News, comment, links and observations
Three years ago, the adventurous young company Second Movement got into its stride at Covent Garden Studios with a triple bill of unusual operatic bedfellows. An Offenbach update raised a laugh or two, Shostakovich's completion of ill-fated pupil Fleischmann's Chekhov mini-opera Rothschild's Violin was touted as the highlight, but most of the audience were bowled over instead by a 1920s slice of opera-cum-jazz-cum-surrealism, Martinů's The Knife's Tears (pictured below).
Struck by its success, conductor Nicholas Chalmers and director Oliver Mears decided to investigate a lengthier slice of Martinu's wacky Paris years, The Three Wishes or The Inconstancy of Life.
Former and, he hopes, future London Mayor Ken Livingstone (looking groovy in a fashion shoot, left) has announced if elected he hopes to create a similar Festival to South By South West, the successful music Expo in Austin, Texas that has launched the careers of numerous Indie bands. Livingstone points out that the Austin city council conservatively estimated its music expo SXSW 2008 to have had an economic impact of around $110million on the Austin economy.
Keen to boost its credentials as “the home of intelligent and ambitious drama”, BBC Two has announced details of its dramatisation of Michel Faber’s bestselling novel, The Crimson Petal and the White. Adapted into four 60 minute episodes by playwright and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon and directed by Marc Munden (of The Devil’s Whore and The Mark of Cain fame), The Crimson Petal stars Romola Garai, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Chris O’Dowd and Mark Gatiss.The Classic FM presenter and former Culture Minister David Mellor was his usual charming self in his column in this weekend's Mail on Sunday. Reviewing the Sondheim at 80 Prom, he found his enjoyment impaired by activity at the side of the stage. Or as he put it, "that distracting bloke on stage signing the performance". He is referring, of course, to Dr Paul Whittaker OBE, who had been engaged to sign the first ever Prom for the deaf.
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey joined BBC Radio 4 Call You and Yours to debate public arts funding, joining a panel and answering phonecalls and emails from the public. The government will be incorporating some of the public comments into its current decisions on arts funding. This is a simultaneously typed rough transcript of the programme.
Since his death at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, the legend of charismatic Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna has grown to almost mythic proportions. Last year the three-time world champion was voted Best Driver in F1 History in a drivers’ poll in Autosport magazine, and a new documentary about his career is due in cinemas this autumn from Working Title Films.
Confirmation today of the astonishing news from Russia - Nacho Duato will indeed become the new director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, St Petersburg’s second company, from the New Year. The Spanish contemporary choreographer will be the first foreigner to lead a Russian ballet company for more than a century.