|
MUSIC SHORTS
News Briefs
October 31, 2000
|
By Janos Gereben
Show me the way to Beethoven's hair
The recent finding of arsenic in Beethoven's hair ended up in the front sections of newspapers, not among music reviews, so if you want to see what all the fuss is about, you need to go no further than San Jose State University. There, in the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, is the real thing, a lock of the hair, with the authentication documents by Ferdinand Hiller, who himself clipped it the day after the composer's death.
The exhibit, which opened on October 23, was organized to coincide with the publication of Russell Martin's book, "Beethoven's Hair," a study tracing the history of the relic, which went from a German family of Jewish musicians to a Sotheby auction in 1994.
The Mackerras puzzle Now that San Francisco Opera has the good fortune of getting its principal guest conductor back (to preside over Semele and Der Rosenkavalier, the question is what made Charles Mackerras miss five years in what was to be his second home.
No official or even particularly credible explanation is available, but sources in London indicate a combination of some health problems, Mackerras' dislike of long-distance travel, and his preference for assignments that include recording of the work he conducts.
`Challenge America' grants The National Endowment for the Arts just received the first increase in its appropriations in years. More than $3 million is being made available in new "Challenge America" grants for partnership projects, rural and underserved communities. NEA guidelines are due in December. For information: (202) 682-5700 or www.arts.gov
New conductor for Seattle Ring Ailing Swiss conductor Armin Jordan has withdrawn from the Seattle Opera's 2001 production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen; he will be replaced by Franz Vote, an American conductor, who has been active at the Metropolitan Opera since 1990. The August, 2001, Seattle production -- directed by Stephen Wadsworth, with Thomas Lynch's sets -- is sold out.
Grove-by-the-hour Even as some hotels make use of empty rooms, renting them by the hour, Grove II is going the same route. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which set an annual subscription rate of $650 just a few weeks ago, has now cut the fee back drastically, to $295. Grove also made a monthly access of $30 available, and announced a `MetroPass' to the online edition by the hour, at a rate yet to be set. Are these measures caused by poor sales? Au contraire, says marketing director Lisa Nachtigall: "We have been delighted at the early consumer interest." Something new in marketing history: rewarding demand in a product by cutting the price in half!
(Janos Gereben is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group, and senior editor of www.the451.com.) ©2000 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |