Why Can’t We Have an Arts Bailout?
Since government money is helping keep banks and automobile manufacturers from going bankrupt, perhaps the government should spend some tax money on well-managed arts organizations that are in severe straits these days, said Michael Kaiser, president of The John F. Kennedy Center, in his article in the Washington Post at the end of 2008. Kaiser also wrote that the arts cannot improve productivity in the same way other industries can. It will always take the same length of time to play a particular symphony and a play (or an opera) will always have the same number of characters.
Because the endowments of many companies have been seriously depleted and because the arts are so labor intensive, Kaiser pled for government help in the form of emergency grants and legislation that aids grant-giving foundations. He finished by asking if it isn’t time we save our soul as well as our economy.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/contentarticle/2008/12/28/AR2008122801274.html
broadwayworld.com/article/Broadway_Blog_No_Bailout_for_the_Arts20090101
Baltimore Opera Seeks Bankruptcy Protection
Baltimore Opera, a company that has been in business for more than half a century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of dwindling contributions and ticket sales, the Baltimore Sun reported. The company’s annual operating budget was $6 million and it had accumulated a deficit of $800,000.
The company has canceled its remaining 2008-2009 performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Singers engaged for 2009-2010 have been released from their contracts, although the company does hope to come back in the future, said the report.
Baltimore Opera was chartered in 1950 as the Baltimore Civic Opera and legendary soprano Rosa Ponselle guided it for decades. Many great singers performed with the company, including Evelyn Lear, Beverly Sills, Carlo Bergonzi, and Plácido Domingo.
www.baltimoreopera.com
www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-te.to.opera09dec09,0,685458.story
Instead of Pay to Sing, Was It Pay to Conduct?
Gilbert E. Kaplan, founder of the magazine Institutional Investor, has a love for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) and has conducted the work in a number of cities, says the New York Times. He has been quite well received by audiences and reviewers, but comments from some members of the orchestras he has led are much less positive.
When Kaplan was scheduled to conduct the New York Philharmonic, musicians asked for a meeting with Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s president, and complained about Kaplan’s conducting for an hour.
Kaplan is a frequent donor to musical organizations. The Philharmonic said Kaplan was hired at the suggestion of Lorin Maazel, the orchestra’s music director, but that Kaplan would not be invited back.
www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/arts/music/18kapl.html
www.minnesotaorchestra.org/insidetheclassics/blog/2008/12/oh-kaplan-my-kaplan.html
Italian Opera Houses Short of Funds
Christine Spolar, Rome correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, reports that Italy’s 14 opera houses are in deep trouble. Three of them, Genoa, Verona, and the San Carlo in Naples, are already in receivership. Altogether the opera companies have $60 million in debts.
Italy has no history of private financing of the arts and the tax structure is not set up to encourage individual donations. It doesn’t look like things will get any better soon. The country’s total cuts in cultural spending for the next three years are expected to be approximately $922 million, said the report.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/has-the-fat-lady-sung-for-italian-opera-512587.html
www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16000184.html
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DB113FF93AA25755C0A963958260&se
Recording Association to Stop Suing Downloaders
The Recording Industry Association of America has abandoned its policy of suing people for downloading copyrighted music, says the Washington Post. RIAA will, however, work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings. RIAA has sued some 35,000 people for sharing songs online, according to the Associated Press statistics. The organization has stopped the practice because it cost more money than it brought in. Most of the cases were settled for around $3,500, said the report. Members of the recording industry credit the suits with focusing attention on the extent of piracy.
Legitimate sales of digital music tracks passed the one billion mark in 2008, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/riaa-the-perpet.html
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/riaa-qualifies.html
news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127454-93.html
Theaters May Base Ticket Prices on Demand
It’s harder to get tickets for Saturday night than for Tuesday. Every theatergoer knows that. Aisle seats are also popular. As a result, many theaters, like the airlines, are now beginning to adjust their prices to fit the occasion, according to the Washington Times. Alice Kornhauser, marketing director of the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, says that if people are willing to pay to sit at the end of the row, from a business standpoint, it would be irresponsible not to charge more for those seats.
The Boston Ballet saw a $160,000 increase in ticket revenue from holiday performances of The Nutcracker, due largely to “demand pricing,” said the report.
www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081230/FEAT/ 812300349
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/29/prices-steal-the-shows/
History of Singing Is Going Online
New York’s public libraries are in the process of digitizing books and putting them on the Internet as part of the Google Book Project, reports the New Yorker. The latest books from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to become available on the Web include works on singing, including the reviews of Herman Klein, W.J. Henderson, and other critics who wrote between 1870 and the turn of the 20th century. As a general rule, the project can scan only works published before 1922, but this reservoir of knowledge should become a treasure for anyone interested in the history of singing.
www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin
