Sometimes budget cuts fall in the forest, so while you are all worked up about the plants and animals on Paterson's chopping block, we're betting you turned a deaf ear to the opera's budget drama. The NY Times reports that "the Metropolitan Opera has been bludgeoned by the recession and now faces a 'disaster scenario' unless the company finds major cost cuts, including concessions from its powerful unions."
Subscribers to the Metropolitan Opera are up in arms over changes to the ticket exchange policy that contributed to massive lines at the box office yesterday. The Times reports that because of ongoing construction, many subscribers were forced to queue up in the bowels of the Lincoln Center and wait as long as five hours to switch their tickets, which they used to be able to do over the phone. Chairs were brought out for the elderly and infirm, but opera fanatics like Wanda Flickinger of Bronxville, N.Y. -- a subscriber for over 40 years -- were not placated: "This is an insult, what we are being put through today." Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, shrugged off the long lines on the Met's surge in popularity, telling the Times, "It’s kind of a growing pain that we are experiencing."
, hit shelves late last year. The tome delves into the cultural history of music since 1900, and even has Björk touting: "Alex Ross's incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone's fire for music." Tonight he'll step away from the printed word and you can catch him chatting with Stephen on The Colbert Report.
The Parks Dept. decided to throw in the towel on litigation that's been going on for three years and conceded to reevaluate its requirement that no more than 50,000 people could gather on Central Park's Great Lawn at one time.
THEATER: Without uttering a single line of dialogue, theater company Parallel Exit has crammed an hour of stage time with an abundance of zany physical comedy. Accompanied by live music provided by various percussion instruments, ukulele and piano, a hapless troupe of vaudevillians stumbles though “a backstage adventure filled with comic chaos and fast-paced action, incorporating music, magic, tap, and slapstick.” Everything that can go wrong does in their little variety show, and Martin Denton says “there's enough slapstick and silliness to please the small fry and enough sophistication and acumen to ensure that grown-ups are constantly diverted as well, making this a well-nigh perfect family entertainment.” – John Del Signore
HEADS UP!: We love Daniel Kitson, it's been documented, so we wanted to give you a heads up that our favorite British comedian is coming back to the States! He has three shows in December at Union Hall (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th), and tickets are ON SALE NOW for two of those dates. It'll be the best $8+fees that you ever spent. ART: The Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel has taken over the...
Last week Paula Scher's exhibit of painted city maps opened at the Maya Stendhal Gallery (running through January 26th). The Pentagram design firm partner has created the looks of the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society (and more) through logos. This exhibit expands on her Maps series which took over the gallery last year, and depicts "entire continents, countries and cities from all...
Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a child shot on Kingsborough Walk in Brooklyn, a person under a train at Kingston Ave. and Lincoln Pl. in Brooklyn, and a pedestrian struck at 12th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan. John Mayer performed an impromptu set at the Mercury Lounge to the surprise of attendees last night. John Galt Corp., the contractor doing the demolition work at the Deutsche Bank Building where two firefighters were killed,...
There's a poster of one of William Wegman's Weimaraners dressed as Macbeth hanging outside the Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center. No, the upcoming production of the Verdi opera does not feature any pups - rather, Wegman created a series of photographs inspired by the Met's new season. Check out the Lucia di Lammermoor photo! The photographs, 24" by 20" Polaroids, can be purchased and proceeds will benefit the Met.
This Sunday Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera will hold A Tribute to Beverly Sills. The event is open to the public, free, and will be dedicated to the sopranos life -- which ended in July.
The NY Sun takes a look at the impact of graphic design firm Pentagram on the city’s arts institutions. The article focuses mostly on partner Paula Scher, who has created identities for the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society and a host of others.
NewYorkology has its eye on the high seas Buttermilk Channel today, reporting on Puccini's Il Tabarro which will be staged there next month. The Brooklyn waterfront will host four evenings of the opera in September, "aboard a retired fuel tanker tied up to the dock at the container port."
As of last night Jerry Hadley, known as a top tenor at opera houses worldwide, was on life support after shooting himself. This morning it's being reported that he isn't expected to survive. Last year the 55-year old was arrested on Riverside Drive in Manhattan for driving while intoxicated, and even though the case was dropped - he had other problems to deal with. More recently, despite his success, Hadley had been filing for bankruptcy, was concerned about his career and was being treated for depression.
Last night Beverly Sills lost her battle with lung cancer, she died at her home in Manhattan at the age of 78. While she was a lifelong non-smoker and only found out about the cancer a few weeks ago, this wasn't her first experience with it - she underwent a successful surgery for cancer in 1974.
The NY Sun has a report on the city's largest music festival in history. We mentioned Make Music New York back in April when it was all still being pulled together. This Thursday, it begins.
Ruth Ann Swenson, who just six weeks ago finished chemotherapy for breast cancer, has begun a six week run of Handel's “Giulio Cesare." She's been a mainstay soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, yet after this run - the Met may be letting her go after more than twenty years of performances there (her debut was in 1988).
There's an interesting NY Times New York region op-ed that's supportive of marketing ventures most anywhere, like Geico's unsuccessful George Washington Bridge toll plaza marketing deal.
Arturo Toscanini's (pictured with Puccini), "maestro di maestri of music", was not only known for his photographic memory and mastery of music - he was also an avid collector of art. The 50th anniversary of his death is approaching, and with it - his private collection of art is on display in an exhibit called "Maestro's Secret Music".
EVENT: Want to get all of your holiday shows conveniently mashed up in to one night? Then join Mickey and Minnie Mouse tonight to help light the Holiday Tree at Lincoln Center. While there you will also see "performances from The Metropolitan Opera's new holiday production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a selection from George Balanchine's The Nutcracker by the New York City Ballet and students from the School of American Ballet, a daring performance from the fire-juggling Gizmo Guys from the Big Apple Circus, and holiday favorites sung by the SRC All-City Gospel Chorale and special guest Alvin Slaughter." That's a lot of holiday cheer.
Iin yet another story of a con artist duping an elderly person, an 81 year old astronomer was bilked by a 31 year old scammer out of over $200,000. The fact that Joseph Gossner is a prominent city philanthropist lands him on the cover of the Daily News - he was taken in by Janet Costello, who told him she suffered from breast cancer and needed money to pay the bills, but actually used the money to buy a Hummer among other things.
Opera isn't just for the swells! Starting today, the Metropolitan Opera is offering $20 rush tickets for $100 orchestra seats at performances Monday through Thursday. The tickets will be available two hours before the performance (if there are any $100 tickets available at the performance to begin with), with a limit of two per customer. It looks like you can get rush tickets for tonight's performance of Faust!
Bruni one-stars Da Silvano, downgrading it from the two stars Ruth Reichl awarded the restaurant in 1998. He doesn’t quite understand its allure, though he sees occassional glimpses: “Perhaps more than any New York restaurant I know, Da Silvano illustrates... the mind-boggling inconsistency that can exist across the breadth of a menu and a series of visits.” Celebrities love the place, though, he tells us. He even called a few to ask why. Madonna didn't get back to him, but Sarah Jessica Parker did, and she favors the linguini with clams. Why the food critic for the New York Times needs a celebrity to weigh in on merits of a restaurant, we're not quite sure, but good to know that SJP thinks Frank merits a response and Madonna doesn't.
Last night, the Metropolitan Opera's new season opened, with its usual gala at Lincoln Center and something new - broadcasting the performance of Madama Butterfly for free on different screens in Times Square as well as a free broadcast on Lincoln Center's plaza. catelinp has a nice set of pictures from Times Square on Flickr. The Post and Times have stories about hundreds people enjoying the free Times Square showing and how this marks the new era of Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb. Now, going to see the Met broadcoast in the outdoors is one things, but the Met also announced showing performances in movie theaters which somehow seems less appealing - perhaps opera seems better live or outdoors.
THEATER: Both the Fringe Festival and the wildly successful, but once Fringe-y, 24 Hour Plays are celebrating their tenth anniversaries this year, so why not do it together? Starting tonight, some of the original cast members and plays from the series that proved that a gimmick (conceive, write, rehearse and perform a play in a day) can produce fresh theatre, reunite in five totally different sets of five. - Mallory Jensen
Preserving preservation history? The concept made us a little nervous, too, but, when we heard about the New York Preservation Archive Project's plan for an online database, we knew we'd have to overcome our fear of all things meta.
- As if you couldn't hate Madison Square Garden enough for hurting old Penn Station, it might just hurt new Penn Station
We were watching the Today Show this morning when former NYC DA Linda Fairstein was on the show, flogging her new mystery book, Death Dance, about a murder at Lincoln Center that was inspired by the real life murder of a musician at the Metropolitan Opera. And the real life murder story is what intrigued us, as this was the first we'd ever heard of it. It turns out that a musician, Helen Mintiks, was raped by a stagehand in a stairwell at the Met during an intermission in 1980 (which definitely made us too young to remember the circumstances) and seems to have been a sensational murder story back then. A stagehand, Craig S. Crimmins, then brought Mintiks to the roof of the Met and kicked her into a ventilation shaft, which killed her. A 2004 NY Times "Following Up" article noted that Crimmins, found guilty of Mintiks's murder in 1981, was up for parole (seems like he was probably denied parole). And, by looking at the search on NYTimes.com for article about the murder, it seems that a detective was accused (by the defense) of manipulating Crimmins during questioning and that Mintiks' husband sued Crimmins and the Met. A non-fiction book about the 1980 murder, Murder at the Met is available through resellers on Amazon.
After last summer's protracted success in barring a big protest rally in Central Park on the eve of the Republican National Convention, the Parks Department is proposing to put a cap on the number of big rallies the Park can have. Only six gatherings of 50,000 or more people would be allowed - and four of them are for Metropolitan Opera/NY Philharmonic performances! Now, Gothamist is sure that some groups will protest this, but the way we see it, if this passes, protest groups will just have to be more creative. Like having five groups of, oh, 30,000 people in different parts of the park.
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