ARTS TOP STORIES
The Loyal Conductor
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:32:33 -0800
Zubin Mehta has been associated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1961. "He was appointed its music adviser in 1969, music director in 1977, and in 1981 Mehta accepted the title of music director for life. It is a unique position in a business where contracts rarely run for more than five years." But for Mehta, such longevity and loyalty to a single ensemble is an ongoing theme....
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Mayne's Challenge
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:30:04 -0800
"It's hard to miss San Francisco's new U.S. Federal Building, a narrow 18-story office slab with a skewed, not-quite-mansard roof. Completed in March of last year, the building is a study in contradictions: an ambitious energy-conserving agenda, a tight budget, and a highly restrictive set of security concerns. How did Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne deal with this challenging mix?"...
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Clear Channel Preparing To Leave The Market
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:13:50 -0800
"The deal to take Clear Channel Communications Inc. private, disclosed 20 months ago, has been the subject of a lot of static from rankled shareholders, company officials, and lenders. Delayed and downsized, the $17.9 billion deal for the nation's largest owner of radio stations and a global power in billboards will finally close a week from today if shareholders approve the $36-per-share offer tomorrow."...
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Rockers Rallying Around Obama
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:11:10 -0800
Barack Obama may have trouble with white working-class voters, but he appears to have the rock star vote sewn up tight. A new star-studded rock video paying tribute to the senator is set to hit the internet next week, "an inspirational kind of musical expression that conveys an upbeat, positive tone reminiscent of earlier projects like the 1985 ''We Are the World'' music video."...
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New Broadway Awards To Honor High Schoolers
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:00:07 -0800
"Dozens of American high school musical performers will compete on Broadway next year for a new national award named after theater owner and producer James M. Nederlander."...
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What's Going On At NBC?
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:54:24 -0800
The network seems a mite discombobulated heading into the fall season. At a major press tour, "NBC played clips of series it says were not complete, and certainly not ready to ship to critics. One series... showed clips that the executive producer suggested might be reshot at a later date."...
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Helen Gardiner, 70
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:49:25 -0800
"Helen Gardiner, one of Toronto's most beloved cultural philanthropists, died yesterday at her Caledon East farm, just four days after her 70th birthday... [With her husband, Gardiner] assembled a spectacular ceramics collection and not only gave it to the people of Ontario, but built the museum that houses it."...
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New "At The Movies" Hosts Named
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:42:24 -0800
Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment Television and Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies have been named to replace Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert on At The Movies. Ebert and Roeper "each announced [Monday] they were disassociating themselves from the movie-review program citing changes Disney planned to make to the long-running series."...
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PhilOrch Keeps Paying Ex-President
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:30:03 -0800
Joseph Kluger stepped down as president of the Philadelphia Orchestra in late summer 2005, but tax records show that the orchestra continued to pay him for two more years, even after a new chief was in place. Kluger says the $313,000 he received was for "consulting."...
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NJ Cuts Back On Arts Funding
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:27:05 -0800
"Against a backdrop of cutbacks, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts reduced by 12.6 percent its funding for arts organizations, programs and projects on Tuesday... It could have been worse, [though.] Through a statewide lobbying campaign, arts leaders joined with educators and businessmen to convince legislators to restore more than half of the 27 percent funding cut in the budget that Gov. Jon S. Corzine submitted earlier this year."...
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Levine Had Cancerous Growth, Docs Say
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:22:22 -0800
James Levine, who left his Tanglewood duties earlier this month to have emergency surgery, apparently had a cancerous growth on his kidney. "Fortunately, because of early detection, it had not spread to the surrounding tissues, blood vessels, or lymph nodes. Doctors reported the surgery was completely curative and no further treatment is necessary."...
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Giant Martin Luther King Sculpture Stirs Controversy
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:15:24 -0800
"One could argue that some controversy was inevitable no matter what. Memorial sculptures for King have long been lightning rods for racial resentments, black and white. The importance of this one --- the first representation of an African-American and nonpresident to be so honored on the National Mall --- would make it particularly fraught."...
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"Reality" TV Elle Takes On Broadway's Legally Blonde
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:09:21 -0800
Bailey Hanks was "hand-picked by director Jerry Mitchell out of a group of 10 aspiring Elles on the MTV reality show Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, which premiered in early June. The finale aired Monday night. Hanks replaces Tony-nominated Laura Bell Bundy Wednesday night, and runner-up Autumn Hurlbert will appear as one of Elle's Delta Nu sorority sisters."...
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Minnesota Orchestra Cancels Concert Because Of Money
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:07:21 -0800
The Minnesota Orchestra, citing future budget concerns, on Tuesday canceled its annual Lake Harriet bandshell concert, the finale for the venue's music season....
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Kay Ryan, "Outsider" Poet?
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:04:29 -0800
That's how America's new Poet laureate sees herself. "In truth, Ryan's as much a part of the Establishment as her 15 predecessors in the honorary position. She published her first collection in 1983. What she lacks is a literary position in a university, teaching remedial English part time at a California college."...
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Tickets To Royal Opera House Opening Night To Be Available Only To Tabloid Readers
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:00:58 -0800
Only readers of The Sun newspaper will be able to get tickets. "We have so many opportunities to open up our doors to more people and I'm thrilled that we're able to invite those who have never been to the opera house before to experience a first night performance."...
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Prominent Authors Confess Which Classics They Haven't Read
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:58:15 -0800
Perhaps it takes attaining a certain level of accomplishment to be able to admit the famous books one hasn't read......
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Paris Opera Ballet Season Down Under Canceled
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:54:35 -0800
The Victoria government won't support a planned tour by the Paris Opera Ballet, and the season has collapsed. "We're embarrassed for Australia, and we're embarrassed for Melbourne. It's terrible after having been given such a wonderful time in Sydney for the ballet to be flicked by Melbourne." Supporters of the planned vist warned that "the decision might do "irreparable damage" to the reputations of Melbourne and Australia....
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The Secret Appeal Of Britain's Most-Played Song
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:47:35 -0800
Bad Day by Daniel Powter has been the most played song in the UK over the past five years. What is it about this track and others that keep popping up everywhere we go?...
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Royal Opera House To Hit The Continent's Movie Screens
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:44:14 -0800
"The autumn programme of 16 ballets and operas will be shown in at least 112 cinemas, including the Empire Leicester Square, the Vue and Odeon multiplex chains, and independent venues on the Continent. For the price of a cinema ticket, audiences will be able to watch live shows in 'full surround sound' as they are being performed in the opera house in Covent Garden, where tickets can cost £195 each."...
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Broadway Producer Gladys Nederlander, 83
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:42:52 -0800
Mrs. Nederlander was a producer of nine Broadway shows between 1976 and 1993, most notably of a revival of "West Side Story" in 1980....
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Need A Loan? How About Mortgaging That Art?
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:41:15 -0800
"Select banks and the two major auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's, have been offering art financing for a long time. But in recent years, as values in the art market have risen, more and more collectors have taken advantage of it."...
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The Man Who Forged Masters
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:49:02 -0800
"Yesterday this picture was worth millions of guilders, and experts and art lovers would come from all over the world and pay money to see it," he declared after his exposure. "Today, it is worth nothing, and nobody would cross the street to see it for free. But the picture has not changed. What has?"...
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Should A Critic Write About The Orchestra That Set His Poems To Music?
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:37:06 -0800
Geoff Edgers thinks not. Lloyd Schwartz, the Boston Phoenix music critic, was asked by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to have his poems set to music by the Tanglewood Music Center's composition fellows. Not okay, writes Edgers. But Peter Kadzis, the Boston Phoenix executive editor, clearly thinks it's okay. "In an e-mail response, he stated that Schwartz 'works in the now waning tradition of artist/critic, not unlike Virgil Thomson. That the Tanglewood fellows would choose to set his poetry to music is a mark of distinction, not a compromise. Narrow minds, of course, might think otherwise'."...
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