Longer Life for Cut Flowers
What did you do with the flowers you received at your last performance? Martha Stewart Living advises that to keep cut flowers fresh, give them a pinch of sugar for nourishment and an acidic ingredient like lemon-lime soda or aspirin, which allows the plant to absorb water more easily. A drop of bleach prevents bacteria and also lengthens their life.
Melody and Memory
A new study at Dartmouth’s Center of Cognitive Neuroscience led by Peter Jenata has shown that the part of the brain that stores melody is the rostromedial prefrontal cortex. This particular discovery is interesting because this part of the brain is also key in the learning, response and control of emotions, which provides some link for the reasoning behind music’s powerful influence over our emotions. To read more, go to www.sciencemag.org.
Opera from Behind Bars?
ABC Online reports that an AUS $26,000 (US $14,960) grant that had been allocated for the prisoners of a West Australian maximum security prison to be used towards the performances of opera and cabaret has been recanted by Justice minister Jim McGinty. McGinty said, “If the Commonwealth Government has got this amount of money they want to throw around on prisoners in maximum security prisons, I think they need to reassess their priorities.” But Prisoner Advisory Support Service chairwoman Dot Goulding criticized McGinty saying, “What we don’t need to be is tough on crime. What we need to be is effective on crime. And to be effective, you have to enhance prisoner skills. Most prisoners have come to prison with very low self-esteem. When they leave with very low self-esteem, they also leave with a lot of anger. And that’s what we’re trying to get rid of. So that they can come out into the community as reasonable citizens.”
Heppner Back on Stage
Last year, we reported that Ben Heppner stopped his recital midway through and cancelled a series of upcoming performances. Heppner is now back onstage after regaining his voice. He blames the vocal failings on a medication, the effects of which were not immediately obvious.
Moscow Conservatory
December was a trying month for the students at the Moscow State Conservatory, and that’s not just because exams were difficult! A fire, due to old wiring, broke out in one of the wings of the school damaging 16 grand pianos, several classrooms and offices. Nothing was insured, and rector Alexander Sokolov has been appealing to the government for funding to update the electrical system for the school and renovate the badly damaged wing. Because of this fire, the entire school now suffers from a lack of electricity, limited phone service and only a trickle of heat from an emergency furnace.
Vienna State Opera the next WWF?
A series of violent episodes has been occurring at the Vienna State Opera; however they’re not on stage! They’re in the audience! The police have been called to the opera house numerous times in the past few months, and a police spokesman reported that the calls have been getting more frequent. Stressed-out patrons of the opera end up breaking out into fistfights and wrestling matches over ringing cell phones, large hairstyles that cause an obstructed view, and arguments over seat assignments.
Russian Orthodox Church Bristles at Sydney Opera House Ad
The Sydney Opera House did not make any friends in the Russian Orthodox church through its December advertisement for A Very Tripod Christmas (There’s Something About Mary). The advertisement, posted on the SOH’s website, featured the faces of the show’s stars superimposed on the faces of religious icons. SOH removed the advertisement with their apologies to the church.
La Scala Renovation Faces More Problems
Gramophone reports that the La Scala renovations are not going so well! As officials receive reports of the water levels beneath the structure rising by 80 cm, concern mounts because this means that four meters of the foundation for the new stage tower will be underwater and will therefore require waterproofing. This complication, among others, will increase the cost of the job as well as delay the opening of the theater.
Baltimore Opera Orphaned
As Baltimore’s Lyric Opera House prepares for its 2004 renovations, the Baltimore Opera finds itself without a theater. Its planned foster home, the Hippodrome Theater, has fallen through because the orchestra pit of the newly renovated Hippodrome will only have room enough for about 25 musicians, as required for Broadway musicals.
Chicago Lyric Pulls Out All the Stops
Amidst a flailing economy and rampant penny-pinching by arts organizations, Chicago Lyric Opera makes a bold move by announcing a budget-busting 2004-2005 season to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The season includes three complete performances of Wagner’s Ring cycle, plus additional regular-season performances of two of the Ring operas, Das Rheingold and Goetter-dammerung.
Chinese Study Broadway Musicals
A team of delegates from the Chinese Ministry of Culture spent a week in New York studying the way in which Broadway musicals are produced both backstage and from the audience. They are trying to figure out why musicals draw such large audiences when audiences are shrinking for traditional state-supported Chinese opera houses. Yin Xiaodong, deputy director of the ministry’s department of drama, said, “We definitely see the musical, as a contemporary art form, as a way toward the rejuvenation of the ancient art forms.”
New General Director for Portland Opera
Portland Opera has announced the appointment of Christopher Mattiliano as the new general director of Portland Opera. He replaces Robert Bailey, who is retiring after 20 years of serving in that capacity.
