volcanohunter

Since it must be some sort of barometer of the musical tastes of young adults, I wonder what sort of observations posters could make about the state of jazz on campus radio. Ten years ago the campus radio station in the city where I live had 3-4 jazz programs on its schedule. Today there is only one. Its host has long since ceased to be a university student, but without him jazz programming would disappear altogether from the schedule. Does this hold true in other cities? Also, some 6-7 years ago a jazz television network was launched in Canada. What qualified as jazz was interpreted fairly broadly. Every evening there was an old movie musical (great for me), and the schedule was heavy with things like Ed Sullivan, Nat King Cole and Judy Garland show reruns. In time the movie musicals were cut back to one a week before disappearing altogether, and eventually the variety shows went, too. I must admit that at that point I stopped watching, and apparently so did a lot of other people because within a matter of months the network went out of business. Its sister radio station was sold and relaunched as a "soft jazz" station, though my impression is that its programming actually veers closer to easy listening. This isn't an encouraging state of affairs either.

DW-TV will rebroadcast its "Talking Germany" interview with Vladimir Malakhov on Sunday, August 16. You'll have to check your local listings, but in North America, "Talking Germany" airs on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. ET, with a repeat broadcast on Tuesdays at 2:30 a.m. ET. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,11937,00.html

The NEA survey uses median adult age as its reference point since the survey measures adult participation in the arts. In 1982 the median adult age was 39; in 2008 it was 45. As miliosr already pointed out, in 1982 the average jazz concert-goer (aged 29) was 10 years younger than the average adult (39), 8 years younger than the average ballet-goer (37), 11 years younger than the average classical music attendee (40) and 14 years younger than the average opera-goer (43). In 2008 the average jazz concert-goer (46) was one year older than the average adult (45), the same age as the average ballet-goer (46), 3 years younger than the average classical concert attendee (49) and 2 years younger than the average opera-goer (48). So while the population is getting older in general, jazz fans are "aging" at a disproportionate rate. (Page 5 of the highlights: http://arts.endow.gov/research/NEA-SPPA-brochure.pdf) The statistics show that jazz has experienced the greatest shrinkage in audiences aged 18 to 24 between 1982 and 2008, with a decrease of 58.3%, as opposed to 37.3% for classical music, 40% for opera, 12.7% for musicals, 23.4% for dramatic theater, and 35.9% for ballet. But jazz does seem to have kept its core audience from 1982, because its audiences older than age 45 have increased significantly, whereas in classical music and opera they've shrunk across the board. It's worth noting that ballet audiences from the dance boom days seem to have stuck around also, because while they've shrunk in every other age category, ballet-goers between the ages of 65 and 74 have increased by 43.3% over a 26-year period. (For some reason, the NEA deems this rise to be "statistically insignificant.") http://www.arts.gov/research/SPPA/trends.pdf I don't doubt that older adults are richer and healthier than they were a century ago, but between 2002 and 2008 the survey found drops in participation among the recently retired in most areas, which the NEA puts down partly to rising fuel costs.

I'll cast a vote for Fernando Bujones, among other things, for his port de bras. Nanarina asked for video evidence, so here is an excerpt from La Bayadère.

It may be helpful to look at the report itself. highlights: http://arts.endow.gov/research/NEA-SPPA-brochure.pdf participation tables: http://www.arts.gov/research/SPPA/trends.pdf I haven't read the whole thing carefully, but the following quote stands out. The decline of college-educated adults attending ballet is also pretty striking, apparently down 43% since 1982. But try this on for size. Number of adults attending ballet or other dance in 2008: 15.8 million Number of adults attending opera in 2008: 4.8 million Percentage of U.S. adults viewing (or listening) to dance broadcasts (or recordings) in 2008: 8.0% Percentage of U.S. adults viewing or listening to opera broadcasts or recordings in 2008: 4.9% Don't get me wrong now; I'm an opera nut. Furthermore, I realize that these stats are probably skewed by Nutcrackers and "So You Think You Can Dance." But given these statistics, why is opera being fed into cinemas live while ballet isn't? Why do PBS opera broadcasts outnumber PBS ballet broadcasts by a significant margin?

I wonder whether jazz and rock 'n roll have enough in common to make that expansion a natural progression. Mind you, I do know of cases where love for Jimi Hendrix expanded into a love for loud Baroque organ music, which eventually expanded into a love for Baroque music in general. This strikes me as a logical enough progression (not unlike the metal heads I remember shopping for Paganini CDs a couple of decades back). I certainly don't mean to suggest that most rock fans will eventually come to prefer classical music! I suspect you're the marvellous exception, kfw.

The ballet will be screened at the Norwood Theatre in Bracebridge, Ontario, on Sunday, August 16, at 2:30 p.m. http://centralsystem.digiscreen.ca/ShowPag...p;date=08162009 http://www.norwoodtheatre.com/

That is peculiar. The title has also disappeared from British, French, German and Japanese Amazon. It's still listed for release on August 25 on Canadian Amazon, so hopefully that odd new release date is just a typo. For what it's worth, the booklet to the Mariinsky's new 'Don Quixote' lists 'Romeo and Juliet' among other Decca ballet releases.

A trailer of sorts for A Midsummer Night's Dream http://centralsystem.digiscreen.ca/ShowPag...p;date=08152009

How very sad it is to hear about this. When the Australian Ballet visited the Met in 1990, he performed Albrecht in Giselle and Crassus in Spartacus. Unfortunately, I didn't see either of those performances, but I was very favourably impressed by his musical responsiveness in the company's film of The Sleeping Beauty. His vision scene is particularly excellent. May he rest in peace.

Many subscription packages have become more flexible anyway, allowing subscribers to exchange tickets to a performance they're not able (or don't want) to attend. I wouldn't be at all suprised if this has resulted in reduced attendance at ballets, operas and concerts that could be considered box-office poison. On the other hand, it's allowed me to avoid the more populist programming that performing arts organizations resort to in order to fill seats.

This may be a long shot, but if he was bare-chested and wearing red tights, it could be Le Spectre de la Rose. In that case, the DVD you'd want is Baryshnikov Live at Wolf Trap.

I may be decades away from my government pension, but I guess you can now officially classify me as an old fogey. If this is the direction ballet is headed, I don't particularly care for it. I guess you really can be too thin, too long-legged and too banana-arched. What I saw was a group of women so preoccupied with the point of their feet and height their extensions, regardless of how they distort their torsos, that they've lost the ability to jump or connect steps. Novikova did nothing for me in any of her solos, and in the grand pas de deux in particular there seemed to be no build-up to anything; her solo just petered out. In fairness, she wasn't helped by torso-up close-ups, or the camera angles. There were altogether too many from the downstage diagonals. Admittedly, this is what people in boxes close to the stage see, but the croisés and effacés in the choreography were lost. Sarafanov is a technical wiz, but there wasn't much personality on display. Sadly, the whole performance struck me as flat, and it wasn't helped by the overexposed lighting. What a pity. I expected a lot from this disc.

Patricia McBride. This is a dreadful confession to make, but as a young kid I didn't really "get" Susan Farrell, whereas McBride was the sort of firecracker I had no trouble grasping. Of course, Farrell did hit me like a typhoon when I was about 16, and I still haven't recovered.

The National Ballet of Canada does have Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, Onegin and The Taming of the Shrew in its repertoire, though perhaps it doesn't perform them as often as Reilly would like. It's probably been ages since the company performed Pineapple Poll. In fact, thanks to Paquita's reference to Karen Kain on the cover of a women's magazine, I just noticed that Onegin, which will be performed in June, is being redesigned by Santo Loquasto. I hope the company isn't on the verge of making a terrible mistake. Susan Benson's redesign of Romeo and Juliet was a disaster. Would it be too much to hope that the company's massive deficit could scupper this move?

They're removed his name from the list of principal dancers on their web site, but there's been no press release, and the Canadian press hasn't published anything yet, no doubt, because they're unaware.

I wonder whether this will change under the conditions of their new license. Are listener-supported stations even allowed to play that many ads?

Marga, perhaps you'd be able to comment on how Toronto's Classical FM fared when it changed ownership. I don't live in Toronto, and 96.3 FM isn't included in my satellite TV package--Montreal's Radio-Classique is--but I have to admit that I felt some trepidation when I learned that Moses Znaimer had bought the station. I was afraid it would deteriorate the same way Bravo had, as is changed from a supposed arts channel into a depository for Law & Order re-runs. That was a deterioration that Znaimer, apparently, did little to stop. (I have to admit that Bravo has improved ever so slightly since it was bought by CTV.) It's interesting that you felt this way toward the radio hosts. (I'm glad you do, given that I'm a radio announcer myself!) Several years ago the employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation went on strike, so programming on its FM channel, which has since jettisoned most of its classical music programming, consisted of wall-to-wall classical music. I loved it. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's self-important radio hosts in love with the sound of their own voices. (It's why I aim to talk as little on the air as humanly possible.) Honestly, I was sorry when the talking resumed.

Oh, dear. And the National Ballet of Canada had posted his bio on its web site and so forth. http://www.ballet.ca/thecompany/principals/jason_reilly.php

I know what you mean. I've amassed so many CDs over the past 23 years that I don't have enough time to listen to them all, let alone keep up with all the stuff on the internet. Of course I often need to content myself with listening to rather than watching web feeds, but I'm grateful to those opera houses, concert halls and festivals that recognize the value in making their performances available to any and all that are interested. I don't know whether they gain anything financially by doing so, but I give them credit for being propagandists for the arts.

The performance is available on demand and free of charge until September 30 by clicking on the Verbier tab at the bottom of the medici.tv page. However, the system will require you to create a user account and/or sign in.

I missed this interview when it aired on DW-TV, but back in May Malakhov was a guest on Talking Germany. Unfortunately, the performance clips have been edited out, but the interview itself is linked at the bottom of the page. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4227964,00.html

Since it's relevant, a couple of weeks ago Annette Dasch was a guest on DW-TV's Talking Germany. The link below includes an edited version of the TV interview (in English). http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4417780,00.html

At 1:00 p.m. ET, Medici TV began broadcasting a live web feed of a concert performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni from the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. The cast features Bryn Terfel (Don Giovanni), René Pape (Leporello), Anna Samuil (Donna Anna), Michael Schade (Don Ottavio), Annette Dasch (Donna Elvira), Sylvia Schwartz (Zerlina), Robert Gleadow (Masetto) and Thomas Quasthoff (the Commendatore). Manfred Honeck is conducting. http://www.medici.tv

It never even occurred to me that a company as large as City Ballet would have a single company class. When I visited some opera houses in the waning days of the Soviet Union, what struck me was the strongly hierarchical structure of the ballet companies, which extended to class. Principals and soloists would take class first, and dancers deemed soloist material seemed to be placed in this class almost immediately, and after them the corps would come and do their class. Furthermore, other teachers would lead additional classes simultaneously, for example, a mixed-rank class for women only or an analogous class for men. Certainly there was nothing free-for-all or social-hour about any of them. Granted these companies were even larger than NYCB, but I can't imagine 70-80 dancers in class at the same time.