There’s a big problem trying to turn something as sprawlingly theatrical as “Angels in America” into an opera. “It isn’t enough simply to reflect what is already there, or to enhance the mood like a film score,” writes Rupert Christiansen. “Music must be the driving force, the medium of revelation. This is the hurdle at which the composer Peter Eötvös and his librettist wife Mari Mezei fall flat on their faces. Their adaptation of Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s apocalyptic epic of Aids and the spiritual turmoil of the Reagan era, condenses rather than expands the theatrical original, squeezing a gallon of drama into a pint-pot of opera.”
Tag: 11.29.04
Seattle Opera, PNB Caught In Funding Fight
Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet are on the hook to pay for a shortfall in funding for their new home. The companies agreed two years ago that the city might finance the shortfall with their rent. Now the bill is due, and both the opera and ballet companies say paying would be a big hardship.
Gardner Museum Plans Major Expansion
Boston’s Gardner Musweum is announcing a major expansion. “If successful, the project would triple the Gardner’s special exhibitions space, move the cafe and administrative offices out of the ornate “Palace,” and create a new main entrance. It would mark a dramatic leap for the museum, which has long wrestled with ways to modernize its operation without violating the strict, legal limits Isabella Stewart Gardner created to maintain the museum’s distinctive atmosphere.”
America’s Biggest Philanthropists
Arts groups may have a tough time prying much money out of the government these days, but 2004 has been a record year for private giving, with enormous single gifts dominating the philanthropic landscape. The biggest donors of the year were Bill & Melinda Gates, who pumped a whopping $3 billion into their own foundation, and while most of the truly outsized gifts went to universities and foundations, arts groups got their share of the largesse as well.