang isn’t afraid to show us exactly who he is. Like Liszt, Paderewski and Horowitz, to name a few of his most adored predecessors, he comes to us not just as a virtuoso, but as a showman. If he was overdoing it the other night in front of the German crew who were filming the concert, I say God bless him. Another Liberace I can do without—but right now, classical music can use all the sensational showmanship it can get.”
In Memoriam – Getting Past Maya Lin
The finalists for the World Trade Center memorial can all trace influences from Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial. “As successful as Ms. Lin’s Vietnam memorial was, the eight finalists prove that it has become a crutch, rather than an inspiration, for American memorial architecture. Indeed, Ms. Lin’s aesthetic presence in the plans speaks volumes about the state of memorial design in America. On one hand, the continued presence of Lin-esque minimalism in American monuments points to the long-awaited emergence of an American memorial style; on the other, the finalists’ failure to move beyond the threshold she set more than two decades ago points to a severe lack of vision in the way Americans build memorials to tragedy.”
Spare Change For A Proud Lady
The Statue of Liberty has been closed to the public since the 9/11 attacks, although most Americans are probably unaware of that fact. The statue won’t be able to open again until $5 million of security upgrades are in place, but the money has yet to be found. Several large corporations have pledged the majority of what’s needed, but the city of New York is still struggling to attract donors to round out the required funds. Even with all the new security measures in place, the days of tourists being allowed to climb up the inside of Lady Liberty are likely at an end.