Desdemona Tells Her Story
Some time ago Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison and famed theater and opera stage director Peter Sellars argued over the artistic value of Shakespeare’s play Othello. Sellars said that it had outlived its usefulness; Morrison strongly disagreed. They did agree to do their own versions of the play at a later time, according to the Associated Press. Sellars created a futuristic, high-tech Othello in 2009. It got mixed reviews in Europe and was severely criticized in New York.
Last year Morrison lived up to her part of the bargain with Desdemona. Her production, coincidentally directed by Sellars, opened in Brussels and Vienna last summer and near Paris in the fall. It then was seen at the University of California–Berkeley in October and in New York and Berlin in November. So far, it has had very mixed reviews. It will also be presented during the London Summer Olympics this year.
Morrison’s version allows Shakespeare’s doomed heroine to address the audience from the grave and state her views on race, class, gender, war and, above all, love.
www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/arts/music/toni-morrisons-desdemona-and-peter-sellarss-othello.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/S/Sciolino,%20Elaine
www.expatica.com/be/leisure/arts_culture/Desdemona-project_17437.html
www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-19/desdemona-gets-even-in-morrison-sellars-othello-remix-review.html
Calgary Orchestra Sells Tickets on Facebook
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is selling its tickets on Facebook using ShoWare Social Media Connect, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. ShoWare allows theatrical organizations to get the most from social media by selling tickets directly from their fan pages. Built-in sharing features help companies with social media sites increase the number of fans and possibly increase sales. The orchestra created its Facebook page three seasons ago and has been using it ever since to communicate and interact with its patrons. Currently it has more than 2,000 readers, and it is expected that the new ticketing capability will encourage more growth.
Marylou Bennetts, director of marketing and sales for the Calgary Philharmonic, says that engaging fans on Facebook has become an important strategy for her company. She says that it is convenient for people to buy tickets right from the Facebook page instead of having to go to the orchestra’s site. The addition of Facebook ticketing is another way theatrical and musical companies can interact with their patrons in a helpful manner. ShoWare provides turnkey box office solutions as well as ticket selling and distribution services for a broad range of events and theaters.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/24/prweb8901803.DTL
Conductor Brings New Life to Old Orchestra
Alan Pierson is resuscitating the once moribund Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. Having canceled its 2010-2011 season, the orchestra returned this season in a new form. Rental fees at the Brooklyn Academy have risen sharply, so the orchestra was forced to rethink its mission. Pierson came up with a new approach. Instead of having a single location and a subscription series, the Philharmonic would take advantage of the cultural diversity and geographic vastness of Brooklyn to present specific concerts in various neighborhoods.
They first went to Bedford-Stuyvesant where the reborn Philharmonic gave a free concert that featured Life in Marvelous Times by rapper Mos Def. That was presented alongside the last movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together which is based on a letter written by an inmate during the 1971 Attica prison uprising. Pierson and his band also played a concert at the Millennium Theater in Brighton Beach, a Russian neighborhood, where the orchestra accompanied a series of Russian cartoons. Deborah Buck, the orchestra’s concertmaster, says that Pierson is a positive, energetic, and truly gifted musician.
www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/conductor-alan-pierson-brings-struggling-brooklyn-philharmonic-back-life-article-1.971063
Gel Offers New Hope for Patients with Injured Vocal Cords
Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University surgeon Steven Zeitels are working with a gel that, when injected into a patient’s vocal cords, can vibrate at 200 times a second. They hope it will act like a membrane and respond to breath and muscles in the same manner that real tissue does. Langer rearranged molecules to allow the gel to vibrate at the right speed. It will need to bond with the existing vocal cords in order to be long lasting. Langer and Zeitels hope to use it in repairing voices that have been lost to throat cancer. They will test it on patients next year. According to Sandeep Karajanagi, a former MIT researcher who developed the gel, 6 percent of the United States population has some sort of vocal disorder.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/vibrating-gel-may-give-new-voice-to-throat-cancer-patients.html
Summer Opera Will Have New View This Year
Glyndebourne Opera, a famous British summer festival, will be generating 90 percent of its own power beginning this winter, thanks to a wind turbine that stands high above the outdoor venue. This ability will make a significant dent in the company’s carbon dioxide emissions. The reduction of the opera’s energy costs will increase its long-term viability and help continue its level of local employment. Although there have been complaints about placing the huge turbine in the middle of what has been considered a beautiful view, the company thinks that the benefits outweigh any losses.
glyndebourne.com/our-wind-turbine-0
