The lost art of dictating a novel; museums as town squares and community centers; contests for new book authors; dangers of cultural elitism. Plus other links to recent articles and websites that have interested us. 

Recent articles of interest

“Dictating a Masterpiece”: Before the computer, novelists like Henry James and Dostoevsky dictated new works—mostly to female transcribers. Now writers rely on voice recognition software to dictate their books. In the process, they’ve lost the advantages of instant human feedback.
(Amy Rowland, The Smart Set, Summer 2010.)

“No More Cathedrals of Culture”: A new generation of museum directors is actively undoing the idea of museums as “cathedrals of culture.” The new goal of “making art essential to everyone” has converted buildings into town squares, incorporated technology to facilitate access to works, and forced curators and artists to engage audiences via social media and interactive exhibits.
(Judith Dobrzynski, Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2010.)

“Art: What is art’s place in the picture?”: Many museums around the country have built additions in recent years, but few of them house paintings or sculpture. Instead, these new wings generate revenue by hosting concerts, weddings and even yoga classes. As more museums take on the function of community centers, Edward Sozanski wonders how this trend will affect the goal of enlightening and educating patrons.
(Edward Sozanski, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 15, 2010.)

“New writers take the Internet route to reaching readers”: Literary editors used to sift through piles of manuscripts and query letters to find the next great novel. Now publishing houses like Harper Collins have created social networking websites to tackle this chore by combining market research with contests similar to “American Idol.” Prospective authors upload a new work, then community members read it (for free) and vote each month on their favorites, some of whom get book deals. 
(Chuck Furlong, Seattle Times, August 15, 2010.)

“Message to our cultural organizations: Don’t forget the folks on the train”: Arts organizations that focus exclusively on donors and low-income beneficiaries of grants risk losing the educated, moderately affluent class in the middle. A century ago this approach alienated culture-starved “ordinary folk,” who’ve regarded the arts as elitist ever since. The solution, argues Chris Jones, requires dialing down the pricey premium experience and learning the lessons of openness and familiarity seen in successful popular panderers such as NASCAR and “America’s Top Chef.”
(Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2010.)

“For Ballet, Plots Thicken, or Just Stick?”: Alastair Macaulay surveys the current offerings of narrative ballet to question how and if the genre can continue to craft stories that transcend the contemporary antagonism between pure movement and emotive expression. Balanchine argued, “Put a man and a woman onstage, and you already have a story,” but for Macaulay, ballet’s inherent sexism— women dance on point as men partner them— limits its ability to say anything meaningful about modern gender relations.
(Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, August 4, 2010.)

“Judging a Girl by Her Cover”: Amazon now sells more e-books than hardcover, which is good news for trees, bad news for romantics. The title of a book read in public used to signify something about the reader, generating conversations that blossomed into friendships or more. But you can’t tell an e-book by its Kindle. As one result, technology designed to encourage humanity winds up diminishing it.
(Mark Oppenheimer, Slate, July 30, 2010.)

“Theater Talkback: Preaching to the Choir on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’?”: When Marc Wolf started working on a play about gays’ right to serve in the military, he struggled with how to transcend the gay-equality views held by his targeted audience. But when he encountered only apathy or anti-military bias from gay rights organizations, he emerged as a lone voice defending enlisted gays against bias and persecution.
(Marc Wolf, New York Times, July 29, 2010.)

“The Death of the Phone Call”: As text-messaging and social networking communication (on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) has risen, phone calls have grown shorter and more infrequent. Because of its high emotional cost and intrusiveness, “voice-calling,” at least in its current form, deserves to go the way of the telegraph, argues Clive Thompson.
(Clive Thompson, Wired, July 28, 2010).

“In Defense of Amazon”: Despite Amazon’s bullying business tactics and its attempts to monopolize e-book titles and authors for its Kindle-reader, Ruth Franklin finds reason to praise America’s largest bookseller. The company, she argues, offers a wealth of books— more than 2 million titles— to anyone with an Internet connection, and it has forced book publishers to adopt leaner practices, including dropping unprofitable advances for authors, to decrease the price of books for everyone.
(Ruth Franklin, The New Republic, July 28, 2010.)

“Solving the 800-year mystery of Pisa’s Leaning Tower”: For centuries, the impossible southward tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa has defied the attempts of structural engineers, soil geologists, and politicians to set it straight. In 1990, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti closed the site and commissioned a ten-year study that cost nearly $40 million. The result: The tower has been fully stabilized and its lean finally checked.
(Alastair Smart, The Daily Telegraph, July 28, 2010.)

“Classical Music’s New Golden Age.” U.S. orchestras have lost money, audiences, and appeal. But according to Heather MacDonald, Classical music is more accessible now than at any point in history. The advent of recording technology and Internet proliferation provides multiple performances of works once familiar only to musicologists. A growth in conservatory-level music programs as well as an explosion of orchestras and smaller groups provide unprecedented opportunities and employment for musicians. And the rediscovery of older works has supplanted the need to create “new” music for public consumption.
(Heather MacDonald, City Journal, Summer 2010.)

“Reconstructing Ballet’s Past.” So many choreographers have tampered with Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake that no one would recognize the original 1877 ballet. Ismene Brown’s two-part article details the history of revisions that led to the three most commonly performed versions, and includes an interview with Mikhailovsky Ballet’s chief ballet master Misha Messerer about his current attempts to recreate a Swan Lake that connects historically to its first staging. Part II discusses the difficulties faced by historians and choreographers attempting to uncover the exact meaning of Petipa’s notations for The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.
(Ismene Brown, The Arts Desk, July 14, 2010 and July 22, 2010.)

“Publishers rage against Wylie’s e-book deal with Amazon.” As consumers attempt to weigh the pros and cons of reading paperbound or electronic books, a top literary agent, the Wylie Agency, signed a groundbreaking deal with Amazon.com. Wylie, which holds the rights to more than 700 authors— including the estates of Borges, Updike and Bellow— decided to cut publishing houses out of the loop by delivering works like Lolita direct to Kindle. This move calls into question the ownership of digital rights and also threatens to give Amazon a monopoly over smaller e-book sellers.
(Alison Flood and Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, July 23, 2010.)

“Exporting Broadway.” Theater producers used to test-run new plays and musicals in Philadelphia or New Haven before opening them in Broadway houses. After the recent European and Asian successes of Tarzan and The Lion King, theater conglomerates have started using New York as the tryout town for tomorrow’s international blockbuster. And why not? Despite its problems of adaptation and translatability, The Lion King’s overseas stagings grossed triple the Broadway revenues, and rewrites turned the Broadway flop Tarzan into a hit in Denmark and Germany.
(Ellen Gamerman, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2010.)

“Theaters Playing to Plumper Audiences.” Along with airplanes and movie houses, performing arts venues are now confronting the problem of America’s ever-expanding waistline. A recent study by Theatre Projects Consultants looked at 1,200 theaters across America and found that the average standard width of seats grew from 21 to 22 inches in the past 20 years, “primarily due” to the nation’s increase in obesity (over the past century, seat widths rose from an average width of 19 inches).
(Erica Orden, Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2010.)

“You pushed the button and out came hundreds and thousands of sonatas”: If you heard a piece of music composed by a computer program, would you be able to tell the difference? Music professor and composer David Cope has spent the last 30 years writing— and then training— software that “borrows and steals” the signature stylings and phrasing of composers from Palestrina to Rachmaninoff. A slew of albums and more than 11,000 computer-generated pieces later, he responds to the complaints of his machine’s “soulless” music: The real question, Cope says, “isn’t if computers possess a soul, but if we possess one.”
(Tim Adams, The Observer, July 11, 2010.)

“Philly jazz festival a state-funded extravagance”: Thanks to funding secured by State Representative Dwight Evans, this year’s annual West Oak Lane Jazz Festival received $1 million in state support. To get that money, the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corp. claimed that 600,000 patrons attended last year and that it expected a half million people at this year’s festival (more than attended the original Woodstock Festival in 1969). As arts organizations like the Mummers struggle to attract any state funds, the Philadelphia Inquirer questions the veracity of the Jazz Festival’s attendance records.
(Christopher K. Hepp, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 2010.)

“Call him ‘YNS,’ the talk of the musical world”: The Philadelphia Orchestra signed 35-year-old Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its new conductor for a five-year contract. If you’re unfamiliar with this young Canadian, a recent spate of articles in the Inquirer can bring you up to speed. Peter Dobrin’s “New leader for Philadelphia Orchestra” provides a short biography and details how Nézet-Séguin will fit into the Orchestra’s mission. In “A good moment for high spirits,” David Patrick Stearns places the new maestro in the historical and artistic context of 20th-Century conductors. (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 13 and 15, 2010.)

”America’s Musical Ambassadors”: The U.S. State Department ramped up its cultural diplomacy efforts in 2006 by reviving the Cold War-era Jazz Ambassadors program. This initiative, now titled “Rhythm Road,” has provided funding and arranged concerts overseas for more than 100 musicians in blues, gospel, blue grass and hip hop. As Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim reports, so far the program has reaped positive results in its attempts to transcend politics and religion to build bridges to other cultures. (Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010.)

“Underscoring Richard Wagner’s influence on film music”: The film score composer Max Steiner— think Gone with the Wind— once quipped, “If Wagner had lived in this century, he would have been the No. 1 film composer.” As Jon Burlingame points out, Steiner’s not too far off the mark. Burlingame interviewed musicologists and music historians to illustrate how film music from Steiner to John Williams and Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings trilogy) depends on the inventive techniques of musical storytelling that Wagner laced through his operas.
(John Burlingame, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2010.)

“The ENO show’s not over until the understudy’s understudy can’t sing”: Should a performing arts company offer its patrons a refund if the advertised “star actor” drops out? According to the general practice among opera and theater houses, the answer is “no.” These groups argue that actors, singers and dancers often fall ill or get hurt, and that ticket-holders have paid to see a show, not their favorite TV or movie actor. But as Alice Jones points out, when multiple understudies substitute, it begs a reevaluation of the refund question. (Alice Jones, The Independent, June 15, 2010.)

“The Dangerous Beauty of Cellulose Nitrate Film”: In his recent Avatar, James Cameron’s inventive new filmmaking techniques created lush, artificial environments that expanded the possibilities of 3-D movies. But according to the BBC’s Will Gompertz, the most vivid film recordings were all shot in the first half of the 20th Century on cellulose nitrate, a highly flammable, now banned medium. Gompertz details the history of cellulose nitrate, what steps archivists take to preserve existing reels and the qualities that let it produce such visual richness.  (Will Gompertz, BBC News, June 10, 2010.)

“Live screening ‘good for theater‘ ”: In a single broadcast to 300 cinemas, London’s National Theatre doubled the number of patrons who saw the entire run of its 2009 production of Jean Racine’s Phèdre. A follow-up study found that the screening brought in audiences that don’t reflect the traditional educational and economic spectrum of most theatergoers. But the most surprising result of the report? Those who saw it on screen were actually more emotionally engaged than those watching the live performance.  (Tim Masters, BBC News, June 3, 2010.)

“The Vatican Loves a Good Story”: In Katharine Drexel and John Neumann, Philadelphia can claim two of America’s eight Catholic saints. According to Slate.com’s James Verini, Pope Benedict is on a canonizing spree that outpaces the record set by his predecessor John Paul II. But any nominee needs to meet three conditions: money, a medical miracle and a compelling narrative.  (James Verini, Slate, June 3, 2010.)

“Everyone Else Outsources, So Why Can’t The Arts?”: From the Art Museum to the Orchestra, Philadelphia’s larger arts organizations face budgetary shortfalls. Similar-sized organizations in Columbus, Ohio that experienced financial woes solved their problems by outsourcing PR, marketing, ticketing and a host of services to a third-party vendor. In the process, the Columbus Symphony shaved $750,000 from its bottom line. But will such money-saving strategies risk alienating the arts-going community? (Elizabeth Blair, NPR, May 23, 2010.)

“To Get Those Summer Tickets in New York, Strategize”: While most of Philadelphia’s performing arts organizations go dark each summer, venues in New York— from Free Shakespeare and Opera in Central Park to the Lincoln Center Festival— get under way. For the Philadelphians who buy almost 1 million tickets to New York events each year, knowing where to grab these rare tickets can determine whether you’ll see Al Pacino as Shylock for free or have to shell out a pound of flesh for a Broadway revival. The New York Times details the strategies that can help you beat the crowds and save money. (Felicia R. Lee, New York Times, May 28, 2010.)

“Susan Hess’s upbeat end to 30-year run on Sansom”: After 30 years of showcasing up-and-coming choreography, Susan Hess Modern Dance Studios is leaving its home on the third floor of the Adrienne Theatre. The building’s owners recently decided to convert the former open floor performance space into a venue more suitable for black box theater works. But dance aficionados shouldn’t worry; the Inquirer’s Merilyn Jackson reports that Hess will reopen across town in the Performance Garage Space owned by Jeanne Ruddy Dance. (Merilyn Jackson, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 2010.)

“No Museum Left Behind.” Now even political conservatives are furious about the Barnes Foundation’s forthcoming move from Merion to Center City. The relocation, concludes Lance Esplund in a lengthy piece, “is fueled by ignorance and avarice, not altruism.” (Lance Esplund, The Weekly Standard, May 31, 2010.)

“At NEA, a daring idea to help artists rises again”: Has time healed the culture war wounds? Rocco Landesman, new chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, recently floated the idea of restoring the individual grants for artists that Congress de-funded in 1996. The Denver Post’s John Wenzel weighs the pros and cons of this controversial funding and its timeliness during a recession and tumultuous political season. (John Wenzel, Denver Post, May 23, 2010.)

“Philadelphia’s latest generation of emerging composers”: Curtis faculty member Jennifer Higdon won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for music composition. According to Inquirer music critic David Patrick Stearns, her success continues the city’s tradition as a laboratory for developing new work. His article sketches some of 20th-Century Philadelphians’ contributions to classical music and then details four composers (including Higdon) who continue to produce vital works. (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2, 2010.)

“Can gay actors play straight roles?”: Newsweek’s openly gay writer Ramin Setoodeh argues that audiences can accept straight actors in homosexual parts but not the reverse. To prove his point, he cites recent examples of gay men and women in film, TV and theater who give insincere and scarcely believable portrayals as heterosexuals. Is it a fault of the actor not overcoming his persona or the failure of viewers to see past his background? (Ramin Setoodeh, Newsweek, April 26, 2010.)

“Mere fact, mere fiction”: Is there a wrong way to make good art? David Hare, perhaps Britain’s most famous living playwright, examines the recent genre of verbatim drama, which takes a journalistic approach to its subject by dramatizing real incidents with actual dialogue. Critics object that these plays (and films) lack historical perspective, enduring value, necessity of truth— all of which Hare looks to dismiss by restoring the distinction between art and journalism. (David Hare, The Guardian, April 17, 2010.)

“How do you measure theater success,” or success in the any of the arts? Critical acclaim, ticket sales or awards don’t determine a production’s impact, according to numbers crunchers at London’s New Economics Foundation. Instead, a study they implemented with three of Britain’s largest and most influential theater organizations argues that artistic success hinges on an audience’s quantifiable emotional response to what’s on stage. (Alistair Smith, The Guardian, April 9, 2010.)

“Christopher Wheeldon leaves dance company he created.” Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon resigned as artistic director of Morphoses just three years after founding the company, citing the lack of artistic resources, specifically the inability to maintain a large enough troupe of steady dancers for the company’s touring productions. Philadelphians know Wheeldon for his Carnival of the Animals (2008) and his 2004 updating of Swan Lake, a work he created specifically for the company, which they’ll reprise again in 2011. (Daniel J. Wakin and Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, Feb. 22, 2010.)

“Losing the hearts of its listeners.” The Philadelphia Orchestra has a $3.3 million deficit, average houses of only 63%, and audiences who feel abandoned by a once beloved ensemble. In a recent pair of articles, the Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin discusses the artistic and economic sources of their financial difficulties, and what steps new CEO Allison B. Vulgamore is taking to ward off a potential bankruptcy and win back its clients. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 21 and 27, 2010)

Were Stokowski and Toscanini overrated? Old Philadelphia orchestra devotees may argue over which conductor they loved more— Leopold Stokowski, who invented the Orchestra’s fabled “Philadelphia Sound,” or its frequent guest conductor Arturo Toscanini, who made several World War II-era recordings with the Orchestra. But in a recent blog article, composer John Adams turns a critical eye on both maestros. Adams labels Toscanini’s interpretations “frequently bewildering and puzzling”; of Stokowski, he says, “Anyone following his career will be driven mad trying to cull the pearls from the swill.” (See “Glamourpuss,” by John Adams, Earbox.com, March 14, 2010.)

“A Wild, Wild West of Their Own.” Philadelphia actress (and Temple MFA graduate) Krista Apple chronicles the aesthetic trends that catapulted Philadelphia’s experimental Pig Iron theater troupe to national recognition and highlights the group’s likely future directions, including its plans to open a Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training in Philadelphia in 2011. (Krista Apple, American Theatre Magazine, February, 2010.)

Playwright’s Nurturing is the Focus of a Study: If Eugene O’Neill wrote it today, would Long Day’s Journey Into Night ever see a production? Or would uncaring corporate-minded producers and artistic directors whittle away its significance in workshops? According to the authors of Outrageous Fortune—the Theatre Development Fund’s recently released six-year study about how plays get written and produced in America— O’Neill would today face hostility from theaters, producers and audiences, and would likely have given up long before he put his pen to the page. (Patrick Healy, New York Times, Feb. 13, 2010.)

“New gay theater has more love than politics.” A new breed of plays and musicals this season is presenting gay characters in love stories, replacing the topical; and political messages of 1980s and ‘90s shows like The Normal Heart and Angels in America with more personal appeals for social progress, reports Patrick Healy in The New York Times (Feb. 23, 2010). That begs a point raised by Dan Rottenberg in BSR in 2006: “The essence of drama is conflict— and there’s ample conflict in the endless dance between the sexes but relatively little conflict in the seduction of one gay man by another.” (See “The trouble with gay theater.”). (Dan Rottenberg.)

The music of Olympic figure skating isn’t what it could be. Figure skating music must include a number of varying tempos that match the athlete’s choreography— graceful passages for artistic ice dancing, exhilarating crescendos to highlight a leap, and slower portions where a skater can catch her breath. But for audiophiles, it often sounds like a grating, disjointed mix. The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette examines the current trends Olympian’s and their coaches employ to balance the demands of skating artistry and musical purity. (Feb. 14, 2010).