30 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

I think that's a good point.  Theaters were structured differently -- and the people who ran them were quite different than those who run them today.  In Copenhagen, the Theatre Chiefs during the 19th century were the city's Lincoln Kirstein -- very educated, cultured, well-travelled men (at the end of the century, the Theatre Chief was an actress, but she only got the job because she was the wife of the last, great Theatre Chief).  Today they're political appointees.  The current Theatre Chief in Copenhagen's last job was the highest civil service employee at the Ministry of Defense!  (bullets, ballets, hey, what's one letter....)

I've been re-reading Ivor Guest's "Ballet of the Second Empire" and the director of the Paris Opera would regularly go round to the studios to find new talent -- and had a good eye.

I don't think it would work in today's climate.  We are not educating people to make artistic judgments. We do not value those who have a cultivated taste.  There are many who are outraged at the notion that there is such a thing.