“Paris’s futuristic new classical concert venue, the Philharmonie de Paris – a vast metal construction which promises to transform the northern Paris skyline – is on track to become the world’s most expensive concert hall despite attempts by some politicians to block it because of its spiralling price tag.”
Tag: 12.30.12
Gay Parents Find Surprisingly Swift Acceptance On Israeli TV
The NBC sitcom The New Normal and an Israeli dramedy series titled Mom and Dads have “won the battle for acceptance. For the most part Israeli society … has reacted to the baby bump and the programs about it with nonchalance. Even the country’s sizable religious segment has merely shrugged at the series.”
How Theater Companies Market That Play About The Guy With The Hat
“The Mother****** With the Hat is a play that has a marketing challenge built directly into its title. How do you say a name that contains the mother of all obscenities? How do you use a title that can’t be printed in most newspapers? As it turns out, each theater company has its own way of coping.”
Why Are Romantic Comedies Failing?
“As with most splintering relationships, there’s plenty of blame thrown back and forth: Studio chiefs blame audiences and stars, directors and producers blame studios and audiences, and agents blame their clients.”
Remembering Richard Rodney Bennet
“Mr. Bennett wrote three symphonies, 17 concertos, five operas and dozens of elegant chamber works in a style that fused the avant-garde theories of Pierre Boulez, one of his teachers, with his own flexible, lyrical, nondogmatic approach.”
Will LA’s Newest Park Become A Cultural Draw?
“We found a way to engage people outside the classical European art forms. Listening to Plácido Domingo sing, and people singing themselves — both are valid, both are important.”
An Extraordinary Year For Arts In Detroit
“That’s right: People voted for higher taxes to pay for art — they decided it was worth the money.”
Researchers: Music Helps Fight Alzheimer’s
“Music therapy can help Parkinson’s patients walk and people with Alzheimer’s remember, with song lyrics surfacing in the brain even among people who have lost the ability to recognize their own relatives.”
Statue Of Hitler In Former Warsaw Ghetto (Appropriate?)
“The work, “HIM” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, has drawn many visitors since it was installed last month. It is visible only from a distance, and the artist doesn’t make explicit what Hitler is praying for, but the broader point, organizers say, is to make people reflect on the nature of evil.”
Record Book Sales Over Christmas
The sale of print books over Christmas was the strongest in over three years, signalling a fightback against digital ‘ebooks’.